Mont Blanc wins best beer award

AN INDEPENDENT beer maker from the Rhône-Alpes has topped a category at the World Beer Awards - with a recipe he learned from trappist monks.

Mont Blanc La Blanche beer, made in La Motte-Servolex in the Savoie, was voted World’s Best Wheat Beer 2015 by a jury in the annual competition.

The beer, which also won Best Belgian Style Witbier at the awards in 2013, is made to a old savoyard recipe by the Brasserie du Mont Blanc which was set up in 1999.

Sylvain Chiron, who set up the brasserie after seeing the success of micro-breweries in the USA, sourced the recipes from a trappist monastery in Belgium and makes the beer with water from a spring in the Savoyard Alps.

Key to its success are its blend of spices including coriander and orange peel, said the brewers.

Judging is carried out in blind tastings held in regional heats around the world throughout the year, leading up to the grand finals.