Brewing Creativity: The Sauvage Brasserie’s Artistic Approach to Craft Beer

Bright colors, cans with pop labels, this is what immediately catches the eye when you enter the Sauvage brasserie in Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande (35). Created in 2021, the company is managed by Lucie Mary and Maxime Paisant. “We lived for 5 years in Montreal,” says the latter. “At the time, I was a geologist. I was looking for gold in the quarries. I was disgusted with the profession because of its ethical and ecological impact”. In Montreal, micro-breweries are legion and the beers extremely varied. The couple therefore began to take a closer interest in the manufacture of this ancestral drink. “We were already beer lovers, but we really got taste slaps when we discovered new products! “. After a month of training in a brewing institute, Maxime was immediately hired in a brewery. “I started as an auctioneer, then I became a brewer”. Lucie, meanwhile, was working as a project manager in events.

Room for imagination

Originally from Brittany, the two thirty-year-olds decide to return to their native region in March 2020 to launch their own adventure. Their objective is to have at least one blonde, one IPA and one acid beer in stock and to punctuate production with ephemeral cuvées. “We want to show that you can make the same beer several times, but above all that you can really have fun with the recipes,” they explain. Indeed, it is not the imagination that is lacking. A mirabelle plum ‘season’ made in collaboration with a Dinan brewery, a coffee ‘stout’, or even a hemp beer and another with elderberry. “We don’t have any rules,” smiles Lucie Mary. “This is what we wanted to transcribe with the name of our brewery”. Never short of ideas, the young couple is also in the process of aging 200 liters of one of their cuvées in an oak barrel that once contained wine.

You can really have fun with the recipes

A local reflection

Anxious to participate in a circular economy, Lucie and Maxime seek to work as much as possible with local actors. “The cereals we use are French”, announce the brewers. “We are currently in discussions with a malting farmer from Bretillien who could surely supply us 100% in the future”. For their different cuvées, the couple also used raspberries from Thorigné-Fouillard (35),
basil from Saint-Nazaire or roasted coffee in Domloup (35). For hops, even if a part comes from Alsace, the vast majority remains imported. “There are not enough French producers,” says Maxime Paisant. “In addition, some hops have AOCs and therefore cannot be grown everywhere.” Waste management is not left to chance either. Dregs, co-products of brewing, are regularly recovered by a farmer from Ille-et-Vilaine and used by his cows.

No glass, only cans

At the Brasserie Sauvage, there is no glass. All beers are packaged in cans. “We brought this from Canada,” the couple said. “The cans only have advantages. They are lighter, cool faster and take up less space.” Completely opaque, they also allow better preservation of drinks. Indeed, in contact with UV rays, hops and yeasts can deteriorate and
decrease the organoleptic qualities of the beer.