The Fourpure Brewing Company wins ‘Roux Brew’ competition

The Roux family search for a brewing company to carry their name has been won by the South East London craft brewers the Fourpure Brewing Company.

The competition was organised with Daniel Fox of 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 two Michelin-starred Le Gavroche and for Roux at Parliament Square and Roux at the Landau restaurants.

Speaking about why he chose this particular beer, Michel Roux Jr said: “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.”

A shortlist was drawn up in February, comprising beers from Fourpure, Brew by Numbers, By the Horns, Hackney and Windsor & Eton with the beers judged by Michel, Albert Roux, David Galetti, head sommelier at Le Gavroche, Gregg Wallace, Silvano Giraldin, Rachel Humphreys, head chef at Le Gavroche and Luke Finegan sous chef at Roux at Parliament Square.

John Driebergen, head brewer at Fourpure describes their Roux Brew as a Belgian Wit – 5.6 ABV – Belgian yeast, with fresh pink grapefruit zest, fresh Sicilian Navelina orange zest, and coriander seed.

He said: “The beer is unfiltered and unfined, meaning when the beer is bottled there is still yeast in suspension so it bottle conditions. It’s naturally carbonated during the fermentation and then we make any minor adjustments we need to, in order to achieve the perfect level of carbonation.

“The recipe for this beer uses premium malts and carefully chosen Styrian Goldings hops. We zested the grapefruits and oranges by hand and chose an authentic Belgian yeast strain specifically for this beer. The provenance of ingredients is really important to us.”