Beer Man: Fruity Kasteel Rouge basks in cherries

• Unique Belgian cherry beer features cherry liqueur
• Rouge's sweetness is tempered by slight tartness
• Tripel, blond and Cuvee du Chateau round out Kasteel's portfolio

Beer Man is a weekly profile of beers from across the country and around the world.
This week: Kasteel Rouge
Castle Brewery Van Honsebrouck, Ingelmunster, Belgium
vanhonsebrouck.be

Kasteel Rouge is a Belgian cherry beer that is unique even among the dozens available from that country.

The brewery is coy about how the beer is made. Information on the bottle says "Belgian ale with cherries and cherry juice added." However, the brewery's website specifically says, "Kasteel Rouge is a blend of Kasteel Donker and cherry liqueur used in the confectionary world."

I'm inclined to believe the latter as the beer seemed to have something of the rich, oily body that fine liqueurs have and one-of-a-kind flavors that the regular Belgian cherry beers don't have.

The basic Donker beer is described as creamy with chocolate, banana, licorice and raisin flavors. The fruit flavor overshadowed most of these, with a dark cherry flavor and brown sugar notes ending with a buttery, rum-like finish.

The cherry added a deep, dark red color to the beer and the carbonation was solid without becoming spritzy. The sweetness in the 8% alcohol by volume beer was balanced by a slight tartness that prevented it from becoming candy-like.

I had no problem wrapping my taste buds around the cherry liqueur content -- there are plenty of excellent cherry lambics and other ales from Belgium, and none of them have the flavor profile of Rouge.

Other ales in the Kasteel portfolio include a tripel, blond and Cuvee du Chateau, an 11% ABV, 10-year aged version of Donker. The Van Honsebrouck company also makes St. Louis Premium Kriek Lambic, Brigand blond ale and Bacchus Old Flemish Brown.

Kasteel is imported by Wetten Importers of Sterling, Va. Its website with distributor information is at wettenimporters.com. The site shows a map of the United States and visitors can click on the state of their choice to find distributor contact info in order to track down availability.

Also worth mentioning, but limited to Wisconsin residents, is Serendipity Happy Accident Fruit Ale from New Glarus Brewing Co., made in the style of its award-winning Belgian Red Cherry and Raspberry Tart ales.

Poor weather conditions in Wisconsin this year (early spring wild temperature swings and then drought) resulted in bad harvests for both cherries and apples, so brewmaster Dan Carey made Serendipity, a blend of these with cranberries. The 4% ABV ale has a nice cherry-apple balance, with the cranberries adding a touch of sharpness. It is less sour than the cherry and raspberry beers, but is not a lesser beer for it.

Many beers are available only regionally. Check the brewer's website,
which often contains information on product availability. Contact Todd Haefer at beerman@postcrescent.com. To read previous Beer Man columns Click here.