On my latest visit to the Charente, where my brother and his family have lived for over 30 years, he greeted me with the welcome news that there is a new craft brewery and tap in Angoulême, the nearest large town.
La Débauche is in a small industrial unit not far from the railway station, in fact almost overlooking the tracks. We didn't investigate the brewing plant, though there were several shiny tanks that were easy to admire as we approached the entrance to the tap room. This was very like an English brewery's tap room, though perhaps larger and a little bit more stylish than most, with several tables and a number of chairs of various heights. The bar is on the back wall, with numerous taps protruding from the backboard. On offer is a "flight" (they have borrowed the English word) of four small glasses for €7 (that's about €14 per litre, or about £4 per half pint).
I didn't enquire what the regular price for a draught beer would be, as we were here to try the beers and take some bottles back with us. (My brother had to drive, and some of these beers were seriously strong.) On some shelves beside the bar are some bottles, with maybe 20 different beers, all from La Débauche. (The name has a local meaning:
en bauche in Charentais dialect means "at work", so I suppose
débauche would be "at leisure"; obviously the overtones from its regular association with debauchery are not accidental.)
Beers that we tried were Never More, a 9.5% imperial stout (the name is a reference to
Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven); Cognac Barrel, also 9.5% - does what it says; Biere d'Hiver 7% - not as crudely spiced as English seasonal beers; and Lindy Hop 5.5%, a light refreshing beer named after a dance craze from the 1930s. All four were in good condition and neither excessively gassy nor ridiculously cold, which to me indicates a confidence in the taste of their beers. Which turned out to be justified.
Bottles that we took out: in addition to the first three named above, we went for IPA 6% and Pimp My IPA 11%; Save Your Skin also 11%; Menestho 5.5%; Double Belge 7%; Big Boy Chilli Imperial Stout 12%; India Stout Black Ale 8.5%; and the elegantly named Slap a Banker 12%. The bottle labels are all individual works by different artists - at least, that's what I can remember my brother telling me, but that was after I'd had two or three of these beers on top of a Chimay Grande Reserve 9% and several glasses of wine, so I may have got it wrong. The bottled beers that I have had so far (I brought four home with me and haven't touched them yet) were almost all as good as the draft beer samples. Never More in bottle lacked condition and tasted too much of treacle rather than chocolate; Double Belge was unimpressive; Slap a Banker was as enjoyable as the design on the label.