Canada Beer Blog Part 2

Now to our absolute favourite place in Montréal (and in fact Québec as a whole). Dieu du Ciel had 17 beers available (on tap of course). I cannot fully do this place justice, we would live here.

Corpus Christi – Pale Ale de Seigle 5%. A red pale ale with bitterness. Nice!! 4.5/5

Equinoxe du printemps – Scotch Ale à l’erable 9%. A real sipper at 9%. Creamy with a hint of dried fruits. Served in a small glass due to the 9%. 4.5/5

Ste-Flanelle – another awesome beer (8.5%), again in a small glass. Bitter, hoppy and a sipper. Best beer yet, definitely a me beer. Reminiscent of a smoky IPA. My first ever Imperial Pale Ale. 4.75/5

Revenante – porter fume, burnt toast again. Smoked salmon and hikory aroma with a mellow finish. 4/5

Chaman – another Imperial Pale Ale (8%), hoppier than the previous with a slight bitterness. 4.75/5

Then we hit Ottawa and made it to the Royal Oak, a British “themed” pub. Our server was from Otrahunga (small world really).

Mill St Tankhouse Ale – this was an unexpected find, a local (Toronto) microbrew, on tap. A 5.2% made with 5 different malts and spicy cascade hops. A deep copper red and very drinkable. If we were to pick a drink that would be our “drinking” beer it would probably be this. 4/5

Smithwick’s Irish Red – A typical English draft (5%), felt like it needed more hops.

Fullers ESB – Champion Gold Medal but was completely underwhelmed as it had been talked up far too much. Well rounded malt but had trouble finding the bitterness. 3/5

Creemore – another local microbrew (Ontario) made with Czech hops. Lager.

In a small town called Trois Rivières we made our way to what is obviously the place to be on a Friday night, Chez Gambrinus. We also had the most awesome chicken nachos here and the entire ordering process was in French. The first beers were ordered by type therefore not sure of exact names.

Rousse – very drinkable with bitter after-taste, Monteiths celtic-ish but better. 3.5/5

IPA – all I can say is this is the Canadian “Epic Pale Ale”, the similarities were uncanny. 4/5

Scotch Ale – a Porter but no smokiness, reminiscent of melted dark chocolate. Tasted like cocoa and water. 2.5/5

Onto Québec City where we started out at the Hostel bar, although there was nothing on tap that appealed.

Maudite (Unibroue) – this was in a bottle and then later in our trip we got ourselves a 750ml bottle for sneaky drinks in our room. Maudite (and Unibroue) are relatively well-known to us.

I did manage to try this on tap at Pub St Alexandre but it was very hard to get through the pint after already having the sneaky drinks in our room. It is very rich, strong amber ale (8%). And I also legitimately acquired a Maudite glass before we left Canada. 4.5/5

Okenagan Valley Pale Ale (sorry no notes on this one!)

Griffon Rousse (or this one!)

Kwak – I’ve always meant to try this but never did. After being told a story about it at Pub St Alexandre (where there are over 250 beers available) I decided that was the night. A good Belgium but I like my Belgiums and have definitely had better. Served in its traditional glass which left me terrified of breaking it (it’s an extremely light glass). 4/5

L’Inox had recently moved to its new location and unfortunately there were only two beers available so we didn’t stay long.

Blonde – Light, slight tartness/bitterness. Was good for blonde (like lager, I’m not a big fan so you should probably add points). 2.5/5

Wheat – like a ginger beer without the ginger. Good for a hot day.