Participez au développement de la Brasserie La Mandra !

Our micro-brewery is located in Soulatgé, a small village in the Hautes Corbières.

It is in this green valley, where the Verdouble takes its source, that in 2016 our project was born, facing the mountains, with the challenge of being able to combine quality of life and work.

Since its creation, La Mandra (Vixen in Occitan) has been very successful locally thanks to its many outlets (20km round) and its bar open Wednesdays, market evenings at Soulatgé and Fridays.

It's first Jamie, a creative Jack of all trades. After careers as varied as real estate and ceramic sculpture it is finally the passion for beer that prevails. After a few years of amateur brewing, learning with his friend Will, master brewer in England, and tweaking recipes he launches La Mandra with a range of 5 beers (Blonde Fox, Season, IPA, Dark Owl, Dubbel). All finesse, subtlety and balance (like him), they immediately find their audience and continue to reach new followers. Jamie is a technician, perfectionist, eternally dissatisfied, he always tries to improve and recipes are constantly evolving towards the ideal of a perfect beer ...

Then there is Claire, Jamie's wife. Together, they imagined the spirit and design of the Mandra. Ceramist artist (https://www.clairelindner.com/), it is she who ensures the artistic creation around the brewery and organizes the cultural events of the exhibition space adjoining our bar. She is also the first judge of our brewing experiences, a job not easy easy ...

And finally Raphael, a baker by profession, arrived in the Corbières for the love of good bread, and it is the beer that will make him stay. After working for a couple of years at Les Maîtres de Mon Moulin in Cucugnan and the discovery of the importance of ancient cereals, sourdough fermentations, agroéology, and the most natural craftsmanship, an idea came to him. Why not apply this ethic to the making of beer. Because bread and beer are both fermented cereals ! Falling in love with La Mandra's IPA, it is after many exchanges and tastings of beer that a friendship was born with Jamie and the desire to join forces for a common project.

The activity of the brewery has increased vigorously since its creation until today reaching its maximum capacity. The lack of space and equipment prevents us from increasing the capacity and the diversity of the products and from working in good conditions in order to perpetuate the activity.

So we are currently in the transitional phase to a bigger brewery that remains human in scale.

The objective of the project is to increase the quantity, quality and diversity of products to meet the local and tourist demand and to participate in the attractivity of the territory by being part of a co-development dynamic with the producers and actors of the local economy.

To carry out this project we are planning the installation of the new brewery in a larger building capable of accommodating new equipment that is more productive, efficient and economical in both labour and energy.

The focus will be on the origin of raw materials (organic and regional malts, organic hops when available from suppliers, creation of hops at local producers).

We love our environment and the people who live and work like us to boost our territory. In a spirit of circular and collaborative economy we work with other actors in the local economy.

 

We are developing a new range of local beers unique to our environment brewed from plants and fruits of the Corbières and fermented by wild yeasts.

The spent grain from brewing is distributed as a food supplement to animals to neighboring farms.

Making beer in a wine country is good ! Collaborations with our winemaker friends promise interesting results... 

Since the beginning of the year, we have been collecting unsold products from Cucugnan's bakery, which we are reusing for the production of an old wheat variety bread beer. We can also develop special beers from the rare wheats of the Maitres de Mon Moulin.

We are fortunate to have an exhibition space adjacent to our bar. We like to host the work of local artists and organize cultural evenings.

And since the begining of this year, most of our beers are certified ORGANIC.

Mandra gets a new look !

 

In addition to changing all the brewing equipment we will also be changing the format of our bottle and review all our labels to make them even more beautiful than before !

The increase of our production and organic certification will, open new markets (Organic coops, Farmer shops) for which a bar code and a batch number are necessary.

We therefore want to invest in a new semi-automatic label printer with printing option that will allow us to make the labeling stage a little less laborious.

Europe and the Occitan Region support us in part for the many and costly investments we have to make but we also want to involve you as we would like to make you feel involved.

The best way to support us is of course to come and see us and buy our products, but for those who would like to do more and receive our eternal gratitude then the crowdfunding campaign is the solution !

Your participation will allow the purchase of:

- The semi-automatic labeler that will allow us to apply 15 labels per minute, or 900 per hour, or 21,600 per day, or 648,000 per month, or 7,776,000 per year. Well, we will not go that far! For a budget of € 3,535.

- The HSA encoder that will allow us to enter the batch numbers directly on the label without having to manipulate the bottle again to stick a disgraceful label on the back: € 2, 390.

- Two cartridges for the coder because otherwise, it is useless: € 213.

For those who still prefer paper to computer codes it is possible to send your cheques to the following address :

La Mandra

1 rue Saint Joseph

11330 Soulatgé

We will add the donations to the campaign prize pool, and you will receive the same rewards as on MiiMOSA.

If you wish to pay in British Pounds, you can create your own personal account on MiiMOSA and add money to your wallet via bank transfer and then contribute to our project.

 

A Huge Thank you for your support !