about La Redoutable
& Pierre-Yves Jacqmin

Who is behind
La Redoutable?

PY Jacqmin holds a master's degree in international marketing (HEC Liège) and created this project alone.

A true food industry enthusiast, he began his career in 2000 at the Jules Destrooper biscuit factory. In 2004, he joined the beverage sector and worked with the Swiss group Nestlé Waters (Vittel, Perrier, San Pellegrino, Valvert, etc.), then in 2007 with AB-Inbev, and finally for 7 years, he participated in the development of the export branch of a Liège-based company active in festive drinks.

Not being a master brewer himself, he wanted to surround himself with a real brewing engineer to develop his precious beverages. After all, to each his own!

This approach is part of a responsible approach to the use of available production resources in Wallonia. It avoids the construction of a new tool in a sector where production capacity is far greater than demand, while supporting a local Walloon SME: a real win-win relationship for local entrepreneurs and the environment.

It is above all a qualitative beer, for pleasure.

The Redoutable is a real passion project.

The idea behind La Redoutable is simple: To produce a very high quality craft beer that pays tribute to the La Redoute hillside. The obvious choice was a 9% triple lager... because it corresponds to the average gradient of the slope.

The label of the bottle takes the layout and the slope of the hill...

A craft brewery

The brewery was founded in 1836 by André Joseph Pourbaix! Today it is managed by Bruno De Ghorain, a chemical engineer specialising in brewing.

The emphasis is on authenticity, Belgian know-how and the character of the beers. It is a brewery in the purest Belgian tradition, with a strict selection of ingredients and indigenous yeasts.

Over the past two years, the brewery has made significant investments, including the installation of a new, high-performance brewhouse.

Liège-Bastogne-Liège,

Created in 1892 by the Pesant Club Liégeois, Liège-Bastogne-Liège is a Belgian road race for professionals.

It is one of the oldest cycling races still contested, which has earned it the nickname of "Doyenne".

Its rugged 260 km route makes it one of the most demanding and prestigious classics.

The event is one of the five "Monuments" of cycling, along with Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Lombardy.

It usually takes place at the end of April, making it the last great spring classic. The route takes the riders from Liège to Bastogne, which is 90 km from Liège, close to the Luxembourg border.

The route of the race crosses the Ardennes massif in which the Ourthe and its tributaries have carved out deep valleys. The race is the most famous of the Ardennes classics and one of its climbs, "La Redoute", has become a real legend for cyclists from all over the world.

Eddy Merckx, who won five times between 1969 and 1975, holds the record for most victories.

Press links

Ambassadors

Rik Verbrugghe

Since the launch of the beer in 2016, Rik has been the Belgian ambassador of La Redoutable. If he accepted this role, it's because he immediately adhered to the values surrounding this project and because... He is a fan of both beers, with a soft spot for the triple.

He is currently the coach of the Belgian national cycling team... a country he represents all the better as he is a Fleming who grew up in Wallonia.

A brief look back at his career:

Rik was born on 23 July 1974 in Hélécine. He was a professional Belgian cyclist from 1996 to 2008 and ended his career with the Cofidis team.

His best year was 2001, when he won the Flèche Wallonne, the Critérium International, the prologue of the Giro d'Italia, the fifteenth stage of the Tour de France, the Golden Sprint and the Crystal Bike. His qualities as a rouleur enabled him to win several time trials.

In 2009 and 2010, Rik is sports director at Quick Step. He then joined the American team BMC Racing for the 2011 season. After having been sports director of the IAM team in 2015 and 2016, he becomes, in 2018-2019, consultant coordinator of the RTBF during the "live TV".

Cyril Saugrain

Cyril 's voice and face have become particularly familiar to Belgians... Indeed since 2014 he is THE cycling consultant of RTBF.

After having tasted our beers during the tours and races he commented, it is in 2019 that Cyril has accepted to wear the French ambassador's hat of La Redoutable. What could be more normal for this epicurean, the most Belgian of the French racers who loves gastronomy and good beers?

A brief look back at his career:

Cyril was a professional cyclist from 1994 to 2003. He won ten races, including a stage in the Tour de France in 1996.

His French nationality did not prevent him from joining RTBF in 2013 to follow Paris-Roubaix, the Flèche wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège as a consultant.

Cyril Saugrain became a full member of the RTBF team during the 2013 Tour de France, commenting on the stages live with Rodrigo Beenkens.

In 2014, Rodrigo Beenkens was in Brazil for the football World Cup and it was alongside Laurent Bruwier that he commented on the Tour and discovered La Redoutable.

Since then, he has been the consultant for most of the cycling races broadcast by RTBF.

Enrico Gasparotto

This Italian-Swiss rider is a two-time winner of theAmstel Gold Race. The spring classics are his hobby! His dream race is Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but many people do not know thatEnrico is also a fan of Belgian beer.

He discovered La Redoutable in 2016, right at the launch of the beer when he was racing for Team Wanty and had just won the Amstel Gold Race. He actually drank his first Redoutable at the top of La Redoute during the reconnaissance of Liège-Bastogne-Liège!

Charmed by the product, he wanted to join the team of ambassadors... An honour for us!

He is currently under contract with the NTT Pro Cycling team.