Abbaye de Vauclair
http://www.abbaye-vauclair.fr/
Brewed by Les Brasseurs De Gayant
Style: Bière de Garde
Arques, Pas-de-Calais, France
The Vauclair Abbey was a Cistercian abbey founded in 1134 by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, located in the North Of France. Supported financially by rich families, the abbey quickly prospered and was given several estates and farms, until the French Revolution in 1789, when it was finally demolished and sold as “national property”. Then World War one lead to further damage from artillery fire…..to where today only ruins remain. What remains of the site is an arboretum of apple and pear trees and a medicinal herb garden.
Lidl France, with the help of the Goudale brewery in Arques, who brew the beer, sell the product in their supermarkets. I have had La Goudale Biere, from Les Brasseurs De Gayant (Goudale brewery), their flagship beer in the past and overall found it to be not a bad beer at all. As for the Abbaye de Vauclair range, I tried their fruit beer, Abbaye de Vauclair Rubis, which I enjoyed a lot, easy to relax with, especially on a hot day.
Review: 75cl bottle of Abbaye de Vauclair Imperiale: 7.5% vol.
Lidl France, and for the big bottle all less than two Euros!
Coming in a very eye catching jet black bottle, with a pop up opener.
Looks great, very decent white creamy head that lasted, with a good bit of carbonation fizzing around, colour was a lovely golden beer that looked very appetizing. Top marks on appearance.
The aroma is quite flowery, smelling like a nice perfume, lovely on the nose, nice and soft smelling rose petals! Light aroma, fruity as well, all nice smells.
A tough one to drink, very strong in the hop taste, very, very bitter and tastes all a bit raw and rough, a bit too earthy.
All instant, straight in the taste, no hanging around just punches you in the tastebuds with the strong hops, no rest from it.
Did settle down a bit after a while, once I got half way down the bottle, sweet and getting some malts, caramel and fruits, but still does not improve much in the overall taste.
All about the hops here and the overkill, didn’t taste much else. Didn’t feel like a 7.5% vol. beer either.
Didn’t enjoy it. Not nice………….
Two brothers, Antoine and Frédéric, with a deep passion for beer and with their agronomy and brewery diplomas in the bag, founded the Brasserie De Sutter in 2008. 
Bought in Lidl France. Picture of a chariot on bottle. 
Initially on the taste I found it to be a bit dry in the mouth but the more I got into it the more the fruits and the hops came to the fore. It tasted not too bad at all, very long tasting and lies on the tongue for a while, a deep taste in the mouth. Also the sweet malts and fruity notes also make an appearance, but truth be told this beer is all about the hops. 
The Vauclair Abbey was a Cistercian abbey founded in 1134 by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, located in the North of France. Supported financially by rich families, the abbey quickly prospered and was given several estates and farms, until the French Revolution in 1789, when it was finally demolished and sold as “national property”. Then World War one lead to further damage from artillery fire…..to where today only ruins remain. What remains of the site is an arboretum of apple and pear trees and a medicinal herb garden. 
The aroma is quite strong in this one, very hoppy smell, very piercing, and very sweet. Must be the dark roasted malts and the fruits. 
Neuchâtel (“Newcastle”) is a small city and the capital of the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel located on Lake Neuchâtel, in the shadow of the Jura mountains and facing the Alps, in West Switzerland, not too far from the border of France. The French speaking town has a population of about 34,000 people and was originally part of the Holy Roman Empire and later under Prussian control from 1707 until 1848. (Prussia, a historically prominent German state, in case you didn’t know!!)
As for a day out, Neuchâtel’s has an attractive Old Town, with about 140 street fountains, a handful of which date from the 16th century, and classical Burundian architecture with rows of contiguous narrow houses on three or four storeys and through corridors. The beautiful Alps far off in the distance on view from the lake also offer something to behold. 
PMU Race Cafe 
This place wasn’t to far off the stadium so ventured in. Was intrigued as it had horse racing on, and seemed to double as a betting shop, a first for me to see in Switzerland. Fancied a flutter but unfortunately (or fortunately) it was only French racing so let that pass. 
Was heaving with Xamax fans who were very boisterous and all good fun. Had a few cheap lagers and sat down to enjoy the “show” the home fans were putting on…….smoke bombs and pyro, horse play on the roundabout, all good fun.
Had a few beers, well quite a few, in this bar, waiting for my train. Bar is dead handy as it is right next to the train station which is just damn perfect for me! Bar right at the door, dont have to make any effort so! Managed to grab a 
Small bar, but quite busy, as you can imagine what with it beside the train station. Service wasn’t exactly very friendly, bit grumpy in fact, dont think they were Swiss to be honest. A fella, serving behind the bar, Jesus a smile wouldn’t kill you! The waitress wasn’t much better. Ok we get it, a lot of noisy football fans are in town, but Jesus no one is forcing you to do work in a bar!
The name Xamax (and club nickname) comes from legendary Swiss international ‘Xam’ Max Abegglen, one of the founding members of the club. 
In May 2013 a merger happened between Neuchâtel Xamax and FC Serrières, another side from Neuchâtel, to create Xamax Neuchâtel FCS, to continue top tier football in the city. The quick success continued as the team won back to back promotions to find themselves at the Challenge League division, three successive promotions to the second tier of Swiss football. And then in the 2017–18 season, the club were finally promoted back to the big time, to the Swiss Super League. It was has if the near death of the club had never happened! 
As for Europe they have had some small success, relatively speaking for a small club. In the 1981–82 season they managed to get to the last 8th of the Uefa Cup, beating Sparta Prague, Malmo, Sporting Lisbon along the way before eventually losing to Hamburg, narrowly 2-3 on agg. If you thought that was impressive, well in 1985–86 season they repeated the trick, once again getting to the last 8th of the Uefa, but once again losing out 2-3 on agg, this time to the mighty Real Madrid, not without a brilliant 2-0 home win though. Pretty good stuff I think. They haven’t since reached those heights, but they did knock out Celtic in the 1991–92 UEFA Cup, four of those goals coming from the Egyptian footballing legend, Hossam Hassan, a result I well remember at the time as the Scottish giants were definitely not expecting their trashing, 5-1 in Switzerland. In that competition they were knocked out by Real Madrid, 4-1, but not without a lovely one nil win at home. In the 1987–88 European Cup, they also had an impressive victory over Bayern Munich at home, 2-1, but alas going out 2-3 on agg. So one can see, for a small club, they have had some notable achievements in European football. 
The team play in red with black stripes and line out in the Stade de la Maladière stadium where the club play its home games. Opened in 2007 the ground has a total capacity of 12,500 supporters. The attendance record stands at 25,500 spectators in the undeveloped Stade de la Maladière when, in 1986, Real Madrid came to town in the second leg of the last eight of the Uefa Cup to see the team win out 2-0 which sadly wasn’t enough to overturn the tie. Nowadays the stadium has been renovated to include a shopping centre, a sports halls and even a fire station! But its not all that impressive as the ground has a fucking plastic pitch, urgh! It is owned by the city council. 
Getting to the ground was dead easy as its not too far from the station, and you head downwards. The Maladière stadium is near the lovely Lake of Neuchâtel, and a stones throw from the red bricked Notre-Dame Cathedral that dominates the local skyline, you really couldn’t get a better location for a ground. 
Not the best game in the world, few chances, a lot of slow build up play, and huffing and puffing and hard endeavor, but will little quality on display from both teams.
After that chances were few and far between, with both teams having an opportunity to steal a winner, both the game petered out for a draw. A fair result to be honest.
All was going well for many years, even centuries, until the Nazis got into power. By this stage the company had a substantial Jewish shareholdership, and due to the toxic political atmosphere in the country, they were all expelled and the company was nationalized. 
Brewed for LIDL Germany, which shows how much the retail supermarket is trying to tap into the craft beer scene.
For a stout, it is not as bitter or strong in the taste that it should be, its a bit light in that regards, and I really cant feel the 7.5% vol. but it is tasty enough to allay any of those fears that it might be another limp wristed stout. Good enough to enjoy and goes down the hatch very easy. Also get a lot in the can too, so happy days!