BrewTALES from the road - la cave à bières

Strolling around Paris (isn't that what you do in Paris? Stroll?), we stumbled across a nook of a beer cellar ("la cave à bières") called Le Binouze. The name of this beer bottle shop, as we learned from another Frenchman in a nearby pub, is a slang for beer in French.  Two opposing walls were high with various glass bottles of beer, representing brews from Paris and beyond. The two young gentlemen working there - the one being a classic cliche of a college student who is earning his degree in cinema while working this "odd" job in order to make ends meet - unfortunately, were limited in their knowledge of beers and brews. And considering the dearth of knowledge in Paris regarding beers, they should know more.  How else does one pick out a beer but by the label?

Le Binouze beer shop in Paris

 As professional educators, beer drinkers and the latest inductees into the North American Guild of Beer Writers, we took it upon ourselves to teach these lads a few things about beer.  And no better way of doing that than with their stock of beer - we spent the next two hours pulling from their stock of bottles and opening then one by one, giving them an identity and explaining the nuances like each was... well, a French wine.  The terrior of the hops, the types of yeast and the resulting tastes. How to train the palate for bitter, for sours, and for maltiness.

During this time, several customers stopped by. Some were local Parisians curious to try something new or on an assignment to pick up a specific beer brand. Others were tourists who knew a bit about beers, and sadly at times, looking only for ones from their country of origin.  Some however, began asking us questions about beer and we even had one take home a special Lambic we think they'd like (even though they were German - the couple, not the beer).

In the end we shared six different beer styles - two IPAs (to compare the use of hops), a true lambic, a faro (to understand the use of sugar in beer), and an American wild ale (to underscore the role of yeast) - and took another five with us to drink later, while watching Parisians stroll the rues - a bier de garde, a "spring" ale, a lambic, a flanders style ale, and a hoppy amber French beer.

I'm sure these guys have a great story to tell their college buddies... (Now imagine the next part in French) Ah oui, remember that time that American and that Canadian started opening these crazy beers off the shelf and making us drink them while they went on and on about what makes a good beer...? 

BrewTALES from the road - Organic Beer

Last Christmas (2015), I had the opportunity to go home to British Columbia. While I was visiting a local pub, the bartender told me I needed to go see this brewery called Crannog. I decided to go pay the brewery a visit, and this is a story I was told. Hope you enjoy it.

Crannog Ales Brewery. Photo courtesy of www.bartowel.com

Crannóg Ales is a small (10 hectoliter/8.5 barrel system) brewery located in Sorrento, a small town of 1200 nestled in the interior of British Columbia. Its remote location helped the co-founder Brian MacIsaac and become  start the first certified organic farmhouse microbrewery in Canada.  But finding organic ingredients, particularly malted barley, wasn’t an easy task when the brewery first opened in 2000. The malster company providing the organic barley told Crannóg’s brewer that the low demand for organic malted barley would not justify increasing its production. So Brian embarked on a west coast road trip, visiting dozens of breweries from Vancouver to San Diego. When he visited each brewery, he talked to brewers and not only was he able to get to them to commit to buying and using organic malted barley in some of their beers, if he could find a company willing to grow it. The road trip was a success, as Brian got enough brewers to commit, and convinced his barley supplier to increase its production of organic malted barley to meet the growing demand. In the 6 years since Brian’s road trip, sales of organic beer increased from $9 million (2003) to $41 million.