Southern France
May 21 - 31

Southern France is much more known for wine than beer. Leffe is everywhere as is Heineken and Kronenbourg. Lagers are available at virtually every bar. Names like


 

Bought some Normandy cider at a small town grocery and enjoyed it at a roadside picnic table with a loaf of bread, some mold-covered cheese, some mold-covered sausage, some olives, a pink apple, and of course some potato chips. Life is good.

The wine is Reflets de France Cidre Bouche de Normandie Brut. Good dry cider - sharp, crisp, and fizzy. The bottle needed the wire bail as the cork popped almost like champagne.

The model had to fight for her half.

But on to the interesting stuff. Beer. Did you know French rules allow for one bar license for every 450 people in a town? Exceptions are made for tourist areas.
 

Versinth

Liquoristerie De Provence near d'Aix-en-Provence is making real absinth. Their Versinth brand of liquor is a revival of the real stuff - complete with wormwood! (Sadly the version imported into the U.S. leaves out the wormwood or they couldn't get it into our country).

When we visited, the owner, Pascal Rolland had just returned from Shanghai where they won a gold medal at the China Wine and Spirits Competition. Asia is the fifth continent where they have won a major medal.

They produce two versions, one where the herbs are infused and distilled, the other where the herbs are macerated. The latter has a green tint and a stronger flavor profile with a hint of peppermint coming through.

The proper way to drink absinthe is watered down 10 to 1, leaving a 4.5% drink. This watering down is an art form that the Japanese tea houses will love. Ice water is dripped onto a sugar cube and into a glass with the proper amount of absinthe. The mixture comes out delightfully cloudy and a more yellowish (where the straight distilled liquor is clear). The resulting 8 to 10 ounces should still be sipped as an aperitif rather than faster as it's strength would suggest.

It's also OK to drink straight as a cordial and is not harsh at all that way, just warming.

Liquoristerie De Provence also produces other liquors including Anis, Fig, and Peach. These are distributed locally. And they released a high-end perfume Absolument Absinthe last week at the Cannes film festival. The perfume contains both absinthe and cannabis and is billed as "forbidden". Absolument will be sent to the U.S. and sell for about $130/bottle.


The vacuum distiller.


Recirculation tanks for the herbs.

Mare Nostrum - Castillon

The southernmost brewery in France is in a small hilltop artist colony town of Castillon, just north of Monaco. Mare Nostrum Brasserie Artisanale Du Sud has been in operation for 4 years under the ownership of Georges Bensoussan. The only hint from the road is a sign reading "Fabrique de Bieres". While they think of themselves as a microbrewery, with 200 accounts from Marseille to Menton along the Cote d'Azur coast, they also have a restaurant and a Visite et Degustation (tasting room) on premises.

All production right now goes into bottles (from 33cl to Magnums) although they have some European version of coke kegs to try out in bars.

In addition to beer they also make citrus pops, lemonade, citrus aperitifs, jams, and even a distilled version of Blanche De Castillon called Elixir De Biere. At 40% this is what we would consider beer schnapps and is quite similar to that home-brewed-distilled by certain Hoosiers.
 

Georges' brother-in-law, Goget Christian, is the brewer producing 500,000 bottles last year. He says distribution is holding them back since the wholesalers don't want to deal with such a small volume. So palette loads are put into what looks like an impossibly small van and driven down the twisty roads to the coast for delivery. They also have one client store in Paris.
 


The brewery complex occupies both sides of the main village street at a switchback.
From left to right:
Distribution and storage.
Lower level bottling.
Second level brewery and tasting room.
Third level restaurant.

Mandrin - Grenoble

Grenoble may be known most for the Winter Olympics of a few decades back. Shame it isn't known for Mandrin beer produced by Brassee a Grenoble near the University area.

Owner Vincent Gachet was mashing his third batch of a 3.3% wheat beer on a hot May day and took some time off to talk to us. Thank you. He and brewer Tim Collins have been producing for 3 years. They make 1 or 2 brews per week and also report distributor resistance.

The 2nd batch of the wheat (which we tried) was quite like an American wheat with good effervescence. All their beers are bottle conditioned. In winter they make a spruce beer that registers 8%.

Their regulars include a blonde made with French hops and Brewers Gold and Noix (amber) that's dark copper and made with walnuts in the mash. A nutty character develops very late in the taste. Nice.

Since a tram line is being built to within a couple of blocks, maybe people will make them have weekend parking-lot parties and spread the word about Mandrin. They hope to be better known in Scotland and Italy where export deals are in the works.
 


Gachet and 4 of their 5 ten-bbl fermenters.

At right some British customers are picking up 3 kegs ad an electric jockey box (a European thing). The box regulates CO2 from a separate tank and has a 230volt refrigeration unit. Makes sense since we've only found ice in Europe on Mediterranean beach towns.

Chardon - Belladonne

Up the road in Belladonne Denis Dumand went from homebrewing to a full-time brewery last autumn with a English 7-barrel system sheathed in wood. He also has a building in an industrial park where he brews once a week, bottles once a week with his wife, Claudie, and cleans, delivers, and markets the other 6 days per week.

All Chardon beer is best found in small shops in Grenoble. It's all bottle conditioned and organic even though the availability of organic malt and hops is spotty in France.
 


Claudie and Denis


2-person rotary bottling system (Mandrin has an identical one).
A labeling system attaches but is not pictured.

Chardon's range is

Tartentaise - Aigue-Blanche

Hidden away in a ski resort in the French Alps is Brasserie Tarentaise owned and operated by not-quite-ex-pat Brit Dean Jarmon. He loved the area and moved here in 2003 to brew English beers for the ski crowd. Business is great in the winter but the summers it's doldrum city. Dean is looking into moving the operation to the larger town of Chambry on the main highway and possibly making it a brewpub with food and all.

Even in the summer he still brews and had a couple on hand that weren't quite ready for bottling. A Summer Wheat had a touch of citric from Cascade hops. The Best Bitter is based on Youngs #3 Mild. He also makes a blonde and 720 Strong Abbey Lager at 7.2%.


Ninkasi - Lyon

If southern French breweries aren't well know, Ninkasi is the exception. Everyone we talked to about beer asked us if we'd been to Ninkasi. Open since 1997, with a big brewpub in southern Lyon and three tied houses, a busy music scene, big food portions, all-day opening that goes into the night, and the same type of beer normally found at American brewpubs, it's easy to see why.

Concerts 3 or 4 nights a week with jazz, reggae, funk, vocal, etc. Patio seating is in a loading dock setting.

Almost everyone we saw at Ninkasi had the medium sized plate of Frites Maison (not up to the best fries at home but not greasy - maybe cooked too cool as the inside isn't properly mealy). Oh, the salads are served in what at first glance could be mistaken for a big flower pot. Big. Also ham, chicken sandwiches, flammekuches, and burgers.

Is it a coincidence our hotel is 100yds away. No. Did we stop in every night we were in Lyon. Yes.

The beers:

Cafe Chantecler - Lyon

Here's what we think of as a big cafe restaurant on a major artery in a big French city. A big glassed-in porch - the terrace was empty due to rain. Meals run in the low teen €s, a bargain for the area. This is stereotypical French food with small portions and intense flavors.

Copper vessels are behind glass and were dark that day, matching the weather. Besides a Bonde, Gold, Rousse, and Saison, they have a Passion-fruit beer. Does every French brewery have it's own favorite odd vegetable? Plus:

* but see Brasserie Georges, below.

Brasserie Georges - Lyon

If the Cafe Chantecler is the quintessential French cafe, Brasserie Georges is the example of last century's big-city emporium restaurant. Indeed, it dates back to 1836 and was completely redecorated in 1924 from Victorian to pure art deco style. Now it looks like a magnificent train station interior complete with waiters in white shirts and black bow ties. Don't dress up though, the specialties include saurkraut.

The small brewing system is displayed to the right of the front door on two floors surrounded by posters from bygone eras.

Beers include a pils, amber, and a full-bodied wit. BUT their Brune is a close brother of Chantecler's Noire. Darned if it isn't chocolate and vanilla again in all the massive aroma and taste, just a bit lighter brown, a bit whiter head, and a bit thinner body. Is this a Lyon style? Why one a Noix and one a Brune? Help.
 

Other breweries in the region include Brasserie des Cimes in the nice city of Aix-les Bains. This seems to be literally a back yard operation in the residential area of the north city. It was dinner time when I went through so didn't bother the brewer. A Petite Casino grocery store 3 blocks away had his beer in stock. Yep, it's in a blue bottle. 7€ a 3-pack.

(Addition) This must be a bigger operation than we thought, as we're seeing their beers all over the area.

Voiron, near Grenoble has Les Brasseurs Des Alpes which makes DDF brand biere de Garde, marketed in black bottles by the six pack.

Chamoix at the base of Mont Blanc has a large operation, Brasserie a LUau Des Glaciers Du Mont Blanc which markets to a wide area. I had a au Genepi (a wheat beer with genepi which must be juniper but tasted like ripe pear). Yep, it's green. This was a  roadside cafe hidden up in the hills that we never would have found if not for a 11-mile and 35-switchback detour.

They also make a Blanche, Blonde, and a Aiselles & Violettes with berries and violet flowers added - that one has a purplish hue.

Also on the menu at this roadside restaurant were

L'Aiguille Blanche - 5€
Yeti - 4.10€
Baton De Feu - 4€
La Cimoise - 3.80€
La Cordee Aux Myrt - 3.10€ - Myrtle infusion.
Mont Blanc Blanche - 4.50€