Moroccan-Belgian Brewer Launches Innovative Orange Blossom Triple Beer

It took two years of work in his garage for this Moroccan living in Brussels to create "La Marlouf", a good beer flavored with orange blossom (8 degrees). A blend of Brussels zwanze and the culinary traditions of his two countries: Morocco and Belgium. Where did this inspiration come from? "I was a bit tired of the clichés - benevolent as well as malevolent - about Moroccans. We are often attributed intentions, habits without necessarily going further. So I looked to develop a unifying project, with a touch of humor, provocation," he explains to La Dernière Heure.

Mr. Kouysse recalls that the term Marlouf refers to a Moroccan in a pejorative way. "I wanted to play with this word, it’s my way of getting into the thick of things in a humorous way and at the same time to stimulate a debate. Already, a Moroccan who brews, it’s not trivial but a Moroccan who creates a triple beer, it doesn’t exist and it creates the debate," he adds. He therefore found a brilliant idea because his beer is already admired by his compatriots. "My Moroccan friends congratulated me. A chef with a nice table in Casablanca congratulated me, encouraged me. I haven’t heard any controversy about this term yet. Rather, they thank me for showing our community differently," he confides.

The compliments and positive feedback from restaurateurs are pouring in from both sides. "Sommeliers even tell me that it does the work of wine while the owner of the Félicien brewery in Namur told me that it was unique. ’We could run out of Triple Karmeliet but not Marlouf, it’s unique’," he says. His dream, in the medium term, says Yassine, is to launch his own brewery.