BY JOHN LICHFIELD
In Joué-du-Bois, Orne
The second biggest brewery in Normandy is in a converted barn, beside a pretty stream, at the end of a bumpy track. Here, deep in cider country is "Le Brewery", an attempt to wean the French - starting with the Normans - off fizzy cold, pasteurised beer and introduce them to the subtler pleasures of flat, not-too-cold, living, real ale, in the British tradition.
A lost cause? Apparently not. Since Steve and Jane Skews began brewing two kinds of bitter - light and dark - a couple of months ago, they have been inundated with orders and inquiries from bars and supermarkets in lower Normandy. An open weekend last month was a great success, attracting 1,400 people - mostly French but some thirsty expatriates - in two days.
"The French were a little suspicious at first, because they are used to what I call 'boy's beer', cold and carbonated," said Mr Skews, 50. "But they gave it a go and now local people are staggering back for repeat orders and we're talking to several local bars about ways of putting real ale on tap."
Although more than a score of British pubs in France' brew their own beer, Mr and Mrs Skews think they have started the first brewery in France to make and distribute British-style real ale. Most pub-breweries in France use powdered yeast. Le Brewery uses live yeast and the best hops and malt, imported from Britain. The equipment - a "10-barrel brew plant", capable of making more than 10,000 pints a week - was bought from a closed brewery in Hampshire.
"It all arrived on an articulated lorry in January but the truck couldn't get up our lane so it had to be unloaded a couple of miles away," Mr Skews said. "Our farmer neighbours brought it here in a convoy of tractors. Even the mayor turned out with his tractor and muck-spreader which, unfortunately, he had not cleaned first. The support we've had from the local community has been fantastic."
Most beer in France is brewed in the east and the north. The Skewses have the only commercial brewery in the departement of the Orne and one of only two in the whole of Normandy. With the help of a York-based brewery consultant, David Smith, who has helped to set up 60 micro-breweries in Britain in recent years, the couple have created two sorts of beer, based on British tradition but aimed at French tastes and drinking habits.
One is a very blond, deliciously tangy, bitter called "Norman Gold", which is roughly the same colour as the carbonated beer the French are used to. The other is a darker bitter, which looks and tastes something like Newcastle Brown Ale, called "Le Conquerant" after William the Conqueror.
Both are excellent beers which would grace any English pub, with one difference: they are substantially stronger than normal on-tap British beers.
"The French are used to strong beers, "Mr Skews explained. "The stuff they drink normally, in the bar or from the supermarket, is 4.7 per cent alcohol, compared with 3.8% per cent for draught beer in Britain, We've made our beer at or just above the French level "But you have to remember that drinking habits here are quite different. The French will make a glass of beer last for an hour or two hours." It would not be advisable, Mr Skews said, to knock back two or three pints of his Norman bitter in the British way. "If there is a demand for something closer in strength to British beer, we could make that too."
It was an ill-wind that created Le Brewery. Mr and Mrs Skews were teachers from Peterborough and Leicester who moved to France nearly seven years ago to set up a business making doll's houses. They also made cider and perry from the 120 apple and pear trees on the land they bought near La Ferté Macé in lower Normandy. The great gale of Christmas 1999, which cut a swath across France from Brittany to the German border, destroyed two-thirds of their apple and pear trees, including all the most productive ones.
"We needed something else to do," Mr Skews said. "I had worked in small breweries in Britain We decided that the French deserved to try real British beer. The supermarkets already had a range of foreign beers, but nothing like real ale."
With the help of a large investment from Jane's sister and brother-in-law, Sue and Steve Green from Wickwar in Gloucestershire, and an interest-free business start-up loan from the departement of the Orne, the Skewses were ready to start brewing this spring. But alas, Mr Skews recalled: "Just at that moment the foot-and-mouth outbreak began in Britain and the first cases in France (spread from imported British sheep) occurred just over the border in the next departement. We decided that it was not a good idea to be waving the Union flag around. You know 'You've caught the disease. Now try the beer.' So we delayed everything until the summer."
They had expected a slow start but have been overwhelmed with orders and inquiries. A score of local bars are keen to sell real ale on tap. They do not have the deep cellars built into British pubs to keep live, still-fermenting (as opposed to pasteurised and dead) beer in good condition. The Skewses and David Smith are exploring ways of providing cooling equipment and a complete after-sales service.
"We're not going to replace French beer. For most French people, beer is always going to be cold and fizzy," said Mrs Skews 41. "But, fingers crossed, it seems there is a market for something more authentic and exotic."
Expatriate Steve Skews shows off his real ales: the light 'Norman Gold' and Newcastle Brown-ish 'Le Conqerant'
MYCHELE DANIAU