Hello! A friend of mine is currently in France and she agreed to bring me a bottle of beer. Which one in your opinion should I ask? Thanks!
Pelforth. And if for some reason you cant get it where you live, skip that and get Castelain instead.
Hi and thanks for the reply =) I usually tend to avoid listings as they usually include hard to find items... I was hoping for some personalized recommendations of beers readily available everywhere. I don't think my friend will spend her entire holidays searching for that hard to find beer I told her to buy me lol
Much as the UK/Ireland list is a limp interpretation of what American BAs think are the best UK/Irish beers based only on what gets imported to the States and is often in less than stellar condition when it arrives, I would imagine that the list you provided is not what the French would suggest. That said, OP should ask the French http://beeradvocate.com/community/forums/europe.20/
What jmw says above is probably correct; and as beer is not the most popular alcoholic beverage in France, bland macro lagers abound. Your friend will presumably go no further than a typical supermarket. Pietra (from Corsica) is a possibility, or perhaps Fischer. The suggestion of 3 Monts above is good, but I don't know how easy it is to find. Or you could just go macro and get Kronenbourg.... If you want to browse and get an idea of what's out there, have a look at http://www.saveur-biere.com/en/
Could be worth seeking out Mont des Cats. I'm not sure how widely available it is but I expect it will be distributed fairly widely, eventually. Brewed by Chimay, quite tasty, my memory was of being like a slightly more modern and hopped version of the red-top.
Fischer and Kronenbourg are both macros, with Kronenbourg actually less so (Fischer is Heineken, which closed the original brewery in 2009, and Kronenbourg is Carlsberg). Neither used to be hard to find in the US, but with the rise of craft there was simply not enough space on the shelves to carry them--they are overpriced and decent for macros, but not worth buying, let along bringing from Europe. It's like bringing Heineken from Holland. And if you're going to do that, I'd almost rather see French-brewed Killian's, but that's just me Note, however, that both are Alsatian beers and that's the area most likely to produce good stuff (used to go back between France and Germany), along with Northwestern territory, near Belgian borders (original Bourbon territories before French consolidation), that largely brews Saisons similar to Belgian. I would actually recommend finding a decent cider instead--those could be a lot more fun and are harder to find here, especially Saison-style brewed ones rather than the vinous ones.
Only Frenchies I've had are Belzebuth, 3 Monts Golden, Jenlain Blonde and Jenlain Ambree. Jenlain Blonde was my favorite of those, try that. The others were still good, but Belzebuth (13.0abv variety) was harsh as hell, even when it was a bit past its best buy date.
I just came back from 6 months in France (Fontainebleau), and was not impressed by beer (by wine yes, by beer no). Of all I drank, I enjoyed Cervoise Lancelot (http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2520/7469) from Bretagne. I also enjoyed different offerings from Meduz (http://www.meduz.fr/) from Languedoc. That said, you can easily find decent Belgian beer at the grocery store. For example, Carrefour (and Monoprix and InterMarche) carries Chimay (red, white, and blue) and Orval... I really like Orval. I understand that those are easily available in the US.
Agreed on the 3 monts, I was a big fan of both, but the amber was quite a bit better than the golden. Theillier La Bavaisienne Biere De Garde is also very awesome. I got a massive gusher on that bottle, but it was so good
