La Brasserie d’Ouchy: Creators of Exceptional Beers

With summer in full swing—the perfect time to enjoy some beer—we’re continuing our tour of French-speaking Switzerland to discover craft breweries. Today, we’re in Ouchy—located south of Lausanne on the shores of Lake Geneva—where we meet Anthony, founder of the Ouchy Brewery. Here’s a look back at this adventure through a few questions, covering his motivations, his analysis of the field, 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 about twenty years ago using whatever was available at the time—namely, a 20-liter kit with malt extract that, so to speak, had virtually no chance of producing even a halfway decent beer. That put me off for about fifteen years.

In late 2014, during a trip to the United States, I discovered a concept that was relatively new at the time: the « All-grain small batch brewing«, meaning five-liter batches brewed more or less like in a real brewery, using grain. This allows you to try every possible variation and hone your skills. So that’s how I got started. It quickly became an all-consuming passion, especially since this time the results were immediately much better, and I understood what was happening.

After maybe five small batches, I quickly started getting requests and scaled up to twenty liters. That struck a good balance between being able to produce larger quantities and continuing to try out new recipes very often.

After that, production remained steady for a few months for a store that wanted organic beer. I was one of the few who was willing to supply it. However, because this customer was having increasing difficulty making payments, our partnership came to an end. I found other customers for the same volume, which allowed me to continue producing on a smaller scale while still experimenting.

On your site, you indicate: «At the Brasserie d’Ouchy, we’ve chosen to take craftsmanship even further by offering beers that are entirely handcrafted in small batches, ensuring an exceptional product with no compromises—whether in the selection and quality of ingredients, the brewing method, or the originality of the flavor.»

There is no real connection between the amount of beer a brewery produces and its «craft» status. Breweries like Whitefrontier, BFM, Gab’s, and Nébuleuse produce several thousand liters per batch and remain entirely artisanal in terms of quality, creativity, taste, philosophy, and respect for the customer. Conversely, just because a brewery produces small quantities doesn’t necessarily mean it makes good beer; even in the purest craft beer sector (a few hundred liters per batch), there’s a mixed bag—that is, some good and some 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 what beers I brew and to keep experimenting with every batch to improve; I know that without this constant experimentation, I’d quickly give up. The organic aspect came about somewhat by chance due to the request from the customer I mentioned earlier, and once our collaboration ended, the habit stuck. I also try to give some of my labels a slightly punk and «do-it-yourself» vibe. That fits my personality. It’s something you see in the mindset of a lot of people in the community.

At first, I wanted to «reinvent the wheel» a bit and brew only obscure styles, use unusual ingredients, and—above all—avoid brewing classic styles. Over time, I realized that people still essentially want to drink beers that are relatively easy to drink, which, in the craft beer world, mostly translates to Pale Ales and India Pale Ales. As a result, I’ve increasingly gravitated toward brewing these styles, but that’s by no means a source of frustration in terms of creativity, because there’s something even more interesting about the challenge of executing these most common styles to perfection.

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, based on our experience, people are mostly 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 clients through the website, which they discover on their own.

Write to the author: [email protected]