Loburg

Loburg in Amboise, France, 2016; exact location forgotten.

Now, THIS is what you call finding a diamond in the rough; amongst all these very average beers, there’s Loburg. Unknown bar in Arras, France, 2019

And the look you get on your face when they bring it to your table….does it get any better than this? Rhetorical question….

Like finding a diamond in the rough; Loburg at bar Le Rollon, Bagnoles, France, May 2022.

And again, at bar Au RDV de Montmartre, Paris, Jun 2022. Note the retro but new style glass.

Loburg at Bar O’Belu, in Amiens, Oct 2022

So, a mate who joins my quest to locate Loburg, has been successful on several occasions. This one at the bar/tabac called Le Pourquoi Pas in Martigny-sur-Mayenne 2019.

So, my mate has struck again, this time at the restaurant La Corniche, in Saint-Palais-sur-Mer in France., June 2023. Like gold.

Here’s when we both hit the jackpot, in Epernay, France, May 2017.

Another of his “gets” - finding Loburg at La Belle Époque Bar in Angers, 2019. Only knock on this place - no Loburg glass, hence the coaster…

So, a reader just now (Sep 2023) sent me this photo and informed me that Loburg is sold at this bar, called La Marine, in Dieppe (France). I’ve added it to my list of places that I’ve found that sell it. I also came across a restaurant in Honfleur (France) called Le Champlain that had Loburg on the list of beer they serve. A quick scan of their beer taps showed that it wasn’t fake, as it often is. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed the day I was there! Next time…

I have two absolute favourite beers, that I have discovered in my travels. This is one of them: Loburg. It’s been stated that the brewery is owned by Stella Artois, but this is a myth; both breweries are owned by the giant company Anheuser-Busch Ibev (AB InBev) which seems to own a million breweries these days. It’s a Belgian beer, and in my humble opinion, easily the best them all.

I discovered this beer when I was cycling along the Mayenne River in France in 2007 and stopped in a bar/tabac for a refreshing beer at the end of the day. The barman recommended it, I had never heard of it. Was taken with it straight away and now spend a lot of my time when travelling in France or Belgium looking for the sign out the front of bars. It’s not all that readily available, which kind of makes it all the more alluring, I think.

Technically a Pale Ale, 5.7% alcohol content, so a little high for me, but a very refreshing beer, beautiful on a hot day. Very hard to beat.

I have never found it in bottles or cans, only on tap. Although some people say they do make a packaged version, I’ve never seen it.

As the years go by, I have developed an obsession about finding it - I have found that it’s getting harder and harder to find. On many occasions I have seen the sign outside of a bar and my heart soared - only to find that the bar no longer sells it. On a recent trip a bar even had it on their hand-written price list in the window, but the barman told me that they had only just stopped selling it. What he didn’t tell me was that the bar about 50 metres down the road, did sell it!. His loss.

In the past couple of months I have found it in the place I referred to above (a bar called Le Rollon in Bagnoles de l’Orne in France) and then by sheer luck, in Montmartre in Paris (bar called Au Rendez-vous a Montmartre) in June 2022, and then in Amiens, in October 2022. Like winning the lottery. Well, almost….

9.5/10…..I’d give it a 10 but I leave open the possibility of one day finding an even better beer…

Oh, and as you can tell from all these photos, don’t waste your time on anything other than the 50cl size glass….