The Montreal Beer Scene, part three: three Montreal brewpubs, by Steve LaRue.
"Beers of the world, unite!"
The UNOB slogan
 |
|
|
The Montreal Beer Scene,
part three: three Montreal brewpubs
Submitted by Steve
LaRue
Montreal
is a great beer city
with almost as many breweries and brewpubs as Seattle, WA. Click here to read part one of my
overview of the Montreal beer scene, including a review of Forquet Fourchette.
Click here to read part two, an in-depth review of Dieu du Ciel.
For this installment, I find myself in three very different Montreal brewpubs.
Les 3 Brasseurs
Les
3 Brasseurs (click here for the full UNOB review by
Shannon Wand)
in Vieux Montreal is a brewpub that most US
drinkers would
recognize. They offer a full lunch and dinner menu.
My server spoke very little English and didn't seem to care that I didn't speak French, as I was only offered a French menu. I found later at another location of this chain of Montreal brewpubs that the menu is also printed in English from a much more friendly server.
The beers were pretty common brewpub fare. It is located uphill towards the river from either the Metro Orange Champs de Mars or Place d'Arms.
Le Blonde seemed to be a German-style Weizen. Filtered and clean with a malty banana aroma and a refreshing lemony/citrus flavor. My notes state "kind of like a Corona with lime".
Le Ambree (apologies to the brewer) is an amber ale. My first impression of the aroma was fish. The flavor was slightly malty with no evident hop. There was also an off-flavor that I couldn't identify. Pretty poor offering.
Le
Brune is a brown ale with lots of crystal malt and caramel
in the
aroma. The
flavor is also a nice crystal malt and caramel, but is also almost
vinous. This
is a really nice beer.
Stout (nitro) is served a la Guinness. It is very black and the bubbles settled nicely. The aroma was very chocolaty and coffeeish, but this great aroma was misleading, as the flavor was very mild. Nice creamy mouthfeel.
Le Saint Bock Brasserie
Le Saint Bock Brasserie in the St. Denis neighborhood is more of a beer bar than one of Montreal's brewpubs, though they do have a brewhouse and offer house beers. There was a selection of 150 beers in the bottle and about 20 on draft.
They only had one house beer
on
during my visit and I was told that that was because they had not been
fully
operational. They are located just a couple of blocks from the
Berri-UQAM
Metro.
Benediction Brune is a filtered brown ale. The carbonation was very good and it had a nice bready/malty/yeasty aroma. The flavor was a lovely toasted malt, but there was no hop.
L'Amere a Boire
L'Amere a Boire is also in the St. Denis neighborhood just up from Le Saint Bock and is easy to miss if you are not paying attention.
T is only 3
bbls, but
they produce a vast number of fine beers here. They also have a very
small
kitchen and a limited menu. I also got a really cool picture of the
assistant
brewer standing in the mash tun.
Hefeweizen Ale de Ble (5% ABV) is a traditional Bavarian hefe with bananas and clove in the aroma and flavor.
Cerna Hora Biere Lager Blonde is a lovely creamy lager with a very evident and balanced malt and hop aroma.
The flavor is very maly with a hint of crystal/toasted malt.
L'Amere a Boire Ambree (cask, 5% ABV) has a very unusual aroma: raspberry? With a hint of crystal malt and rock sugar.
The flavor is very sweet and raspberryish.
Fin du Siecle Rousse (5.6% ABV) is a filtered red beer. The aroma is of blueberries and the flavor is the same. The alcohol is very evident, even though it is not that strong. Not a session beer.
Octoberfest
Marzen Biere Lager Rousse (5% ABV) is light brown in color
and filtered. Crystal
malt aroma and flavor
with no evident hop.
Boucanier (porter, cask, 5% ABV) is a nearly black filtered ale with a light coffee aroma.
The flavor is mildly coffeeish with some chocolate and husk astringency and some residual sweetness.
Odense Porter Lager Noire (5% ABV) made me wonder whether this is misnamed. I understand a black lager, but porters are ales!
Filtered and deep brown in color. Roasted malt in the aroma but no coffee, chocolate or hop in the flavor. Also very sweet. No esters either.
Would be better if presented as a Brown Ale.
Stout Imperial Ale Noire Forte (7.5% ABV) is filtered and very black with a chocolate aroma.
The flavor is very sweet with hints of blackberry and tobacco.
Sweetness overpowers malt. Almost too sweet for a Imperial Stout.
In the final part of this article, Steve reviews four more Montreal brasseurs: Le Cheval Blanc, Benelux, Sergeant Recruiteur and Brutopia.
Submit your own reviews of Montreal Brewpubs or any other bar or pub!
GET INVOLVED!
usa
canada
world
LATEST UPDATES
LINKS
"Where does he get all those wonderful toys?"
ThinkGeek: launch rockets from your PC, send digital insults to drivers and own a REAL light sabre!
Guinness Product HQ
We've rounded up the greatest collection of Guinness gear on the planet! Shirts, hats, glasses, home bar products, giftware, tin signs... all official! Guinness Product HQ
