{"id":1881,"date":"2014-09-12T09:31:33","date_gmt":"2014-09-12T07:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bierversuche.ch\/blog\/?p=1881"},"modified":"2021-01-31T14:14:24","modified_gmt":"2021-01-31T13:14:24","slug":"interview-with-raphael-mettler-of-brasserie-trois-dames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bierversuche.ch\/blog\/en\/2014\/09\/interview-with-raphael-mettler-of-brasserie-trois-dames\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Rapha\u00ebl Mettler of Brasserie Trois Dames"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In Vaud, on the Balcony of Jura, lies the idyllic small town of Sainte Croix. Already well known for hiking and skiing, from this town flows a stream of beer into Switzerland and the rest of the world as well. We met with Rapha\u00ebl Mettler, the owner of Brasserie Trois Dames<\/a>, to talk about his career and his planned attacks on our taste buds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you tell us something about yourself?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been brewing since 2001. Before that I only rarely drank beer as my interests were more towards wine and absinthe. Through my former profession in the sports retail trade I made several trips to America and got to know the local beer scene and its wonderful and generously hopped beers. That was the beer-AHA! moment for me. Naturally I wanted to drink these kinds of beers in Switzerland too, but at that point I didn\u2019t even know that brewing beer at home was possible.
I then bought a small Kaspar Schulz brewing kit in Germany and learnt everything I could about brewing from American literature. For me, in the beginning, I wasn\u2019t really sure what type of beer I wanted to brew so I just started with the German styles, but then, fairly quickly, I moved on to the beers styles that I particularly enjoyed, especially the American pale ales and IPAs.
We live here in Sainte Croix, a small town, and if you want to sell beer here, you need to have something at least somewhat „normal“ on offer. Since that doesn\u2019t really correspond to my approach, I had to find my clientele elsewhere. This naturally led me to the Solothurner Biertage [Solothurn Beer Festival], even though at that time I still wasn\u2019t a professional brewer.
During a long stay in Canada with my family I had the opportunity to dive deeper into the local beer scene which gave me a chance to learn from the local brewers and hop growers. While in a microbrewery there I had the opportunity to brew and I also had the chance to enter some of my beers into some competitions, including at Mondiale de la Bi\u00e8re in Montr\u00e9al, and I even won a few prizes.
After returning to Switzerland I realized that I wanted to focus entirely on beer. I sold my sporting goods company and used the money to start the „Trois Dames“ brewery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rapha\u00ebl<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What is the oldest recipe that you are still brewing?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s the Fraicheur. The Fraicheur is a Belgian Wit, but with slightly less wheat than is traditional. In contrast to the original recipe, we no longer use just one Weizenhefe but instead use a variety of different yeasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do the people of Sainte Croix appreciate your beers now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The population of Sainte Croix doesn\u2019t really differ greatly from the rest of the population of Switzerland. Approximately 90-95% of the people like to drink their lager. The remaining 5% are looking for something more special and are also interested in beer culture in general. If I wanted to venture into the mass market of beer, I would have to brew a very low cost lager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever considered brewing a lager, whilst not a low cost, mass-market version?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have actually brewed lagers in smaller breweries in the past, but not at this location. You can however brew some very interesting lagers and we already have some ideas that we are considering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n