A weird story tale of ale pundits, penguins and, er, vanilla bean white chocolate? Or, just what IS the point of a 32% beer?

I don’t normally give bottled ales any space here, for the very good reason that this beer page is about cask ales. But this is a short insight into the goings on in the more rarefied beer punditry stratosphere.

There is something calling itself Tactical Nuclear Penguin – at 32% strength? Yes, that’s 32 not 3.2%abv - If you drank a pint you wouldn’t be able to ask for another that’s for sure. It's a beer that has caused a bit of a spat recently.

This stuff has been brewed by the publicity hungry Brew Dog micro up in the wilds of Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire. Up there, until relatively recently, decent ale was almost as rare as aerodynamic porcine.

Anyway this ale has been proclaimed as ‘the strongest beer on the planet’. It is to be sold only in the bottle. An Imperial Stout style ale that has been matured for 18 months in whisky casks, it was condemned last week by no less than the venerable Roger Protz, editor of the Good Beer Guide and the most eminent British beer writer.

Roger proclaimed TNP an impostor because, he stated, beer simply can’t be brewed at that strength with ale yeast. He suggested that it had been given help from, say, champagne yeast. But Rog sparked a right old ding dong on his blog (see www.beer-pages.co.uk). The largely anonymous correspondents poured boiling vitriol on his bemused head for the challenge. They said that it was indeed beer because the brew was frozen to increase the alcohol volume.

You see this is what goes on out there in the beerosphere. But let’s not get technical and just accept that it is a super strong ale. The two young (still in their twenties) and radical (but talented) Brew Dog lads say this is to be ‘savoured’ in small doses - at a whopping £35 a bottle they may be spot on there. They go on to say it ‘pairs well with vanilla bean white chocolate’ – no, not deep fried Mars bars. The question is: what is the point of it?

The pair have brewed several strong ‘progressive ales’-the previous one was Tokyo at 18.2% abv - simply to annoy the alcohol watchdog, the Portman Group - as they follow the fashion in the States for ‘extreme’ brewing. Apparently it plays well in Japan. This apparent obsession with all things strong is what disturbs me a bit. In a world of largely hostile media it doesn't help the cause. But it appears that Brew Dog and their band of supporters to take the view that this is the way forward for British brewing.

Well I don't think we need worry too much about that or for that matter their outrageously sweeping claim that British beer has ‘got a bad reputation’. They don't say with whom exactly, but presumably among their more nerdy followers. I think the 600 or so breweries in brewers' society SIBA(the guys are not members) are proof of the contrary. Think Roosters, Acorn, Anglo Dutch, Dark Star or Hawkshead to name a few that are brewing terrific cask beers at reasonable strengths.

You need only walk into a B&P pub any day of the year to know this statement to be arrogant rubbish. British craft ale is unique and holds its head high among the greatest beers in the world - without drinking like a saki. And my message to the Brew Dog drinkers of this world is that by far the best place to enjoy it is down the great British pub - not sat at home having a sort of nerdy introverted ‘with chocolate’ experience. But perhaps the Brew Dog lads can't get out much in Fraserburgh.

I do know what the ever-so-polite boys down the local would say if I suggested drinking this way. It would go something like: ‘Steve, your intriguing beer views are just a little out of kilter with wider opinion as expressed by the general drinking public’ – or ‘what a load of old cobblers’. What do you think? Cheers.