Paname Brewing Company
I first went to France in 2018 for work. I had recently started my beer tourism as it was about a year after I started brewing myself, although I had already amassed a sizable quantity of glassware from various US (and literally a couple Canadian) breweries. Going to the Continent for the first time I really wanted to find some craft breweries.
Not knowing much of French brewing tradition I did a little research and found that what was true of most European brewing is that it was mostly done in the country side for local drinkers (insert that it wasn't safe to drink the water here). Most beer produced today in France isn't
produced in France.
I of course start my trip out in the country, settle into our chateau (castle) for next two days and my travel addled brain orders a beer at around 10:30 AM. Don't worry for my safety, all they had was Leffe and Heineken. Pretty much everywhere I looked, and even in city. It was a vast craft desert that my Seattle attuned mind couldn't understand.
Fast forward five days and I'm on my own in Paris, meetings all adjourned. At the time I could find two breweries close enough to the Metro to get to: BAPBAP and Paname. BAPBAP was more central, but their hours were indecipherable. So I headed up to the Canal and went to check out Paname.
This is six plus later now, but when I found it again the only thing that appeared to change was the weather. First time was summer. It was hot, uncomfortable and... hot. The Canal was full of water sport activities and there were people everywhere. Fortunately I found a table inside. The food menu was limited, but they had IPAs, a stout and, of course, a saison, among lagers and pale ales. Brewing equipment was on premise. I felt at home.
Their beer reminded me of the States. In one way, that was nice for the familiarity. Howevee I wished for something special to the regiom. They'll probably say that it is, I have no idea what malts or hops they use. But either way, the beer was good and the food was good (they had a barbecue going outside).
The years did change things. They opened in 2015 with just the brewpub, but by this time they opened a new brewing space in Saint-Denis, and two new taprooms, one at Charles De Gaulle. They bottle now and also have some limited edition cans. When I went there in 2018 they had growlers, but couldn't, or wouldn't, sell them. I did manage to talk them out of one though.