FOOD & DRINK / A Trial of strength: Are extra-strong lagers just a way of getting drunk quickly and cheaply? As British and Continental heavyweights slog it out, Graham Coster puts flavour and image to the test

HE CAN hardly walk straight, but he is determined to do his bit for the environment. One of north London's Mr Park Bench fraternity has decided to donate his bag of empties to the local recycling point. He is not interested in the hopper for white glass, however - no Thunderbird wine bottles to get rid of. He has no evidence of cheap-sherry consumption to drop in the one for green glass, either; nor any large brown bottles from which strong cider has been swigged. Instead, out of the plastic carrier bag and into the can bank go one, two, three, four mauve cans - aimed with proud but teetering determination - each of them having once held half a litre of Tennent's Super.

Nine per cent alcohol by volume: the same strength as Liebfraumilch, and sold not as a half-pint Christmas-time tipple like the 'winter-warmer' ales offered by provincial brewers, but by the half-litre. Not at a judicious premium price either, but at just over a quid a can - and with plenty of '13 per cent free' strips around the top, or a five-for-the-price-of-four deal to pile on the value for money. Ten millilitres of pure alcohol for around 25p: you'd have to spend 34p to get the same from a cheap sherry, and around 42p if you went for Thunderbird or a bottle of Scotch. The super-strength lager: hardly advertised at all, except negatively by people who like it so much they cradle a can at eight in the morning, but hardly needing to - the market is worth pounds 270m a year, and growing by 9 per cent annually.

We have come a long way since 1951, when Carlsberg first bottled Special Brew in Denmark to commemorate Winston Churchill's visit to Copenhagen. Now the traditional market leader is fighting to hold its share of what - with recent arrivals such as Hofmeister Special and Heldenbrau Super to jostle the second-and third-placed brands, Tennent's Super and Kestrel Super - has become a crowded market. What have you been missing?

'Of course, the most common question I get asked is: 'Isn't it just winos who drink it?' ' admits Katie Rawll, Carlsberg's senior brand manager responsible for Special Brew. 'But our researches show that the underneath-the-arches brigade accounts for only 2 per cent of its overall drinkers. They're certainly not consuming the volume.' And when you think about it, 250 million cans a year is a lot to be financed out of Giro cheques. In fact, she says, she gets more correspondence about how partial her customers are to Special Brew than any other brand - 'and they can all write in a straight line'. There are even, apparently, 'lots of little old ladies who drink it in the small 275ml cans who say how much they like the new gold tops and do we sell merchandise like sweatshirts?'.

'Now, the interesting thing about Kestrel Super is that it does have an interesting taste,' says Jim Merrington, corporate affairs director for Scottish and Newcastle Breweries, which has around 15 per cent of the market. 'You're talking to a fan,' he enthuses. 'When I heard yesterday that someone wanted to talk to me about Kestrel Super, I went home last night, pulled the fridge door open and poured out a can myself - which I did into a wine glass, incidentally - and sat in front of the telly with it. And then I got myself another one.'

'With a standard lager you'd tend to buy a four-pack of Fosters and then drink four cans of Fosters,' explains Mark Luce of Courage, whose Hofmeister Special is the newest super on the scene. 'With a super you'd buy a single can at the off-licence and drink it for self-reward.' Self-reward? 'It's that more special occasion when you've done something to earn it, and you sit down with a can of super-strength.'

So I tried rewarding myself with a Kestrel Super one evening. By the time I was cracking the ring-pull on the second can and screwing up my courage for a second half-litre, I could still remember Mark Luce's concession: 'The stronger you make a product, the less drinkable and more like treacle it becomes'. I could also recall that Katie Rawll had owned up to never drinking Special Brew. But a thick, musty, velvet curtain seemed to have descended on the memory of what occasion I was celebrating. Had I paid my income tax or something? My flatmate, rewarded with a Tennent's Super, winced ungratefully, said it was 'disgusting' - and that she'd be more likely to buy it if the can said '13 per cent less'.

There are alternatives, of course, if you want a hyper-strong lager without the hyper-sweetness and syrupy viscosity of a British super. Brewing it strong, so long as you condition it for long enough to get rid of all the rough edges, will give it far more flavour than your weak and watery standard-strength lager. Mail-order companies such as The Beer Cellar import a range of European lagers brewed for their complex flavours, some of whose fearsome strength dwarfs even your Special Brews and Kestrels. Samichlaus, brewed in Switzerland only once a year every 6 December - which will also be available here in off-licences such as Unwins for the first time this Christmas - comes in half as strong again at 14 per cent. Unsurprisingly, the world's strongest lager is only sold in 275ml bottles - and, at about pounds 2.50 a time, it doesn't quite compete on price with five Tennent's Supers for the price of four.

Given Britain's three super-strength market leaders to taste against Europe's three strongest lagers, Iain Loe of the Campaign for Real Ale thought Special Brew in particular stood up well (see box for full results), the more so since it was brewed for volume sales rather than gourmet indulgences. But he commented that 'By using the whole whack of alcohol, you can, compared to the weaker lagers, get away with a multitude of sins'.

While the British cider market has seen huge growth since the introduction of super- strength products such as Diamond White and K - sold as style-accessory drinks for women as much as men, to be consumed one small, chic bottle at a time - super-strength lagers are still sold as 'essentially a value-for-money sector', says Miles Templeman, managing director of Whitbread, which launched Heldenbrau Special 18 months ago. He reckons Heldenbrau's clientele is 'obviously male, slightly older, more downmarket - but these target groups are never as distinct as you like'. Katie Rawll says 40 per cent of Special Brew drinkers are ABC1; my straw poll of off-licences showed some selling at least half their daily turnover of Tennent's Super to 'the regular drinkers who are outside the door at 9am', others selling mostly to the 18 to 25 'young lad' market.

'The great movement in the drinks market nowadays,' says Chris Baker of the advertising agency Bainsfair Sharkey Trott, 'is the polarisation between, if you like, the haves and the have-nots. You have two trends in opposition. At the top end of the market you have the move towards quality and image - with something like K, it isn't even clear from the bottle what kind of drink it is. Is it a cider? Is it a beer? It's all mystique - it's saying 'Frankly, I'm not sure if I'm right for you . . .' and you're going, 'Oh, tell me about it]'. And at the bottom end you have a move towards greater value and cheapness.'

The super-strength, on that thesis, offers the rueful recession drink for those who can't afford several pints of Fosters during an evening in the pub any more, providing the same hit in front of the video for a couple of quid.

But, on a more serious note, doesn't that whole 'value-for-money' approach target precisely the people most liable to alcohol abuse? Last year Carlsberg's marketing director went on the record insisting that 'Pricing within this sector . . . has a kind of ethical and moral link to it - like you don't cheapen the whole thing and make it too accessible to the less desirable element. We're not into incentivising customers to drink large quantities of these brews'. Though Special Brew remains at least 10p a can more expensive than its rivals, Carlsberg has since rather spoilt things by launching its own 'value' brand, Skol Super, to compete with the cheapest.

And Jim Merrington, from Scottish and Newcastle, says: 'I don't think one has to start out on the premise of trying to prevent people buying our product,' going on to cite his company's support of the breweries-financed advisory body on alcohol-related issues, the Portman Group. Miles Templeman of Whitbread points to Diamond White as a drink 'sold as smart but drunk, as much as anything, as a lot of alcohol for the money - young girls at parties will drink it just for an alcohol kick'. Which is perhaps a way of arguing that at least super lagers have both their lack of hipness and unpalatability to 'disincentivise' the over-consumer.

In any case, whether it be a concern for the environment or a sense of self-image, everyone has standards. Colin Drummond, a consultant at St George's Hospital, Tooting, researching alcohol-related illness, carried out a survey of 'severely dependent drinkers' which confirmed very strong lagers as their most popular choice - not only for the most efficient delivery of alcohol against cost, but also as less likely than other kinds of drink to make you sick the next morning. But it will be of little comfort to any brewer's piety to learn that price sensitivity stopped there. 'I found a great sense of brand loyalty,' recalls Dr Drummond. 'They were very motivated to drink their particular brand. Special Brew drinkers wouldn't touch the rival brew - they'd rather walk an extra mile to the next off-licence than take the other stuff.'

THE TASTE TEST

IAIN LOE, research manager for the Campaign for Real Ale, tasted the top three British super-strength lagers against the three strongest European lagers now being imported into Britain.

CARLSBERG SPECIAL BREW: 9 per cent

There's a good head on this, and retention of the head is quite good. Yes, it delivers its weight, this one - in fact the taste is a bit too overpowering in its alcohol. But a good smooth finish . . . well rounded and quite well put together. Mmm, I'm pleasantly surprised.

KESTREL SUPER STRENGTH: 9 per cent

The nose is a bit thinner, coarser - I'm getting skunkiness in the nose. The initial taste isn't too bad, but the aftertaste is fairly nasty. I'm trying to think - not quite old plimsolls . . . no, it's dampy . . . yes, it's damp plimsolls. I suppose after one or two cans the taste buds have become immune anyway, but no. A good home brew.

TENNENT'S SUPER: 9 per cent

That's a rather beautiful colour - almost a classic Budvar coloration. One of its drawbacks is again the nose: a hint of still cabbage. A bit of a bite - this one says, 'Yes, I'm a strong beer, but I'm not going to give you any real taste to worry about, so just get on and down me'. I don't know that I'd drink a couple of cans of this and go and watch Arsenal - well, perhaps you'd need to if you were going to watch Arsenal.

URBOCK 23o (AUSTRIA): 9.9 per cent

This doesn't smell as over-malty and sweet as the first three. A far more complex taste - there's hops in there, it's a bit fruity, some of the characteristics you'd associate more with an ale - and a bitterness at the finish that's rather pleasant. With this you've had that long period when the yeast's been working and the taste slowly building up - you can't hurry these things.

BIERE DU DEMON (FRANCE): 12 per cent

This isn't tasting as strong as I expected - it's not only the lightest of them all but also the most brilliantly bright. In fact, the taste is almost thin - I'd have put this at about 7 per cent. Perhaps that's why it's a demon: a couple of these and you'd know it.

SAMICHLAUS (SWITZERLAND):14 per cent

That's a lovely dark red - looking at it you'd think it's a Thomas Hardy ale, but it is bottom-fermented and then lagered for a year. The nose says, 'Mmm, I'd like some Christmas pudding' - and the taste is, oh, spices, fruit, suet, a whole galaxy of flavours. We're getting into wine-speak here - you'd want to check on the number of years it's been fermenting and try different vintages. Certainly worth ending the Christmas dinner with and slumping in the armchair as the Queen delivers her message to the nation.

Urbock 23o , Biere du Demon and Samichlaus are available in the latest Beer Cellar catalogue (0252 861875).

(Photograph omitted)