Try?
No, the company is not named for a lady from Paris, but instead takes its moniker from the French Broad river, which flows through Asheville (sort of like their beer flows through their customers, if you get my drift). The company has been in business since 2001, and their beer was highly recommended to me by competing brewers when I visited Asheville several years ago. Just recently, they began shipping bottled beer to Atlanta, much to my delight.
One of their flagship beers is Rye Hopper Ale, a spicy pale made with malted rye and barley. It began life as a seasonal, but was so popular that it was added as a regular staple brew. Rye Hopper boasts an impressive 59 IBUs, not bad indeed on a 15 Plato original gravity beer. Alcohol is just a bit higher than most at 5.9% by volume.
French Broad Rye Hopper Ale pours to a dark russet color with a light, creamy head formation and a spicy rye nose. Indeed, I had to pour the beer quite vigorously from my 22 ounce bomber bottle to get that head, too, so carbonation isn't excessive, although the beer does deposit a gentle layer of Brussels lace on the sides of the glass as the liquid descends.
As soon as I took a sip of this delightful nectar, my eyes flew open in amazement. The firm body of the beer grabs you at first. Like a blanket of caramel thrown on the grass, it lays the foundation upon which the picnic of flavors are spread out. Really, I'm getting a lot of spicy rye and grassy hops here, but let me tell you more about that. I think I'm getting more fresh rye flavor here than I've ever got in any beer before, and I really like that. Rye has a very distinct flavor (which should not be confused with caraway, which contributes a lot of flavor to rye bread). It's grainy, it's a bit astringent, and it can be very tasty indeed.
And did I mention that there are hops in the finish? Lots of them, grassy, herbal, bitter hops that simply explode on the tongue and linger after you sip, as if to shout at you "Hey! You just drank a real beer!". In many ways, this is what I like to think of as a perfect beer. Not because it's "better" than other beers, but because it is what it is, and it' s so good at being what it is. It's balanced, with none of the components outweighing the others, and all of them work together in perfect harmony to make the whole greater than the sum of the parts.
Comparisons are natural to Terrapin Rye Pale Ale, French Broad's neighbor to the south. But I for one much prefer Rye Hopper, since I think it screams "rye" much more loudly at the drinker. If you're in Asheville, don't miss this one. It's a bargain at five bucks for a bomber bottle, and I was glad to have 22 ounces of it, because 12 would not have been enough.
Update 7/13/2015: Tonight I'm sipping a pint of this, my very favorite French Broad beer in the brewery tap room in Asheville (alongside a sample of their Goldenrod Pilsner in the photo). The beer is as wonderful as ever, big with grainy, spicy rye flavor, caramel malt and of course bitter hops. It seems a tad different in the hop aroma, its a bit tropical fruity suggesting new fangled hops. The bartender told me the recipe had not changed but I wonder. It's still a perfect beer for me, delicious and flavorful, and at just $3.75 for a pint here ($2.75 on Mondays) you can't go wrong.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft
