Nicolas Garcin and David Allesio, beer producers at Brasserie de Serre-Ponçon
Can you introduce yourself? What are the different jobs in your brewery?
Nicolas and David are the founders of Brasserie Artisanale de Serre-Ponçon. Initially a jack-of-all-trades, we evolved and joined forces with Thibon Vincent for technical and production matters, before becoming a more specialized team. Nicolas in management, David in marketing/communication, Vincent technical director, a sales representative, a secretary-accountant, as well as a production/quality manager, a pure production team and a delivery driver. Today there are around ten of us, not counting the Apex team.
How did you come up with the idea of opening a brewery in Serre-Ponçon?
For Nicolas, a restaurateur in the Queyras region, and David, a cabinetmaker in Gap, brewing is a story of reconversion! Both beer lovers, we decided to set up our brewery in Chorges in 2016, as much for its central location as for the quality of its water. The idea was also to offer beers that resembled us and that didn't exist in the Hautes-Alpes.
How is your beer made? How long does it take?
The first step is to extract the target fermenting sugars from the grain by boiling, at different temperatures, to produce the "beer wort", to which spices and hops are added for flavor. The wort is then boiled, for varying lengths of time, depending on how bitter the beer is to be. This "juice" is then put into a steamer for fermentation, allowing the yeasts to settle. Finally, it's bottled for further fermentation, allowing the beer to build up its bubbles. This process takes around two months.
Are your beers entirely local?
Our beers are all made locally.
Why did you name them that?
- Caturige (lager): named after the inhabitants of Chorges, the commune where the brewery is located;
- Glaci'ale (white beer): made with lemon verbena, this is a refreshing beer;
- Dure à cuire (amber beer): its name comes from its strength in alcohol but also from its very nature. In the beginning, this beer, which needs a lot of cooking, was cooked in a cauldron fuelled by a wood fire which required large flames and therefore a lot of work;
- La Culminante (lager): Its name comes from its main ingredient, genepi, a plant found high in our mountains;
- Green Bomb : With the Hulk on the label, this beer shows its power and strength in alcohol (9°Alc / Vol).
Do you have a little manufacturing secret to share?
Water: 85% of a beer depends on the quality of the water. To make our beers, we use water from our mountains, the Roche des Écrins.
The Moulettes spring, which flows into Lac de Serre-Ponçon at Baie des Moulettes (another name for Baie de Chanteloube), is tapped for bottling under the "La Roche des Ecrins" label at the Chorges plant, which produces 120 million bottles a year.
What are your flagship beers? Any new beers planned for 2023?
We made our name with Caturige (blonde), Dure à cuire (amber) and Glaciale (white), but our main range has expanded to include a beer with genepi liqueur, an IPA and a stout. In addition, we make a number of short-lived or seasonal beers: abbey beer, Lager, Brut. For this summer, we've just released a dry raspberry beer and a rounder blueberry beer, both made with organic ingredients.
You offer guided tours, so why open the doors of your brewery to visitors?
For several years now, we've been showing our brewery to groups, by reservation only.
This was spontaneous and more or less informal at first, but now we're able to offer a longer, richer visit ending at Apex where people can taste and/or buy our products. In addition to introducing visitors to our trade and products, this is also an opportunity to raise public awareness of the values we hold dear.
Where can we taste your beers?
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As mentioned earlier, l'Apex is the ideal place to find our boutique, our draught beers, as well as many complementary beers brewed on site, in the dining room or on the terrace, in a relaxed, family atmosphere!
We also have numerous customers throughout the department and have set up a web store for our more distant fans.
