This Wednesday things kick into high gear at Palais des Congrès, where the 25th Mondial de la Bière launches for 4 days of raucous revelry. This year's festivities promise 650 different products (beer, cider, spirits, and mead) including 334 products new to Mondial, and many appearing for the first time in Montreal. Fourteen different countries are represented, and the organizers expect 140,000 visitiors over the 4-day event!
Yeah, it gets crazy, loud, booze-fueled... and fun.
The event runs from noon through 11pm from Wednesday through Saturday and, while entry is free, samples can add up so going with a plan is best for both budget and palate. And, if you don't wish to buy a glass, don't forget to bring one and freely use the glass-rinsing stations to clean things up in between tastes.
As always, I am most equipped to comment on sours, saisons, wilds, IPAs, stouts, and barleywine as I rarely drink anything else (aside from the occasional dry-hopped or barrel-aged zwickel).
Thus, for those wondering what to get, I offer my plan to conquer Mondial!
IPA/DIPA/TIPA/ETC
As the most widely selling style of craft beer, it is crucial to consider the IPAs on offer at Mondial, yet here there is good news and bad. The state of antiquated import laws unfortunately means even solid non-Canadian IPA breweries like Three Floyds must submit their beers months ahead of time to the SAQ system where they age them out for us, and this style only suffers from aging.
Thus for IPA fiends, I'd stick to the local, with decent to solid offerings from Shelton, le Cheval Blanc, Vox Populi, Les Trois Mousquataires, and Dieu du Ciel. However, most of their offerings are available locally regularly, and doesn't one go to Mondial to taste from afar?
Thus, my suggestion is to branch away from you hophead tendencies and to seek out some other styles! But, if you insist on the imported IPA, my untested, but optimistic best bet prediction is to hit the Norwegian brewery Haandbryggeriet for their (collaboration with Stone/Brewdog) Triple IPA (at 10% ABV) called Inferno as the backbone may support the hops for longer in the lengthy (and lengthily dated) import process.
But, seriously, expand your palate...
Thus for IPA fiends, I'd stick to the local, with decent to solid offerings from Shelton, le Cheval Blanc, Vox Populi, Les Trois Mousquataires, and Dieu du Ciel. However, most of their offerings are available locally regularly, and doesn't one go to Mondial to taste from afar?
Thus, my suggestion is to branch away from you hophead tendencies and to seek out some other styles! But, if you insist on the imported IPA, my untested, but optimistic best bet prediction is to hit the Norwegian brewery Haandbryggeriet for their (collaboration with Stone/Brewdog) Triple IPA (at 10% ABV) called Inferno as the backbone may support the hops for longer in the lengthy (and lengthily dated) import process.
But, seriously, expand your palate...
Sours, Saisons, Grisettes
Yeah, yeah... sour isn't a style, saisons aren't all sour, but I'm lumping them together because there are too few of each to latch onto here!
And, well, despite a few interesting looking offerings like Benelux Grisette a l'hibiscus, LTM's new Sour Citra, and DDC's Exorciste aux Mures, I'll just state the obvious: get your Crooked Stave and Jester King pours (but leave me some) and run along!
As a wildcard, I'll add in OverHop. While people raved about them last year, I find them inconsistent and more OverHyped, but I have seen batch variation as they dial in their contract process, and they bring several sours that could be worth a try... maybe.
Big Stouts and #BIL
Canada's Nickelbrook brings two barrel aged variants of their Bolshevik Bastard: Winey Bastard (wine BA) and Kentucky Bastard (bourbon) that are always a pleasure, while Brewfist offers an interesting sounding stout collaboration with Prairie called Spaghetti Western aged in grappa barrels (!?) with a certifiably sessionable 8.7% ABV (for a session RIS).
Dieu du Ciel brings Peché Mortel variants Latte, Framboise, and Termopilas (Mmmmmm).
Lack of Barleywine may be death, but at least your lifeline can be jacked with the 14% Xyauyu from Italian brewery Baladin, but I'd like to see a few more big bad BW rocking the taps.
Final Thoughts
In the end, when things start to dwindle, remember the local, remember something new, remember palate fatigue and exhaustion, and remember to drink responsibly!
But if responsibly out of options, Nøgne Ø always hits pretty hard, while DDC also brings a special 25th Mondial surprise beer that is, presumably, not to be missed.
See you there, geeks!
