Garlic, frites and beer

25th September 2011

Just in time for our late summer the beer festival at Ste Marie Cappel took place on the last weekend of September.

I have been going along for a few years now and enjoy the chance of trying something new each time. Whilst it is not a big affair there is enough variety, and in any case when you have to drive a hundred kilometres to get home you can’t go overboard.

This year I took Chris up with me as he had the choice between working at the house with Richard; steam trains with the rest of the family or beer festival with me.

It is still just 5€ to get your wee glass and three tickets for beer which you exchange with the brewer. My first stop was Thomas of the Brasserie Artésienne. His beers are labelled St Glinglin and are definitely favourites of mine. I have also managed to talk him into coming along to the inauguration of a Canadian monument at Festubert in October as the local brewer.

For this years festival he had brewed a ‘bitter’ with Texan amarillo hops. This style is very much the fashion in France but some are better thought through than others. No point in in thinking English Ale either. The St Glinglin Amarillo was initially sharply bitter but the after taste was remarkably fruity – Thomas suggested lychees. I bought three bottles for future use.

Chris liked the beer produced by Craig Allan a Scot who now lives in the Oise whilst I was very impressed by one of the Saint Rieul beers (also from Oise in Picardie). Their Brune 7 is a dark stout which I’ll have to look out for again in the shops. It’s not Guinness but for a dark powerful beer it was very good.

I had aimed to arrive on site for 1400 hours reckoning that; just after lunch, would allow us a bit of room to move. Two hours later the place was packed and it was shoulder to shoulder drinking and very hot verging on stifling. Outside it was a glorious day and Chris and I had a wander between tastings and sampled the local chips which are fried with onions and whole cloves of garlic.

The following day it was back to work for Chris as he came over to help Richard sort my roof out.

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