The Black Velvet is an Irish pub located in Bordeaux, France in the St Pierre area, where you can see art exhibitions, live music, matches and films on big screen…

They also have a pool table and a dart board. Of course you can taste the best Guinness and get some craic!

You can order their special : “The Ulster coffee”, ask the barman (maid), (s)he’ll tell all about it!

You should also find your favourite in The Dead Rock Stars cocktail list : a Janice Joplin maybe or a Jim Morrison?

600 years have passed since the English put this city on the world map and the only remnant of our presence is the leopard on the traditional coat of arms. Nevertheless, Bordeaux is arguably the most ‘English’ of all French cities. Aside from having the largest number of British and Irish theme pubs per population (over 20 give or take), there are Anglo traces in the regional architecture, long running educational links such as the Bordeaux-Bristol association, a cricket club, the Bordeaux British community and a British consulate providing assistance for the reputed 250 000 UK expats in SW France. It also rains a lot.

• Use a clean glass. A dirty glass, containing oils, dirt or residuals from a previous beer, may inhibit head creation and flavours.
• Hold your glass at a 45° angle. Pour the beer, targeting the middle of the slope of the glass. Don’t be afraid to pour hard or add some air between the bottle and glass.
• At the half-way point bring the glass at a 90° angle and continue to pour in the middle of the glass. This will induce the perfect foam head. And remember, having a head on a beer is a good thing. It releases the beer’s aromatics and adds to the overall presentation. You may also want to gradually add distance between the bottle and glass as you pour, to also inspire a good head. An ideal head should be 1″ to 1-1/2″.(2.5 – 3.8 cms to the French) 

 
For an proper beer education you need to start at the beginning :  

CAMRA

The Campaign for Real Ale was formed in the 70’s by drinkers who were fed up with the shift away from traditional brewing to a uniform commercial drinks market. They have been making efforts ever since to prevent the age old craft of brewing from dying out completely and have an established worldwide following of around 150 000 members. Beer festivals are held throughout the year and throughout the world championing local brews from Ales and Bitters to Ciders and Perry to Stouts, Porters and Barley wine.

Local brewery and beer culture in France is extremely limited and even dying out completely according to the owner of the Cave a Bulles in Paris. The industrialisation of brewing is mainly responsible as well as urbanisation in the 20th century and the two world wars. Anglo Saxon culture also doesn’t descend much further south than Lille. There are a couple of English brewers in Normandy and Brittany has some beer culture but aside from that the outlook is bleak. The average beer consumtion per capita in France in 2010 was only 30 litres (17 pints!) – that’s compared to an average of 45.7 litres per capita of wine. Complare that to 74 litres in England, 104 in Ireland and 132 in Czech Republic. The lack of French brewers and general interest in beer isn’t really surprising particularly in Bordeaux, the world capital of wine. However despite the booze tide flowing massively in the wrong direction, a few of the Frenchies here seem to be switched on.

Next on the tour is V&B (Vin & Biére) which has shops in Bruges, Merignac and Bordeaux Lac. Half off licence, half bar this is a nationwide chain that stocks a couple of decent alternative brews amongst the larger range of Belgian beers. Brewdog from Scotland is worth a try as are the classic favourites of Newcastle Brown, O’Hara’s Stout and Hobgoblin. The real draw with this place is that it’s 50% licence and 50% bar. You can choose your ale (albeit a limited choice of English names) and drink it in the bar half of the shop. They are to be found in Bruges, Merignac and BDX Lac, have a beer garden for summer and plenty of cold tap beers.

Le Comptoir Irlandais has a fairly central location (Rue du Temple near the Gambetta tram stop) as well as a superb and growing range of English and Irish beers. They are arguably the winner in Anglo-Saxon and Gallic beer stockists in Bordeaux with a comprehensive selection that could rival any off licence in England. St Peter’s is definitely worth a go as are the Breton brews such as Telenn Du. Alternatively you could just ogle at the bountiful beer selection from Murphy’s to Boddy’s, John Smiths, Wychwood brewery, Shepherd Neame, Badgers with my personal favourite of Fursty Ferret, Greene King IPA as well as the mighty Old Speckled Hen. Young’s Double Chocolate Stout also deserves a mention. Prices are reasonable (€2 for a can of Abbot, €2.30 for Murphy’s) and they have a fridge for a cheeky cold one in the summer. Get down there !!

If you don’t mind paying elevated French beer prices and crave an English/Irish pub atmosphere there are a few reasonable options around Bordeaux. Some also employ expat chefs who can rustle up a mean fish and chips, pie or Sunday roast. Here is a list of the main players for draught beers, apologies if I’ve missed a few out :

The Black Velvet : Guinness, Kilkenny, Magners
The Blarney Stone : Guinness, Kilkenny, Magners, Newcastle Brown
The Cambridge Arms, The Oxford, Molly Malones : Guinness, Kilkenny, Newcastle Brown, Strongbow, Cambridge Beer
The Cock and Bull : Guinness, Kilkenny, Strongbow
Connemara : Guinness, Kilkenny, Kilkenny Red
Dick Turpin’s : Guinness, Kilkenny, Newcastle Brown, Strongbow
The Frog and Rosbif : A microbrewery concept pub chain – stocks 6 types of homebrewed beer – ale, stout, wheatbeer, lager etc
 The Golden Apple : Guinness, Youngs London Ale and Magners
The Houses of Parliment and HMS Victory : Guinness, Kilkenny, Magners, Newcastle Brown
The Sherlock Holmes and Charles Dickens : Guinness, Bombadier, Directors, Young’s Gold, Young’s Stout, John Bull Classic, Eden’s Promise Cider, Red Stripe
Sweeney Todd’s – Guinness, Magners, Sweeney AleO’Rowland’s : Guinness, Kilkenny, Strongbow
The Yorkshireman : Guinness, Strongbow, Newcastle Brown

The Bordeaux Scene.. 

La Brasserie du Coq D’Or, early 1900’s – opposite the Mega CGR cinema, rue Montesquieu

For a city which hails itself as the world capital of wine there has always been a surprising amount of beer drinking going on. There currently are over 20 Anglo/Irish/Belgian pubs in town and an ever expanding network of funky and alternative bars. The student and music scenes are buzzing (apart from in August..) and there is a growing underground movement of organic eco-friendly cafes and brasseries. Indeed the future seems rosy for all that is beer related and particularly so for the handful of microbreweries that have recently graced our fine city. But the last 100 years has been challenging (to say the least!) for local artisan brewers and the struggle is far from over.

La Grande Brasserie de l’Atlantique, brewing the finest Bordeaux beers until 1979

The beer garden at the Atlantique brewery (Quai de Brienne) serving beers and Alsace style snacks (1923)

Atlantique at the 1923 Bordeaux International Fair, Quinconces. Beers were being exported all over the French speaking world from the Caribbean to Madagascar and West Africa…

The disappearance of the local brewery in France

Brewing and beer culture holds an important and often forgotten place in French cultural history. Figures from the Assiciation des Brasseurs de France state that at the start of the 20th century there were close to 3500 small brewers (with the majority located in the north and Pas de Calais). The popularity of Alsace style beers also spread to other parts of the metropole (such as Bordeaux! http://invisiblebordeaux.blogspot.fr/2014/01/la-grande-brasserie-de-latlantique.html). Professional Beerologist for Heineken Hervé Marziou suggests that many of the beer producers were Alsace residents who settled elsewhere in France to avoid the annex with Germany. Historically it was also the abbeys and monasteries who were responsible for beer production as well as holding the local monopoly. As with the UK, Belgium and the rest of the Anglo Saxon world it seems that the towns throughout the hexagon (particularly in the north) had their own local brewery.  

A beer specially made for pregnant women

Beer delivery to central Bordeaux, 1923

Nevertheless a variety of factors and events during the 20th century resulted in the almost total eradication of France’s independant brewing industry. WWI had a catastrophic effect wiping out a whole generation of local brasseurs with the number being reduced by two thirds. As well as the brewers themselves going to fight numerous breweries had their equipment turned into ammunition.

Issy-les-Moulineaux, south Paris

Paris brewed Munich style beers

Subsequently the decline in rural communities with urbanisation and the end of the coal mining industry simply removed local demand. The steady decline continued over the decades and was accelerated by campaigns against alcoholism in the 1950’s and 60’s. By 1976 the number of artisan independant beers being produced in the whole country stood at a meer 26..! As traditional drinking habits and local beer culture declined there was the simultaneous rise and near total market domination of the industrial corporate beers.

1955-7 alcohol campaign

                                                                                                                                         

The Industrial Beer Giants

The massive swing in brewing trends during the course of the 20th century can be atributed to many factors. Pasteurisation and the development of other techniques allowed beer to be stored for long perods of time and transported long distances. The revolution in transport networks and industrial brewing techniques also meant that large quantites of cheap beer could be produced and distributed all over the world. Unfortunately this has had the inevitable commercial effect of pricing out independant operators and reducing choice. Despite efforts by the large breweries to diversify with products like Desperados and different artificially flavoured designer beers what we are left with today is a generally tasteless and uniform product. A further issue is that the majority of bars and pubs are tied to a particular commercial brewer and are therefore locked into that supplier and legally can’t stock local artisan local beers.

A Change in Drinking Trends

Beer consumption in France has been falling for decades and is now as low as 30 litres per capita each year compared to 57 in 1980.

The new culinary beer movement!

TV chef Christian Etchebest has recently taken on the role as spokeperson and ambassador for beer in France. In promoting the drink he has stated that beer remains popular but not very well known to the general public with a “generation brought up on wine”. This year he has taken on the role of the ‘godfather’ of the 8th edition of the Heineken beerology competition aimed at training future beer ambassadors in the hospitality industry. His aim is to educate and initiate people in the service and tasting of beer, pairing with food and to spread the values generally associated with the drink such as: conviviality, good times and the spirit of rugby!

Various regions in France such as Lille, the Nord Pas de Calais and Brittany have always traditionally had strong local brewing cultures and these continue today to a larger extent. Biere de Garde following on from the Belgian tradition has a strong following as does Pelforth and Ch’ti. Trappist beers continue to be popular and a variety of seasonal Christmas and March beers can be found in the large supermarket chains. A number of specialist bars and shops have also sprung up in recent years chiefly represented by 3b’s and V&B which offer a decent selection. 

With links to local breweries, health advice, beer menus etc.

Over the last ten years the number of micro-breweries here has literally exploded. According to Robet Dutin, author of the ‘Annuaire des brasseries françaises’ since its first year of publication in 2008 the number of local producers in France has jumped from 293 to over 500 in 2013. The majority of these microbreweries have appeared more though a love of beer rather than a commercial motivation. They tend to have an ecological and fair trade approach, a local distribution and are born out customer demand for quality. The Assiciation of French Brewers has a commission for smaller brewers which has been set specifically set up to look after the local players.

Currently there are four main independants in the region as well as the in-pub brasseries at the Frog and Rosbif, Fleur D’Houblon, St Léon in Créon and the Darwin Project. Alphabetically, here is what they do…

Independant Artisan Breweries :

Aliénor :

Aliénor (presumably named after Eleanor of Aquitaine) is run by a Belgian guy called Laurent Lefebvre who arrived here in 2006 and began producing not long after. After brewing for a couple of years in his house he moved to a new premesis in August 2012 which was used before in winemaking. He is based in Saint-Caprais-de-Bordeaux and welcomes visitors from Monday to Saturday in the late afternoons.

It’s available on draught at the Vintage and Chez le Pépère near Place Gambetta. By the bottle there are an increasing numer of suppliers all over town such as the Cave Oenolimit, Le Perdi Tempo (near Porte Caillou), Paul’s Place in Chartrons, Centro Do Brasil  (rue du Port), La Grange (Cours de L’Argonne), Monoprix near Pey Berland and tons of others. Their beers can also be bought directly at the brewery or by rendezvous in Bastide. Gasconha also offer the renting out of a beer bar with all the equipment, ideal for an outdoor event or festival as well as workshops to create your own tailormade brew. Check the website for merchandise, recipes and more details.




Mascaret :

Based in Rions about 30km south of Bordeaux next to the Garonne the Brasserie Artisanale de Mascaret is part of the Château Maine Pascaud who also produce wine, have an event space and run a Gite! The owners Fabrice and Pauline started brewing in 2010 and have between them a host of brewing, viticulture, oenology and travel experiences. With an organic certification their concept is to create ‘a great beer in the region of great wines’.

Available in outlets all over Bordeaux

The fine selection…

Mascaret have a range of 6 organic beers available in 33cl and 75cl :
Blonde Bio Grande Cru – A traditional Belgian 5.5% lager brewed with Pilsen and Vienne malts and 3 varieties of aromatic hops. Available in 30 litre barrels and recommended to be drunk in a Belgian style tulip glass to give the right level of mousse.
Ambrée Bio – A creamy 6% brew with dark caramel overtones ingrediants also include biscuit malt. Perfect as an apero and matches well with cheeses such as Roquefort and Fourme.
Blanche Bio – A 4.5% – 5% wheat beer described as ‘feminine’ it has orange tones and is summery and festive. As with all wheat beers drink this one freezing cold and it goes well with seafood.
Brune Bio – A strong English style Brown Ale made with 5 different malts, hops and spices. At 7% it bites and works equally as an aperitif as with a meal or dessert. A winter style beer there are elements of cocoa, dark chocolate and liqourice.
Bière de Noël Bio 2012/2013 – A spicy 7% Christmas beer brewed in the Northern French/Belgian style. Full and spicy with hints of aniseed and liqourice. A new recipe is produced every year so look out for the 2013/2014 in the coming months.
Bière de Printemps 2013 – Light and tasty (% not shown but probs around 6%) made with fresh hops. Pick one up today!

Mascaret have a good distribution in the region and is available in Auchan Meriadeck amongst others as well as E.Leclerc, V&B and the BioCoop shops in town. They are present in several of the bars previously mentioned and also sell in the Paris region. Nearer the brewery there is an associative cafe/bar in Langoiran which along with the cinema sound pretty decent. As an interesting sideline they run 1/2 day workshop brewing courses which would make a great day out or present and offer the chance to create your own beer. There is also a free ‘Porte Ouverte‘ festival in May with a local producers market, jumble sale, shows for kids and brewery visits as well as a medieval street festival in Rions in July – hold the dates for 2014!

Their Spring festival in Rions – take paracetamol…

Artisan Brew Pubs :


The Fleur d’Houblon :

An Alsace concept restaurant on the Villenave d’Ornon shopping complex – just off the rocade south of Bordeaux, you need a car (therefore non-drinking designated driver) to get to this place. However it’s still worth a visit to taste the Franco-Germanic brews, watch a jazz concert and get stuffed on Sauerkraut and Flammeküche. They have private party rooms to hire a first floor terrace which can hold events for up to 130 people. There is also a Munich style beer festival in mid September for which they brew a special Munich beer which can be downed out of the epic Giraffe beer towers.

On site brewing tanks

They produce 8 brews on site including the seasonals which are served in awesome tall handle pint jars :
La Blonde – A slightly bitter lager made with aromatic hops and grilled malt. Light and fruity and best served between 6°c and 8°C.
L’Ambrée – A heavier and darker beer with caramel tones it is made with a mix of 4 malts and goes well with main courses.
La Blanche – Brewed with a mix of malted barley and wheat this light citrus beer is a thirst quencher! Goes well with fish, white meat, grills and other suumer mains.
La Girondine – A special red fruit beer brewed all year round this has hints of blackcurrant, blackberry and raspberry; there are also traces of chocolate and caramel. The perfect companion to a ‘magret de canard’, a Flammeküche or cheeseboard.
Brewed seasonally there are also the Bière de Munich, Bière de Noël, Bière de Printemps and Bière d’Eté.

Classic Alsace style bottles

To aid the flow of the amber nectar there are regular concerts with local artists ranging from Soul, Jazz, Rock and Country to Irish folk music and even a Slavic quartet! 

The site of the old Bordeaux women’s prison…

The Frog & Rosbif :

Well known and with 5 pubs in Paris as well as in Toulouse the Bordeaux branch is built in a former 16th century women’s prison. There are a plethora of special nights on offer from ‘Speed English’ to all night happy hour beer bonanza’s. The beer is brewed on site and there are 6 on offer :

Frog Natural Blonde – A 4.2% German Czech style lager with Bavarian ingredients. It’s unpasteurised and unfiltered and claims to beat keg beer hands down.
Maison Blanche – This 4.2% citrusy wheat beer with tones of orange peel and coriander. Perhaps they should drink more of this stuff in the actual White House.
Ginger Twist – A fizzy amber beer with ginger lemon and lime. Something different and 4.2%
Inseine – 4.4% this hoppy bitter the longest running Frog beer with over 2 million pints sold and 1.5 million insane hangovers achieved.
Dark de Triomphe – A full creamy stout, slightly bitter with roasted barley and chocolate malts and a decent strength at 5%.
Parislytic – Obviously fans of beer names that offer a humerous play on words (?) this is a dark malty ruby ale and the strongest at 5.2%

They have a great food selection to soak up the beers wich includes all the ex-pat favourites, plenty on offer for vegetarians and kids menus. 

   
The Saint Léon :
This brasserie in Créon 20km South East of Bordeaux has it’s own beers brewed locally by a guy called Nicolas Hébert. They have a Blonde for €5 a pint and a Russe for €6, kids are welcome with their parents and can try the locally produced lemonade.
The bar itself is almost a local community centre with a WiFi connection, mini library and piano. The chef offers a beer themed menu with local produce including – Duck Sausage à la bière or Beef à la bière and they have regular theme nights with card/board games and often improvised concerts. The local mayor Jean-Marie Darmian has even suggested that beer is one of the local products that gives Créon its reputation. They supply local associations and the sale of barrels is popular among sports clubs for ‘les troisièmes mi-temps’.
Nicolas Hébert is a strong advocate of beer culture over that of wine. In a recent interview he recalled how during a local ‘portes ouvertes’ Créon wine festival about 40 people turned up and conducted the tasting in quasi-silence with only 2 cases of wine being sold all day. A similar event held later on around the local beers brought in over 250 people who were all chatting away after 5 minutes and they had sold several hundred bottles!

L’Oiseau Cabosse – Nestling on the cosy Rue Sainte-Colombe with a couple of other bars this place stocks a local Isle d’Oléron brew, La Bière des Naufrageurs (there is a donkey on the bottle).

The donkey beer

La Muse Cafe – On the other side of the Gare St Jean (10 rue Brascassat) this resto/bar stocks Mascaret and has fun theme nights such as Murder Parties and the Zombie Crew!

Chat Noir Cha Vert (47 Rue des Faures) is another alternative cafe in St Michel. They stock Mascaret and other alternative stuff and have a terrace.

Not for chickens

Au Poulailler in Begles (Place Du 14 Juillet) – without a chicken in sight, this bar/cafe/resto/meeting place is however advertised as the place where people go to ‘cackle together’. Mascaret by the bottle amongst others.   

Papie strongly recommends you get down there

 Le Chabrot – Next Porte Caillou this trendy bar has Belgian beer on tap, a delius menu (especially the charcuterie) and if it gets too hot you can go next door to get the best homemade ice cream in town at the Frozen Palace.

Les Caves d’Ausone – Just opposite Le Chabrot and arguably Bordeaux’s best Wine and luxury Spirits shop this place has a decent selection of alternative beers. The rum selection is also amazing.

Le Cafe des Moins – a Belgian medieval cave in St Michel (with the appropriate address of rue des MeNuts) this place has a happy hour from 7-8pm and a selection of Belgian and French local beers. Worth a visit to try the 13% Black Albert which will leave you without certain key mental faculties.

BE CAREFUL!!

The Future of Beer in Bordeaux

With any luck, word will spread of all our local brasseurs and more cafes and restaurants will start stocking their fine selection of beers. Many of the bars and pubs I contacted had no idea that artisan breweries actually existed in Bordeaux so I promptly told them! Some of the main pubs are under license for draught but can still theoretically stock the bottles. A beer festival on the Quais or somewhere in the Old Town is a welcome idea to many of the local brewers. With the partnership of a cafe like the Vintage it could happen in 2014. Woll beer (a German owned brewery with roots in Hossegor in the Basque country) has proposed some kind of event around the skating scene at the Darwin Project. Combining the surf/skating scenes with artisan local beers could be a winning combo at some point.  As for the question of whether beer has a place in the wine capital of the world, the final words go to beerologist Hervé Marziou : (trans) “We tend to forget that until the 1950’s every region of France had their own local brewery.. as with beer in other wine growing regions such as Alsace, the brewers sold their production to the wine makers. What better after a hard day’s grape picking than a cheeky beer”
Sounds good to me…

 

In the follow up to this summer’s Beerdeaux blog on the blossoming range of local craft beers, I was recently lucky enough to visit the Gasconha artisan brewery in Pessac.

Celebrate Back-to-School with a wild night of House Music by DJ ALKIMIXX, Marshmallow Cocktails, Jager Bombs and of course TWISTER !!

Come dressed in your Pyjamas and get a FREE Jager Bomb !!