My top 4 French beers for London

Ive chosen a selection of 4 French beers to bring to the Beer Bloggers Conference in London. French you say? They make beer? Well yes they do and very well indeed. I could have brought tens, maybe hundreds of beers. But I have my bank balance and my back to think of when getting the Eurostar. So I chose the following four to bring to London (I should point out at this stage that they are all 750ml but still wont go around everyone so sorry if you dont get to try)

First up is a Belgian Style strong ale. Saint Rieul Grand Cru. For me a great example of a French brewery making a Belgain style. Its 9% so it a big hitter but its very,very tasty. Here is what she looks like

Second is one of my personal favourites from my time here in France. Its brewed by a Scotsman at DeProef in Belgium but he lives in France. Confused? Me too.....Not strictly French but the recipe was made here at least. Its called Agent Provocateur (yes like the ladies knickers) and it is described as  ' a hybrid of an IPA and a Belgian golden ale ' but I would probably call it an IPA. Its 6.5% abv and she is a beauty. Here is how she looks

Next is proof that French brewers can also make up styles. Fleurac make a Triple Dark IPA. Confused? Me too......Its 8% abv and mighty tasty.  She looks like this

Lastly is my favourite. This is a special one. It takes 24 months to make and it is aged in oak wine barrels. It starts of as a sour beer and becomes more funky and a little woody over time. The bottle I am bringing is one of only 500 made this year. Its pretty young but still tasting fantastically complex and interesting. Bulles de Vignes is 6% and will probably be sure to split opinion.Here is my photo of year 2011 in the shop they all came from

And finally I might have a couple of little bottles of something from a brewery called De Struise but I am sure nobody would be interested in that!


Here is what they all look like (and hopefully will still look like tomorrow)

If you are going to the conference, hunt me down at some point and I will try and make sure you get some. 


Cheers


M

France- A beer paradise

France doesn't exactly have a great reputation for beer. After all its the country that brought us 1664, Desperados and 33. Contrary to popular belief they do have a small but thriving craft beer industry.

The French craft beer industry is full of great little breweries but it never seems to get the international reputation amongst beer geeks like Italy or Denmark. Maybe that's because it lacks a world renowned brewer with a big voice like Mikkeller or Grado Plato or maybe its because the wine industry over shadows too much. I mean France has its fair share of already world renowned drinks industries right; Wine, Champagne (a wine I know), Cognac, Absinthe, Pastis. I don't see why a craft beer industry cant fit in to that too though.

Brasserie Craig Allan, Uberach, St Reuil, Fleurac, Garrigues. Only a few of the hundreds of fantastic micro brewers in France. Not just creating the usual three French styles either; Blonde, Brune and Ambree. Black IPA, wood aging, hoppy IPA and the rest. The French micro brewing scene is just as experimental as the rest of Europe and the world. If you are in Paris you must visit la cave a bulles which is a fantastic shop specialising in French micro breweries, although he does stock some Italian, Scottish, English, and Belgian stuff too.

We must stop thinking about France as purely a destination for those of us who also like a spot of wine as it can be a great destination for craft beer lovers too.  I for one would love to see an Auld Alliance style collaboration brew with a Scottish and a French brewery, or maybe a beer between an English brewer that can be shipped across the channel. Ok maybe those are a step too far. Maybe we should encourage some importers to start looking to the growing French craft beer scene and let us taste some of this wonderful beer back in Blighty. I shall continue to post about my discoveries and after lent I will upload some Vblogs and some tasting notes of my favourites.

Anyone else got a French favourite ?

France is a great place for beer: Intro

Don't worry I havent forgotten about the blog but I have been quiet during my move back to France. Its taken a while but I am finally settled in and have many plans for blog posts in the pipeline. However there is one thing that I would like to make certain about my time in France this time around; I will be writing a lot more about French beer.

During my previous trip I really only covered Belgian beer which was a bit silly but really all I could get a hold of during my year in France. This time I am in Paris though and I have found a wide variety of French microbrews ready for me to try. I have had a few so far and I am very pleased with what I see, smell and taste. I think the industry here will be great one day but it does still need time to mature and a little bit of help to give it a push against the dominant world of wine.

Over the next few days I am going to explain a little bit more about the micro brewing insdustry out here and share with you some tasting notes and reviews. Hence why this post is only the introduction.

Post 1 of my semester of French Craft Beer coming tonight............

New VBlog! YAY

Videoblog 5- Jean Balthazar

Mixed reviews of Brasserie Uberach's Jean Balthazar, also forgot to mention the shed loads of coffee malt in this one

Todays beer trip........

Today I visited a lovely little beer shop just outside of Avignon, France (I am based here at the moment until April, with a few visits back home). More importantly this beer shop claims to have over 400+ beers in stock, although I thought it was maybe slightly less, but who am I to argue!

Aux 2 Chopes is on the outskirts of town

Anyway the shop was well layed out and I managed to find a few nice little bottles. The staff were a little rushed off their feet by the looks of things as they didnt really bother to speak much etc, but I suppose most beer shoppers just want to be left alone to make a decision by themselves. The shop was mostly filled with Belgian and French beers (pretty much to be expected in the South of France). Although there were a few international examples, but none of these really struck me that much.

So after much deliberation I left with only 12 bottles, as the owner told me that he is going to be at the Xmas market in a few weeks (I live much closer to there, so it will be easier to carry!). They were:

Quintine Blonde, XI.I Samhain, St Bernardus ABt 12, La Trappe Quad, Duvel green, Corsendonk dubbel, Karmeliet Tripel, Blondine!, La Chouffe, Gulden Draak, Rochefort 8 and Rochefort 10.

The mysterious celtic themed XI.I at 11.1% funnily enough

So reviews of these will appear in due course....but dont expect them today or tomorrow as there are many reviews I've already got written to come first! I thought I would just give a taste of whats to come. In any case have a good Saturday evening what ever you do. Finally a big shout out to anyone who was at The Rake in London today for the Brewdog event......extremely jealous! Hope you enjoyed!