The Facts
Style: Belgian Strong (Red) Ale
ABV: 10%
Brewer: To Øl
Location: Denmark
Another beer brought to America by the infamous Shelton Brothers (aka the ones behind my all-time favorite, overly mentioned Mikkeller beers 😄). Going to briefly nerd out on this label with you for a hot second 😬…
To øl brewery is a gypsy brewery because they don’t own their own brewing facilities but basically crash other breweries with spare capacity. Tobias and Tore (the founders) were high school buds and students of Mikel (Mikkeller) when they all decided to go into the brewing business. Starting with brewing in the school kitchen and home brewing, soon they launched Mikkeller followed by the To øl label and made a serious name for themselves in the beer industry. 👏🙌👏
OK OK I know, you’re all snoooooze but how cool is that?! The answer is, only cool if you give a shit about beer hahaha. 😜So onto the flavor…
TASTE TEST: Darker than expected, opaque, little bit of sediment. Smells sweet, probably the high ABV. Smells like roses, winter spice, patchouli, musty grapes. Bittersweet is the big first initial taste reaction. Bitter to sweet to bitter, yes the ending mouthfeel is more bitter (not to be confused with hoppy). Cherry notes with toasted flavor. Well balanced, not as sweet or complex as some other beers with this color and ABV – it’s more straightforward; like tastes close to a reg Belgian ale, still yeasty and musty, but just slightly sweeter and heavier.
So let’s all do Santa a solid this year and swap out his milk for some Shameless Santa. 👍🍺 🎅 We all know he could use a god damn drink after flying around on that freezing sleigh shouting…”Merry Sippin’ Sunday to all!! Let’s all drink good beer and get beer bellies and be shameless about it!!”
(It’s the holidays after all and I for one am going to take a page out of Santa’s book and get a belly so big there’s no point in caring anymore….shameless 🍻😊)
Stuff // Beer: Shameless Santa (Found at Healthy Spirits Castro and Richmond) //
Colors (left to right) // Pantone 200C / Pantone 437C / Pantone 656C / Pantone 7743C / Pantone 188C //
