Damien Simonnet and his partner Thalassa have set up their microbrewery in the heart of the village of Mur-de-Barrez, in a former butcher's shop. You can enjoy original beers as well as inventive cuisine, rich in colors and flavors.
For several years now, craft beers have been on the rise. And the Aveyron department is not the last to get lathered… Since June 2023, Damien Simonnet and his partner Thalassa Sinka, who makes jewelry, have set up their microbrewery in a former butcher's shop on the village's Grand'Rue of Mur-de-Barrez, in the heart of Carladez. “I work on small volumes, immediately warns the thirty-year-old, and that has nothing to do with those who brew constantly.”
The former social worker turned artisan brewer
Originally from the Paris region, now aged 38, Damien Simonnet worked for a long time in the medical-social sector before deciding to change scenery with his partner and head to Aveyron and Carladez, where the couple moved in three years ago, after an opportunity presented itself. “When we settled in, I remembered that I had taken my first school trip, not far from here, to Chaudes-Aigues”, smiles the former social worker turned artisan brewer. He has been interested in beer for a long time. From his youth, in fact, after discovering English beers. “I started brewing for fun and to please friends, around fifteen years ago, says Damien. Recently, we had set up a collective brasserie, in an alternative location in the Paris region.”
According to the seasons
The Barrez brewery generally brews twice a month. In small quantities. Three hundred liters for each beverage. Original beers, with character, to drink on-site on tap. The opportunity to discover new and multiple flavors such as these blonde apricot elderberry, chanterelle redcurrant, or this American amber with chestnut honey and wild pepper from Bhutan. Damien also produces wild beers, with indigenous yeasts captured and cultivated in the Carladez region. These increasingly trendy beers, for which the brewer incorporates different fruits and spices depending on the seasons, are aged in oak barrels or old Scottish whiskey barrels, before being put in bottles, some of which will travel up to 'in Sweden.
Also called live beers, wild beers are beers created with wild yeasts and/or aged in barrels. Acidic or sour, they are similar to wine and cider, and are “resolutely iconoclastic”. The idea of a wild beer is that the brewer does not control everything that will happen, unlike a recipe which involves a yeast in isolation. “pure”. This way, no two batches of bottles will be the same. Given the much longer and more complex manufacturing process and time, wild beer is understandably more expensive than classic craft beer. Once a year, the Barrez brewery also produces a harvest beer with fresh hops. Some of the cereals are malted on site and Damien also grows old varieties of hops. “I'm quite happy because I'm starting to do what I really wanted, rejoices the neo-Barrézian. What I like about beer is that it’s between cooking and biology.”
Small homemade dishes
Brewer, Damien is also a cook on his own time and almost at any time of the day to satisfy customers. Every day, according to his inspiration, he concocts delicious little dishes. Unpretentious, but prepared with great taste(s). An inventive cuisine, rich in colors and flavors, like its autumnal chicken and mushroom bouriol, with freshly picked chanterelles and death trumpets. And what about its pear poached in white wine, garnished with Roquefort mascarpone cream, draped with crispy country ham, on a beet carpaccio with sprouted radish seeds… “I like cooking and I try to cook for others as I would like someone to cook for me, with as many local products as possible”, sums up the young man, who demonstrates great culinary creativity. Because above all he wants to multiply and vary the little pleasures by favoring conviviality and meetings, Damien has set up a small reading and board games corner, as well as a music area where you can listen to good old vinyls, while enjoying a beer. He also plans to launch a literary café. The possibility of judging whether, as a proverb says, “A cold beer is worth more than a thousand words”…
Brasserie du Barrez, 15 Grand'Rue, 12600 Mur-de-Barrez. [email protected]. Damien is looking for oak barrels.
