Roux Brew competition winner announced
Members of the London Brewers Alliance were invited to submit a beer, which were judged down to a shortlist of five by an expert panel including Michel Roux Junior and Senior, sous chef at Roux at Parliament Square Luke Finegan and MasterChef co-presenter Greg Wallace.
The winning beer is a Belgian-style 5.6% ABV with flavours including pink grapefruit, Sicilian Navelina orange zest and coriander seed.
It will be available in bottles at Roux restaurants across London including Le Gavroche.
Beer and food matching
Finegan will develop dishes to match the beer including a bar snack range and a la carte dishes.
"I have always loved my beer," said Roux. "I wanted to have a bespoke beer to prove that it goes well with food and isn’t just to be quaffed, though that is nice on occasion too. Beers are a really sophisticated drink and people should be able to ask for a beer in a restaurant as well as wine."
He added that although beer sales at his restaurants are small, he expects them to go up following the introduction of Fourpure’s bespoke beer. Le Gavroche has a dedicated beer list.
He added: "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."
Roux hopes to introduce a second bespoke beer for autumn and winter and the idea could become a mainstay feature of Roux Restaurants with biannual changes.
