To Øl Implosion

To Øl are a Danish craft brewery founded by a couple of the students of Mikkeller head honcho Mikkel Bjergsø. Established in 2010 as a microbrewery, Tobias Emil Jensen and Tore Gynther initially contracted out their brewing to other breweries, collaborating often with the famous Belgian De Proefbrouwerij, who are also popular with other non-alcoholic beer brands. In 2019, after many years of successful and innovative brews from the company, they purchased an ex-food manufacturing plant in Zealand, and in 2020 this was re-opened as their own brewing plant. Already being utilised by the company and other craft brewing collectives, it is this brewery that is now pumping out their alcohol-free Implosion pale ale.

Implosion is classed as an American Pale Ale, or APA, and this style of beer is similar to an IPA but with less hop usage. They do tend to have a stronger hop profile than European pale ales however, and as anyone in the craft brewing world knows, it’s all about the hops! To Øl have used Citra, Hallertau Blanc, Mosaic, and Tettnanger to flavour their brew, eschewing the usual Cascade hops you tend to see in an APA. They also use both Maris Otter pale malt and wheat malt here, so will we see Implosion veering off into wheat beer territory with a more malty profile, or will the hops dominate?

Pouring from the can we get a pale yellow liquid with a fair amount of haze. A small white head pops up, but quickly diminishes to a film of froth. On the nose we get citrus fruits, mainly lemon and grapefruit, with spicy tropical mango also tickling our olfactory receptors. A juicy aroma for a juicy-looking beer.

On tasting we get an initial sweetness, then grapefruit citrus comes in with an earthy herbal background note, probably coming from the Tettnanger hops. A touch of tropical fruit also makes an appearance on subsequent sips along with wheaty malt. The body may be slightly thin but the carbonation is on point so it doesn’t feel too lacking. We get a fruity, slightly bitter finish to the drink.

Another good example of a style of beer that works well as an alcohol-free drink. If fruity hop flavours are your thing it’s certainly one to try, and it would serve as a thirst quencher for fans of other styles of beer.

Nutritional Information (per 100ml)

0.3% alcohol by volume
23 calories energy
0.7g fat
3.4g carbohydrates
3.4g sugar
<1.0g protein

(taken from the side of the can)

Ingredients

Water, Barley, Wheat, Hops, Yeast