That's it, Armand Heitz enters the world of beer. It's curious isn't it? And how is he going to do it, he doesn't have the equipment, it's a massive investment to equip himself like this. Oh, what do I hear? The Brasserie de France is launching in Beaune, a new production facility whose logistics and talents are put at the service of other brands.

Some will be offended, it is not at all the philosophy of the estate to associate itself with a structure that has come to frighten some professionals in the brewing sector. Yet, believe me, the logic behind this partnership is well established. Indeed, this new project offers perspectives that relatively few existing structures could have offered. And I am going in this article to enumerate them and convince you of the merits of this seemingly incongruous association.

First of all, you have to know a little about the structure of the Brasserie de France to understand that this new project has many facets. Indeed, Jean-Claude, Anthony and Paul, three entrepreneurs from different backgrounds, have invested their time and money in this adventure with one goal: to put infrastructures and talents at the service of great projects and to train the brewers of tomorrow. It's beautiful, huh? Far from wanting to compete with the surrounding micro-breweries, they want to allow everyone's brewing projects to come to fruition. And Armand Heitz saw an opportunity there: to be able to produce beer freely and under the watchful eye of expert people with products in accordance with the polyculture logic of the estate.

Thus it was decided that two different ranges will be produced at the Brasserie de France on behalf of Armand Heitz. The first will be a classic, simple range, with the main focus being the work of the local cereal: one with wheat , the other with rye and the third with buckwheat . The aim is to make people discover or rediscover these local cereals through beer and distribute them to as many people as possible in order to show that a good beer is not necessarily Belgian or German on the one hand and that it is not nor something to drink on a Parisian roof-top surrounded by sores. The terroir can be found in local and accessible beer and this collaboration intends to demonstrate it.

So that brings me to the second range, climate beers . These will be beers made in accordance with viticultural principles, combining a beer base and grapes from different appellations which will then be refined in ex-wine barrels from the estate. This range, aimed at a more informed public, will be an opportunity to overcome the barriers between wine and beer, to show that these two products can be combined according to infinite possibilities. It will of course also be an opportunity to make a lasting mark on the estate in the brewing world with beers designed for laying down like certain great wines.

To return to this famous partnership, the Armand Heitz estate is very proud of this collaboration and wants to be transparent from start to finish as to the development of it. The goal is as much to educate the consumer to drink local beers closer to the land as to give themselves the possibility of evolution and adjustment thanks to the productive apparatus of the brewery, its state of mind and its flexibility. . To the chagrin of many avid beer lovers, it is possible and sometimes necessary to use relatively large machines to produce quality and it would even be a shame to deprive yourself of them.

The theory according to which it is inevitably productive apparatuses which make live one or two people which end in the best products is fallacious and of a certain intellectual dishonesty. Indeed, beer lovers will be offended by the size of such a machine but will often go behind to consume beers from large breweries from America, England or elsewhere without even knowing it. I am referring here to the leaders of the craft beer movement; Cloudwater, Other Half, Omnipollo, Verdant and so many other breweries which certainly brew magnificent products but which nonetheless remain imposing machines at first sight.

In short, the idea of ​​this project is to produce an identifiable quality and in line with the values ​​of the estate, to appeal to beer and wine lovers or less regular consumers of these products, to bring everyone closer to a goal common: consume better in all aspects. Put all the joint expertise between the Armand Heitz estate and the Brasserie de France to meet these objectives and maintain the consistency that the estate has always sought: to produce optimal quality while remaining faithful to the overall natural and social consistency.

Armand Heitz beers can be found here and at the Cellier de Pommard .

Gregory White