In Paris pub, British punters drown sorrows with Brexit beer

[PARIS] If Prime Minister Theresa May or any other Briton needs some Dutch courage to see them through the fraught final countdown to Britain's departure from the European Union they need look no further than a Paris pub and its popular "Brexit" beer.

Brewed by a pro-remain beer maker in Suffolk, a region in eastern England that voted to leave the EU, the beer's hoppy notes give it a deliberate bitterness, said Lomig Fronty, a French barman at The Cricketer pub.

The brewery "wanted to put across its feelings towards Brexit, hence the bitterness of the beer," Fronty said in between pulling pints. "So that's what I tell people who don't want to take it for this reason, it's actually an anti-Brexit move to buy this beer."

May faces possible further humiliation in parliament over her Brexit divorce deal this week after failing to win any major concessions from the EU. British lawmakers will decide on Tuesday whether to approve the deal.

With less than three weeks until the March 29 deadline, possible outcomes include a delay, a last-minute deal, a no-deal Brexit, a snap election or another referendum.

The uncertainty is enough to give most drinkers at the British-themed pub near the Gare Saint-Lazare a headache.

"Brexit is terrible," said Rosie, a British-Australian patron of The Cricketer. "But at least the beer is good."

REUTERS