Tramp Juice

A charity which supports homeless people in the UK is urging the British Government to raise the price of extra strong lagers and ciders. It seems a common occurence to spot a homeless person chugging on beers like Tennents Super Strong Lager or Skol Super or drinking such delightful ciders as White Lightning or White Ace. Of course the reason they drink these beers is because they are cheap and get you pissed quick. However one can contains more units of alcohol than the daily recommended amount for a man. (Admittedly these recommendations are over the top, but it does prove a point). Naturally with a lifestyle of drinking this type of beverage, poor diets and lack of suitable housing there is a real problem with premature deaths amongst the homeless.

I do find it bizarre that such strong drinks are so inexpensive but then the ingredients are pretty cheap and nasty and they are obviously cheap to produce. So therefore rather than ripping off these poor unfortunates why can't these drinks have their ABV dropped? Even one or two percentage points would make a difference and should help in some way.

All this talk of super strength beers and homelessness reminded me of a website I discovered a few years ago. Trampjuice is a wonderfully named site dedicated to these products. It has reviews of a lot of nasty beers and ciders as well as news of interest to drinkers. Interestingly there is a piece on there about the Government banning thse products. This article is from April 2006 and clearly nothing has happened since then, so these beers are set to stay. The reviews make interesting reading. It almost seems a case of the stronger the better. Amsterdam Maximator scores a not deserving 10/10. The funniest thing about the site though is that Rocheforte(sic) 10 gets a review. My favourite beer makes it to Trampjuice!! It doesn't score very well though, although that's partly due to its high price and the fact that you never see a tramp drinking trappist beer - Or do you?