French Kissing with La Goutte d'Or at La Fine Mousse

Paris's first micro brewery celebrates 1 year anniversary and releases a collaboration beer

FRENCH KISS is a beer made with grapes and French hops, designed in collaboration with the brewery Outland and created for the Harvest Festival of Montmartre in 2013. A true blend of all things that make Paris 'The City of Love.'

La Fine Mousse

Located between the metro stops of Ménilmontant and St. Maur, Le Fine Mousse was a buzz with Goutte d'Or Birthday bash go-ers in a flood of great beer and converted wine lovers. The theme of the night was "I used to love wine, but now I French Kiss."

Tasting

LA GOUTTE D'OR- French Kiss

A: Lush rosy pink color of lips, veiled with a soft haze.

S: Oh honey, honey, honey! Huge sweet honeycomb notes followed by a pomegranate, red fruits, and a slight rosé tang with a delicate hay touch on the base.

T: Sweet, sugar love'in mama! Not much more bitter then a gentle love bite and while the malt stands out unexpectedly, there is no missing the fact that there was grape juice AND fresh grapes used in this baby. Imagine honey and pink grapefruit on a bowl of cereal.

M: Slight mouth coating on a medium body.

O: This beer has all the potential of a blossoming virgin, but isn't quite ready for the plucking. There was a lack of bubbles and sourness to cut through the grape juice and caramel malt. Give it

[caption id="attachment_2032" align="alignleft" width="418"] French Kiss[/caption]

Romain from Outland admitted that the two week fermentation of the beer wasn't as much time as they would have liked and that the pilot batch had more astringent characters. The bottled versions will make for great cellaring!

Home Brew from Guillaume Toussaint

A: Murky apple juice

S: Say what, bacon? There is a smokey smell, like roasting chestnuts.

T: Figs, sugared dates, malty and smoked.

M: That slightly flat effect that home brew often gets, but a clean mouth feel.

O: Guillaume used a huge amount of dates in the post boil and thinks that having let them sit in the wort for such a long time roasted the date pits thus causing the smoked effect. All in all, a pretty cool idea. Bacon wrapped date beer. Test batch #1 get Nitch's nod of approval. Lets do another!

LA GOUTTE D'OR- Chateau Rouge

[caption id="attachment_2038" align="alignleft" width="487"] Chateau Rouge[/caption]

A: Head for days, what a slut. Dense and the color of a red wood

S: Yeast and again, that hard honey hit that the French Kiss had

T: Bitter, floral and hop forward with a smooth cherry touch and delicate spices.

O:. Very much like French Kiss but less grape juiced. Great balance. Each element has a place: malt, hops and sweet red fruits. Very smooth and crowd pleasing. I can see now why so many of the converted wine drinkers love this beer.

Below is Thierry, the brewer/founder/owner of La Goutte D'or with Quentin Blum (enjoying some home made chocolate cake). Mr. Blum is one of Paris's only craft beer import/export merchants and has converted his lovely girlfriend Leone (second from the right) from a wine drinker to a beer and food pairing apprentice. Clemence (on the far right) is Thierry's converted wine drinking neighbor.

"Thierry is passionate about beer but not showy."

-Clemence

Virginity

It was brought to my attention that Nitch, whore of many things, is a coffee virgin.

Tom and Paul from Café Lomi in the 18th were French Kissing and spreading their version of geekiness. Coffee Geeks? Who knew. They've promised to pop my craft coffee cherry- such gentlemen these Aussie expats.

Café Lomi/La Goutte d'Or fusions in the future? The magic 8 ball says, "the future looks bright."

If you speak a bit of French, check out the below video of Thierry and Romain talking about the story behind French Kiss, the collaboration and what it means to be craft beer in Paris.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Yj1g5BmbMk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Didn't get enough tongue action? Check back tomorrow for more coverage of the 2013 Montmartre Harvest Festival festival including: people who take pictures of things instead of experiencing them, snails as street food and 'Merica.

Thats right 'Merica.

XOXO

Tasting Location- Express de Lyon Paris, France

 

Express de Lyon

Paris, France

Where craft beer and French café intersect

If you happen to be near Gare de Lyon, whizzing your touristy way through Paris, take a metro break and cross the street to one of the most well hidden beer sampling locations in Paris- Express de Lyon. Camouflaged as a typical station stop café-bar, Express de Lyon is a heaven for hardcore beer geeks as well as vanilla beer drinkers.



A Yelp post by Cameron M. explains the secret behind Express de Lyon's unique place in the Paris bar society:

"...BUT the secret is, the owner is a huge beer geek. For me, this is a real Paris bar (well... except [that] there is amazing beer): you have the local flavor, the die hard gamblers sipping on a Heineken, beer nuts (expats and francophones) from around the city trying the lastest microbrew on tap, tourists drinking the classic Belgians (like Chouffe or Karmeliet or worse...Amstel!!), and even some travelers passing through who stopped by while they wait for their train at the Gare de Lyon."

Chidini over at Trip Advisor had this to say:

"This humble café has some of the most exciting tap selections in town, from Evil Twin, Mikkeller, BrewDog, Craig Allan, De Molen, and other rising stars of the European craft beer scene. The atmosphere is laid back and the opposite of pretentious, and the prices are more than fair."

And for those French speaking readers:

"Un bar typiquement parisien ! Une ambiance conviviale et populaire, des bières introuvables à la pression, une clientèle jeune et souriante...Que demande le peuple ! Le service est parfois un peu long mais l'équipe compense par sa bonne humeur et son accessibilité...Chaudement recommandé !"

Trendy Paris guide Paris by Mouth notes Express de Lyon as one if it's favorite Parisian locations:

"Although it appears on first glance like any other train station-adjacent café-bar, this place is a must for serious beer geeks in Paris."

Express de Lyon is owned by two brothers, one more beer addicted than the other. Brother beer drinker wasn't in when Nitch was there, but a return visit is promised. Geek session planned!

Tasting

[caption id="attachment_1587" align="alignright" width="696"] Note how the Funky E-star (in the foreground) has bigger, more round fat bubbles while the Green Gold has a tighter, more creamy head.[/caption]

MIKKELLER- Funky E-star 9.39% 4.90/5.50

Funky indeed.

S: Steeped malts, fermenting fruit like a cider in the fermenter

T: bitter and dry, with sweet beery hop notes and a skunky hop undertone, no strong alcohol presence

M: Dry with a light resin coating

O:  Likely to be better in the bottle than on the tap line, Funky E-star is one of my least loved Mikkeller beers to date. The off fruit tickles the nose and the hops are hidden under the malts.

MIKKELLER- Green Gold 7% 4.90/5.50

Smells Green!

S: Hops, citrus hops and a distinct uh.. hop smell

T: Fresh hops pop out bitter then a tart cherry bitter finish

M: More creamy then Funky E-star, smoother on the palate but still light to medium in body

O: More fresh and enjoyable then the first beer, Green Gold lives up to it's name as a treasure of golden green hop goodness.

[caption id="attachment_1588" align="alignnone" width="696"] Things are hand written on a chalk board, bistro style and, as you can see from the hand, are willingly explained but the bar man.[/caption]

Findings

Both beers tasted were a bit flat, green gold a bit less so, but there was a mild question mark as to rather or not the tap lines need a little cleany up. Dive bars aren't known for their cleanliness so, lets chalk it up to authenticity, shall we?

If you want to save yourself some piggy bank money, then sit at the bar (if possible) rather than a table. There is about a .60 cent mark up for table service. Not saying that you'll get better service at the tables or anything, more like you are charged for renting the table space; 4.90 for bar Mikkeller, 5.50 for table Mikkeller. Drink 8 bar beers and you've paid for your 9th in savings!

As we learned from Brandon over at Cave à bulles, Express de Lyon is owned by two brothers who recently were converted to the hop loving order. Brother hop maniac wasn't in attendance at the time of our visit, but we were assured by brother hop enjoyment that he would hold a lengthly vigil with us upon our next visit.

I like it- dive, dirty and divine

XOXO