Rodenbach and Dogfish Head to do a collaboration beer

Belgium | Is Rodenbach getting a new lease on life, thanks to a collaboration with US craft brewer Dogfish Head? It is to be hoped. Rodenbach is one of the original sours, and many have thought it mightily unfair that it has been unable to benefit from a renewed consumer interest in this beer style.

Sours by new generation craft brewers may be all the rage among aficionados. However, this does not mean that they have turned to Rodenbach’s Grand Cru (a brown sour, blended from 1/3 young beer and 2/3 of beer matured for two years in large oak vats) in droves.

Rodenbach has been brewing beer since 1821, when it was founded in the West Flanders town of Roeselare. It was part of the Palm group of breweries until 2016, when Palm sold itself to the Dutch brewing group Bavaria. Bavaria is owned by the Swinkels family.

Once upon a time, the beer writer Michael Jackson called Rodenbach “the most refreshing beer in the world.” That was in the early Noughties, but for younger consumers with shorter memories this may have been ages ago … or never. Despite Rodenbach’s best efforts to reach out to new consumers, its beer sales have stagnated for many years at perhaps 40,000 hl annually, down from 180,000 hl (the figure given in its Wikipedia entry).

Compare that with Dogfish Head’s output of perhaps 400,000 hl beer in 2018 and you can spot the difference in consumer perception. Pitched against the brewing avantgarde, Rodenbach was assigned the role of dowdy traditionalist.

So it must have been a stroke of luck that Rodenbach’s brewmaster Rudi Ghequire and Dogfish Head’s founder and CEO Sam Calagione struck a rapport, which will result in a collaboration beer.

The collaboration was announced in early February 2019. No details were released about what the beer would be, or which ingredients might be included. The new beer will be developed in Roeselare and brewed in the United States. The launch will follow in 2020. The media interest in the beer, once available, should nicely complement Rodenbach’s 200th anniversary celebrations the following year.