Kwak Series II - Kwak Rouge

Hohoho I see another series coming… After drinking and reviewing the Kwak Blonde a few months ago, I found this time the Kwak Rouge in the supermarket.

Just like the other time I’ve been very surprised because I’m not expecting such an experiments from a Beer like Kwak. Which experiments actually? I wasn’t very sure when I took the beer and saw that on the lable is written “Kwak rouge”… Are we speaking about a “red” (rouge) ale? Or a Kriek beer (based on cherries)? Logically from the picture on the lable one would say the second, but logically like “Kwak would not produce a fruit beer, and certainly not one with 8% alcohol” somehow my mind said I should believe this theory….

Unfortunately, the cherry on the lable is the indication to follow here. People which don’t know the beer shouldn’t believe this is “a true Belgian original since 1791” the year refers to the founding date of the brewery where Kwak is brewed (Brewery Bosteels in Buggenhout, close to my home town), but certainly not to this fruit beer.

I can’t guess what “based on the unique Kwak recipe” should refer to because I really can’t retrieve anything of the original Kwak back in this beer. That’s no surprise it being a fruit beer and the original Kwak isn’t. I call it bad marketing (maybe the down side of entering in the worlds biggest beer group Bush-Anheuser Inbev) because they’re creating false expectations in my opinion.

According to the website Kwak Rouge is subtly bitter, slightly sweet and full of flavour”. It’s indeed full of flavour, but I wouldn’t want to try a beer which these brewers call “sweet” or God help me “very sweet”. For me Kwak Rouge is too sweet, sticky and too alcoholised. Not refreshing at all. One could see it already when looking to the thick foam. About refreshing nothing has been mentioned on the label or the website but for me it’s a reason to drink a Kriek beer in the summer.

Just as a foot note, 8% for a Kriek beer doesn’t seem to be an exception, since I’ve been trying as well the Kriek of Delirium Tremens – another brand which I wouldn’t expect to make a fruit beer – and also that Kriek had an 8% alcohol percentage. Same here: too alcoholised, a Kriek made by a brewery without traditions in fruit beers but they seem to have got the “sweet-Candy-cherry-on-alcohol-taste” a little better under control.

Sooner or later I’ll review “the real thing”, the original Amber Kwak… Stay tuned in #BeerSaturday!