United Nations of Beer

La Grimousse beer

by D'Arcy Gray
(Beer Delegate, QC, Canada)

La Grimousse beer

"Damned to wander in obscurity, such is his fate for being different."

And thus, the label on La Grimousse beer starts on its way, hailing the fearsome beast and eternal legend. This brew is from La Microbrasserie Le Grimoire in Granby, Quebec and claims to be an English Pale ale.

This claim, and that of being fearsome and different are laid waste by this reviewer.

I went off in search of a fearsome Halloween beer for the end of October and was quite excited by the prospect of La Grimousse, with its shadowy wolf-beast stalking me on the label. I was also interested in this micro-brewery from Granby, so it seemed to be a perfect fit. continue below

La Grimousse is light on the nose, with only the slightest hint of coffee. There's a tinge of caramel on the tongue and only a hint of bitterness. It has a decent reddish color and the head, such as it is, has little retention. All of these do, in fact, point to an English Pale ale. However, everything here was in moderation beyond anything even the most prudish of Englishman would enjoy.

Even in an English Pale ale, I want some personality. Englishmen can have personality, can't they? (AHEM!! Ed.) John Cleese was (still IS ,as far as I know! Ed) an Englishman and nobody ever called him boring.

La Grimousse beer, on the other hand, is the most pathetic, tweed-wearing, bean-counting piece of soggy English white bread that you could imagine in a Quebec beer.

Don't get me wrong, this beer isn't gross or undrinkable. In fact it's quite safe. Its problem is that it is BORING. Imagine the pre-flight safety film on a British Airways plane and you're starting to get close to the lameness of La Grimousse. It is so perfectly unnoticeable that, two hours later, I'm not even sure I tasted it.

As such, I'd like to change the phrase on the label to: "Damned to wallow in mediocrity, such is his fate for being lame."

I still had two, just to be sure, but then needed to run off and have a wee dram of 10-year-old Ardbeg to revive my palate. You'll all be happy to know that my palate was revived without incident.