The Fir Mandrin is our winter beer. Don’t be afraid of its thorns, it is sweet, almost sugary. When you taste it, you feel the freshness of the Fir tree followed by a sensation of heat due to the 8% of alcohol. It is doubtless a winter beer. The birth of the Fir Mandrin " My first tasting of the "sapinette" (bourgeons d’épicéa macérés dans de l’alcool et du sucre) has given me this idea of Fir Beer. It’s a sunday, during a familal walk in "Chartreuse", that I collected the first fir and "epicea" forns.The attemps were conclusives : I forgot the "épicéa", it was the Fir Tree wich has to be chosen for the new Mandrin beer. My choice concerning the malts was completed by a special sort of aromatic hops and then by fir thorns from the Vercors and the Chartreuse. The drying was insufficient the first year and the beer was acidic, the beer was loved by some people, displeasing to others. In 2004, we drew conclusions from the last production, it led us to create a sweet and balanced beer. As for the 2005-2006 production, it is almost perfect !"
