Non-alcoholic beer has now found its place on the French market.

But in the 1970s, it wasn't really trendy.

However, at the time, a company did not hesitate to launch out to offer Celta: the Goudale brewery.

"La France Bouge" retraces its history. 

It is one of the rare breweries to manufacture and sell alcohol-free beer in France… and has done so for fifty years.

La France Bouge

tells you about the saga of the Goudale brewery, pioneer of this now fashionable drink, which was far from being so a few decades ago. 

>> Find all the shows of

La France bouge

from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Europe 1 as well as in replay and podcast here

"It was served a lot in the factories"

The adventure begins in the lands of northern France, in Douai, not far from Lens, in the Entre-deux-Guerres.

Four brewers pooled their savings to create the Brasserie des Enfants de Gayant, a name in reference to the giants of Gayant, symbol of the city.

At the time, they sold their liters of beer by delivering them to their homes.

In the 1950s, the company was bought out and launched into specialty beers until 1970. There, it was one of the first to enter the beer market… without alcohol, by marketing Celta.

A daring bet, at a time and in a region where alcoholic drinks were not really popular.

"It was served a lot in the vending machines of drinks in the factories", explains André Pecqueur, CEO of the Goudale brewery and that of Saint-Omer, which bought the Gayant brewery ten years ago.

"That way, there was no alcohol in the factory, but people could drink a beer."

"The beer was good but didn't smell like real ale"

Fifty years later, beer still exists, but has seen many improvements for customers with more assertive tastes.

"Our boss is the consumer," insists André Pecqueur.

“The customer today wants zero alcohol with qualities. Ten or fifteen years ago non-alcoholic beer was good, but it didn't smell like real beer. make alcohol-free beers that practically resemble alcoholic beers. "

>> READ ALSO

- Caramelized, light and historic: three things to know about the "Porter", British dark beer

Because making a good beer is like making a good meal: it requires a few secret ingredients, a lot of patience and many trials before arriving at the right dosage and the desired taste.

"We will put such and such an ingredient, we will ferment, we will warn it, like a normal beer and after, we will taste", details the CEO.

"But you never succeed on the first try. You have to make four, five or six brews sometimes", to find "the small defect" or "the beautiful quality" of the beer.

"It is exciting."

180 million investments in five years for new beers

Always keen to improve, the company now releases two or three new beers per year - it has spent 180 million over five years.

"Sometimes people say to me: 'But you are crazy to invest when we have no morale'. But in the 50 years that I have been working, I have always invested, even when it was not working", smiles André Pecqueur.

"You have to believe in life, in the future. You have to have passion and tell yourself that tomorrow morning, in six months, in a year, things will start up again. And whoever stops investing will be condemned. "

Especially since the market is expanding rapidly, with a product that has gained its acclaim in recent years.

"Before, people did not dare to offer a glass of beer because it was to take you for a poor man," recalls the CEO.

"Today, when we say: 'Do you want a glass of champagne or a beer?', 50% of people say: 'Ah if you have a good beer, I have a beer'."

Result: the company does not know the crisis, with a growth of more than 30% in 2020 and a turnover of 370 million euros.

It has just released a Magnum version beer and two new beers: Goudale and Saint-Omer… alcohol-free.