The competition to find a beer good enough to carry the famous ‘Roux’ name has been won by London craft brewers the Fourpure Brewing Company, from South East London.
The competition was organised with Daniel Fox of the London Brewers Alliance, and 12 London breweries entered the search for the ‘Roux Brew’, which will be a special ‘house’ beer to be paired with seasonal summertime food for the Michelin 2 star Le Gavroche, and for Roux at Parliament Square and Roux at the Landau restaurants.
It is hoped that the Roux Brew will also be available at the Roux restaurants in Scotland – including Andy Murray’s Cromlix Hotel.
The beer will be listed from April until the end of September, and a competition for a second brew for winter menus is planned for the autumn.
Leading the way
Le Gavroche was among the first quality restaurants to establish a beer list, which now extends to 17 choices.
As a former winner of the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group’s Beer Drinker of the Year, Michel Roux Jr is keen to expand that choice and to promote the matching of beer and food in his restaurants which are seeing increasing requests from customers for beer.
Judging
Was undertaken by Michel Roux Jr, Albert Roux, Head Sommelier at Le gavroche David Galetti, Greg Wallace co-presenter of MasterChef, Silvano Giraldin, Rachel Humphreys Head Chef at Le Gavroche, and Luke Finegan Sous Chef at Roux at Parliament Square.
In February, a shortlist was drawn up which comprised beers from Fourpure, Brew by Numbers, By the Horns, Hackney, and Windsor & Eton.
Michel Roux commented that, from the initial tasting, it was clear that Fourpure had brewed something really special: ‘The freshness of the grapefruit and orange zest and coriander seed really stood out – this is a beer that has a zing about it, and we feel it will partner perfectly with the flavours of our summer menu.’
The winner
Head Brewer at Fourpure, John Driebergen, describes their Roux Brew as a Belgian-style, 5.6 ABV, Belgian yeast, with fresh pink grapefruit zest, fresh Sicilian Navelina orange zest, and coriander seed.
‘The beer is unfiltered and un-fined. As an unfiltered beer it will bottle condition, but yeast is not re-pitched and no sugar or malt extract is added to prime this. Carbonation is achieved during the fermentation and trimmed in the brewhouse conditioning phase.
‘This beer has been produced with expensive fresh fruits which are zested by hand, along with premium malts, hops and yeast sourced and propagated specifically for the brew. Man power and specialist ingredeients add to the value of this beer.’