We've just come out of Carnival, and for me, Carnival also means the pastries that go with it. Wonders, waffles, crêpes, beignets and more...

In recent years, a new type of beer has appeared, known as pastry beer.

What is a Pastry beer?

Pastry beers, or when beer rhymes with pastry. The idea is to create a rich, gourmet beer, often a little sweeter, that reminds us of a dessert.

Often thick, with ingredients easily found in a kitchen, such as fruit, bits of waffle, vanilla, chocolate, coconut or even the occasional spoonful of Nutella, pastry beers can remind us of the taste of a delicious dessert.

Where does Pastry come from?

We're not quite sure, but it seems to be the Scandinavian countries, and in particular a Swedish brewery called Omnipollo who first created these gourmet beers. A beer blogger, meanwhile, put the term "pastry" on this type of beer. Omnipollo is a highly reputed brewery in the craft world, which loves to innovate and has started putting some rather unusual things in its beers. These included marshmallows, blueberries and pretzels.

This type of beer first appeared in stouts, i.e. dark, well-roasted beers. Ingredients were added to soften the taste and give it a rich, original flavor. We call them pastry stouts.

What types of pastry are there?

These days, you can put "pastry" in front of any style of beer, but overall, two big families stand out: pastry stouts and pastry sours.

Pastry stouts

This is a dark beer, quite sweet, rich, almost syrupy. You can add anything to it: doughnuts, white chocolate, caramel, pretzels, pecans, brownies, and so on.

Pastry sours

Pastry sours are more acidic beers, often brewed with very large quantities of fruit. Sweet flavors are added to break up the acidity, such as cream, white chocolate, vanilla, yogurt and so on.

Beware of lactose intolerance: pastry beers frequently contain lactose.

Which breweries are best known for Pastry?

In Europe:

• Omnipollo - Stockholm, Sweden
• Brewski – Helsingborg, Sweden
• Fauve – Montpellier, France
• Verdant - Penryn, Cornwall, United Kingdom
• Vaut city – Edinburgh, Scotland
• Amundsen – Oslo, Norway
• Coolheadbrew – Helsinski, Finland
• Basqueland, Hermani, Spain

In Switzerland:

• WhiteFrontier, Martigny
• Brasserie des cinq 4000, Zinal
• BLZ company, Orvin
• Tingel Tangel, Zurich

Pastry from WhiteFrontier

 

We started with our Don’t be an adult, a rhubarb, redcurrant and blackberry sour we brewed in collab with Black Pig, here in our brewery. It sold out faster than it was brewed. In 1 month, we were already out of stock...

 

 

 

 Pour la deuxième, on en a brassé un peu plus pour ne pas se laisser surprendre.

La Péché Mignon, it's a raspberry and vanilla pastry sour. There's 30% raspberry purée in it and lots of vanilla. The lactose softens the acidity. When you dip your nose in it, it really smells like cheesecake with raspberry coulis. The fruit is very present, it's almost like a smoothie.

 

 

 

Then we brewed a pastry stout with chocolate and caramel. Honestly, it tastes like a caramel chocolate bar. Even if you're not a fan of this kind of beer, it's worth a taste. On the other hand, it's 11% alcohol.