America is accustomed to having more of everything -- the most bounteous all-you-can-eat buffets, the largest national debt, the biggest foam sombreros -- but we don't have the most potent beer

That title belongs to the Scots who, dissatisfied with the alcohol content of typical beer, may have overshot the runway a bit with Armageddon, a brew that's 65% alcohol -- over 13 times stronger than Budweiser

More like hops liqueur, this slower-flowing concoction of crystal malt, wheat, flaked oats and pure Scottish spring water is the only beer yet that warns of a contact buzz from smelling it

Brewmeister, the brewery responsible for Armageddon, claims that the beer tastes "malty, hoppy, slightly sweet" and yeasty, owing to a frozen fermentation process that removes the iced water and leaves only the beeriest part of the mixture. The result is a thick, 130-proof beer whose recommended consumption is more like a fine whisky than a funneled lager.

The next escalation in the recent beer potency wars between a handful of Scotch and German breweries is anyone's guess, but God help us if Iran tries to enter the race