Be on your Garde

France isn’t known for its beers, but in the North of the country they produce some excellent ones. Adrian Tierney-Jones went in search of them

Even though the French make a lot of noise about their wine, it’s Jean Barleycorn and beer that wears the culottes in the northern part of the country.

From the Channel coast to its eastern border with southern Wallonia and the southernmost tip of the Ardennes, this is beer country, known for the Biére de Garde style as typified by the likes of La Choulette Blonde and Duyck’s Jenlain.

Yet, trying to pin down the meaning of Bière de Garde is like having to sculpt Rodin’s Thinker with blancmange. The definition is wobbly. The beers of Northern France, because of their proximity to Belgium, have their fair share of spicy blancs (known as witbiers over the border), citrusy tripel look-alikes and even fruit beers (La Choulette’s Framboise is a splendid example).

There are also big and beefy ambrées with spicy, earthy hoppy notes, as well as pale ales. All also romp home between 6% and 8.5%, so they’re not for the fainthearted, and are ideal partners for the local robust cuisine.

I’m sitting in a bar in the centre of Jenlain, near Valenciennes, a small village that is the home to Brasserie Duyck (pronounced dweek). Back in the 1970s, it was the beers of this medium-sized family brewery that kicked off the whole Bière de Garde revival.

Just as French brewing seemed about to go all coldfermenting and lagery, students in Lille made a cult out of this warm-fermented amber-coloured ale that was served in a corked Champagne bottle.

“It was my father’s idea,” says brewery boss Raymo.....

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By Adrian Tierney-Jones

Section : Beer Trends

Page number : 54