Je Suis Une Étiquette De Bière

I work for Brasserie de Montmirail; a microbrewery in the middle of nowhere in Perche-Gouët, in a remote village. This brewery only has local customers; they like aperitifs and some are even beer geeks.

I present and describe a somewhat special beer. My creator, the guy who started the Brewery, says it's a gastronomic beer. You're kidding! All because it's more suited to pairing with dishes than for an aperitif.

It's a smoked pear beer. It's fermented with a very old yeast. Not a local yeast but a yeast passed down from generation to generation of farmer-brewers. This yeast is amazing. It works at high temperatures and finishes the job in 3 days. And what's more, you can reuse it several times. It's just its name that's a bit special: Kviek.

Apart from that, as I was telling you, it's smoked (the beer, mind you!, not the yeast). The brewer put a small proportion of beechwood smoked malt. Not much, mind you! Only 15%. Well, that's enough to get that smoky taste. And then, because otherwise it would be too simple, the guy who brews, added after fermentation with his rustic yeast, green William pear. Well, it works quite well! The sugar from the pears was eaten by the rest of the yeasts and it brings sweetness and breaks the intensity of the smoke. Good! It's not as fruity as with red fruits but it's not a fruit beer. It's a gastronomic beer, as he already told you.

The guy who created the brewery also says you should drink it with blue cheese or an old Comté. And it's even great with raclette or sauerkraut.

Well, there you go. In fact, I'm quite proud to be the label of this beer...