12 January 2012

Lausanne my favourite game

I loved the little city of Lausanne, on the north shore of Lake Geneva. A haven of old-money genteelness it's like a clean version of Paris in miniature, built vertically into a mountain. Below the cathedral which towers above the town, but still a long way up from lake level, is Brasserie Du Château, a casual little brewpub which was quiet when we dropped in one afternoon for pizza and beers.

The range is quite impressive for such a small place: six regular beers and one seasonal. I went for their IPA first: it came from the cask but was exceedingly cold and a rather disturbing murky brown colour: the brewer could do with brushing up on the finer points of fining. And unfortunately there's a yeasty sourness in the flavour, but only slightly. Other than that it's very good: an assertive bitterness up front followed by peachy fruit flavours. Quite sessionable, all in all.

L-R: Rousse, Blonde, IPA
Most of the rest were nitrokegged. I reckon this took away a lot of the character in Rousse, a red-brown beer which offers a nice caramel and hops combo but is perhaps too smooth for its own good. I had expected Brune to be similar but it's more like a stout: dry with lots of roast plus a solid dose of chocolate. The fizzy Blonde was a relief after the nitro and packed lots of perfume and spice.

Skipping the Blanche and moving into the more esoteric end of the range, there's a permanent Ginger beer. It presents as headless and dark gold coloured and has very little beeriness about it. You could pass this off as Canada Dry quite easily. Its powers of refreshment can't be argued with, however. There was more ginger in the seasonal beer: Ginger and Green Tea, in fact. It wasn't particularly spicy though. Brown, light of body, tannic and refreshing say my notes.

Service was friendly, the food was excellent. Along with Brasserie Bavaria mentioned in the previous post, Brasserie Du Château is a must for the beer traveller in Lausanne.

8 comments:

  1. Beer Nut, you're blog headlines are getting worse (or are they better?) these days. Puntastic!

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  2. I'm just trying to out any closeted Cardigans fans...

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  3. Well, other bars with a decent beer range in central Lausanne include La Bossette, La Couronne d'Or and Le Pi Bar. And there's a beer shop too, by the name of La Mise en Bière, that has a decent range of beers from local micros.
    (Basically, man, next time you're over, drop me a line, I'll be glad to point you in the right direction. ;o)

    Regarding Brasserie du Château, indeed they brew everything sold on draught on the premises. But ther also are bottled versions, sold in a few other bars across Lausanne. The label clearly states that they're brewed by la Micro-Brasserie Le Lièvre, somewhere in the province of Québec, Canada. No problem per se with contracting them out, but the café owners selling them as "local beer" IMHO are stretching it a bit too far...

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  4. Thanks, I will.

    While you're there, has a date been set for the next EBCU meeting in the Netherlands?

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  5. Some time in April, but I'm not sure when exactly, as I stepped down after eight years as vice chair, which is IMHO more than enough. Besides I've got plenty to do shaking up France a bit these days... ;o)

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  6. Congratulations on your retirement!

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  7. Thanks !
    BTW it's in Leiden, 12-14th April 2012

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  8. Good to know, cheers!

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