Review: Hoegaarden Rosée

This was yet another impulse purchase at the LC the other day. Costing over $7 for a 4-pack of 250mL slim cans, Hoegaarden Rosée Raspberry beer immediately comes off as being an entirely different product than the ever popular standard Hoegaarden witbier, likely aimed for those looking to diet yet keep drinking beers & coolers. First off, it comes in 250mL slim cans. Secondly, it's only 3% ABV. Thirdly, it's listed as being a Raspberry-flavoured white beer beverage, not just beer? Lastly, it lists the nutritional information on the side, which most beers in this day and age still don't do.

Some people in this day and age are ever increasingly looking for a beverage that has lots of flavour and doesn't cost them a million calories, so this likely why Hoegaarden Rosée, a raspberry-flavoured "beer beverage" came out. It has 90 calories per 250mL serving - more calories and less beer than the standard Molson 67, 15 grams of sodium, 125mg of Potassium, 10G of carbs (2 grams of sugar)... so you can already tell that this isn't a beer meant for beer geeks like myself.

Appearance: Pours a hazy grapefruit pink, already unnatural, but it does look somewhat similar to a Unibroue Éphémère Cassis. Thin layer of foam/film.. it looks more like the sort of foam you would get from making iced tea from powder.

Aroma: It's a sweet raspberry aroma with a bit of a tartiness that's reminiscent to a Unibroue Éphémère Cassis. It's nearly like a cooler, it's quite sugary.

Taste: For 3%, it has more flavour than most standard light beers, but you're paying for that with the amount of sugar that's in every serving, that and it's 90 calories for 250mL can.. so if you drink one beer's worth, you're not really losing any weight anyways. Quite sugary as if this is actually a malt based cooler, doesn't taste like a Hoegaarden to me. It's incredibly sugary, too much like a cooler, has a raspberry sweetness and a bit of tartiness (like the Unibroue Cassis). The beer just tastes too fake to be a beer.

Overall Thoughts: If you are planning on drinking more than one of these, you really aren't going to be losing weight. This is much closer to a cooler than a beer because of the unnatural sweetness of the added sugar, the toning down of the actual witbier flavours and the addition of raspberry makes it known that this isn't aimed towards the average beer drinker but for women who enjoy coolers, but are looking for something different - a beer that doesn't taste like a beer. With a name like Hoegaarden, I expected more from them, but they are owned by Anheuser InBev so what do you expect, really? However at 3% ABV, it's quite flavourful compared to alternative low alcohol beers like Molson 67.. so that's an upside.

Want a fruity beer that actually tastes like a beer, as I've mentioned a lot in this review - Unibroue's Éphémère Cassis is a great alternative, it's a tarty, sweet, wheat ale.

Ingredients: Ale, concentrated fruit juice (raspberry, apple, strawberry, elderberry), invert sugar, citric acid, natural raspberry flavour, acesulfame-potassium.