United Nations of Beer

Mondiale de la Biere

by Ashley Cotter-Cairns
(UNOB HQ)

Mondiale de la Biere
Montreal, QC, Canada

The Mondiale de la Biere is Montreal's premier beer festival of the summer months. The 2007 show was my first experience of this event and it certainly won't be the last.

The location of the festival is the old Windsor station, close to the heart of downtown Montreal and convenient for most of the city's transport links. It's a fine old building and perfectly suited for such an event, with a large open courtyard for the outdoor activities, such as smoking and drinking beer and a covered area for the indoor stuff, like not smoking and drinking beer!

All of this convenience and a perfect day brought out the crowds. My initial estimate of five thousand people inside and five hundred lining up to get in was way off. More like ten thousand inside and another thousand waiting... All clamouring to try one of the dozens of fine brews being offered by brewers from Quebec and other places.

At times it was a real scrum to see anything, as the huge quantity of people made moving around quite a challenge. The token system (you buy tokens and exchange them for beer samples) worked well at the Mondiale de la Biere, preventing the need for stallholders to make change for people buying their products.

Meanwhile, the press were extremely well looked after. Once inside the enclave, I had access to the refrigerated equivalent of Ali Baba's cave. Abracadabra! At least 60 different beers from all over the world (though none from Quebec) lined up on heaving shelves, all free to taste if you had the magic golden wristband.

I made certain I took advantage of this opportunity and also enjoyed the speeches about pairing beer with sausage and cheeses, all exclusive to the press and VIPs. Tearing myself away from this tempting oasis was the hardest job of the Mondiale de la Biere, but I managed to brave the crowds outside and forced my way through to several of the brewers.

Many of Quebec's finest were there, some of whom I'd read about but never sampled their beers. I made sure to put that right!

The crowd at the Mondiale de la Biere was an eclectic mix of Montreal's great, good, bad and ugly, though I was surprised to see how young the average age was: probably mid-20s to late 30s with a smattering of older. The entry price of $35 wasn't cheap, but did include a goodie bag with T-shirt, mug and so on and ten beer tokens.

Beer tokens were used instead of cash inside the festival. Some of the more exotic brews were as much as five tokens for a sample, so you'd need to be free with the readies when buying tokens. It could work out quite expensive if you were there for too long.

My only concern with the Mondiale de la Biere's organisation was the level of crowding. Had the weather been unfriendly, the crowds outside in the courtyard would have had to come inside and made life very uncomfortable. Possibly even dangerous.

The other downside is the price: you won't find it a cheap experience. Plus, if you dislike crowded spaces, then this is definitely NOT the place for you.

The upside is it's the only place to experience so many great beers under one roof in Montreal during Festival season. Add this one to your "must see" list next time you're in Montreal for the summer.