By Marc Demeule

The latest edition of le X de 1000 was important for me because I presented my first brew.  Finally, I decided to take the mash paddle and create my own beer.

Just to remind you, le X de 1000 is a friendly homebrewer competition which is held every year until the 1000^th edition.  After that, the promoters will probably review the concept.  The beer style imposed for the 12^th edition was pale ale.  Others styles are also welcomed, but judged under the free style category.

I chose to brew a Read More…

Posted under Beer personalities, beer reviews, places to drink beer

By Marc Demeule (Brewpublic’s Quebecer Beer Trekker)

Sounds like a nice challenge isn’t it?  And you should consider it for your next beer trip.  Of course, you’ll have to find your way to Montréal for the 18^th edition of le Mondial de la bière. Perhaps it’s not the beer next door, but discovering a lot of new brews in a bilingual environment is certainly an experience every beer geek should have in his life.

Le Mondial de la bière is a major Read More…

Posted under beer events, places to drink beer

By Marc Demeule

Two friends of mine released a beer guide and I would like to introduce you their work.

La route des grands crus de la Bière – Québec et Nouvelle-Angleterre showcases the best that Quebec and New England brewers have to offer. Written by David Lévesque Gendron and Martin Thibault, craft beer enthusiasts and Ratebeer.com administrators, it aims at being the ultimate French companion to the beer hunter of La Belle Province and New England.

The first section gives the readers the basic tools that will enable the reader’s capacity to find what they like and to be able to understand and describe why they like it. A second section provides a brief summary of the distinguishable aspects of the 200+ breweries on the territory. If not all the establishments were visited, most of them were and at least one beer was tasted from each. The third section constitutes the heart of the book and justifies the title. Almost 100 beers are hand-picked by the authors and elected as “Grands Crus”, meaning world-class examples of their style. Unlike on beer rating websites, the chosen ales and lagers represent an extremely broad range of flavors. It is the authors’ wager that at least one of these beers could convert anyone to appreciate craft beer. A whole page is dedicated to each of the cherished elixirs, providing a complete description of the style, the tasting profile and suggesting food pairings or similar beers should you fall in love. The fourth and last section acts more as a beer hunter companion. The reader is encouraged to look out for his own favorites. A list of breweries and beers is all well and fine, but what matters is how to get a hold of them. Here, the well-travelled authors suggest itineraries for beer runs and provide list of the best stores to be impressed by the selection.

To complement the book, Olivier Germain has accompanied the authors on many beer trips where he took delightful pictures, often seizing the artistic souls behind many of the craft beers we love. Moreover, since the beer world is dynamic, the authors have launched a blog where travel notes, Grands Crus from outside the territory or various related articles can be read. Catch up at lescoureursdesboires.blogspot.com . -David Lévesque Gendron

I assisted at two different events for the release of this book.  The first one was in collaboration with the editor of the book, Québec-Amérique.  The second event, the official beer geek one, has been hosted by Le Bénélux during their last cask night, on November 13, 2010.   I know that I’m extremely late to report it.  It was an overcrowded night where nine casks from Le Bénélux, Dieu du Ciel!, Hopfenstark, Broadway Pub, Brouhaha, Le Trou du Diable, Les Trois Mousquetaires, and Microbrasserie Charlevoix were on the menu.   As a beer geek, I always try to discover new beers.  Revisiting great beers in their cask version is a good way to give them a second life.  For, let’s say reasons like my birthday party and the friendly crowd, I have no notes about those casks and a portion of the event… but I can assure you that beers tasted there were awesome.

Fortunately, I’ll try to be more professional for the next occasion.  Another release party is set for April 16, 2011 at le Siboire in Sherbrooke.  Again, a list of exclusive casked beers will be presented there, including six tap beers from Hill Farmstead Brewery.  Be there!

Marc

Posted under Beer & Music, beer events, beer news, brewpubs, places to drink beer

Upon recently arriving in my native New England, I landed in the beautiful state of Vermont to visit friends before traipsing about the region in pursuit of old friends and new and innovative brews. My first few days found me in the capital town, Montpelier, where my dear foodie friends Jessica and Joshua live. Here, I embarked upon a few noteworthy beer hot spots where, like much of the Pacific Northwest, delicious treats were found. Here’s a look at what I did find: Read More…

Posted under beer reviews, brewpubs, places to drink beer

By Marc Demeule

I’m not upset at all.  It is a physical law that makes that a batch of beer possibly become empty.  That’s what happened with one of the last creations of Le Bénélux, an India pale ale named Sabotage.  According to the beer geek crew of Montréal, this IPA brewed with Nelson Sauvin hops is a real hoppy experience.

I simply wanted to make my own opinion of this brew and share it to you.  It seems that I showed up too late and missed out.  It could have been a real sabotage, but Read More…

Posted under beer events, beer releases, brewpubs, places to drink beer

My own pursuit of hoppiness and great beers lead me to Ebenezer’s Pub in Lovell, Maine for their 6th Belgian Beer Festival.  This trip has been managed by the Bieropholie website.  I could gather with friends and get a private driver for the whole weekend.  Isn’t that beautiful?

We left Montréal on Friday to reach Le Siboire, another great brewpub that opened within the last three years in our province.  Located in Sherbrooke, it came to the world in an old train station.  Brick walls, wood, nice view of the brewery, smiling staff, and with music not too loud that offers an inviting ambiance to a quite young crowd.  A tasting panel revealed a high quality of beers, without defaults.  The Belgian White Capricieuse and the Abbey Tripel Trip d’automne III where among my favourites.  The brewer Jonathan Gaudrault, poured us some of his new Citra Pilsner directly from the fermentor.  These new hops (for me) provided a bold citrus taste and made this sampling experience very interesting.  I like it when brewers go out of normal bounds to make the effort to try new recipes instead of just keeping the classical blonde, brown, red and black.

On Saturday, we pick up some US bottles to bring back to Canada at Glen Beverage, in the cosmopolitan city of Glen.  Lots of classics (Stone, Rogue, Dogfish Head, Sierra Nevada), so we didn’t purchase anything special there.  Few hours after, we reached Lovell, Maine.  I was expecting for a crowded site, without any place to put our tents and it stressed us a little, but when we showed up, there were plenty of places, so much that we could have a table for twelve.  Except the glasses and the t-shirts printed for the event, nothing gave us the feeling that a beer event would take part here.  Instead of a legion of beer geeks, families with kids and grand parents were in the place.  It was miles away of my first thoughts.  Nevertheless avoiding long queues, and being served promptly always a pleasure.  The tap menu was a real Belgian Beervana. A majority of beers I’ve never tasted before and some I’ve never even heard of. This sort of experience pleased our group. I give big thumbs up to De Struise Black Albert, an imperial stout brewed specifically for the pub, a great mix of vanilla, coffee and black chocolate flooded through 13 % of alcohol.  Simply excellent.  Another great extreme brew was the Mocha Bomb, also from De Struise.  Another explosion of coffee, chocolate and bourbon barrel.  Again, I discovered a brewery that creates products that brings your tastebuds to another level.  Thanks De Struise.

I had the opportunity to have my first Cantillon (Cuvée des Champions) on tap.  Acidic (of course), sour and a bit funky.  Great Cuvée that you want another pint of.   I had, like everybody in bar, a glass from a Methuselah of Val-Dieu Triple.  I think this bottle has been offered by Chris, the owner.  If not, thanks to the guy who order a too big bottle and to his decision to share it with the rest of us.

For the evening, an event has been planned by the pub, and Alan Sprints from Hair of the Dog was invited.  I thought there could be a booth, a promotion on HOTD beers, some special kegs, but the event was a presentation from Alan in the Ebenezer cellar including a tasting of Doggie Claws, Matt and Dave.  Yes what you red is definitely true, a taste of Dave.  Of course, some selected bottles from the pub’s cellar did complete this presentation/tasting.  Would you like to see the pictures?  Well, don’t ask me.  I wasn’t there.  Only 20 peoples were admitted in the cellar and the entrance was sold at 50 USD $$$.

Everything has a cost in life, and it is valid for beer, too.  I choose to not pay this amount for 2 ounce tastings.  Try to appreciate a beer when you share it with 20 people…  Even if it is a rare bottle, it is quite ridiculous. Sometimes, you have no obligation to join the family.  That’s why I continued to have beers with my folks at the table.  At the closure, we received a bill of 966 $ USD for the whole table.  Ouch!  But it was so good.

This huge dinner has been continued at the tent village beside the pub with folks randomly met.  We brought some of our great brewery products of Québec like Microbrasserie Charlevoix and Unibroue.  Some other folks from brought growlers of Hill Farmstead brewery.  This brewery will be considered for another trip to Vermont.

Back home on Sunday, we stopped at the Moat Smoke House & Brewing Co.  It’s been a while I had beer for breakfast.  Gee, I discovered that passion has limits.  The worst is that I wasn’t impressed by what I tasted, and it was not caused by the early hour.  Do you know only one great beer is brewed with blueberries?  Can it be only used for jam and pies please?  That was my feeling of the Violet’s B’s Blueberry.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, the German Hefeweizen was quite refreshing.  I can’t really recommend that place, but if it’s on your way, you might give them a try, but try to have a breakfast before.

marc@brewpublic.com

Posted under beer events, beer reviews, places to drink beer

By Marc Demeule

It is so true that simple ideas are often the best.  The Trou du Diable team simply wanted to create a “get together” with other brewers they appreciate but just don’t have the chance to visit often enough.  A total of 15 breweries shared the Willow Street for a one evening and the only competition was to serve the crowd that attending the  first (and I can surely announce it will now be annual) event simply called “La Soirée des Brasseurs” (the brewer’s night).

The setup has been reduced to the minimum:  A tent for two breweries, a table and great beers in small quantity.  All the rentals were supported by Le Trou du Diable, so no sponsors were on the site.  Two live bands, Jah Cutta and Afrodizz , gave a live show and a musical atmosphere to the evening.

What where the great beers of the event?  Here are my preferred, in a completely random order. Read More…

Posted under beer events, beer reviews, brewpubs, places to drink beer

By Marc Demeule

I recently attempt to the 11th edition of le X de 1000, the biggest homebrewer event in Québec. The managers and volunteers did a great job to plan, set up and execute the event. Attendees even received serigraphy glasses. The annual brewing theme was chosen at the end of the previous year. A sweet chaotic and ethylic brainstorming result that our Senators (René Brasseurs Illimités, Jean Brasseurs & Frères and Nicolas Bedondaine et bedons ronds) decided that every style brewed in a previous edition (porter, tripel Belge, IPA, Scotch ale, barley wine, stout, saison, brown and mild ale, trappiste & 10%+) would be considered as an imposed style style imposé for the 11th edition.

Every other beer could be presented as freestyle (style libre) for this very friendly competition. The winner has the privilege to tell everybody that he wins this edition and is allowed to hoist the trophy  for a year. It is also appreciated if he pays to engrave his nameplate on the trophy… Read More…

Posted under beer events, beer reviews, places to drink beer

By Marc Demeule

I like to come to Québec to visit my family, friends and their kids and also for the summer festival.  We had a real good edition with plenty of concerts from artists like Iron Maiden, Dream Theater, Rush, Social Distortion, GBH, Jello Biafra and so on.  But what about the beer?  Unfortunately, the festival was sponsored by Molson and the only products available on the site were Molson Dry, Molson M and Aquafina, which is the only bottled water that has an ugly taste because it is bottled from tap water  (thanks Pepsi).  Well, I can understand that only macro breweries have the money to sponsor such a big event, but it is always boring to attend a rock concert without anything good to drink.

Nevertheless, I took the weekend to pubcrawl Québec’s breweries, too.  Here’s where I went:

La Korrigane
The name of La Korrigane comes from an Icelandic codfisher transformed into an exploration ship.  Their expedition in 1934-1936 brings back a collection of 2000 ethnic objects of Polynesia, Indonesia and Egypt.

I have been very lucky and a bit insolent to attempt to the newest brewery in town, La Korrigane.  In fact, the place wasn’t really opened.  It was just a practice for the real opening night and only family and friends were invited to this event where the new staff was experiencing a new location, with new equipment and the first batch of recipes that hasn’t been tested with the water of the city.  So, okay, I promised to the owner to be objective in my comments and I wrote one page for the suggestion box.  The renovations of this huge building present a location easy to access (Corner of St-Joseph and Dorchester) with a terrace and eventually a kitchen (please offer more than burgers).  It will certainly help for the revitalization of St-Roch neighbourhood.

Beers tasted there revealed much potential.  I will surely return to measure the evolution when the installations will be fine tuned.  The only thing I could notice was that the beers had a mouth felt too thin.  I experienced a witbier (Mary Morgan) with good aroma of banana, citrus and a bit of yeast. The blueberry beer (Emiliy Carter) didn’t impress me because I found it too acidic.  The red and the oatmeal stout (Cornik) presented a some acidic taste, too, but where quite interesting.  The blonde (Vila) was my preference with a light touch of flowers and honey.

L’Inox
As I remember, this brewpub is the oldest (1987) that is still opened in Québec.  They recently move to a new location, so the occasion was perfect for a visit.  Only three beers were on tap because the affluence of the summer festival.  Simply called Blanche, Blonde and Rousse (white, blonde and red), I had glasses (no tasters available) of beers that respected the standards.  The white presented touches of citrus and the red some caramel malts.  The best was the blonde, American pale ale that presented a hoppy taste from five different hops.  It was simply great on a sunny terrace.  I shall visit this place when seasonal beers will be available, but on such a touristic street (la Grande Allée), I think this brewpub will now have the happy problem to fill up the mass of tourists instead of the local beer geeks.  Good for the volume, but please don’t forget to brew funky things.

Microbrasserie Le Corsaire
Le Corsaire is located in Lévis, just next to the ferry boat of the St-Lawrence River.  So the best way to access it is to take this ferry which gives an exceptional view of Québec and his Frontenac Castle.  The brewer, Martin Vaillancourt, made some of his classes at the aforementioned L’Inox as well as in England, so this brewing style is strongly and well represented here since 2008.  Here is what I’ve tried:

Tanaka blanche, wheat ale with ginger,  Seeräuber Pilsner,  Galère pale ale,  Bristol ESB, Maya blanche au miel, Corsaire Alt, Davy Jones Stout, Session bitter and Session bitter on cask.  Unfortunately, no IPA was on the board, but I had something very hoppy with the Session Bitter on cask.  What a great beer!  80 IBU and only 3,5 % of alcohol.  I would have took pints and pints of it but had to leave to take the last ferry back to the north shore.

I’ve been lucky (and lonely) because I was the only passenger for this travel on a ferry that can carry close to 40 cars and a bunch of pedestrians.  David Suzuki would have certainly not agreed with this, but there were no other options.   A good thing is that this session bitter will probably be Le Corsaire’s next beer to be canned (no bottles, but cans for this brewery).  At least, this travel didn’t produce five tons of CO2 for nothing…  Sorry Mr. Suzuki and Mrs. Earth.

To conclude, well I have to admit that the Québec City beer scene is away from what we can have in Montréal.  Of course, the quality is improving, but with the exception of the cask bitter, I haven’t tasted a lot of really exceptional beers.  On the other side, all the tasted beers were correctly brewed and did not present any technical defaults.

If you’ve  already come to Québec, you’ve probably taken note that I’ve forget to visit a brewery.  No, I haven’t forgotten.  I visited it but won’t talk much of it.  When you have a tasting tray and three of the beers are totally acidic, it is not normal.  The worst is when you mention it to the staff, they agree but still continue to pour it, because the place is full and people just don’t make the difference.  I don’t like that.  Instead of giving my money for default batches, I would prefer to make a donation for cancer research.

Brewpublican Marc Demeule lives and quaffs craft beer near Montreal, Québec and is an honorary citizen of Beervana. Marc@Brewpublic.com

Posted under beer reviews, places to drink beer

By Marc Demeule

The 17th edition of the biggest beer festival in North America is now past.  Another attack to my liver, but I’m sure that such good beers can’t be harmful.  The popularity of this event can be observed at the two 2 hour lines during the weekend.  Entrance to the festival is free, so the maximum number of participants needs to be limited to avoid an overcrowded site.  When you are lucky enough, you can take some vacation time for the opening on Wednesday.  It wasn’t my case this year, so I had to go the crowded way.  Okay!  I just used the exit to enter, pretending I was a volunteer in a booth and it worked fine so I skipped the long queue.

In Beervana, a selection of 500 beers, including 240 new brews is called a local beer store.  Nevertheless, I can assure that the selection we had for 2010 was interesting.  In addition to Québec and Ontario breweries, we were able to taste new products from Belgium, Brazil and Italy.  

The Mondial de la Bière also included a beer judging event among Quebec microbreweries.  The platinum distinction of the 2010 edition was assigned to a Pinot Noir oak aged Belgian with brettanomyces (Trippe à 3 à la Brett) from À la fut, Saint-Tite.

Gold medals have been awarded to:
- Le Saint-Bock, Montréal with RIP (Russian Imperial Porter), Sacrilège (Imperial Stout), Sacrilège Ultime (Imperial Stout) and Malédiction (Sweet Stout)
- Microbrasserie le Bénélux, Montréal with Congo (Belgian IPA) and Cuda (West Coast IPA)
- Microbraserie Le Trou du Diable, Shawinigan with La Saison du Tracteur
- Broadway Pub, Shawinigan with Sein d’esprit (German Hefeweizen)
- Hopfenstark, L’assomption with Saison Station 55
- McAuslan, Montréal with St-Ambroise Oatmeal Stout

On my own way, I did experience new brews from Brazil Cervejaria Bamberg and Cervejaria Wäls.  Italia was well represented with Birrifico Artigianale Karma, Birrifico del Borgo and Birrifico Baladin.  The Big Swell IPA from Maui Brewing reminded me great Northwest hoppy beers, so did the Dr IPA from Kuhnhenn Brewing Co.  I’ve missed La Folie from New Belgium, but had their 1554 black ale.

Quebec breweries now offer more Saison beers on their regular tap selection.  Two years ago, it was rare.  For 2010, the new trend is to spice up recipes with brettanomyces.  When will we have sour ales?  Probably in one or two years…  Hope to see you for the 2011 edition with a new location for the festival and more beers to discover in an indoor environment, so rain won’t stop us tasting.

Cheers.
marc@brewpublic.com

Posted under beer awards, beer events, places to drink beer