Monday, March 10, 2014

Why are we waiting to drink good beer?

Ou qu'est ce qu'on attend pour boire de la bonne bière?


The French have nothing holding them back from drinking great craft beer, so what are they waiting for?


More beer bars.


More craft beer outlets.


 François Moutou the réalisateur of this mini documentary about the rising French craft beer is on a mission to show France and the rest of the world, that there IS a craft beer culture brewing in the land of wine and cheese.


Moutou is looking to progress his 3 minute long short film into a full length documentary with English subtitles and commentary for non French speakers.


With a beautiful marina view, fantastic bagel sandwiches from one of the best places in Paris and, of course beer from my new favorite cave à bière, the two of us hatched out ideas for the full project.



Completely beer geeking out!


Luckily Moutou is a beer geek with a fancy phone, so he was checking in on Untappd (add me!) and we have evidence of our productivity.

a32c0c652ae68c1b04fbfc29ebe360f0_640x640 Started out with a Danish 'American Pale Ale' called Fanø Vestkyst from Fanø Bryghus that paired beautifully with our roast beef, avocado and other amazing ness bagel-wiches.

Yeast on the nose, but clean and fresh on the palate, finishes with a nice citrus hop bite that is mild and delightful.

20140224_141708Rooie Dop was pushed on us by St. Bière owner as one of his newest most loved beers and, although very interesting, I continue to have problems with this brewery. A pungent over ripe fruit smell persists throughout and the watery finish is less than desirable.
"Something is keeping me from liking it..."

I can see why many would rank this as a fantastic beer, seeing as how it's bold use of hops is striking, but there is a touch of unbalance that keeps me from loving it.

7d48cf96269b884f1a324d99eab9b343_320x320Hemel & Aarde or Heaven & Hell started us down the track of destruction. The after taste is better than the beer. Lingering smokey, woody and boozy notes hang on with delicious grace. One of those beers that is more fun to smell and savor than actually drink.

Vanilla, rye, roasty malts, dry wood and whiskey.

Pick this one up if you love William Blake and sipping beers.

c476b4056c8b57d9fbbee7db5843b92d_640x640Estraomnes Donker Imperial Stout.

What better way to finish a lunch meeting than to completely melt one's face off with a blast of peppery spice and coffee. Pulling back from Heaven & Hell's 9.8% abv to Donker's 8.5% just shows that alcohol content does not the beer make because although lower in alcohol Donker's boozy punch was much more evident.

Business is a pleasure!

Bike helmet in hand, France's beer culture documentarian set off to the office while I am the proud owner of four empty bottles and a head full of new ideas. Keep checking back for more updates on the growth of a beer nation!

XOXO


 

5 comments:

  1. As far as I'm aware, Rooie Dop isn't a brewery as such, and their recipes are brought to life at De Molen. I've certainly seen their name on blackboards hanging on fermenters there.

    And much as I hate to spoil the scary romance of Blake, "Aarde" is "Earth" in Dutch, as in "aardvark".

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  2. Heaven and EARTH! You are right, much less romantic. Boo.
    I've done some reading on Rooie Dop after your comment and it turns out that they brewed their stuff at De Molen and only recently opened their own location. They want to be wild and crazy, "IBU extremists," but so far I haven't found one of their brews that strikes me as extremely well done. Like I said though, I keep getting people who tell me that Rooie Dop is their new favorite name so they must be doing something right.

    XOXO

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  3. Humm êtes voսs sûг de ce que vous nous affirmez ??

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  4. On peut dire que ce n'est guère inexact ...

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