Region & History

Anyone who wants to know how beer was brewed in France, and how science transformed it, can't bypass Lorraine. The region in northeastern France has no protected designation of origin for beer. But up until the 20th century, it was home to hundreds of breweries, especially around Nancy.

It all began in monasteries, where communities of monks were already brewing in the Middle Ages. Later, towns and innkeepers took over the craft.

In Saint-Nicolas-de-Port near Nancy, a town brewery operated from 1786 to 1985. Today's building is a four-story Art Deco structure from 1931, designed by Fernand Caesar. The stained-glass windows were created by Jacques Gruber, an artist of the Nancy School. Today, the building houses the Musée Français de la Brasserie, which shows how beer is made.

The area also became famous through Tantonville. At the brewery of the Tourtel brothers, Louis Pasteur worked on his book "Études sur la bière," published in 1876 in Paris by Gauthier-Villars. The brewery was considered the leading one in France at the time.

The large brewery in Champigneulles was founded on June 20, 1897. For a long time, it was the most important site of the Société Européenne de Brasserie, which owned more than twenty breweries in France. In 1987, the group merged with Kronenbourg, and in 2006 Kronenbourg sold the site to Frankfurter Brauhaus of Frankfurt (Oder). Today it belongs to TCB Beverage. According to the brewery, capacity stands at four million hectoliters.