Strong beer

The concept is only generally used in some countries, and local tax laws often define what constitutes strong beer.

In Finland, strong beer was usually defined as beer in the tax class IV, or colloquially as "A-beer" (after the tax class IV A), with an alcohol content of a minimum of 4.8% by volume.

[5] Class I consisted of malt beverages up to 2.25% alcohol by volume and up to a gravity of 6% and were popularly called svagdricka.

Class II consisted of malt beverages of up to 3.6% alcohol and a gravity of up to 9.5% and were popularly called pilsnerdricka.

As well as the Bratt System, successively harsher national regulations for the sales of alcoholic beverages were introduced.

[5] After these regulations had been introduced, breweries in Sweden stopped producing malt beverages of class III and instead focused on the weaker pilsnerdricka.

This corresponded to the strength of pilsnerdricka, colloquially called pilsner, which was served at the beer cafés of the time.

This law was part of the agreement that Gro Harlem Brundtland's third cabinet made with the Christian Democratic Party of Norway in order to make the Christian Democratic Party vote for the European Economic Area agreement.

One month after the law came into force, strong beer sales had decreased by 90%.

[9] The EFTA Court decided in 1997 that it was all right for Vinmonopolet to have a monopoly on the sales of strong beer.

[8] In 1998 Kjell Magne Bondevik's first cabinet allowed Vinmonopolet to sell beer with an alcohol content of over 7%, after pressure from the EFTA overseeing organisation European Free Trade Association Surveillance Authority.