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PreSeed Ventures
Viktor B., Jesper K. and Laurits S.
Our Rating: 2.25 / 5
A black can stamped with three faces promised more than the beer delivered. Straw and citrus flickered briefly before hay and yeast took over.
Thin, oddly oily, and missing the crisp cut a pilsner needs. Not disastrous, just forgettable—like small talk at a networking event you didn’t want to attend.
Beer Name: PreSeed Ventures
Brewery: To Øl
Beer Style: Organic Pilsner
Alcohol: 4.7%
Taste notes: Orange, hay, straw, yeast, apricot
Serving: Can
Serving Size: 330ml (11.16 fl. oz.)
A Name Without a Story
Some beers arrive with a manifesto printed on the label. Others, like PreSeed Ventures, come with almost nothing at all. Just “organic pilsner” on a 33cl can – no hop varieties, no tasting notes, no invitation into the brewer’s head. In a way, the lack of framing can be refreshing. Without claims, the beer stands naked in the glass, judged on its presence alone. The only thing grabbing our attention was the slogan “We know the faces of startup” and the happy, indifferent, and sad smileys on the otherwise black and empty label.
Poured slowly into a tulip glass at 7 °C, the beer exhibited a pale straw hue, with a colour reminiscent of dry hay. Semi-hazy, but not muddy, more pastoral than polished. Carbonation rose sluggishly, the bubbles appearing slightly too large to pitch into a lasting head. Foam appeared, fizzed, and fell in seconds, leaving a bare surface that looked oddly unguarded and abandoned. No lacing clung to the sides, and no texture of persistence.
The aroma opened briefly with sour oranges; bright, tart, almost refreshing. But that spark was short-lived. Very quickly, we found the hay character moved in, drying and rustic, pulling the beer back toward the farmyard. Agreeably, it wasn’t unpleasant, but we found it one-dimensional. Each return to the glass offered less, as though the beer had already said its peace and withdrawn. Volatile but not evolving. For a moment, you leaned in, curious. A moment later, there was little left to chase.
When Thinness Shows Its Seams
On the palate, the beer offered a similar profile: a quick, slightly promising start followed by a prolonged absence. The first sip carried notes of orange and straw, a yeasty flicker, and even a faint suggestion of apricot, which tasted surprisingly refreshing. That part felt alive, a flash of fruit that hinted at balance in a sour hay world.
But the body collapsed underneath it, thin to the point of watery, yet oddly coating, leaving an oily film that didn’t belong. It’s an unusual feeling: light but clinging and refreshing only at the very first sip.
Carbonation, coarse and built on wide bubbles, did little to rescue it. Instead of snap, it gave disruption, pushing flavours apart rather than lifting them. Balance and bitterness, the crisp spine of a pilsner, were barely present. In its place, a drying scrape, almost tannic-like, left the mid-palate hollow. The finish circled back to orange and yeast, wrapped in that slick oily texture, never quite cleaning itself away. We wanted crispness; what we got was a coating drag.
Warming did not help. The orange turned sharper, less like zest and more like rind. The hay grew more stubborn and wild. In the end, a faint smokiness emerged – unexplained and muddying the balance even further.
Yet, to be fair, it wasn’t without redeeming qualities. The opening citrus had an honesty, the colour leaned naturally rustic, the fast encounter with apricot was to die for, and the overall freshness, even with its flaws, meant the glass never felt completely stale or dead. In the context for which it was brewed, maybe corporate events, it likely worked well enough: inoffensive, light, and refreshing in hand. A beer you don’t think too hard about while conversations run elsewhere. In that sense, it did its job. But when you’ve encountered as much of the To Øl brewery’s catalogue as we have, you do feel like this was a beer brewed without much effort or attention to detail.
And as such, as a craft pilsner, judged in the quiet of a focused pour, it came up short. The yeastiness felt unintentional, the texture unpolished, the structure unfinished. For a brewery like To Øl, known for producing some very decent and at times refined beers, this felt like a placeholder. Not enjoyable, not undrinkable, just very forgettable. Among the three of us, the consensus landed on 2.25/5, with one of us reluctantly giving it more than 2.00. Enough to drink once, but not enough to make a return trip. Definitely the sad face printed on the can we were left with.
Rating: 2.25 / 5
