Local craft beer: where to taste it at Christmas markets

A local craft beer is brewed in small quantities by an independent brewery from the market’s own region, from malt, hops and yeast. At Christmas markets it is drunk cold, by the glass or the cup, at the chalet of the local brewer or next to the mulled wine, and it goes home in the bag by the bottle when the producer runs the stall in person.

Where to drink local craft beer at a Christmas market

The north and east of France are the first territory. In Arras, the chalets serve craft beers from the Pas-de-Calais. Calais and Cambrai offer their beers from the north, Maubeuge those of the Avesnois, Verdun beers from the Meuse and Charleville-Mézières beers from the Ardennes. In the north, beer sits next to jenever, as in Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer. Further east and in the Paris region, it is drunk at the chalet next to the mulled wine: Charleville-Mézières, Verdun, Fontainebleau with its Gâtinais beer, Meaux with its own, Rueil-Malmaison with a beer brewed in the Hauts-de-Seine.

In Belgium, Bruges pours Brugse Zot, a beer from a family brewery based near the beguinage since 1856. It is served next to mulled wine with cinnamon and orange. Liège serves its local beers and Namur Walloon craft beers.

Two more distant addresses round off the map. Bastia puts Corsican beers on its stalls. In Arezzo, in Tuscany, the Tyrolean chalets serve craft beers with pretzels and pork knuckle.

Christmas beer or local beer: what the chalets actually serve

The beer sold at the market is first of all a beer from the area, made by a nearby brewery. It may be a Christmas beer, but it does not have to be. Christmas beer is a winter style: stronger, darker and maltier than the brewer’s usual brew. It used to be called October beer, because it was brewed in autumn with the year’s stocks of barley and hops. No recipe is registered, and spices are common in it: cinnamon, pepper, orange peel.

In the north, you will also come across bière de garde, a regional style revived by a brewery in Jenlain founded in 1922. One last point to avoid any confusion: the hot beer served at some German markets is a different drink, and belongs with the mulled wine.

Local craft beer in pictures