Category Archives: France

Image

Le Brewery

About five hours west of Lille in the farmland of Normandy is a tiny brewery called- um- Le Brewery. Former Brit school teacher Steve Skews moved here years ago to start a sheep farm. Now he has a brewery, horses, two pubs- and three sheep.

At the center of the dinner table my first night were three open bottles being liberally poured: a stout from this brewery, a local wine, and Talisker.

I love it here.

Steve brews exceptional traditional English real ales. I heard about his brewery from Swiss beer writer, teacher, and judge Laurent Mousson- and he was spot on. The brewery has a story you’d want to buy the movie rights to: he saved enough to bring his beer to Mondial de la Bière in Strasbourg a couple of years ago. He and his assistant lived in the tiny truck they drove there for the week- drinking their beer as meal replacements because they forgot to factor in spending money. After becoming quite “gamey” by the end of the week he found out his beer had earned one of only 10 gold medals out of hundreds of breweries! Suddenly he was the center of attention and demand- but his brewery is so small he was already at capacity.

Le Brewery is at a turning point. It is ready to grow, but now that Steve has put his last child through school he’s ready to slow down. One option is to sell it, the pubs, the farm- want to buy a dream life in France, anyone?

1 Comment

October 16, 2012 · 10:14 pm

Image

Page Vingt-quatre

I titled today with the French name (soft “g” please!) because English speakers tend to say “page twenty-four”. According to brewer and owner Stephane (along with brother Vincent) the name is a nod to their cycle of 24 hour brews- where they make several batches of the same beer around the clock to fill the fermenters, and the stop for a day or two.

Stephane is pictured here with my dear friend Yvan de Baets from Brasserie de la Senne who drove over from Brussels to join me on the tour.

The brewing set up is state-of-the-art, direct from Bamberg. All but the wheat beer is filtered, lagered for weeks, and then warm-conditioned after bottling. Hmmmm…

Afterwards, on to the famous La Capsule for a few beers in Lille. There were three French beers au fût, along with some stunning one-offs from around the world. Wow!

2 Comments

October 16, 2012 · 11:00 am

October 14, 2012 · 5:11 pm

Un jeu de mots

Daniel Thiriez has revived a French brewing tradition called Brière de Garde. A close translation would be “saved beer”, a farmhouse style quite similar to a Belgian saison- which makes sense given the brewery’s location on the Belgian border.

And he makes other wonderful beer styles as well. This label is from a special beer he brewed for a local restaurant. The restaurant is called “2 Sous de Table” which is word play for “dessous de table”, or underneath the table! The beer is a Belgian triple with a lovely soft finish- elegant like all of his beers and fantastic with food.

3 Comments

Filed under France

Tagged as bière de garde, Brasserie Thiriez, Daniel Thiriez, France

October 14, 2012 · 3:34 am

Brasserie Thiriez

Le mot pour aujourd’hui est “équilibre”, as in “équilibre entre malte et houblon”. A few of brewer Daniel Thiriez’ beers are available in the US, so I asked if I could try some that are only sold in France. From these, the most refined balance between malt and hops (see word or the day) was the “Black Daniel’s” black IPA, made with Marjorie Jacobi of Brasserie Paradis. (A later visit). Unlike many American IPAs, the hops are strong, yet restrained- allowing for a soft lingering finish that keeps you wanting more.

Merci à Daniel et Marielle Paquet!

Pucker up!

One of the things I adore about the language of Alain Ducasse is that to pronounce words properly, one must almost always smile or pucker. It’s so much fun for your face to speak French! Turns out though- there isn’t a direct translation for the word pucker. Expressions galore, bien sûr! But no direct word. Strange, eh-
for a culture known for its love of the kiss?

That’s the one English word I’ve found to trump the French. All other subtleties of sense the French win hands down. So it’s the word I leave the US on.

The photo is my planning map of breweries to visit. The gift-beer is packed, the CBC White Widow sipped, cat team assembled, new laces in Fleuvogs, Ratebeer Strasbourg consulted. Ready! Oh- but the brewery-on-a-sheep farm guy in Brittany just moved the date. Yikes. Well, that’s beer travel. Salut!