Brewing real ale in Brittany
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
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.
