Great cut off point, IUFG.
Spesh was 9%, pre-Cameron. So in the '90s and '00s, when blatting around Europe, we used to drink {phonetically} Wheat Cease {Bavaria 8.6%: huit six in French.}
In the mid-'90s, you could buy the Bavaria 8.6 for as little as 5.90FF.
But one day in a small corner shop, we found they had Special Brew. It had a sticker on it saying "Importé par Les Artisans de la Bierre."
Though it was 13.90FF, we paid up gladly.
{Basically, these French beer snobs travel the world, looking for the best and importing them. And they'd found Spesh.}
Now, though, when I go to France drinking Huit Six {Bavaria 8.6} is one of the joys of being there. Cos Cameron made the cans a max of 4 units, they put it down to 8% and it tasted like pīss. They've now put it down to 7.5% and I've stopped drinking it. I now make snakebites out of some 8.4% cider and an 8.5% lager that they sell in the dodgy offie here.
When they took Spesh down to 8%, an old {fellow crusty} mate of mine went on to the Carlsberg Facebook page and asked them to just make the cans smaller - i.e. go back the original 440ml - and keep it at 9%, so they could have the proper Spesh taste and still be under 4 units.
They kept saying no, despite him continually asking them to do a poll or ask the people who actually drink it.
After about the 23rd refusal, he said "Well, what if I come up to your factory in Northampton and blow it up?"
The anti-terrorism police got in contact and said "We've looked into you and you're lucky that we don't think you're a genuine terrorist. But you apologise to them NOW or we'll nick you." So he did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCi_irINkBc
Btw, Bavaria 8.6 is brewed in Holland, not Bavaria. And unfortunately now we can no longer buy proper Spesh, Huit Six is thus now the best lager on the planet. {Named from Germany, brewed in Holland, pronounced in French, and based on a Danish beer brewed for a British PM.} You find it everywhere in France nowadays, thanks to the Teknival scene. Crusty culture - one of this country's greatest exports.