Continental quality

Roger Protz visits some of Europe's finest breweries

Belgium· France · French Flanders · Bavaria

The beers of Belgium and the Nord-Pas de Calais region of northern France have an affinity that leads producers of bire de garde say they work in "French Flanders."

The term bire de garde means kept or stored beers, but they are not lagers and they belong to the ale tradition. Like the saisons of Wallonia, they were originally farm beers, brewed in spring and stored for the long, hot summers in the flat lands of Flanders. After years of obscurity and the domination of pale lagers from the Strasbourg region, bire de garde as a style has made a remarkable comeback.

Châti is brewed by the Brasserie Castelain at BŽnefontaine. The name is local Picardy dialect for câest toi, meaning "it suits you." The beers from Yves Castelainâs spick-and-span little brewery will certainly appeal to all beer lovers with discriminating tastes. The brewery, part of a farm, was built in 1926 and bought by the Castelain family in 1966. Castelain, with its gleaming copper vessels overlooking the road outside, produces 28,000 hectoliters a year.

Yves Castelain, an energetic and restless young brewer, always looking for new interpretations of the bire de garde style, uses Flemish and French barley, with hops from Flanders and Germany. Châti Blonde (6.5 percent) is made from four malts; the brune (brown) version uses eight, including Munich, cara-Munich and torrefied malt. The beers are rich and fruity, the brown in particular having a strong hint of raisin in the mouth.

Castelain also produces Christmas and May beers, an abbey-style Sint Arnoldus in homage to the patron saint of brewers in Flanders, and a memorable organic beer called Jade (4.6 percent), with earthy and perfumy hops on the aroma, sweet malt in the mouth and a long, tart and fruity finish.

Go to: Belgium· France · Bavaria

This story originally appeared in All About Beer Magazine in May 1997.