After internet phenomenon Average Rob launched his own pilsner ‘Tout Bien’ last year, he is launching a rouge beer this year. “We call it ‘the elixir’ of love,” says Rob. He nods to the red color of the beer and to the deliberately chosen alcohol percentage of 6.9%. But will you really fall in love with the taste? HLN beer sommelier Sofie Vanrafelghem tastes and judges.
“A rouge is a beer style that always involves a sweet and red fruit beer. The difference with a well-known rouge beer such as a sweet kriek is in the alcohol percentage and the base beer,” Vanrafelghem explains. “Sweet cherries such as Lindemans Kriek, Liefmans on the rocks or Kriek Boon have an alcohol percentage of 3 to 4 percent. In addition, the base beer of a sweet kriek is often a wheat beer, lambic or old brown. These are very fresh or soft to sharply sour beers, so the sweet kriek often has a fresh acidity in addition to a clear sweetness, which improves drinkability. While the base beer of Kasteel Rouge, for example, is Kasteel Donker, which tastes very sweet anyway.”
Read more below the photo.
Sofie Vanrafelghem tests Tout Bien Rouge beer from Average Rob © ID/ Steven Richardson
Why is this beer style so popular now?
“It was Kasteel Rouge that started this trend. Young people and people in their twenties are especially crazy about it today. The success of Kasteel Rouge ensured that other breweries also decided to launch a rouge, such as the Kwak Rouge and the Super 8 Rouge. Few have managed to copy their success so far, let alone really give Kasteel Rouge a push on the market. For lovers of the style, the Kasteel remains the reference beer within this category.”
Some blushes are sticky sweet, you don’t experience that at all here.
Sophie Vanrafelghem
The taste test
The ‘Tout Bien Rouge’ beer is brewed at Brouwerij Martens and contains 6.9% alcohol. What does that taste like for our sommelier? “The beer shines in the glass thanks to its sparkling and intense red color,” says Sofie. “Then you discover a typical nose for a blush. You can smell it as soon as you have poured the beer: the sweet smell, the aroma of the famous red sweets, known as ‘poepkes’. What follows is a distinctly sweet-fruity taste. This is a sweet beer, but not an overly sweet beer. Some blushes are sticky sweet, you don’t experience that at all here. ‘Tout Bien Rouge’ perfectly matches the beer style, so enthusiasts will certainly not be disappointed. An additional advantage is that the beer does not have too high an alcohol percentage.”
Is it recommended or not? “For me, this blush is definitely worth tasting. This beer proves that as a brewer you do not necessarily have to make a rouge too sweet to be successful in this beer style. It therefore effectively has some freshness beyond the sweetness and that also increases its drinkability.”
Response from Average Rob: “There was a lot of demand for a blush”
We asked Average Rob himself for a response to the review of his beer: “Since the creation of Tout Bien and the launch of our Pils, there has always been a demand from our community to launch a rouge. With that question and our own ambitions with Tout Bien, we immediately started looking for the perfect blush that suits us and our audience. And we found it.”
“There was one condition for me: the beer had to contain 6.9% alcohol. You can’t pass up such an iconic number for a beer that we call “the elixir of love,” he laughs. “Moreover, our rouge glasses are not 33cl, but a good 34.5 cl. If you take two there, you get 69 cl: the elixir of love. The fun is all in the details with us. We love these kinds of easter eggs.”
© ID/ Steven Richardson
Tout Bien Rouge – € 1.49 – exclusively available at Prik&Tik, soon in supermarkets
Also read:
Beer sommelier tastes 24 non-alcoholic beers and awards both a 0/10 and 9/10: “This is the surprise: perfect alternative and not even expensive” (+)
From Hoegaarden to St. Bernardus: which wheat beer is the best? Beer sommelier tastes 10 and finds 3 toppers (+)
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2024-02-23 15:01:00
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