Well after Disney world and Orlando, our journey down the east coast of the US had come to an end for now. We got on a plane to
Montreal leaving the US with a sense of wonderment at a crazy country, where you can buy beer for next to nothing at the same place you can pick up your medication for liver failure. All minor problems aside, a great holiday so far and we drank some great beer and met some wonderful people. My father and grandfather picked us up and drove us to his apartment in the south shore telling us he had a good surprise for us for dinner.
Let me explain by saying my grandfather is a proud blue-blood Quebecois, a working man all his life from a large rural family. His dinners never disappoint. We were greeted by the delectable smell of ham cooking. My grandfather proudly proclaimed that he cooked the beer in not one but two bottles of beer. Madness!! For people of his generation and indeed my fathers, beer meant one of a few things, Molson or Labatt, the two biggest brewers in Quebec. This particular ham was cooked in Molson Dry, a typical adjunct macro lager with not much going on, pleasant to quaff ice cold for thirst suppression but that's about it. Bottles of it kept appearing in our hands (You boys don't have a beer in your hand, whats wrong?) All this made us thirsty for real beer, especially real provincial craft beer I missed so much. We ambled down to the local supermarket where a familar sight greeted me. Scott was suitably impressed by the sheer range of local produce and indeed price on offer and a local supermarket. "Fortune and glory kid, fortune and glory"
Please do not lick the screen. Beers in Quebec are generally based on continental European beer. Due to the cooler climate the beers are normally hardy ales and darker beers. Rousse (Red) Brun (Brown) Blanche (White) Noir (Black) are common beer names that reflect the style of ale they are. The ever-popular Unibroue range of beers is easily available through out the province, even in rural gas stations, at prices that make you wonder about the massive amount of tax placed on them in Australia. $9 for a large bottle of Trois Pistoles? Fact! All the Unibroue beers except the Unibroue Blonde (lager) are based on Belgian styles of tradtional bottle fermented ale. What I love about Unibroue is how it promotes our proud Quebecois traditions and culture, by naming its beers after Quebecois legends and the artwork used promotes the proud history of Quebec.. For example Maudite (Damned), a strong belgian ale, has an image of la chasse-galerie the flying canoe. Legend has it that a group of trappers wanted to get home to Montreal in time for a holiday party but also return the next morning to work. They made a deal with the devil to enchant a canoe to take them there and back, damning them all to hell.
Tommorrow; Mondial de Bier!!!
Montreal leaving the US with a sense of wonderment at a crazy country, where you can buy beer for next to nothing at the same place you can pick up your medication for liver failure. All minor problems aside, a great holiday so far and we drank some great beer and met some wonderful people. My father and grandfather picked us up and drove us to his apartment in the south shore telling us he had a good surprise for us for dinner.
Let me explain by saying my grandfather is a proud blue-blood Quebecois, a working man all his life from a large rural family. His dinners never disappoint. We were greeted by the delectable smell of ham cooking. My grandfather proudly proclaimed that he cooked the beer in not one but two bottles of beer. Madness!! For people of his generation and indeed my fathers, beer meant one of a few things, Molson or Labatt, the two biggest brewers in Quebec. This particular ham was cooked in Molson Dry, a typical adjunct macro lager with not much going on, pleasant to quaff ice cold for thirst suppression but that's about it. Bottles of it kept appearing in our hands (You boys don't have a beer in your hand, whats wrong?) All this made us thirsty for real beer, especially real provincial craft beer I missed so much. We ambled down to the local supermarket where a familar sight greeted me. Scott was suitably impressed by the sheer range of local produce and indeed price on offer and a local supermarket. "Fortune and glory kid, fortune and glory"
Please do not lick the screen. Beers in Quebec are generally based on continental European beer. Due to the cooler climate the beers are normally hardy ales and darker beers. Rousse (Red) Brun (Brown) Blanche (White) Noir (Black) are common beer names that reflect the style of ale they are. The ever-popular Unibroue range of beers is easily available through out the province, even in rural gas stations, at prices that make you wonder about the massive amount of tax placed on them in Australia. $9 for a large bottle of Trois Pistoles? Fact! All the Unibroue beers except the Unibroue Blonde (lager) are based on Belgian styles of tradtional bottle fermented ale. What I love about Unibroue is how it promotes our proud Quebecois traditions and culture, by naming its beers after Quebecois legends and the artwork used promotes the proud history of Quebec.. For example Maudite (Damned), a strong belgian ale, has an image of la chasse-galerie the flying canoe. Legend has it that a group of trappers wanted to get home to Montreal in time for a holiday party but also return the next morning to work. They made a deal with the devil to enchant a canoe to take them there and back, damning them all to hell.
Tommorrow; Mondial de Bier!!!
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