A new, locally brewed beer with Nyon on the label!

Nyon has a new brewery! Cap'taine Mousse, an artisanal brewery, opened just a few weeks ago in Route de Champ Colin 2c (very near the Emil Frey garage).

Living in Nyon went to meet the two brewers, brothers Jérôme and Manu Bachelard to find out more about the beer and the concept behind it. A Beer to appeal to both genders Jérôme explains; "We started with the idea of brewing our own beer because we got fed up of drinking commercial beer - we found it to be flat, bland and boring". Manu agrees, "Our aim was create a light beer that would appeal to both men and women. There is a growing interest amongst the public in artisanal beer, and although only 3% of the Swiss actually drink it, that percentage is predicted to rise.

Photo above - Brothers and brewers - Jérôme and Manu Bachelard Manu continues: "We started with this small dream but then we became more serious about it. We dedicated one evening a week from our day jobs to discuss a possible project; we spent time tasting other beers and working out what we wanted to create; and we concluded this would be something which was a mixture between an IPA and a lager. We knew there was a gap in the market for something different. We also knew our skills complimented each other to start up in business: I trained at the Ecole hôtelière in Lausanne whilst Jérôme has an MBA and used to have a directorial position at the CHUV hospital".

Cap'taine Mousse - A play on words Jerome explains: "After trial and error we finally came up with the taste we were aiming for (Ed's note, this beer is indeed delicious: light, fresh yet fruity), so we took the plunge and produced our first batch of Cap'taine Mousse beer. It was important to us to have "Nyon" on the label as we are from this area. The Cap'taine Mousse name is not only an homage to the lake and the boats and skippers that sail on it, but is also a play on words. "Mousse" is French for ship's apprentice, but it also means the froth or head on the top of a beer, so it was a perfect combination. There is another play with words as we have "Brassins Lémanique" written on the label, playing with the word "brasserie" and the "bassins" of the lake.

We opened our brewery in Nyon just a few weeks ago. We have a permanent point of sale there, where customers can visit and buy just one beer, barrels of 20 litres, or even borrow taps for private parties (from which guests serve themselves from the tap)! Our beer was served at the Nyon fan zone during the 2016 EURO Cup and went down very well so we knew we were on to a winner. It would be great if we could also sell to some our beer to the many summer music festivals". Free beer for crowd-funders! Cap'taine Mousse is expanding and offering great crowd funding benefits for those that want to be a privileged member of the Cap'taine Mousse community; for an investment of just CHF 250, members get a free beer each time they visit the brewery itself, ( every day the brewery is open if they want!). They get 10% discount on beer to take away and can even get free beers on tap for their birthday. See membership details here Editor's note - this CHF 250 membership to the Cap'taine Mousse community would make a great Christmas present for someone. For those who would just simply like to taste the beer, it is currently being sold in various pubs in the Nyon region: the Bar Le Saint Jean, Hôtel de l'Ange (see previous article here about this friendly Nyon bar), the Café Vaudois in Nyon, the Restaurant de la Plage in Nyon and the L'Ecusson Vaudois in Eysins. It is also available in various sales outlets: in Landi and the Alimentation in Eysins, the Epicerie in Prangins or online here For other sales outlets in Lausanne and Morges, see herePercentage of future profits to go to charity One day the Cap'taine Mousse team hopes to have its own pub. In the meantime it is concentrating on getting the first steps right and brewing a great drink. For Jérôme and Manu it's very important to have a shared goal which is not just about making money: future plans for the business include giving a certain percentage of the profits towards various charitable projects in Africa. "Some investors originally wanted us to form a company so they could buy shares in it, but we turned this idea down as we want to be able to give something back to certain selected charitable projects. We even wrote it into our original constitution when we started the whole business. We are now both working on Cap'taine Mousse full time, we have given up our permanent jobs to do this so it has to work - but so far, so good. Here's a short video (in French) about the Bachelard brothers and their Cap'taine Mousse beer, and the crowd funding opportunities available.  You can spot some of the local scenery in the film too!