Gouden Carolus Cuvée van de Keizer Whisky Infused wins on relaunch!

For the 12th consecutive year, the Belgian beer consumers association Zythos awarded the ‘Zythos Consumer Trophy’ to the favourite beer at their recent Zythos Beer Festival (ZBF). The votes cast by ZBF visitors were counted and one beer came out on top. 

Visitors choose their favourite beer

The Zythos Beer Festival has been organised since 2006. This year’s festival at the Brabanthal in Leuven welcomed over 10,000 visitors, who tasted the creations of around a hundred Belgian brewers. Every year, Zythos asks these visitors which beer they prefer. They note down their personal top three favourites on a voting form. After more than 1,000 votes were cast and counted, the ‘Whisky Infused’ version of Gouden Carolus Cuvée van de Keizer came out as the winner.

Het Anker: taste trendsetter?

So Het Anker has won the Zythos Consumers’ Trophy for second time, after a previous success in 2008 with ‘Gouden Carolus Hopsinjoor’. It is striking to note that when it brought out this strong, bitter, full-bodied beer in 2008, Het Anker was among the first to contribute to what later became the ‘Indian Pale Ale’ (I.P.A.) beer style which is still highly regarded in the so-called ‘craft beer’ world today.

This year once again, the newest member of the Gouden Carolus family has proved a hit straight away. “Whisky Infused” is a unique brewing technique whereby a small quantity of whisky is blended with a dark special beer, yielding a balance, full-bodied result. 

Following on from this success, various ‘Whisky Infused’ beers from other breweries have now made their appearance. They tend to be reproductions in the same brewing style. So Het Anker seems to have started another trend in the beer market, backed up by the expert judgement of the Zythos Beer Festival visitors.

Gouden Carolus Cuvée van de Keizer Whisky Infused

Het Anker brewery relaunched 'Whisky Infused' by popular demand at the last Zythos Beer Festival. In 2015, this special beer appeared as the first taste expression in the 'Gouden Carolus Indulgence' series. This is a series of limited beers produced every year with differing content. At the end of 2016, ‘Whisky Infused’ was named 'World's Best Spirit Flavoured Beer' at the World Beer Awards. By popular demand among our customers, the beer was then included in the regular range under the name Gouden Carolus Cuvée van de Keizer Whisky Infused. This name was an obvious choice because the beer is created by adding an infusion of Gouden Carolus Single Malt whisky to the Gouden Carolus Cuvée van de Keizer. This results in a powerful, full-bodied beer with subtle hints of vanilla, oak and chocolate.