A small Scottish brewery with a taste for controversy has produced what it claims to be the world's strongest beer, one so alcoholic it is designed to be drunk in whisky-sized nips and comes with its own resealable stopper.

The beer, which goes by the name Tactical Nuclear Penguin, has been made by a company called BrewDog in Fraserburgh, north-east Scotland. It has an alcohol content of 32%, roughly eight times the strength of normal beers and lagers, and will be sold at £30 a bottle, or £250 for an additional share in the company. BrewDog says its beer, an "imperial stout", is intended for connoisseurs. Only 500 330ml bottles have been produced, and it will only be sold online and at two off-licences in Edinburgh and London. "This is completely pushing the boundaries," said James Watt, the firm's co-founder.

But the beer's release immediately heightened the debate about responsible drinking, on the day that the Scottish government confirmed that it wants a legally binding minimum price for alcohol in Scotland to combat rising alcohol abuse and the surge in cut-price drink promotions by supermarkets. To the anger of public health charities, Labour and the Tories said they would oppose the SNP's proposals, which have been supported by Scotland's chief medical officer, Dr Harry Burns, and the British Medical Association. Both parties said the proposals were unworkable, penalised the responsible majority and were potentially illegal.

Jack Law, chief executive of the campaign group Alcohol Focus Scotland, said BrewDog was guilty of "childlike attention-seeking" by releasing the beer on the day the alcohol bill was published.

"The fact they have achieved a new world record is not admirable, that's for sure," he said. "It is a product with a lot of alcohol in it, that's all. To dress it up as anything else is cynical."

Watt said the beer's scarcity and price made a nonsense of that allegation; it was the major brewers and supermarkets who sold beer at 40p a can who were truly to blame for alcohol abuse. He insisted BrewDog did not realise its launch coincided with the SNP's alcohol bill.

"This is about evolving the status of beer and changing people's perceptions of it," he said. "It comes with a small wine stopper; we're encouraging people to enjoy this in the same way you would enjoy a whisky."

Tactical Nuclear Penguin was named partly, he said, because the beer's record alcohol content came from freezing it in a local ice cream factory. That separated the water from the alcohol, concentrating the alcohol. It was then matured in former whisky casks for 18 months. The previous record-holder was a German beer, Schorschbraer, with an ABV of 31%, Watt added.

According to market research, BrewDog may be hitting the right trend. Drinkers are increasingly buying more expensive, stronger beers and lagers – apparently because they want to enjoy themselves more in the recession – and drinking more at home.

The market analysts AC Nielsen said bitter sales rose by 7% in value, but only 1% by volume, while drinkers spent 4% more on lager but drank 1% more than last year. The gap between pub and home drinking is also narrowing, with pubs and clubs claiming only 56% of Britain's alcohol sales. By next year, it said, more beer will be drunk at home.

BrewDog describes itself as a "craft brewery" and markets itself on its edgy, maverick reputation. Fans who spend £250 on the new beer will also help fund a new £2.3m "eco-friendly, carbon neutral brewery in Aberdeen", it said.

Its website boasts that it challenges the "bland" beers made by mainstream brewers: "We are unique and individual. A beacon of nonconformity in an increasingly monotone corporate desert. We are proud to be an intrepid David in a desperate ocean of insipid Goliaths."

But its release threatens to intensify a long-running feud between BrewDog and the Portman Group, the powerful industry-funded body which runs a voluntary but strict code of conduct for manufacturers and retailers on responsible marketing, which dates back to the firm's origins.

BrewDog's first three beers – Punk IPA, Riptide and Hop Rocker – were investigated by the group after research into irresponsible drinks promotions identified the three products as being among 32 which might breach its code of conduct.

The beers were eventually cleared but BrewDog retaliated by launching a beer with the provocative title of Speedball, named after the potentially lethal drugs cocktail of heroin and cocaine. Speedball was duly banned by the group. BrewDog relaunched it as Dogma.

The Portman Group believes BrewDog has form for hyping controversy, by itself publicising Portman Group investigations and attracting headlines by claiming its products were being banned. In September, it launched a low alcohol brew, Nanny State, with an alcohol content of 1.1%.

Watt said today BrewDog had withdrawn one of its latest products, Tokyo*, because the group had banned it. With an alcohol content of 18.2%, Tokyo* was unveiled in July as the UK's strongest beer. The Portman Group's chief executive, David Poley, said its investigation was not complete and no such ruling had been made.

The complaint against Tokyo*, from Alcohol Focus Scotland, was not because of its strength – the code takes no position on alcohol content, he said – but its allegedly irresponsible marketing. The labelling states: ""Everything in moderation, including moderation itself. What logically follows is that you must, from time to time, have excess."

Poley said the group's complaints panel had not yet issued a ruling, but would do so next month. For now, he said, BrewDog was free to sell Tactical Nuclear Penguin. "We've nothing to say about this new product: we've had no complaints about it. There is nothing in the code which prohibits products simply because of their strength."