Chambly and Unibroue

The weather may not have been the best but we still made the trip to Fort Chambly, being a small town outside of Montreal. The most beautiful part of Fort Chambly is, not surprisingly, a fully restored stone French fort from the 1700's. Second of which is of course the global HQ of the most well known Quebec beer world wide- Unibroue, now owned by Sapporo breweries. Before a beery lunch we decided to explore the fort and surrounds. This also included an opportunity for me to dress in costume like my forefathers in the completely ridiculous and over the top uniform of a typical french solider stationed in the fort during the height of its usage. More ruffles? but of course! clearly not enough buttons here!!!

 

I've written about Unibroue beers before and I'm always impressed by the range and flavour of these amazing beers that are mass produced and shipped world wide. To drink them on tap in the place where they were born, within sight of the original French fort is a truly memorable experience. All the beers, served in the correct glass, seemed to taste just that little bit more exciting solely based on the beautiful location. The stand out for me was the Don de Dieu, named for the ship of Samuel de Champlain that carried him to New France. An interpretation of a Belgian pale ale, this beer has strong yeasty flavours and enough hop and malt to mask the high alcohol (9%). Bitter and smooth without the pronounced sweet malt flavours of its contemporaries its indeed a fine sippin' beer to while away an afternoon.

 

 

 

 

Mondial de Bier and visting our favourite Breweries

So the day had finally arrived for one of the highlights of our trip, the Mondial De Bier. Reasonably priced entry, hundreds of purveyors of fine beer, and lets not forget the food options! Almost every single major and minor brewery in the province and Canada was represented, from the big brewers like Rickards, Molson and Alexandre Keiths to the little guys. By little guys I mean really little. One brew pub from a little town between Montreal and Quebec city literally packed up the whole bar for the weekend to come down to Mondial de Bier, they brought the taps, bar top and beer lines. Now that's dedication!! The selection of beer at the festival was a little repetitive, a lot of rousse, brun and blanche ales from various breweries. There was some exceptional beers one of which was the coffee dopplebock by Beaus brewery from Van Kleek hill in neighbouring Ontario. Collaborating with my favourite coffee shop in Ottawa, Bridgehead, Beaus have created an exceptional brew, smooth with a pronounced coffee aroma and smell. The alcohol at 8% gives this brew a nice warming effect. This is the perfect winter brew!! If only I could put this in my thermos before work.

Breweries from outside of Canada were represented well, with the stalls promoting a massive list of US craft beer always full. All in all a memorable day with nary a bad beer drunk.  As our time in Montreal was drawing to a close we decided to go to the dieu de ciel brewpub not far from my old neighbourhood for a beer. Dieu de Ciel does beer a little differently, adding different herbs and spices to the brew kettle to compliment the brews. They make wit beers with cinnamon and clove as well as hibiscus! Ive always enjoyed their rye beer made with peppercorns and have been dying to try them on tap. Rule of thumb;  if a beer is good in the bottle, it will be amazing on tap!! These beers did not disappoint, the hibiscus wit was floral and almost fruity on the nose, but authentically sour on the palette with a subtle sweet note.  Apologies for the bad lighting in the photo but I had to share the Delicious charcuterie plate we ate that complimented these beers nicely.