Brasserie Popihn from France

France's Finest: Popihn is one of the top addresses in terms of beer in France! Not only in terms of styles like NEIPAs or Hazy DIPAs, but also in terms of Fruit Sour, Stout and Porter or barrel aging. The brewery, located southeast of Paris, impresses with its uncompromising dedication to quality and taste!

Happiness lies in the countryside

Arnaud Popihn knows exactly what he wants. Since 2017, the brewery's founder has been consistently pursuing his chosen path. On a farm in rural Burgundy, he brews not only the beer but also his own grain, thus producing his own brewing malt. There, in the Vaumont region, which is actually better known for its heavy red wines, Arnaud established one of the leading craft beer breweries in France together with his head brewer Gunther Oltra.

Arnaud and Gunther already know each other from Paris. Gunther is passionate about homebrewing and worked in other beer ventures before Popihn. For Popihn, he even left his beloved Paris and moved to Vaumont. Because he didn't want to miss the chance to realize his idea. True dedication.

For the love of beer, not for the sake of hype

Today, Popihn is best known for its variants of Pale Ales, IPAs or Double IPAs. But it wasn't always that way. According to Head Brewer Oltra, in the beginning Popihn brewed the styles he liked to bring to people. Today, the situation is different: people expect mostly IPAs from Popihn precisely because the style has become so popular.

However, Arnaud and Gunther are only partially driven by this. They don't put much stock in hyped hop varieties or brew only NEIPAs. They still brew what they feel like brewing. Oltra, for example, has a big soft spot for Belgium's beer tradition - which is why Popihn has been working for some time to launch a lineup of wild ales, saisons, and barrel-aged sour ales. The brewery has purchased a Coolship and Foeder specifically for this purpose. You can be excited, we certainly are!

However, the brewery has had fruity Sour Ales in its portfolio for some time, for example with apricot & vanilla or with raspberries & lime. They also have dark beer styles like Porter (with cherries and raspberries, for example) or barrel-aged Imperial Stouts on tap every now and then. Speaking of which, the bourbon BA The Stick Of Truth is insane!

Popihn primarily fill their beers in cans. These stand out from many other breweries not least because of their unusual design. That's because they all feature photos of Popihn founder Arnaud!

Best friends: beer, natural wine, street food

In 2020, Popihn launched the Popains series (A play on words from the amalgamation of Popihn and "Copains" (French for friends)). Under the slogan "Craft Beer & Vins Nat", the brewery and some friends have taken over the premises of a bar in Paris and sweetened the summer of the French metropolis with Craft Beer, natural wine and the best streetfood!

Craft beer is pure pleasure: Popihn's initiative in the summer of the Corona pandemic shows this quite clearly. The alliance of breweries, winemakers and street food entrepreneurs not only strengthens cohesion among themselves, but also puts beer on a par with more established beverages in gastronomy, such as wine, as a food pairing option. In France in particular, (top) gastronomy is still dominated by wine - which is hardly surprising in view of the many great wine producers and the great tradition of winegrowing. But beer can stand on an equal footing with wine. Popihn show that quite clearly!

Facts

• Established: 2017
• Location: Vaumont, France