In Beurville, a few kilometers from the Aube border, Aurélie Caquas launched the Burris’ brasserie almost to the day two years ago. Its know-how has already caught the eye of the jury at the Salon de l’Agriculture. Its raspberry beer received a gold medal there. Encounter.
“Gold medalist in the general product competition, category ”beer with red fruits”. Congratulation ! “. When Aurélie Caquas opened her mailbox the day after her return from Agricultural centre, in Paris, she first thought it was a joke. She, who had looked at the results of the competition the day before, had not seen her raspberry beer appear among the 2023 winners.
The honors, the light, it’s not for her anyway, she believes in a more general way, between modesty and lack of confidence. It’s that the manager of the brasserie Burris’ just hadn’t looked…in the right box. “It’s quite a surprise,” she says. “I had committed two of my beers, the amber and the raspberry and, to tell the truth, I bet a little more on the amber. »
Launched two years ago, almost to the day, the Burris’ brewery will therefore not have been slow to get noticed. Installed in a 150 m2 room, completely refurbished during the Covid, Aurélie Caquas leads her boat. His discretion does not diminish his audacity. She, who studied cultural mediation, with a view to working on the organization of festivals, made a 360° turn to take over the family farm.
Diversification to find balance
“I took over from my dad by default. Nothing predisposed me to it. I went back to school to get an agricultural baccalaureate and first teamed up with my father before he retired. He continues to help me,” she says. The farm combines cereals and livestock. “We count 130 to 140 animals, Charolais. It’s a big job,” she continues.
But to find balance, Aurélie Caquas has chosen, like many of her colleagues, to diversify the activity. “As we grow barley, I thought we could make better use of it, from its production to its processing,” she recalls. And this is how, with a beating drum, she began the transformation of the premises, a family heritage, to give birth to the Burris’ brewery, a nod to the old name of the village “Burrisvilla”.
“Here was my grandfather’s farm, on the maternal side. The unoccupied house, adjoining what has become the brewery, was the house of Grandma Claire, my maternal great-grandmother, to whom I often came. I am attached to these places and proud to work there”.
A slow infusion of raspberries
His first brew was memorable. Twelve hours of work and an Aurélie Caquas soaked from head to toe, for lack of having taken care to close the floodgates. Learning the trade, in short. In any case, we were far from imagining a gold medal beer in Paris.
Aurélie Caquas is not the type to give up. And the very clear ideas, it even accelerates the pace in terms of creativity. If the barley is malted at the IFBM (French Institute for Beverages, Brewery and Malting), near Nancy, it is then in Beurville that everything happens. “To make a beer, it takes about a month and a half,” she notes.
White, triple, amber beer, so far, nothing new. “But I wanted to test the flavored beers, with fruit”. This is where the raspberry beer comes in. “Not the one you buy in the supermarket, very sweet,” she cuts off. Aurélie Caquas chooses the natural. No syrup, but a slow infusion of real raspberries. “I also tried the cherry beer. I had the misfortune to announce it on social networks before its release. But it is just undrinkable! she laughs. There will be no bottling. “I have to rework the whole recipe”.
Even a pumpkin beer
On the other hand, the manager was not mistaken in developing her barbecue beer. A mixture of smoked malt, oregano and Provencal herbs, it is not yet completely to his liking but the result is satisfactory. Ditto for the one with… pumpkin, made for Halloween. “That’s also what I like: inventing recipes, testing, tasting and offering slightly different products,” she confides.
No risk taking, Aurélie Caquas limits her brew to 30 litres. Its “exotic” beers are seasonal, ephemeral. “But in general, beer is all year round: on Valentine’s Day, Saint Patrick’s Day, at farmers’ markets or even at Witches’ or Beer Festival,” she continues. .
Today, Aurélie Caquas produces 80 hectoliters a year. Insufficient to get a real salary. It should reach 130 hectoliters to do well, a goal she has set for the coming year. The valuable showcase offered to his company at the Salon de l’Agriculture should help him achieve it. Getting known in rural areas is not always easy. In Paris, Aurélie Caquas met visitors from Haute-Marne, 7 km from her brewery, who were unaware of its existence. Good brands are not always as far from home as you think.
Delphine Catalifaud
d.catalifaud@jhm.fr
