Know-How
By Jean-Marie Kessler, Brew Master
For nearly 400 years
OUR BREWERS’ ANCESTRAL KNOW-HOW HAS BEEN PASSED ON AND DEVELOPED.
The ancestral know-how of the Meteor brewers has been passed on and developed from generation to generation, following the family tradition. Every stage in production, from the choice of ingredients to product packaging, follows the methods learned and refined by the Meteor brewers over the centuries. We also take great pleasure in designing the beers of the future, because you don’t write 400 years of brewing history without a good dose of creativity!
Selecting outstanding ingredients
The secret of the unique flavour of Meteor beers lies in the selection of top-quality ingredients. The malts come from the best barley in France, from Brie, the Beauce and the Gâtinais; the hops are grown in Alsace (Strisselspalt, Aramis…) and the Czech Republic (Saaz). A cocktail of excellence that’s brewed with pure water from the Vosges Mountains.
It’s by using the best ingredients that Meteor’s master brewers ensure that the beer in your glass is the best!
Production in accordance with the family tradition
Each Meteor beer is unique and designed via a controlled process that follows 3 main production processes:
Brewing
A brew consists of barley malt crushed into flour, mixed with water and heated in copper kettles. The wort produced is then filtered and the hops are added.
Fermentation
Yeast is added to the wort in refrigerated tanks: the sugars are turned into alcohol and carbon dioxide, and the wort becomes beer. Today, the Meteor Brewery has a sound knowledge of “high” and “low” fermentation techniques and can therefore produce a wide variety of recipes, from Abbey-type beers to Pils-type beers.
Conditioning
The beer is then left to mature at a low temperature in a conditioning cellar, out of direct light. During this rest period it achieves its balance and finesse and reveals its personality.
The innovation culture
Our philosophy: curiosity and adaptability among people and equipment!
The brewery has always taken a number of bold and sometimes pioneering decisions.
- In 1988, it launched draught beer for home consumption, selling the first 5-litre keg in France.
- In 1990, it launched METEOR LIGHT, a light beer with 2% alcohol.
- In 2003, it boldly launched SKA, a beer flavoured with Cola and bourbon.
- In 2008, it innovated with the first beer clearly designed to appeal to women: Muse.
The list is long… all these new products, whether or not they enjoyed commercial success, are evidence of METEOR’s innovation culture.
Every year we invest over 10%
of our revenues to ensure that our plant remains adaptable, competitive and innovative: the kegging line for our 5-litre mini-kegs is one of the most efficient in Europe, and we have recently invested in a kegging line that has significantly improved quality and production capacity …
This allowed us to justify the launch of over 14 products or formats in 2015, and to meet demand from all our distribution networks in France and abroad!
In 2016, we intend to take our R&D policy a step further and are investing in a system for making small brews of 10 to 20 hl, thus providing opportunities for inventing the beers of the future or offering our customers “one-off” beers!
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