This may not be the round you want to buy.

Samuel Adams Utopias, a strong beer brewed with a blend of malts and maple syrup and aged in cognac, bourbon and port casks, is expected to sell for $115 a bottle when it arrives at the LCBO in November.

Just 40 bottles of the rare brew will be sold, likely at just a handful of stores, says Chris Waldock of Premium Beer Company, the Ontario agent for Boston Beer Co., which makes Utopias. The beer is banned in 12 U.S. states because its high alcohol content (27 per cent by volume) puts it past their legal threshold for beer.

As for why Utopias costs so much, Boston Beer founder and chairman Jim Koch says people shouldn’t think of it in the same way as an ordinary beer. “It’s really made by a completely different process than your typical beer. It’s not just ‘brew the beer, bottle the beer.’ ”

Utopias is made from a blend of several different strong beers that have been aged in various barrels that once held cognac, bourbon and port. The oldest of the strong beers blended to create Utopias is 15 years, Koch says. Figuring out how much of each beer to put in the final blend is a delicate, time-consuming process.

“Really, it’s a lot like the blending they use to make a fine cognac, where they combine things from different barrels,” he says, adding that it’s only produced every other year in small batches.

Just 10,000 of the bottles were produced last year.

Giving beer the same respect as a fine spirit or wine is part of the reason Koch created Utopias, which was first brewed in 2001.

“To me, beer has always had the same diversity and history as wine or spirits, but it just hasn’t been treated that way. Beer should not take a back seat to wine or spirits.”

As for whether Utopias is worth its high price-tag, Koch admits he’s biased, saying, “it makes a great port taste like a Jolly Rancher, and it makes a great cognac taste harsh.”

News of the beer’s impending arrival has already created a stir among Toronto’s beer aficionados.

“I’ve been waiting six years to get this in,” says Brian Morin, owner/chef of downtown brew hot-spot beerbistro, who expects to sell it at his restaurant for roughly $20 per one-ounce serving.

On Twitter, comments ranged from excitement to cynicism. homebrewer Russ Burdick was thrilled at the news. “I tried the 2007 vintage in jan 2009 and thought it was awesome. Would gladly buy a bottle and sip on it over a few days or so,” Burdick tweeted from @grubextrapolate.

Not everyone was leaping at the chance to sip some, however.

“Nothing like hype to sell a beer! Pass,” tweeted someone with the handle Bierfesten.

But Utopias still isn’t the most expensive beer in the world. End of History, a 55-per-cent alcohol beer from Scotland’s brewdog, sold for 500 pounds ($811). Just 12 bottles were made. Vintage #3, a barley wine made by Carlsberg, sold for 2,010 Danish kroner ($382). Just 1,000 bottles were made.

The LCBO Utopias release follows its release last December of Ola Dubh, a strong Scottish beer aged in single malt casks.

The version sold out in a matter of days, despite its $18.95 price tag.

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If bringing in a small order of something with a high price tag seems familiar, that’s because it’s a formula the LCBO often follows with rare spirits.

Recently, it brought in five bottles of Tesseron cognac at $6,000 apiece.

In February, the LCBO will offer just one bottle of 50-year-old Glenfiddich single malt, at $26,000. In 2008, it brought in five bottles of Louis XIII Black Pearl cognac at $35,000 apiece (there are two bottles still available).