Brouwerij Rodenbach - Rodenbach Red Tripel

Combining two classic Belgian styles, Rodenbach Red Tripel blends a traditional Belgian tripel with a Flemish red-brown ale that’s been aged for two years inside of 4,000-gallon oak foeder casks. Created in celebration of Rodenbach’s 200th anniversary in 2021, this exceptional beer offers classic Rodenbach sour-ale character, while accentuating the best elements of both of the underlying classic styles. Lots to appreciate about this beer.

Rodenbach Red Tripel certainly lives up to its name, pouring a striking reddish hue heading into burgundy, almost like berry juice, with an ultimately vinous look capped by off-white foam. On the nose, this is boldly fruity, with big notes of sour Luxardo cherries and underripe stone fruits riding over top and grabbing our attention straight out of the gate. Yeast-driven phenolic spice notes follow – not as strong as with most pure tripels but quite noticeable nonetheless, especially after a good swirl – as core aspects of both the tripel and Flemish red ale shine through, bringing loads of pepper and clove from the former and no lack of plush red fruits, berry-like tartness, and wisps of balsamic via the latter. We found lots of toasty oak, and the brewery’s notes of “apricot, caramel, pastry, and white Burgundy” for aromatics were particularly on point. It’s a very generous, engaging nose, with notes of fresh-baked bread lurking below as a foundational element.

There’s a medium-full mouthfeel here emphasizing red fruits, berries, and a nice balance of subtle tartness, peppery phenolics, and some residual malty sweetness. In fact, the sweet-sour interplay is impressively realized, as the beer’s tart lactic and acetic character (whose intensity is definitely softer in this blend compared to Rodenbach’s pure 2-yr aged sour beers like Vintage or Charactère Rouge) finds a delicious foil in the sweeter, toasty bread character at the beer’s core. We found significant fruit leather, caramelization, and rounded oak-barrel character contributed by the Flemish red. The Belgian tripel part provides inviting honeyed maltiness, a crisp pop of mineral bitterness, and a nice mixture of peppery and clove yeast notes that work great with the vanilla and almond of the oak casks’ contribution. Very engaging, restrained sweetness throughout; this offers up a deft blend of two exceptional beers. If you’re a fan of tripels and Flemish reds, this tasty, fascinating, and super-unique offering from Rodenbach is not to be missed.

Most Flemish red-brown sour beers are well-known for being quite long-lived, and though Rodenbach’s Red Tripel is a hybrid blend, it should be sturdy enough for considerable time in the cellar. It’s blended to be very drinkable upon release, but we’ve recently enjoyed bottles from the original 2021 release that still drank beautifully and were an absolute delight. So, we’d recommend stocking up and hanging on to some bottles for a while. The brewery suggests pairing this beer’s fruity, fresh characteristics with the sweet and salty components of bouillabaisse, in addition to veal and poultry. We also feel it’s ideal for pairing alongside various rich stews, with fresh rustic bread and creamy cheeses.

There is perhaps no more famous brewery in all Belgium than Brouwerij Rodenbach. While the country has a long history of brewing both tart and downright sour beers using wild yeast and bacteria, it was Rodenbach in the late 19th century that helped pioneer and define the specific style of beer we know as Flanders/Flemish Red Ale, considered by many to be the most vinous, or wine-like, of all beer styles. The standard Rodenbach is a blend of approximately 75% fresh and 25% 2-year aged ale, while Rodenbach Grand Cru incorporates much more aged beer (approx. 66%). Long-time club members will be familiar with Rodenbach’s much more limited offerings, like their annual Vintage, which features 100% aged beer derived from a single huge cask, and Charactère Rouge, a version of Vintage produced with sour cherries, raspberries and cranberries. This month, we’re excited to have the chance to bring you Rodenbach’s Red Tripel, an unusual Tripel/Flanders Red hybrid first introduced to celebrate the brewery’s 200th anniversary in 2021.

The brewery bears the name of the Rodenbach family, who not only contributed their unique beer to the world, but also helped contribute Belgium to the world, at least as an independent country. The brewery was founded in 1821 by Rodenbach brothers Pedro, Alexander, Ferdinand, and Constantijn. All four played critical roles in the Belgian Revolution of 1830, which led to the secession of Belgium from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. In fact, when Leopold I greeted the crowd from the balcony of the House of the Nation after being crowned king, Alexander (who ran the brewery from 1821 to 1836, and happened to be blind), appeared at his side.

In 1878, Pedro’s grandson Eugène became manager of the family brewery. From a brewing perspective, as opposed to a political one, Eugène is certainly the most influential Rodenbach in the family line. During his travels to southern England, he was exposed to, and learned much about, the early porter beers popular in London at the time. In the 19th century, these early porters were typically aged for at least several months in giant barrels where they matured and acidified. Eugène took what he learned and applied it at home in Belgium, developing and refining the technique, and creating the style of Rodenbach beer we know today. Sadly, Eugène died in 1889 at the age of just 39.

Rodenbach’s red ales undergo a primary and a secondary fermentation, with both yeast and lactobacillus bacteria, creating a beer with a distinctively acidic, sour quality. However, it’s when the beers enter the maturation stage that the fun really begins. The beer is aged (typically for two years) in 294 huge oak barrels known as “foeders” (a Dutch term, pronounced like “foo-der”) some of which are older than 150 years, and which range in size between 3,100 and 17,000 gallons. Of these impressive foeders, Rare Beer Club founder (and arguably most prominent beer writer and historian in the world) Michael Jackson wrote, “Rodenbach, in Roeselare, has ten or eleven halls full of these tuns. There is nothing comparable in any brewery elsewhere in the world, and the whole establishment is a temple of industrial archaeology.” Indeed, Rodenbach stands as a historical monument to brewing to this day, and their beers remain benchmarks within the Flemish red-brown style category.