Kasteel Rouge

Review Date 8/6/2024 By John Staradumsky

  Style: Fruit Beer   Brewery: Vanhonsebrouk   Country: Belgium   State: N/A   $ Per OZ: $.24 (B)   ABV: 8%

So, flashback to Valentines Day, 2019, and I am at the bar at Taco Mac having a beer. I don’t know why I wasn’t home with my wife this Valentine’s Day, but I am sure we had already done something special to celebrate the occasion. We always do. Taco Mac had something special going on, and let me tell you now what I said  then about that.

I am a fan of Kasteel beers, so was happy to see Kasteel Rouge on tap. I did not know that they had a Valentines promotion of the beer but you get a free glass with purchase. Which is good because I am less than impressed with the beer. In the nose and the palate the beer smacks of sweet cherries but also cherry koolaid. I like the sweet cherry notes, more as it warms, but the koolaid notes are distracting Eight fifty for 11 ounces.

I didn’t seem all that enthusiastic about the beer then, but that did not stop me from picking up a can from Half Time recently. I did, after all, have that beautiful Kasteel glass to serve it from.

Vanhonsebrouck, the brewery behind Kasteel beers, says on their website:

Kasteel Rouge is a ruby red beer brewed on the basis of Kasteel Donker with Oblacinska cherries. While you enjoy a velvety mouthfeel, a subtle tartness ensures the sweetness of the cherries does not dominate. The balanced flavour adds depth and complexity to each sip. The slightly dry aftertaste makes the beer deliciously drinkable. Are you ready for la vie en Rouge?

Kasteel Rouge has an alcohol content of 8% by volume, rather strong for a fruit beer, and I paid $6.49 for my half liter can at Half Time. Total Wine sells it for $16.49 a 4-pack in their Jacksonville, Florida store. My can had no freshness dating.

Kasteel Rouge pours to a beautiful reddish hue with a light pink head of foam and a nose of luscious cherry fruit. Taking a sip, the beer is medium in body, very creamy and bursting with ripe cherry fruit. I get almondy cherry pits along with the fruit and the beer finishes sweet at the last. For extra fun, I saved about a third of my glass and mixed it with Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout. The tart bright cherry fruit was spectacular indeed juxtaposed against the rich, roasty dark stout.

This is wonderful if you love cherry as I do, a much better experience this time around. I will absolutely buy this beer again.

Glad I tried it?  T

Would I rebuy it??