Country
France
Home of bière de garde in the northern brewing region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, historically tied to farmhouse production.
French brewing is concentrated in the north, in the Flemish-influenced regions bordering Belgium. Bière de garde — literally beer for keeping — was brewed in cooler months on farms and stored for summer drinking.
Alsace, on the German border, has a separate lager-brewing tradition and accounts for a large share of French beer production by volume.
Brewing traditions
Belgian and French farmhouse brewing
Seasonal farm brewing in Wallonia and French Flanders that produced saison and bière de garde.
- Brewing in cool months and storing for summer consumption, since summer brewing was impractical before refrigeration.
- Very high attenuation, often with warm and rising fermentation temperatures, producing dry beers with pronounced peppery phenolics.
- Bottle conditioning to high carbonation, and traditionally cork finishing in heavy bottles.
1 styles from France
Brewing regions
- Nord-Pas-de-Calais. Farmhouse brewing in French Flanders produced beer in cool months and stored it for summer. Bière de garde is maltier and rounder than its Belgian saison cousin, and traditionally cork-finished in heavy bottles.
Hops grown in France
Breweries in France
Carried because a reference beer, a tradition or a historical event needs them. Not a directory.
Beer history in France
1876 Pasteur establishes that fermentation is microbial
Work through the 1860s and 1870s showed that fermentation is caused by living organisms and that beer spoilage is microbial, making deliberate control of both possible.