Brasserie Pigeonelle Loirette, Belgian-style farmhouse ale

Belgian-style farmhouse ale produced by Brasserie de la Pigeonnelle in the Touraine area of France’s Loire Valley.

By the time it landed in the United States, the beer’s street cred already preceded it. Today, sold almost exclusively within natural-focused destinations like New York’s Frenchette or Ten Bells, Loirette keeps company with the natural wines it grew up with. And like so many those wines, Loirette has quickly transformed into a cult fascination. In the words of Bill Fitch, former wine director at Brooklyn’s Vinegar Hill House, “I was primed to fetishize it, a ‘beer for natural wine geeks’—and fetishize it I did.”