Home at last

"This beer has been brewed and canned at our brewery in To Øl City, Svinninge, Denmark." After years living the gypsy life, To Øl has found a home. And presumably enough venture capital to build an entire city. Bless. The first tranche of releases to arrive from there to here constituted six cans.

The sextet begins with 45 Days, an organic pilsner. That description will forever be associated for me with the mediocre Mill St. Organic, common in Canada. I hoped for better. Even next to a freshly-mown lawn this had a deliciously enticing grass aroma with a mild pale-malt sweetness beneath. The texture is nicely soft with just enough stimulating fizz to avoid turning gloopy. There are no silly craft twists here, no unbalancing surprises, just a steady mix of lemon-cookie malt spiced up in the end with that grass bitterness, finishing cleanly. 45 days isn't a huge amount of lagering time, but they've made good use of it. Though the body is a little hefty for proper pils crispness, it's still a very nice beer. Send a case or two to Mill St.

All the rest are pale ales, of course. First up, a micro IPA named A Little Goes A Long Way. It's modestly micro at 3.5% ABV, a bit stronger than others I've encountered. It looks unappetising: a muddy dun colour. The flavour is quite washed out -- mostly savoury dregs with a rub of garlic and horseradish. I suppose it's one way to compensate for a lack of body: fill the can with scrapings from the bottom of the tank, but it doesn't result in good beer. There's no brightness or cleanness or charm, here, and it doesn't compare at all favourably with the likes of Whiplash Northern Lights. I hoped for better things from what followed.

Session IPA follows: City at 4.5% ABV. It looks like a glass of pineapple juice, being the same hazy orange-yellow with a watery translucency around the edges. The aroma offers vague and half-hearted New England elements: a little vanilla, some citrus and a lacing of allium. None of that transforms into anything major in the flavour. There's a chalky dryness at its core, around it washed-out flavours of lemon curd, garlic oil and bergamot. I guess this is designed for people who want the New England features but in a smaller package, and I can't argue that it doesn't deliver that. It's not a great beer in its own right, however, and I would find a session on it cloying and difficult about half way down the second. Take this review as a recommendation or a warning, according to personal taste.

A straight pale ale is next, called House of Pale, and though the ABV is up to 5.5% it's another washed-out looking murky one, this time resembling coconut milk rather than pineapple juice. The aroma is better: no thick sweetness, just a mild spritz of juicy jaffa and satsuma. The flavour is quite plain -- orangeade for the most part, fizzy and simple, with a lacing of garlic on the finish. They have the audacity to use the word "crisp" on the front of the can and it is not crisp at all. The body is the usual fluffy fuzz you get from hazy pale ales, and the blurb goes on to say it's full bodied and juicy. You can't have it both ways, lads. I'm not 100% sure what this is meant to be. It doesn't have enough of the hazy-boi qualities to be dismissed as one of those, but it's definitely not a properly clean pale ale. Stylistic quibbles aside, this is another ropy one. Going into the final IPAs I'm apprehensive and already missing that pils.

Penultimately, the one I was expecting to be hazy: Whirl Domination, an IPA at 6.2% ABV. Sure enough it's typical emulsion, a bright shade of yellow. The aroma is all fresh fruit: a salad of mandarin, mango and apricot, with a spritz of lime and some softer lychee. Promising. The citric bitterness is foremost, tangy and mouthwatering, though it's followed by a less endearing dreggy earthiness. There's a trace of the juicy, fleshy fruit, but not much, and also a seam of savoury garlic. On the whole, though, it's pretty good, and much more enjoyable than the previous three. The extra alcohol and resulting extra body helps round and soften the whole picture, while the inevitable wonky traits are kept on a short leash. I complain about hazy IPA a lot, here's one that gets the formula more or less right. Hurrah!

So what happens when we go up to double IPA levels? There's something quite portentous about the name #01DIPA, like this is how the new brewery wants to be seen from now on. It's 8.5% ABV and hopped with Centennial and Ekuanot. Rye, oats and wheat all feature in the grain bill and more haziness is promised, and delivered. The pour lends itself to iceman, with virtually no head in the offing. A concentrated fruit juice -- pineapple, mango -- is the opener, followed by softer peach and lychee, then a harder dreggy bitterness. It's very jolly up to that last part. There's no heat, which is unusual given the strength. Garlic and vanilla also don't feature. I surprised myself by rather enjoying it, searching in vain for all the usual flaws I find in these. Quite a worthy flagship, all things considered.

There are signs here that To Øl does know how to brew beer when left to its own devices, and the only problem with what they've presented so far is one of fashion and the market. I will definitely be checking in with them again.