Les Fous Micro Brasserie

Real ale in Brittany

2008-02-25T19:40:00.008+01:00

Don and Tricia are obsessed. They drink beer. They talk about beer. They brew beer. Sometimes they do other stuff. But mostly, with them, it's all about the beer.

Tricia and Don who are obsessed

At the start of 2007, they began brewing at their pub in Carnoët in Central Brittany. And their beer has already received widespread acclaim in Brittany and around the world. It would do. It's good. I told you -- they're obsessed.

Their first beer is named after their dog who in turn is named after Orson Wells. Some people are amazed at the way they name their beer, but it follows a long Anglo-Irish tradition of naming beers after pets who are named after Hollywood legends.

Orson the dog

One of the delights of drinking Orson Ale is that you can do so while the dog sits at your side looking dolefully up at you hoping to catch a few spilled drops of his own beer. He gets very little except when Don and Tricia go hop picking when he generally breaks into the brewery and helps himself.

Sadly, owing to timing difficulties, Orson Wells never got to drink the beer. But chances are he would have approved. As he once nearly said: "my doctor told me to stop ordering beer for four unless there are three other people with me."

Orson Wells who never drank Orson Ale

Anyway, all this is off the point. Orson Ale is a golden bitter brewed in the best traditions of English real ale. And because they are obsessed, Don and Tricia have not stopped there. Visit their pub, Les Fous, and you will discover a range of special bitters, stout, mild and pale ale, some of which have been named after their donkeys. But that is a whole different story.

Contact Les Fous Microbrasserie

2007-04-21T01:38:00.002+02:00

Les Fous Micro Brasserie
Pen-ar-Vern
22160 Carnoët
France

Tel +33 (0)2 96 21 52 32

Google map for Carnoët 48.37 N, 003.50 W

Brewing real ale in Brittany

2007-04-21T01:34:00.000+02:00

At the beginning of 2007, Don and Tricia built a micro brewery (micro brasserie in French) in the two hundred year old granite barn attached to their bar and restaurant at Les Fous. Here they produce a range of real ales using traditional methods and the best quality ingredients. Everything is done by hand, from grinding the malted grain to sticking the labels on the bottles.

Real ale in Brittany
The beer is made using only natural ingredients: water, malted grain, barley, hops and yeast. Only the finest 2-row barley is used, after it has been expertly malted in either Belgium or Germany. The hops are predomininantly East Kent Goldings, justifiably known as “the king of English hops. It is said that the malt gives the beer its body and the hops give it its soul.

How the beer is made

Malting the grain
The process starts with barley. The starches in barley cannot be fermented, so they must be converted into a fermentable form, by malting

Brewing
The malt is crushed, mixed with hot water and left in a vessel called a mash tun while the sugars in the malt dissolve. The liquid, now called wort, is then drained through the slotted base of the vessel and boiled. Hops are added to the wort to add a bitter flavour and aroma to the beer. After boiling, the wort is cooled and run into fermentation tanks, where yeast is added.

Fermentation
The yeast feeds off the fermentable sugars in the wort, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide. This is a good thing.

Racking
After fermentation is complete the beer is racked into barrels or bottles and left for a further month until secondary fermentation and conditioning is complete.

Visit Les Fous Micro Brasserie

Taste the unique range of real ales
Tour the seventh largest brewery in Côtes D’Armor (by appointment only)
Eat in the Guide Routard recommended restaurant, open at lunchtime and in the evening
Sleep it off in the self-catering accommodation or arrange a longer stay to see the delights of central Brittany.
You've seen the labels, now meet the animals.

La Vallée des Saints

2007-04-21T01:27:00.001+02:00

Carnoët Rocks

The Valley of the Saints is a folly just up the road from Les Fous in Carnoët. Three metre high effigies of the founding saints of Brittany are carved in local granite. Sculptors are invited to submit designs. The idea is to create 40 new sculptures each year until there are 1000 statues.

The result is a global showcase of Breton Granite. Currently, 2000 jobs are at risk from the import of cheap Chinese granite into Europe. La Vallée des Saints celebrates the intertwining of 15 centuries of culture with the material that is at the very heart of the region.

"People need ambitious projects," Philip Abjean tells Ouest-France. "It takes a little insanity. The excess is typically Breton. Brittany is excellent at excess."

The first seven statues are of the founding saints of Brittany. St Pol-Aurélien, St Corentin, St Patern, St Brieuc, St Malo and St Samson look in the general direction of their home towns, St Tugdual is involved in an artistic dispute but should be joining them at some stage.

Find out more at The Valley of the Saints website.

The great beer labels of Les Fous

2007-04-21T01:21:00.000+02:00

Sigmundo Pieface is one of the world's most formidable cartoon-animal-based beer label designers. It was thus only natural that Don and Tricia should turn to him to design their labels.

Born in Kiev in 1924 and educated at l'Institut de l'Animal de Dessin in Orléans, Pieface came to prominence in the 1950s for his startling caricatures of President de Gaulle's dog Ruby. These were eventually banned by all leading French newspapers because of the distress they caused to France's first family, but not before Pieface had established for himself the reputation of Enfant Terrible du Dessin.

The label for Orson Ale is modelled on Don and Tricia's dog Orson. "It is not a terribly good likeness," admits Pieface, "because the damned dog kept moving about. However, I think I have caught the essence of Orson and that is what is important to the beer.

Tartarin's Top Tipple is named after Don's donkey Tartarin. "I cannot stand donkeys," says Pieface, "so I modelled the design on a toy donkey belonging to the grand-daughter of a close friend of mine."

Old Stoat is called this because in olden times stout used to be called stoat. It is not clear whether stoat was also an ingredient of the beer in those days, nor even if the word bears any relation to its modern usage. "I myself have a pet stoat and so this was the easiest of the designs," Pieface explains. "It was a question of texture and light, primarily, and of course an additional fee for supplying the model."

A whyld is a variety of rabbit indigenous to central Brittany. It has larger than usual front teeth and a propensity to drink copiously. "I tried to talk them out of the rabbit motif," says Pieface, "because I have never really been very good at drawing the ears."

By the time Beyond the Pale was developed, we were running out animals but Pieface suggested a cat as he explains: "In 1976, I had drawn a cat for a client who rejected my design. I have been waiting for an opportunity to use it ever since."

Real Ales at Les Fous

2007-04-20T21:59:00.020+02:00

Orson Ale
A golden, hoppy, session bitter

Tartarin's Top Tipple
A strong dark bitter

Old Stoat
A dark oatmeal stout

Whyld Mild
A dark caramel mild, full flavour; not too strong

Beyond the Pale
A very pale, very bitter, with slight citrus notes

Duc du Carnoët
A pale, hoppy summer beer

junk

2007-04-20T21:18:00.000+02:00