Demory Paris Intrépid IPA, Demory Paris Brewery, Bobigny, France
Date: Sept. 20 , 2018
The Story— L’Intrépid is Demory Paris’s beer, It has the advantage of being part way between the base of Montmarte and the city center and reasonably convenient to each. The beers are brewed outside the city, but we assume they’re pretty fresh when they reach this brewery tap. You wont’ find the mind bending beers that you will at La Robe & La Mousse, but with the exception of a grainy and worty pils, the beers were fine. If you like a chewy husky roast, for example, you can settle in for an evening with their schwarzbier, and their hefeweizen tasted more of Germany than most American attempts at the style. The winner of the night was the Intrépid IPA.
Ellie and I have a maxim about stouts and porters which we just note by its letters “IHTBABS” — “It’s Hard To Brew A Bad Stout”. The rich dark malts cover up a myriad of flaws. We’re pretty close to using IHTBABIPA in the same way. The copious amounts of hops can smother good flavors as well as flaws, though, so if it’s hard to brew a bad IPA, it’s not all that easy to brew a good one either. We thought the Intrépid IPA was well above average for the style. It had intense hop flavors, but just enough of a clean malt foundation to make it all work.
The Beer– Hops are there in profusion: metallic, herbal and citrusy flavors take front stage early and late. Grapefruit and Pineapples and include a zesty citrus bitter that build and lasts. A firm clean malt foundation keeps it from going off the rails.
Value — fair to good. Ten bucks for a half liter is steep, but more or less expected in Paris.
ALL THIS WEEK– HIGHLIGHTS OF EUROPE 2018– Surprisingly good beer in “bad beer cities.” Prizes and surprises that we’ve found in researching our next book – a guide to great beer in European tourist cities, which plan on publishing in 2019.
About these posts: We taste and evaluate over a thousand beers every year. The beers posted here rank in the top quarter of those tastings. Values: “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.