Urban Artifact Release World’s Most Expensive Alcohol

Cincinnati, OH – Urban Artifact didn't set out to create the world’s most expensive (and fruitiest) fermented beverage, but that is exactly what they have done with Astronaut Food Blackberry & Blueberry. “We love to explore, to pursue our creativity in innovative ways and reward the curious drinker,” says Bret Kollmann Baker, one of the brewery’s co-owners, “we’ve brewed beers with Yellow Mombin, an exotic fruit that only grows in the Amazon Rainforest; with Durian, the world’s stinkiest fruit; and the previously illegal purple-hulled Mangosteen.” These fruits command a high price, but none cost more than fruit that has been freeze-dried. Enter Astronaut Food, a Fruit Tart made with over 1,000 lbs of freeze-dried blackberries and blueberries. It takes roughly 11 pounds of fresh fruit to produce one pound of freeze-dried fruit, which creates the high price tag. The resulting fruit-dense Fruit Tart clocks in at an out-of-this-world cost of over $1,111 per barrel; and that’s just in ingredients. The average beer costs around $75 per barrel, wine is approximately $100. Even most spirits are around $500 per barrel after distillation. “When we first came up with the idea for Astronaut Food, it wasn't about the price. Our best ideas come from separating ourselves from constraints, and, in doing so, the question became how we could possibly fit more fruit in a can,” Kollmann Baker continues, “we realized that the limitation wasn't in the amount of fruit we could buy. It was because there’s too much water in fresh fruit.” Their answer became instantly clear: remove the water, and you can add a lot more fruit than before. With this epiphany, the brewery set out to source and make the world’s fruitiest, and most expensive, fermented beverage in the world— Astronaut Food. The Freeze-Dried Fruit Tart is intense, packing more fruit per drop than any other beverage in the world. It also comes in at an astounding 15% ABV due to the high sugar content of the fruit. Urban Artifact ferments that sugar out into a balanced, tart product that showcases the real fruit. “One thing we’ve always believed,” Scotty Hunter, the brewery’s CFO, adds, “is that great drinks don't need to be greatly expensive for you to enjoy. We could have easily charged $100 per 4-pack or more, but at the end of the day we want more people to enjoy our Fruit Tarts. At only $30 for a four pack of eight-ounce cans, it’s a hell of a deal. Our Fruit Tarts are designed to reward the curious and to cost no more than they need to.” Urban Artifact’s newest batch of Blackberry Blueberry Astronaut Food Blackberry & Blueberry is available starting on Monday May 23, 2022. It will be available at the brewery's Northside taproom, on their online store, and in select retailers.