At Pub 27 in Pompeii
To Øl @ De Proef Mochaccino Messiah, Lochristi-Hufte, Belgium
Date: November 22, 2018
The Story— To Øl is a contract brewery started by a couple of Danish high school buddies with some tutelage from Mikkeller founder Mikkel Borg Bjergsø. The name [toe-ool] just means “two beers” which is what the high school friend buying the first round would call out as he settled in. They’ve done collaborations with a number of breweries, but unlike Mikkeller which has brewed many beers are breweries all over the world, nearly all of the To Øl beers we’ve encountered were brewed at De Proef brewery in Belgium.
De Proef has brewed some of its own beers, but it has acquired global fame for brewing private label brands. They brew to the customer’s specification — they don’t just bottle the same beer with different. RateBeer lists just short of 2,000 beers that De Proef has concocted over the years, but we think they missed a few. They misstep once in a while but the overwhelming majority of their beers are very good.
We know for sure that De Proef influenced the decision of Beltway Brewing in Virginia to go into producing beers for contract brewers and we assume the brewers at Two Roads in Connecticut were influenced as well. It’s easier in Belgium to crank out small batch beers — less governmental red tape– but the business plan works on both sides of the Atlantic.
To Øl’s Mochaccino Messiah, a 7% coffee brown ale, is one of the best that To Øl — and De Proef– has done. Brewers like De Proef emphasize that they can’t make good beer from bad ideas, the contractor and the brewery need to be on the same page. In this beer it seems like they might have been on the same letter.
The Beer— There are so many ways of going astray in a beer with this many variables, but To Ol dodged every one of them. The malt is a chewy chocolate and finishes with a creamy smoothness. Some dark cherry notes add without complicating and more creamy roast hold center stage. Coffee is very mild if slightly edgy, but the creamy roundness is the show.
Value — Good. These small batch beers aren’t cheap and some of De Proef’s beers aren’t much better than many that are a fraction of the price. But a gem like this is worth the money. ‘Nuff Said.
This week we feature a half dozen really good European beers that we found in the United States. We make pilgrimages to some of the best beer stores in Eastern America once or twice a year and we also just bump into incredibly good beer in places we don’t expect. Not all of these are on the shelves, but beers much like them are.
Next week we return to the US to highlight some great American craft beers, some of which we’ve found in researching out first US Beer publication: Brews and Snooze-– Breweries you can visit and walk back to a fine place to spend the night. Look for it in 2019.
About these posts: We taste and evaluate over a thousand beers every year. The beers posted here rank in the top quarter of those tastings. Values: “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.
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