It's a sunny and warm Thursday morning and I'm strolling down the weekly market. Amongst the many vegetable, cheese, fish and meat stalls I spy with my little eye a beer stall. I stopped by and turns out this guy has an amazing selection of local beers. I'm like a kid in a candy shop at this point and if I had a tail I'd be knocking some old ladies over by wagging it real excitingly.
There was a good range of various beer types and I picked up his business card with the website address on, which promised to have an even bigger selection. The real bonus was that he kindly offered a chance of free delivery, if, when ordering from the website, I indicated that it should be delivered to the La Roche market. Which means I would only be able to have them delivered on a Thursday when he is at the market, but for me that's perfect. Also it saves me about 6 euros, which is almost 2 bottles of beer.
The website (www.dredanslmoussu.com) is cool, easy to navigate and informative and, as anticipated, has a great variety of beers - sours, IPAs, blond, amber, fruity, black, seasonal, triple, etc. They say that between the Savoie and Haute-Savoie regions (France) there are approximately 60 microbreweries. Whoa. One of the most exciting things are the tasting packs. They offer a variety of local craft beers from different breweries in one pack. Awesome! And I will get a free delivery on them! Double awesome! And now I know a guy who can supply me with all the local stuff I need and I don't have to drag the pram around the shops in search for beer that's worth writing about. Triple awesome!
Have a look around where you are - maybe there's a beer guy near you too! Unless you are him of course. In which case - thumbs up dude!
So, my dear reader, with so much choice on my hands - maybe you can check out the website and tell me which 1 beer you'd like me to review? Which one do you find the most appealing and exciting or weird and intriguing? I know you are probably far away in another country and you will most likely never get to try it but you'd really like to know what it tastes like so let me know, I'll take one for the team and I'll taste it for you!
On to beer! While at the stall I picked up this interesting looking bottle.
Welcome to the jungle baby! I've never heard of a Jungle Pale Ale before. But turns out I took the last bottle as apparently it's very popular! Clearly. Now let's see if I can justify it being so popular. Maybe it's just the novelty of the name or the bottle art?
ABOUT THE BREWERY: This small artisan brewery Brasserie Du Merle was started in 2018 by two friends Benjamin and Pierre. This is their story in short: " Two childhood friends who share a common passion for beer, whether to taste or to brew. Disappointed with industrial production from both a taste and ethical point of view, we want to offer a beer produced with ethics and love."
ABOUT THE BEER: The writing on the bottle says "Hops straight from the jungle. A little bitter candy". How intriguing! It's pretty strong at 7.1% ABV and promises to be fruity and with nothing but the aromas of their local hops.
SMELL: mango and passion fruit.
TASTE: omg, this is seriously good. It's a soft IPA taste first with moderate hopiness with a lovely sweetish passionfruit aftertaste. Mouthfulfeel is medium bodied and supple. If I didn't see the 7.1% mark on the bottle I would not know. It's seriously dangerous!
I WOULD PAIR IT WITH: Bare feet, deck chair and sunglasses and a hot sunny summers day with Wild Thing by The Troggs playing on the radio.
I don't know many "dessert" beers but this could be one. Would accompany something vanilly nicely.
Happy beersaturday week 200 everyone and here's to many more brews that will be drunk! Santé!