10 breweries to visit in Alsace

Visit of the Uberach brewery

I discovered Uberach beers quite soon after arriving in Alsace and liked them right away. So why not go and discover the secrets of their manufacture? Brasserie Uberach is located in Val-de-Moder, near Pfaffenhoffen and not far from Haguenau, in northern Alsace.

Discovering how beer is made

The visit of the Uberach brewery lasts 1h15 (tasting included) and allows to discover the process of beer making. We discover the raw materials used to make beer and the different stages of production by entering the brewery with an employee of the company.

Visits are always made by one of the Uberach employees, who take turns to make them. This has a double advantage. On the one hand, you have in front of you someone who masters his subject perfectly and can thus offer a really interesting visit. On the other hand, you don’t have a guide who might eventually get bored of doing tours every day. It’s a good idea to do this! I really liked my guide for the day, who was really passionate about his subject and willing to answer any questions asked.

Visits are at a fixed time and day in the summer, otherwise you have to make an appointment. Call ahead because if there are only two of you, for example, they will try to put you with an existing group. The brewery does its best to accommodate everyone, even individual visitors, but it’s best to make arrangements in advance to help them get there!

Uberach beer tasting and store

After the visit, it’s time for a tasting in the bar of the Uberach brewery, a very pleasant place. Obviously, it is advisable to taste with moderation, especially since you will certainly have come here by car… But you can also easily leave with a good small stock, the store offers of course the whole range of beers of the brewery (note, there are several organic beers). There’s no obligation to buy, but it would be a shame not to bring back a few, right?

My photos of the visit of the Uberach brewery

Visit of the Storig brewery in Schiltigheim

This visit was tested by Léa – I took part in a visit to Storig, a producer of craft beers based in the Michel Dubus brewery in Schiltigheim.

Each year, 2000 people discover the manufacturing process and taste beers directly from the fermentation tanks. These visits, organized from two people, last 1 to 3 hours by making an appointment directly. Laurent Caillard, production manager, took care of showing us around the Storig brewery.

It was born in 2005 in the heart of the former Kohler-Rehm restaurant, which was located on Place Kléber in Strasbourg. Due to lack of space, it moved to Schiltigheim and then to the premises of the Michel Dubus brewery in 2015. The idea was simple: to produce craft beers of character but with a low alcohol content and to allow the restaurant’s customers to taste them. In terms of short circuit, we can hardly do better 🙂

The different stages of brewing

The Storig brewery produces 1000 hectoliters per year of blonde, amber and white beers, as well as a seasonal beer. When we visited in March, it was spring beer. But first things first! After having shown us the malt and the hops in their different forms (dried, crushed…), Laurent Caillard presents us the different steps of the brewing. First the malt and water are mixed and the starch is transformed into natural sugar in a first vat. Then the filtration of the solid and liquid parts thus obtained in a second tank.

“The brew then goes into a boiling tank and that’s where we add 2 to 3 types of hops, the spice in the beer that gives it character. In our white beer, we also add coriander and bitter orange peel.” The beer then goes into a fermentation tank, where natural yeasts are added, and it will remain there for a minimum of 21 days. That is to say the minimum time for the fermentation of beers of guard, the alcohol rate in less.

A tasting of Storig beers

Laurent Caillard then proposes to taste the Roukine, their very light and floral white beer, directly from the fermentation tank. We also discover the equipment to wash and sterilize the barrels: the brewery sells them to individuals with the necessary equipment to draw the beer.

The company offers its beers in beautiful bottles made by an Italian glass factory. They only exist in 50cl format for the moment, the brewery wanting to invest in a bottling line for other volumes. The visit ends with the laboratory, where the beers are checked every day.

Lunch at the Michel Debus brasserie

We then had lunch at the Michel Debus brewery, and not just for the beer. The restaurant offers a nice menu of homemade dishes, including wood-fired grills, their specialty. Being a vegetarian, I opted for the risotto, which was delicious, accompanied by La Bavarde, the amber beer from Storig. This one was indeed light but fragrant, which is appreciable when you like beers with character but their often high alcohol content is holding you back.

My friend tried the cheese spaetzle, a local specialty, which she really enjoyed… But took half of it in a doggy bag because the portion was so generous. In the end, it was an exciting visit. I would come back as much to have lunch at the Michel Dubus brewery as to buy Storig beers.

My photos of the Storig Brewery / Michel Debus

Thanks to my friend Mathilde Tournier for her beautiful pictures!

Visit of the Villa Meteor in Hochfelden

Villa Meteor is a museum dedicated to the Meteor brewery, France’s oldest brewery still in operation and the only industrial brewery still independent and family-run. Located in Hochfelden, it allows visitors to discover the history of the brand, the stages in beer production and to taste a wide range of products. However, we don’t actually visit the brewery itself – it’s more of a museum than a real brewery tour, although it’s still interesting. Read our article on visiting Villa Meteor for more information.

Other Alsatian breweries to visit

We haven’t necessarily visited them, but we know them and enjoy their beers, so here are some other Alsatian microbreweries offering tours we can recommend:

• Bra’V, the vineyard brewery in Riquewihr
• Brasserie du Pays Welche (which you can visit at the same time as the Musée des Eaux de Vie in Lapoutroie)
• Brasserie Bisaigüe in Kaysersberg (from 5 people)
• Brasserie Perle in Strasbourg
• Brasserie de Munster (Taal) at Wihr-au-Val in the Munster Valley
• Brasserie La Saint-Pierre in Saint-Pierre
• Les Brasseurs du Ried in Muttersholz

Brewery tours in Alsace