French beer
French beer is more than the pilsner from the supermarket shelf. A new generation of brewers makes hoppy IPAs, Tripels and Stouts, often with their own take on style. Below you'll find the French beer Hoptimaal has available, from fruity hop bombs to stouts that have spent months in the barrel.
- In stock now16 beers
- Breweries9
Breweries from France 9
Hoppy RoadMaxéville · 5 in stock
Sparkle ✨Quiberon · 2 in stock
Prizm Brewing Co.Vendargues · 2 in stock
Game Over Brewing Co.Toulouse · 2 in stock
The Piggy Brewing CompanyLiverdun · 1 in stock
Prizm NOLOVendargues · 1 in stock
PopihnVaumort · 1 in stock
La GoudaleArques · 1 in stock
FauveVendargues · 1 in stock
All beers in stock 16
A wine country with an interrupted beer tradition
France is first and foremost a wine country, and its beer history is poorly documented. The Gauls left no writings, so most of what we know comes from outsiders. The regions bordering Belgium and Germany, Nord-Pas de Calais and Alsace, have traditionally been the most shaped by beer. In Alsace, brewers mostly made variations on German pilsner and Munich lager. In the north, the coal mines kept many small breweries going.
The two world wars did the rest. Occupying armies removed brewing equipment for the production of munitions, many small breweries never recovered and regional styles almost completely disappeared. What remained was a market full of industrial lager. At the end of the 1970s the recovery began, with the north as its starting point. Since then the number of breweries has grown sharply: there are now more than 2,500, compared with roughly 30 in the 1980s and 500 in 2013.
Bière de garde, Alsatian hops and French malt
The best-known style of its own is bière de garde from the north: a malt-driven, top-fermented beer that was traditionally low in alcohol and is now often brewed stronger. Saison and grisette belong to a tradition that France shares with Belgium. When it comes to raw materials, France counts for a lot: roughly 80 percent of French hops come from Alsace, and the country is the world's largest malt exporter. One in five beers worldwide is made with French malt. Louis Pasteur's 1873 research into beer, which led to pasteurisation, has also given brewers all over the world something to build on.
The new generation likes to work with local ingredients. Brasserie Lilloise from Lille brews Lydéric with juniper berries from the region and Achille with unsold bread instead of malt. Notably, many French people still order beer by colour (blonde, brune, noire) rather than by style.
French beer at Hoptimaal
At Hoppy Road, Game Over Brewing Co., Prizm Brewing Co. and Sparkle ✨ you'll find the hoppy side of France: IPAs and variations on them, such as Hoppy Road TRIPPIN' (2026), a Triple NEIPA. Fauve and Popihn round that out. From Popihn you'll find an Imperial Stout on bourbon barrel, aged for 30 months with almond and vanilla, a stout to sip slowly. There is also Tripel in the French range.
Every brewery has its own page with us. Handy if you liked one beer and want to try more from the same brewer.
Frequently asked questions
What is typical French beer?
Bière de garde from northern France is the best-known style of its own: malt-driven, top-fermented and traditionally low in alcohol. France and Belgium also share the saison and grisette tradition.
Which French breweries are well known?
The biggest are Kronenbourg, Fischer Adelshoffen and Meteor, all three from Alsace. The new generation includes Brasserie Lilloise and Artemus, among others. At Hoptimaal you'll find Hoppy Road, Sparkle ✨, Prizm Brewing Co. and Fauve, among others.
Do the French drink a lot of beer?
Not particularly: on average 33 litres per inhabitant per year, which puts France almost at the bottom in Europe. Only the Greeks drink less.
Beer from other countries
- Dutch beer 175
- American beer 71
- Belgian beer 68
- Canadian beer 54
- German beer 37
- English beer 37
- Spanish beer 21
- Romanian beer 17
- Swedish beer 15
- Norwegian beer 14
- Estonian beer 17
- Polish beer 11
- Irish beer 8
- Finnish beer 9
- Hungarian beer 8
- Latvian beer 8
- Croatian beer 8
- Danish beer 8
- Portuguese beer 4
- Welsh beer 5
- Scottish beer 4
- Brazilian beer 4
- Ukrainian beer 2
- Greek beer 3
- Slovenian beer 3
- Czech beer 3
