La Brasserie d'Ouchy: creators of exceptional beers

In this summertime, which lends itself wonderfully to beer tasting, we continue our tour of Romandie, discovering artisanal breweries. Today, it's in Ouchy, just south of Lausanne, on the shores of Lake Geneva, that we meet Anthony, founder of the Brasserie d'Ouchy. Here's a look back at his adventure, his motivations, his analysis of the environment and his plans for the future.

Le Regard LibreHow and when did the initial project for your brewery come about?

I brewed for the first time some twenty years ago with what was available at the time, i.e. a twenty-liter kit with malt extract that had, so to speak, no chance of producing a halfway decent beer. That put me off for another fifteen years or so.

At the end of 2014, during a trip to the United States, I discovered a relatively new concept at the time, the: “All-grain small batch brewing“These are five-liter brews brewed more or less like in a real brewery, with grain. This means you can make all sorts of variations and perfect your skills. So that's how I started. It quickly became an all-consuming passion, especially as this time the results were immediately much better, and I understood what was going on.

After maybe five small brews, I soon had requests and went up to twenty liters. This was a good balance between being able to supply more interesting quantities and continuing to try out new recipes very often.

After that, production was regular for a few months for a store that wanted organic beer. I was one of the only people willing to offer it. However, due to increasingly difficult payments from this customer, our collaboration ceased. I found others for the same quantity, which enabled me to continue a reduced production, while allowing me to continue experimenting.

On your site, you indicate: «At Brasserie d'Ouchy, we have chosen to take craftsmanship one step further by offering beers made entirely by hand in small batches, to guarantee an exceptional product with no concessions whatsoever, whether in the choice and quality of ingredients, the brewing method or the originality of taste.»

There's no real link between the quantity of beer produced by a brewery and its “craft” credentials. Breweries like Whitefrontier, BFM, Gab's or Nébuleuse produce several thousand liters per brew and remain totally artisanal in terms of quality, creativity, taste, state of mind and respect for the customer. On the other hand, just because you brew small quantities doesn't necessarily mean you're making good beer. In fact, pure craft (a few hundred liters per brew) means there's something to eat and drink, i.e. the good and the not-so-good, and above all a lot of inconsistency, which is also part of the charm.

Personally, I've always made it a rule not to let customers dictate my beers, and to keep experimenting with each brew in order to progress; I know that without this constant experimentation, I'd soon give up. The organic aspect came about a little by chance, due to the request of the customer mentioned above, and once our collaboration was over, the habit stuck. I also try to give a bit of a punk, do-it-yourself feel to some of my labels. It suits my personality. It's something you find in the mindset of a lot of people in the community.

There was an initial period when I wanted to “reinvent warm water” and only brew styles that weren't widely used, use unusual ingredients and definitely not brew the classic styles. Over time, I've come to realize that people want to drink beers that are relatively easy to drink, which in craft beer means Pale Ale and India Pale Ale for the most part. As a result, I'm more and more inclined to brew these styles, but that's by no means a source of frustration in terms of creativity, because there's something even more interesting in the challenge of executing these most common styles perfectly.

Customers can therefore choose its beer from A to Z?

Customers can indeed order a customized beer, both in terms of the beer itself and the label design. That said, once again, experience has shown that people are mainly looking for beers that are easy to drink and not too extreme.

What are your ambitions for the coming years?

My goal remains relatively humble: to go from a few dozen liters a month to a few hundred, but no more, because I want to keep experimenting with new things with each brew for a few more years to keep progressing.

What is your strategy for reaching new customers? Word of mouth? Advertising?

So far, I've mainly found my customers through the website, which they discover spontaneously.

Write to the author: nicolas.jutzet@lereregardlibre.com