© Fox/RTL
Luxembourg's native beer offering has been improving at an almost ridiculous pace, so we decided to head out and see what's on offer, and who's making it.
Fox Drinks is the brainchild of Pierre Beck and his fiancé Catherine Hoffman, both of whom are Luxembourgish. They started the company in 2016 and launched their first beer later that same year. Surprisingly for quite an innovative brewing company, neither of the two founders have a background in brewing – Catherine is working a full time job, while Pierre was just about to finish his Master’s degree in business when we sat down for a chat. So not only are they running a company, they’ve got quite a full plate outside of that as well!
I sat down with Pierre to find out a bit more about how the idea for the beer came about, and he explained that it came from a personal need of his — having previously been overweight, Pierre adopted a low-carb lifestyle, but (understandably) found that he missed having a good beer every now and then.
Pierre Beck and Catherine Hoffman / © Fox
The birth of a low-carb, zero sugar beer
Unable to find a beer on the market that fit his own needs, and seeing the potential for a low-carb beer with fewer calories no sugar, Pierre and Catherine started contacting breweries around Europe to see if they could find someone to collaborate with, and got a fair bit of interest in their idea.
In the end they decided to team up with a research brewery in Weihenstephan, near Munich, who set up a research project specifically to develop the sort of beer that they were after. In the end they came up with a way to make a beer that has the same alcohol content by volume as well as the full flavour you would expect from a pilsner, but none of the sugar, fewer calories, and very few carbohydrates.
Pierre and Catherine bought the rights to the recipe and process outright, and Fox Beer was born. Understandably, Pierre wouldn’t tell me much about the actual process for how they make the beer, but he assured me that it contains no ingredients that you wouldn’t find in any other beer. The main difference, he said, is that a normal pilsner can be made in a few days, while theirs takes a full six weeks to brew.
Fox is also one of relatively few truly vegan beers. Pierre noted that this isn’t only because of the beer itself, but also the label. He explained that most labels are glued onto bottles using a glue which is not vegan, while they have their screen printed directly onto the bottle, making it truly vegan.
Another benefit to their beer, which represents a market opportunity bigger than they had initially expected, is that it’s good for diabetics. Pierre said that there are more diabetics in Luxembourg than he had thought previously, and the fact that their beer contains zero residual sugar is helpful in managing their sugar intake, for which they have received positive comments from customers.
Brewing the beer
As we’ve seen from many others of the new breweries of Luxembourg, Fox don’t currently have their own brewery. Pierre noted that setting up a brewery in Luxembourg isn’t cheap nor easy, and they would need access to really high-quality water as well, which places a further limitation on their options. As such it would (or should that be will) be a rather difficult process, and not something they’ve been able to do for now.
Instead, they work with two other European (One in Luxembourg and one in Belgium) breweries, and work together with a master brewer of their own who helps make sure that everything gets done properly, and the secretive process behind making their beer is carefully followed for each batch.
That doesn’t mean that there is any less work for them to do, however. Pierre and Catherine do all of the marketing themselves — right down to the logo, which was designed by Catherine! They also handle sales, distribution, and all the rest that comes with running a successful company in this or any other industry. Pierre’s knowledge of business comes in handy, but he says Catherine is the creative force behind the company.
The Fox Drinks range
While they started out as a beer company, they’ve changed the company name from Fox Beer to Fox Drinks – as they’ve launched additional products. Their second offering was another beer, the Fox Session Ale, which contains three types of hops and is therefore hoppier than the original, with a fruitier flavour. This is sold exclusively in Cactus supermarkets.
In addition to that, they’ve launched Fox CrémantBrut Nature "Cuvée Catherine Marie", for which they teamed up with a Luxembourgish wine maker. Pierre noted that the process behind making this was not an innovation as such, but that it naturally contains fewer calories than other Crémants, no carbs, and no sugar. As with the beer, it’s also 100% vegan.
And finally, just this summer they followed up on the success of the Cremant with a Rose version. Pierre wouldn’t give too much away about their future plans, but something about our chat made me think they’ve got quite a few other things planned.
Where to buy it, and going international
As we’ve heard from many of the new breweries I’ve spoken to, the first shop to stock their beer was Pall Center. Now you will find Fox in most of Luxembourg’s big supermarkets, such as Delhaize, Auchan, Colruyt, and of course Cactus as I mentioned earlier.
You’ll also find their beers out on town, so to speak. They’re stocked in several of the larger chains around the Grand Duchy, and a few independent outlets as well. They also have a distribution deal with Munhowen, which is owned by Brasserie Nationale (Bofferding / Battin / Funck Bricher), meaning that establishments that are licenced through Bofferding can also stock Fox (though not all of them do, yet).
As for international expansion, Pierre said that this is of course something they are working on, but it’s not easy. They had an unfortunate experience with a partner in France, who failed to pay them despite their beers being stocked and sold in supermarkets, so that partnership ended. They do have some independent partnerships, for instance with a hotel chain in the French alps.
Beyond that, they are doing their research at the moment and seeing where to go next.
