Enter La Dragonne
This Swiss brew will change your mind about warm beer
The Swiss know something about dealing with cold weather. Take a page from their book and try Brasserie des Franches-Montagnes' La Dragonne, a spiced winter ale from the Jura Mountains that's meant to be drunk hot.
This après-ski beer is fermented and flavored with honey, cinnamon, anise, orange peel, cardamom and juniper before bottling. At room temperature, the uncarbonated, unfiltered black-brown brew is flat and slightly bitter. But when warmed to 110 to 120°F (in a double boiler or microwave), rich cocoa notes come through, along with the heady, wintry spices.
It brings to mind old-fashioned, hot beer-based concoctions, like wassail, a standard at European and American taverns well into the 19th century. Today we're more familiar with the idea of hot cider and mulled wine--but La Dragonne makes for a more complex, deeply flavored hot booze experience.
Koren Grievson of Avec thinks of it as a beer hot toddy. Kyle McHugh at Drinks Over Dearborn is its biggest fan this side of the Atlantic: "It's chocolaty, spicy and warm, and your soul feels better for having it."
A shipment of La Dragonne arrives at Drinks Over Dearborn this week; find it in the back of the store, in McHugh's "Rare and Luxurious" room ($20 for a 750ml bottle).
