Vintage beer -- at a premium price

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2008

COPENHAGEN (AFP) — Danish brewer Carlsberg has developed a special "grand cru" beer that sells for 2,008 kroner (270 euros, 400 dollars) a bottle and features an original lithograph on the label, it said on Friday.

"Two years ago I said to myself, 'why not make an exclusive, unique and special edition beer like they do with wine and good years and vintages'?" Carlsberg's 'special beers' brewmaster Jens Eiken told AFP.

Six hundred bottles of "Jacobsen Vintage No.1. 2008", a wink to the current year, were brewed in the cellars of Carlsberg founder J.C. Jacobsen, which date back to 1847.

The beer is a Barley wine, a strong ale that originated in England in the 19th century.

"It's like a 'vintage' champagne and can age for 10 to 15 years, as opposed to...