Breweries & Brewers in Paris

After Vietnam, I landed in Paris for a few days of exploration. My first stop was the Arc de Triomphe.

After that, I decided to walk down for a view of the Eiffel Tower to cement that "Yep, I am in France" feeling. While walking along Avenue Kléber I popped into Frog XVI. 

This is part of a chain that was in the first wave of craft beer in Paris. At this point they have a variety of locations in two styles:

1- The old style are large brewpubs with a sports bar vibe

2- The new style seem to be smaller burger & beer locations 

New style

I often stumbled across the new style pubs in tourist areas but didn't visit any of them.

Frog XVI had a friendly bartender who was happy to give me some small samples of the 6 brews they had on tap as well as a quick rundown on them. I think this was a benefit of visiting during the day. I doubt I'd have gotten such service on a busy night.

The beers were all fairly average but it made for a pleasant stop.

 A visit to the Eiffel Tower and a day of sightseeing followed interspersed with visits to beer spots:

Moustache Blanche

A La Biere Comme A La Biere

Cave a Bulles

Fine Mousse

Are all highly recommended, if you visit you'll have a great time.

Cave a Bulles

  

Moustache Blanche

A la Biere Comme A la Biere

Fine Mousse (bar)

The next day was Saturday so I headed out to visit the Deck & Donahue Brewery. When I got there I wasn't sure I was at the right place as it was a non-descript gray loading dock...

Deck & Donahue Brewery Entrance

At the brewery I met Mike Donahue who was on hand selling a selection of Deck & Donahue's beers. He was in the middle of handing out samples to customers but made time for us to chat about beer with him and other clients which was fun. It turns out he lived in Japan , Sapporo to be exact, for 5 years which was a funny coincidence to me. It is kind of amazing how many ex-Japan expats you find brewing beer around the world.

Seeing that many people were curious about how their beers were made he gave us a short brewery tour. He was a really friendly guy who often gave freebies to people stocking up on boxes of beer. The prices were great too with beers discounted for bulk buys - ex: 3 euros for one, 3 for 8 and 6 for 15 on 330ml. 

Mike giving a short tour

They've got a really solid range of beers, all tasted/smelled from good to great. Nothing really wowed me but for a brewery that is just a year old I think they’re doing really well and I expect they’ll wow me next time I'm around. All in all, it was a terrific brewery visit. I’m happy I made it out here.

growler station

Paname Brewing

I visited here after going to the really fun Trois 8/Demory Biergarten at the Marche de L'Ouen Flea Market. It was a nice walk through the less touristy parts of Paris that ended at a beautiful canal.

Paname Brewing has a beautiful canal side location with a great outdoor terrace from which to admire the zip line over the canal and other water madness. 

Friendly staff, no tasters but they were happy to hand out tiny samples of the 4 house beers currently on tap. Fantastic ambiance/location, good service but average beers. Great place to pass the time on a sunny Sunday on the terrace though... Most of this score is based on location/ambiance.