# Togo

Country page of DA Caps, a collection of beer bottle caps. Web page: https://dacaps.imcoll.info/country/tg/info

- Official name: Togolese Republic
- Local name: République togolaise
- Caps in the collection: 6 (https://dacaps.imcoll.info/country_caps/79)
- Brands: 3

## Beer in Togo

Togo's own beer is sorghum beer. Called tchoukoutou or chakpalo, it is made from malted sorghum, sometimes millet or maize, which is soured, boiled and fermented, and in the north every people has its own: kablè-missine among the Kabyè, losso-missine among the Nawdemba, tchakpa-missine among the Moba. For the Kabyè it is also a ritual drink: each year a boy is made to drink it in the rites for the small millet. Togo was a German protectorate from 1884 and fell to French and British forces in August 1914; the French held the east, today's Togo, as a League of Nations mandate from 1922 and a UN trust territory from 1946, and it became independent on 27 April 1960. No brewery of the colonial years is recorded in the sources used here.

Industrial brewing came four years after independence. Brasserie du Bénin S.A. was created on 4 May 1964 by the German Joachim Haase, with money and technology from Bavaria, and it has brewed in Lomé since 1966. By 1970 its capital of 282 million CFA francs was mostly held by companies in Hamburg; its capacity of 95,000 hl a year, used in full, was raised to 200,000 hl in 1971, when output was put at 110,000 hl. Its best-known early brand was Eku, a stronger beer of openly German inspiration.

A second brewery, at Kara in the north, opened on 24 January 1982 and serves the Savanes, Kara and Central regions. In 1996 the company joined Brasseries et Glacières Internationales (BGI) and with it the French Castel group; Les Échos reported the takeover in August 1997, when the company had two plants, 520 staff, sales of about 20 billion CFA francs and a capacity of 650,000 hl of beer and 240,000 hl of soft drinks, and brewed Eku, BB Pils, BB Lager, Awooyo and Guinness. It bought the Anfoin site, which made mineral water, in 2009.

Today BB Lomé S.A. is the leading brewer, with two production sites, about 1,200 direct jobs and some 6,000 indirect ones. Its range includes Pils, Awooyo, Lager, Beaufort Lager, Castel Beer and Guinness; Pils Citron was shown in September 2025, and on 7 September 2026 it brought back local production of Eku Bavaria (5.7%, 50 cl) after some years away. Cyril Segonds became director general on 4 May 2026, and in February 2026 the company announced a new line for Kara to triple the plant's efficiency and cut its energy use by 20%.

A second brewery is new. Société Nouvelle de Boissons (SNB) built a greenfield plant at Adétikopé, 20 km from Lomé, with German engineering (Ziemann Holvrieka, BrewTech of Hamburg), planned for 200,000 hl of beer and 30,000 hl of soft drinks a year. Its first beer, Djama Pilsner, came out on 6 May 2020; since February 2024 it has also brewed Warsteiner under licence, and on 9-12 October 2025 it ran a Togolese Oktoberfest in Lomé. No craft breweries were found.

Sources:
- [Entreprises coloniales: Brasserie du Bénin (Lomé), Les Échos 1997 and earlier (1972-1997)](https://www.entreprises-coloniales.fr/afrique-occidentale/Brasserie_du_Benin-Lome.pdf)
- [BB Lomé S.A.: Notre histoire (2026)](https://www.bblome.com/notre-histoire/)
- [BB Lomé S.A.: EKU Bavaria, le retour d'une bière emblématique (2026)](https://www.bblome.com/actualite/eku-bavaria-le-retour-dune-biere-emblematique-produite-au-togo/)
- [Bénin Web TV: Cyril Segonds nommé Directeur général de la Brasserie BB Lomé (2026)](https://beninwebtv.bj/togo-cyril-segonds-nomme-directeur-general-de-la-brasserie-bb-lome/)
- [République Togolaise: BB a un nouveau capitaine (2026)](https://www.republicoftogo.com/toutes-les-rubriques/eco-finance/bb-a-un-nouveau-capitaine)
- [Food Business Africa: Diogo Victoria appointed Director General of Togo's leading brewer (2024)](https://www.foodbusinessmea.com/diogo-victoria-appointed-director-general-of-bb-lome-togos-leading-brewer/)
- [République Togolaise: BB injecte 1,5 milliard dans son usine de Kara (2011)](https://www.republicoftogo.com/toutes-les-rubriques/eco-finance/bb-injecte-1-5-milliard-dans-son-usine-de-kara)
- [Togonews via AllAfrica: BB veut faire de Kara un pôle industriel majeur (2026)](https://fr.allafrica.com/stories/202602100625.html)
- [République Togolaise: Une bière blonde au citron présentée par BB Lomé (2025)](https://www.republicoftogo.com/toutes-les-rubriques/medias/une-biere-blonde-au-citron-presentee-par-bb-lome)
- [République Togolaise: Bière allemande au menu (2021)](https://www.republicoftogo.com/toutes-les-rubriques/eco-finance/biere-allemande-au-menu)
- [République Togolaise: Lomé veut faire comme Munich (2025)](https://www.republicoftogo.com/toutes-les-rubriques/societe/lome-veut-faire-comme-munich)
- [Financial Afrik: Togo Media Foot, partenariat avec la Société Nouvelle de Boissons (2026)](https://www.financialafrik.com/2026/04/21/togo-media-foot-les-organisateurs-annoncent-un-partenariat-avec-la-societe-nouvelle-de-boissons-snb/)
- [Ziemann Holvrieka: New Brewery in Togo with German Roots (n.d.)](https://www.ziemann-holvrieka.com/en/case-studies/new-brewery-in-togo-with-german-roots/)
- [Orient. J. Chem.: Improvement of the quality of the local beer tchukoutou (2021)](https://www.orientjchem.org/vol37no5/improvement-of-the-quality-of-the-local-beer-tchukoutou-by-addition-of-two-antioxidant-plants-ocimum-gratissimum-and-vernonia-amygdalina/)
- [ORBi: Daugey, Emplir les corps des dieux, bière de sorgho chez les Kabyè (2017)](https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/250372)
- [Wikipedia: French Togoland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Togoland)
- [Wikipedia: Togoland campaign](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Togoland_campaign)
- [Wikipedia: Flag of Togo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Togo)
- [Archontology: Togo, Polity Style 1956-2026](https://archontology.org/nations/togo/01_polity.php)

## Breweries (1)

- [Brasserie BB Lome S.A.](https://dacaps.imcoll.info/brewery/1912.md) — 6 caps, 1964–