Sainte Foy Tarentaise : Saturday 11 July 2020
What a fantastic idea! and what a fabulous response from saisonniers, locals and holidaymakers alike!
The Hatton family pulled a veritable rabbit out of the hat with Sainte Foy’s first beer festival. This was an event for craft beer aficionados, beer lovers in general, and anyone who just likes a good social day out!
Craft beer is very much in vogue in France at the moment. Forget the mass-produced beer with all their preservatives and fancy advertising, this was a showcase event for four ‘brasseries’, breweries all producing their beer in the Tarentaise valley.
Steve Hatton, owner of 1580m, is fanatical about the brewing process, the purity and quality of his product, and of course – the taste of a great beer! There has been eager anticipation, (and a daily countdown in my diary), for his latest creation, a dark stout.
Named after one of Sainte Foy’s challenging black runs, Crystal Dark, this beer lived up to all expectations. It’s a delicious blend of fruitiness and hops, with hints of coffee, and is slightly sweeter and less bitter than more well known stouts.
The 1580m Bar Restaurant has its own in house pico-brewery allowing them to craft speciality beers in small batches using top quality international ingredients. They invited three local breweries (see below) to join them in showcasing their beers, and sales were brisk. (Apologies for not having a photo of the bar set up, but every time I went to take a photo, there were too many people in the way!)
The Sapaudia Brewing Company is an innovative microbrewery situated in Aime in the heart of the French Alps. When they couldn’t find a decent beer, that wasn’t mass-produced, fizzy, and full of additives, they built their own brewery.
There must have been something in the air, because all these breweries set up independently of each other at around the same time!
The Brasserie du Petit St Bernard is based in Bourg Saint Maurice, they brew beers to capture the beauty and flavours of the Alps. They recently opened a tap room where you can sample their range of small batch, hand-crafted beers or purchase bottles to take away.
The Mt Houblon Nano Brewery brew their beer on site in the cave under the bar at Le Petit Hibou in Peisey-Nancroix, (the other side of Mont Pourri from Sainte Foy). They produce hop heavy IPAs and milk oatmeal porter.
With all these fabulous beers on offer, all we needed was a nice sunny day, a terrace with spectacular views of Mont Pourri and the Tarentaise Valley, some live jazz music in the background, and the 1580m kitchen providing a quality range of ‘beer festival’ meals throughout the day. But guess what? We had all that too!
It was a great day, leaving everyone very keen for a follow up event!
Read other articles about Sainte Foy on the Time to Ski blog page
