Two Danish beers among world’s 100 best

The US magazine Men’s Journal this week revealed its annual list of the “absolute best beers you can drink right now”. Assembling a panel of veteran beer writers and experts within the US craft beer industry, the magazine looked at areas like quality control, innovation and recognition at major awards like the 2015 World Beer Cup to make their selections. 

 

Although the list was limited to beers sold in the US, two Danish brews were recognized among the world's 100 best: 'Black Malts & Body Salts' from the alternative brewery To Øl and 'Beer Geek Brunch Weasel' from Denmark's beer world superstars Mikkeller. 

 

To Øl's Black Malts & Body Salts (on left) is among the world's 100 best beers. Photo: To Øl

 

The youngest of the companies, To Øl brewery, has managed to get recognition of their craft beers in just a few short years and now export to some 30 countries. Creators Tobias Emil Jensen and Tore Gynther are both pupils of Mikkeller Mikkel Borg Bjergsø and employ the so-called 'gypsy brewing' method, meaning that they don't own their own equipment and instead brew using others' in a series of collaborations. The pair describes To Øl (Danish for 'two beers') as a “pirate/nomad/contract/gold digger brewery”.

 

Mens Journal defines Black Malts & Body Salts as “an oddball, imperial black IPA.”

 

“It's infused with French press coffee and body salts — a hard-working brewer's sweat that accidentally drips into the brew kettle — creating a swirl of espresso and pine, citrus and smoke, and cinching dark chocolate," Mens Journal wrote.

 

Mikkeller's Beer Geek Brunch Weasel. Photo: Mikkeller

 

The other Danish beer on the list (there’s no particular order), is ‘Beer Geek Brunch Weasel’ from Mikkeller, the Danish brewery that is steadily building a major name for itself in the beer world.

 

Bjergsø, a math and physics teacher, decided to start messing around with beer in his Copenhagen kitchen in 2006. Today, Mikkeller is widely regarded as one of the best breweries in Denmark, exports  to 40 different countries, collaborates with some of the biggest names in both beer and food and has bars operating in Copenhagen, Bangkok, Reykjavik, Seoul, Tokyo and San Francisco. 

 

Beer Geek Brunch Weasel has been rated as a ‘world class’ beer by specialist site Beer Advocate and Men’s Journal concluded that “its status as one of the world best stouts is no joke.” 

 

Beer Geek Brunch Weasel it’s brewed with Kopi Luwak coffee beans, the most expensive coffee variety in the world. 

 

The brewing process is depicted by Men’s Journal: “An Asian weasel gobbles up the (allegedly) best coffee beans, eating the fruit, and passing the hard bean, which is harvested, cleaned, and roasted. As unappetizing as that trivia is, Beer Geek Brunch Weasel offers a unique, earthy coffee flavour, along with roasted cocoa and citrus hops.” 

 

The Mikkeller stout is nearly 11 percent alcohol but Men's Journal writes that “it drinks more like a lithe Belgian Ale than your typical heavyweight stout.”

 

The Men's Journal list of the world's 100 best beers is largely dominated by American craft beers but a good number of Belgium and German pilsners, stouts or ales also made the cut. The full list can be found here.