$400 Beer

Yes, someone is charging $400 for a beer. Beer drinkers know better. Unlike wine drinkers that are too busy posing as knowledgeable.

The product, costing 357 times more than Carlsberg's main Danish lager brand, has been developed to challenge luxury wines in the gourmet restaurant market and capitalize on rising individual wealth. Denmark, a country of 5.4 million, has 16 billionaires, according to a list published this month by Berlingske Nyhedsmagasin magazine. The number of billionaires worldwide rose 21 percent last year to 946, Forbes magazine said.

"We can feel that there's an increasing market for this type of product, as some of our customers order extremely expensive wines without blinking an eye," Lau Richter, restaurant chief at Noma, said by phone.

Carlsberg has produced 600 bottles of the 10.5 percent proof beer, each four-fifths of a pint. Another version costing just a bit more will be introduced next year and again in 2010, the company said.

I ain't buying it.