Real ale in Brittany
Introduction
Real ale is a tipple not normally associated with France. Wine will come to mind first and foremost. Anyone who has travelled in Normandy and Brittany might also think of cider. However, in Brittany over the last few years, small entrepreneurs have latched on to the popularity of real ale across the channel and have started to produce some interesting products of this genre. Some are served on draught using the English-style hand-pump, others are more often seen in bottle-conditioned form.
At the moment, many of these products are regarded, especially by the local Bretons, as a niche market for connoisseurs (and/or tourists) and they can be quite difficult to find, even in the areas in which they are being brewed. Only Coreff, based in Morlaix, seem to have broken through into the larger market to the extent that you can find bars badged as selling Coreff, with external wall-signs displaying their distinctive yellow and black logo. Otherwise Brittany appears to just be a sea of bland, fizzy, continental lager in the form of Amstel, Fischer and the like.
Whilst planning a week's holiday in Brittany, we thought it would be interesting to try and track down some of these fledgling breweries and sample some of their beers. Other than the excellent book "The Beers of France" by John Woods and Keith Rigley and its associated web-site, information was hard to come by. There is certainly no equivalent of Camra to tap into.
In the event, we simply took a list of breweries, beers and a few bars, gleaned from Woods and Rigley, and kept our eyes open. This article aims to add to the information provided there in the hope that any real ale enthusiasts following in our footsteps (well, our bicycle wheels, actually) will be able to seek out Breton real ales in a less random fashion.
We only visited the North of Brittany between St. Malo and Roscoff. The beers we found were all excellent (with one exception, which we think may have been a 'duff' bottle, and which I shall, therefore, not name). Tastings and scores (out of 10) are provided for those we found. Where a range of scores is given, the beers were scored by all four of us.
Beers sampled:
| Coreff, Morlaix: Ambree |
Served by handpump.23FF for 50 cl; 12FF for 25cl in the Cafe de l'Aurore in Morlaix. A mid-brown 5% beer. Rich, creamy and smooth. Malty throughout with some roast in both the aroma and taste. Some cherry notes in the finish. Score: 8 |
| Coreff, Morlaix: Etiquette Noire | Bottle-conditioned. Possibly 18FF for 33cl in the Creperie 'Au Coin du Feu' in Moncontour. A dark-brown/black 6.5% beer. Dominant burnt/roast/liquorice flavour with a slight sourness. Rich and syrupy in texture. Both bottles tried lacked condition. Score: 6 |
| Lancelot, St Servant sur Oust: Bonnets rouge | Bottle-conditioned. About 15FF for 33cl in the Creperie 'Au Coin du Feu' in Moncontour. A light reddish/chestnut-coloured 5.5% beer. Cherry in the aroma followed by a substantially malty flavour with fruity notes, some roast and bitterness and a slight malty sourness. The finish was light and fruity. Elderberries were listed on the ingredients. Score: 8-9 |
| Lancelot, St Servant sur Oust: Cervoise | Bottle-conditioned. . Purchased in a 'local Breton produce' shop in the centre of Dinan. 29.50FF for 75cl. A mid-brown/copper-coloured 6% beer. A spicy aroma with ginger leads to a predominantly malty but astringent flavour and finish, the subtle gingeriness continuing throughout. Claims to be flavoured with 6 herbs other than hops. Score: 7-8 |
| Lancelot, St Servant sur Oust: Telenn Du | Bottle-conditioned. About 15FF for 33cl in the Creperie 'Au Coin du Feu' in Moncontour or 29.50FF for 75cl in the 'local Breton produce' shop in the centre of Dinan.. A dark red/dark brown 4.5% beer brewed partially from buckwheat. Roast flavours such as liquorice predominate but are balanced by some fruity and hop flavours and a dry finish. The larger bottle lacked condition and had a cloying sweetness as though it had not fully undergone secondary fermentation. The smaller bottle had better condition and was much better balanced with the dominant flavours much softer. Score: 6-8.5 |
| Lancelot, St Servant sur Oust: Duchesse Anne | Bottle-conditioned. . Purchased in a 'local Breton produce' shop in the centre of Dinan. 29.50FF for 75cl. A yellow-gold 6.5% beer, primed with honey, difficult to categorise, 'triple fermentation'. A yeasty 'wheat beer' aroma leads to a flowery, fruity, hoppy taste, described by one of us as 'plenty up front'. Very pleasant, warming and very drinkable despite the short aftertaste. Score: 7-9 |
| Lancelot, St Servant sur Oust: Blanche Hermine | Bottle-conditioned. . Purchased in a 'local Breton produce' shop in the centre of Dinan. 29.50FF for 75cl. A straw-coloured 4% wheat beer. Clean tasting with a spicy finish and a clean wheaty, floral aroma. Light and easily drinkable. Score: 6-8 |
| Brasserie an Alarc'h, Huelgoat: Hini Du (Bier du Menez Are) |
Served by handpump. 23FF for 50cl; 12FF for 25cl in the 'Le Cornouaille' in Huelgoat. A dark-brown 4.7% beer. Roast predominates in this beer with coffee and dark chocolate in the aroma and hints of dried fruit in the taste and a dry finish. Light-tasting for its strength. Score: 7 |
| Diaoulig, St. Potan: Celtbier Blonde | Bottle-conditioned. Purchased in a 'local Breton produce' shop in the centre of Dinan. 13.90FF for 33cl. A light amber 6% beer. Fruity with hints of honey and cinnamon. Almost cidery. Score: 6-8 |
| Diaoulig, St. Potan: Celtbier Cervoise | Bottle-conditioned. Purchased in a 'local Breton produce' shop in the centre of Dinan. 13.90FF for 33cl. A chestnut-coloured 6.5% beer. Fruity and winey against a background roast flavour with hints of fruit-cake. Liquorice on the nose. According to the bottle, brewed from barley, wheat and buckwheat. Score: 6-8 |
| Diaoulig, St. Potan: Celtbier Brune | Bottle-conditioned. Purchased in a different 'local Breton produce' shop in the centre of Dinan. About 30FF for 75cl. A mid to dark brown 6% beer. Lots of roast and dark malts with liquorice and some fruitiness in the taste to follow the 'treacle-pudding' and chocolate aroma. A delicate winey aftertaste rounds off this rich and warming brew. Would make an excellent 'winter warmer'. Score: 8-9 |
Bars visited:
Le Cornouaille, Huelgoat. A pleasant, 2-roomed bar in the corner of the main square with medium/dark-stained wood decor with an interesting mixture of Tolkein-style and Breton posters on the walls. Behind the bar is a large collection of CDs mainly of Celtic and rock music. Plain but comfortable, this bar had better "crack" than you'll find in most Irish pubs. The barmaid was very enthusiastic about the brewery and suggested that, had we been around on a weekday, we should pay it a visit. She was actively trying to wean the locals onto the Hini Di. The Bar l'Hermine in the next corner round the square sells Coreff and the little supermarket in the opposite corner had a reasonable range of bottles including Lancelot, Coreff and Britt. (Huelgoat is a pleasant small town about 30 km due South of Morlaix and is worth visiting for the surrounding gorge scenery as well as its brewery and beers!)
Cafe de l'Aurore, Morlaix. An ideal starting point for an exploration of Brittany's beers - you may not need to go any further. With Coreff Ambree on draught and (about 20) bottled beers from 9 other Breton breweries, this is well worth a visit. Unfortunately, we had a ferry to catch and had to stick after two glasses of the handpulled Coreff. The bar itself is friendly with two downstairs rooms, a room upstairs with a pool table, and plenty of seating outside across the cobbled, pedestrianised street. Open all day (and I mean all day: 7 a.m. until 1 a.m.) except Sunday, when it does not open until 5 p.m. We spotted three other bars in Morlaix bearing Coreff signs. It being Monday, two were closed and in the third, the hand-pump was faulty (or so we understood, but it may have been our French...) so no real ale was available that day. Morlaix is about 18 km from the ferry terminal at Roscoff - ferries from Plymouth, Cork and Rosslare.
Creperie/Pizzaria Au Coin de Feu, Moncontour. A friendly eating place, rather than a bar, in the historic town of Moncontour, 30km due South of St. Brieuc. The galettes and crepes are good. Stocks 2 Coreff and at least 3 Lancelot bottle-conditioned beers. In our opinion, the beers were much better NOT from the fridge.
Other outlets:
"The Beers of France" (and its web-site) give the breweries' addresses and indicate whether you can buy the stuff at source. The Diaoulig brewery advertise their email address as celtbier@wanadoo.fr
Any shop claiming to sell local Breton crafts or produce may stock the Breton bottle-conditioned beers. Some local supermarkets, large and small also stock them but there did not seem to be any particular chain which was guaranteed to do so. We never got as far as comparing the prices in the 'craft' shops with those in the supermarket.
Although we did not try the bars in question (being Sunday/Monday, they all looked shut), Coreff signs were spotted on at least one bar in Rostrenen, Berrien (North of Huelgoat) and St. Pol-de-Leon as we passed through. It was our greatest disappointment that we could not find any in Roscoff - we were looking forward to a relaxing couple of hours waiting for the ferry spending our remaining Francs on Coreff.
Don't expect any of the cheap booze warehouses near Roscoff to stock any Breton bottle-conditioned beers. Cans of fizzy John Smiths, yes, but interesting tasty local craft beers, sadly no.
NOTE: Every supermarket we visited did stock Breton cider - check labels to see whether the cider is a) made from 100% pulped apples, b) is not pasteurised and c) may contain some sediment. That's the best stuff.
For gites accommodation, try the following:
http://www.gites-brittany.com/links.asp
http://www.gites-brittany.com/region.asp
Note
This page is attached to website belonging to the Keighley and Craven Branch of the Campaign for Real Ale. The opinions expressed in it are entirely those of the author and do not represent the views of Camra either nationally or in Keighley and Craven.
