Amsterdam Brewhouse: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

During a summer visit to my home town, I always enjoy a Blue Jays game, some staple beer bars (The Only Cafe, BarVolo, Bellwoods, Barhop, and some others at times) and often a new place (whether new or new to me).  This year, post-game (and, alas, post-loss), the destination was Amsterdam's new Harbourfront, lakeside Brewhouse on Queen's Quay.  I don't generally like to post negative reviews, but I feel that I will herein mention the great with some suggestions for improvement as the goal of the critique insofar as the cons seem easily repairable.

The Good:

While Amsterdam began serving standard, fairly bland, fairly mild, if good but unremarkable beers, it has certainly evolved with aging sours, barrel-blends, a stellar unfiltered IPA I have been known to call Ontario's best (Boneshaker), and an Imperial Stout raved about by the beer geeks (Tempest).

Flights and pints allowed a refresher of Boneshaker and of their Tempest Imperial Stout (which seems to have corrected the light body flaw in an otherwise strong beer I have noted before) and new tastings of their Fracture (Imperial IPA which is excellent too, offering a great citrus nose and resiny citrus taste alongside a full body!), their Vicar's Vice (Traditional Strong Ale - complex and enjoyable in a style I often find too sweet with some peat and smoky tobacco notes), their Rye Baltic Porter (a simply stellar baltic porter with a malty caramel taste that I'd love to find 'creamed-out' on cask sometime), and the cask version of their Market Pale Ale (a solid PA, if not legendary).

These beers ranged from good to great and, were I not being budget conscious, sour bottled options abounded tempting a return visit - though I may not be so quick to do so, for the reasons yet to come.

The interior was gorgeous with wood trim, a sporadic balcony-esque layout with a trendy gastro-pub atmosphere while we longed for the exterior alongside the lakeshore in the fine afternoon sun.  The spot itself is worth its weight in beer - and with an 800 person capacity (500 interior, 300 exterior) it weighs a lot!

The Bad:

Though I didn't try much of the food, and though it would be unfair to call the 1-lb wings bad, they were certainly a touch pricey at $13 for 6 wings (in Boneshaker marmalade that tasted more like a mediocre mild barbecue sauce).  The food looked interesting and desirous indeed, but seemed their target was diners with beer as an afterthought.  This, I thought, is a restaurant for a nice date with some great looking wood-fired pizza options and a pretzel that looked unbelievably delicious, but less like the beer locale we'd sought.  This may not be bad, but simply didn't meet our expectations.

and The Ugly:

Upon our arrival - promptly and ahead of ANY coming from the Jays game as we planned for this - we encountered a substantial lineup.  This is fine and boded well, but before waiting we thought we'd check the cask and tap selection, so my friend held the spot and I checked with the friendly hostess at the front.  Despite her friendly assistance, she seemed to know little of the beer and said she'd find out, but didn't think there was any cask.  Before her return, two women came to the front, flirted a bit with the security guard and asked if they could wait at the bar getting a drink first - and were let through.  "Great," I though, "we will do the same."  Upon mentioning it to the same guard, we were told that wouldn't be allowed until it was verified that all in the line ahead of us had the opportunity - which is fine were the standard held uniformly.

Upon the return of the friendly hostess, I was informed of merely the four beers they didn't have and not of which they did, and that it could be up to an hour wait.  I said, again, that might be fine, but I'd greatly like to know what they do have - especially on cask - if we would wait that long for a table (or even the bar).  I was politely told that she'd happily get me that after seating the next customers and she returned with the beer menu and a statement that, "I am pretty sure there is no cask."

The menu was enticing enough, so we waited nearly 30 minutes and the line moved regularly though it grew immensely during our wait.

Upon entrance, we were frankly shocked.  No less than four hostesses took turns seating people, though less than 1/3 of the interior and 50% of the exterior was occupied, and we had been told there was only interior space available.  Minimal wait staff struggled to meet table orders while hostesses killed time and the place sat mostly empty and yet - though an exterior sign bragged of their monstrous space - there were people outside waiting for up to an hour to enter a nearly empty restaurant?!?  It seemed like a staffing issue, though with a few months under their belts, one would presume that could and should have already been resolved promptly!

Then, despite her charms and patience, our server brought me the draught, rather than the cask version of the first beer I ordered (after not originally being sure of what the cask was).  She almost seemed to be shocked that I could tell the difference and checked with the barkeep before telling me - without apology - that she'd bring me the right drink.

I don't, however, actually fault her, but with 20+ beers (their own and others), I'd think a little beer education is necessary for what seemed a remarkably under-educated and under-prepared staff.  It worked out fine, but seemed more in line with what one would expect at a finer dining restaurant where beer is secondary to the wine of some note and not what we were craving after a macro-imposed self-denial through the game at the Rogers Centre Skydome.

Flights were nicely organized into types and the Leaside offered Boneshaker, Fracture, Tempest, and Vicar's Vice which pleased both myself and my friend, though a make-your-own-flight (even if a dollar more) would certainly add to the beer-worthiness of the establishment.

In Conclusion:

I enjoyed myself, though I felt as if I were a drinker in a dining room, burdening the wait staff by asking questions about beer they had no answers to.  The food seemed intriguing, and the location (interior and exterior) is remarkable, but I'd pay more for great beer and knowledgeable service than for ambience and an experience replicable in many a restaurant around the city.  The wait time, however, despite the emptiness was bizarre and almost seemed like an effort in hype-building and I have heard this is a regular practice.

I enjoyed the beer and the place enough to go again - but not for a few drinks without assurance things have changed.  Perhaps only for a meal.

However, the harshness of this review serves mainly to provoke these very changes.  Hiring and training staff seems a minimal requirement in any business and the strengths here are clear, but without nurturing them Amsterdam risks bringing in the pretentious and alienating the beer-geek.  Maybe that's their market though and if so, you've been alerted - whoever you may be!

Fire and Brimstone: A Promising if Premature Visit to Brimstone Brewing

When I first learned of a pending nano-brewery in Ridgeway, Ontario, I got excited at the prospects of my future visits to nearby family and friends to no longer require a trip across the border to procure good craft beer in Buffalo.  Sure, I'd garnered no guarantee the beer would actually be good, but after spending some time with brewmaster Rod Daigle, I am pleased to report that my faithful optimism seems reasonable indeed.

Daigle and partner Jason Pizzicarola have officially opened Brimstone Brewing Company (facebook page here) in the same building as the Sanctuary Centre for the Arts - both so named due to their location in a former church.

Upon my recent visit, I got a tour and chat, over a taste of a (not-quite-ready) IPA in progress.  While their website states their aim as to "bring high quality, small batch (minuscule, really) craft beers to thirsty residents and visitors of Ridgeway and Crystal Beach, Ontario," Daigle articulates a more nuanced, evolving vision.  For him, with much of his life spent imbibing the aggressive, hop-forward IPAs of the North American West Coast, his personal vision involves bringing these more aggressive tastes and aromas to an Ontario market inundated with good, if not great, IPAs and Imperial IPAs with a constantly evolving selection of draught for the local market and the Sanctuary.  While that may not seem such a different goal from many in the burdgeoning Ontario craft beer movement, Daigle further envisions a process building towards this through a targeting of the local (perhaps less craft savvy) market, harnessing their beer evolution alongside unique brewing processes, such as the revival of an ancient, medieval stone-fired brewing technique.

Unfortunately, the purpose for my visit to Ridgeway was timed by family vacation needs and Brimstone's early success meant a complete sell-out of their first beers, while their first IPA batch hadn't yet reached maturity.  As it was close, we talked over a glass that wafted a faint piney and grassy hops nose that presented a decent balance in the mouth with strong resin notes and only faintly apparent immaturity in its slight apple hints.  The full body, alongside unfiltered hops resins made for a promising brew, if an incomplete one at the moment.  Moreover, I am assured of a pending recipe tweak to enhance the nose, though it is currently hopped with Cascade, Chinook, Centennial, and a Williamette dry-hop and hopback infusion.  Though evolving (in batch and recipe), this beer already topped many an IPA I have had and though I am loathe to make a definitive pronouncement at such a limited juncture, my intrigue has assuredly been strengthened!

The private tour displayed the next batch - in fermentation - of a Medieval-style stone-fired ale in which heated rocks are added to the wort allowing for rapid caramelization and smoky notes to build into a base of two-row pils malt with ale yeast.  A shame this oddity was weeks away and will be gone before my next return, but perhaps this process will lead to a refinement and I can return for the legendary output of this plan (in porter form perhaps, please?).  Certainly, it is through such unique endeavours that brewers can find their niche and create those oddities that we geeks so crave and, for this, I wish them every success!

The scale in the photo is the entirety of the brewing capacity, though it is about to triple with further plans of a future increase beyond that.  Other ideas and the opening of an on-site bistro abound.  I am anxious to see the fruits of these labours and the evolution from this strong beginning.  As it stands, the Sanctuary is already scheduled to host the first ever Albino Rhino Beertuberoolapolooza festival celebrating Niagara craft beer on Saturday, April 19, 2014.

In end to this prayer for future success, I will echo the sentiments from their shirts and glasses, "freshly Brewed, Craft Ale... Amen."

Reflections on Hops and the Valuable Flaws of Rating Beer

Why do I rate beers?

I don't ask this as if some FAQ, but rather as a question I sometimes ask myself.  At 1144 rated beers, I sometimes find myself wondering what the heck I was previously thinking when I revisit a rated beer and, hence, if I should even bother rating them all any more.  Past aroma and flavour descriptors typically remain the same, yet an assessment of whether it works often evolves as does my palate, learning, and experience.  If my tastes change, I find myself wondering just what my ratings are good for anyway.  Am I wasting my time, let alone that of others?

Even with personal palate evolution and new exposures, I am sometimes amazed by my consistency.  For example, I recently had a fairly obscure Ontario IPA for the second time and, without referring back to my notes from a distant first taste about 600 rated beers past, I reproduced an eerily similar text and an identical rating.

Yet others, which my original review called "astringent" or "so bitter as to be undrinkable," I now find to be amongst my current favourites.  It isn't a claim to some newly acquired sophistication, but rather to a continuous personal transformation (through which I may later revert to once again finding these beers astringent, or perhaps even bland in some hyper-flavoured future).  What began as a quest for sweet, oaky, vanilla brews changed to a desire for some hops alongside a malt backbone or for bitter coffee/chocolate malty notes, but which has now gone full force in two directions: towards sourness in the extreme and for nuanced blasts of citrusy hops.

Yes, I have entered my so-called "hop-head" phase.  Some start their craft beer journey there, some grow to appreciate it, others never do, but I have now happily devoured many an IPA I would have once found undrinkable.

Throughout it all, however, despite a change in degrees of tolerance, I have maintained that hops are something like hot sauce.  Hotness/hoppiness without sophistication presents simply a useless barrage on the senses, while those even incredibly spicy dishes and hoppy brews teeming with flavour bring such nuanced pleasure with that barrage that one's appreciation grows.

What I didn't realize when I first enunciated this analogy, though, is that there is a further dimension of correlation: as one's consumption of tastier/spicier food evolves into greater tolerance, so too does the appreciation of imbibing yet-hoppier beers.

So what is my point?

My point is that my ratings - even when drastically different over time - are still personally useful insofar as the essence is descriptive.  I understand how my tastes have changed.  If the beer descriptor is "solvent-like," it probably remains unenjoyable for me, while I am similarly unlikely to enjoy a "piney" IPA than a citrusy one, but something I once called astringently citrusy may provoke a different adjective to modify the citrus appreciation today.

Though I 'tick' off numbers, ratings beers isn't simply a numbers game for me, rather it helps me understand my preferences, understand beer, and - primarily - to drink better beer more regularly even in newly discovered brews.  I've learned much about beer, about description, and about myself in the process.  Yes, my ratings are both subjective and mutable, but they are nonetheless an experience I find enjoyable and nonetheless valuable.  Flawed, subjective, mutable, and imperfect though it may be, I do refer back to the notes from toasts past, and even if I now disagree, ratings and reviews have become my framework for beer appreciation going forward.  You should try it, if you don't already!

Mondial Review: Brazil's Best (of Fest) Beers

Following up on my previous Mondial de la Bière reviews here, here, and here, I am finally wrapping up my geographically-narrowed reviews of the bests of fest.

Though America still leads the world in the craft beer revolution, this event made clear that Canada, Italy, and Brazil are gaining (while Belgium remains a different sort of gold standard).  Though I did have some Brazilian offerings that were decent to good, the diversity of styles being brewed there is reflected by the excellence of the noted diversity reviewed below.

Brazil brought what was, for me and two of my colleagues, the absolute top beer of the fest of those we tried.  That was the Petroleum (12 % ABV American Imperial Stout) from Cervejaria Wäls.  Pouring a deep black with a fine mocha head, this beer wafts a sweet milk chocolate nose, though a more nuanced taste that begins with similarly sweet chocolate notes before a nice drying coffee-dominated finish coupled with a full body.  I could have drank this all day (and at 12% it would have been a short all day), but (despite immense palate enjoyment elsewhere) I spent the rest of the festival chasing this dragon and - upon my return for another taste - it was gone!  But next time - and there will be a next time - I will be drinking more than 4 ounces of this!  Grade: A+

Wäls stood out again with their Brut (an 11% Brut or Champagne beer), a pleasant rarity as the only one of 600 beers at the festival within its style, and one of less than two dozen brewed around the world (that beeradvocate is aware of anyway!).  This excellent brew poured a hazy dark yellow to light amber body with a nice fizzy white head.  Aromas exuded were of tart cherries and mildly sour fruits alongside hints of sweet raspberries.  Tastewise, it was pleasantly sweet with just a hint of Brett in a drying finish complemented by a full body and substantial carbonation, as anticipated.  Just a delight to imbibe!  I have only ever had two Bruts - one at each of the last two Mondial's - and I do believe this style is worth the hype!  Like champagne... but better beer!  Grade: A/A+

Yet another delight came from Cervejaria Colorado.  This time it was a 9.5% ABV Double IPA called Vixnu.  Vixnu poured a cloudy amber (making me wonder if it was unfiltered or dry-hopped, though I found nothing online to confirm this).  Its fair head presented an oaky-citrus with pine residing behind, while it transformed in the mouth from a sweet malty caramel to a finely dry fruity mango-citrus finish coupled with some resinous pine notes alongside a noteworthy and enticing linger.  The fuller-side-of-medium body complemented the brew and this was another I could have spent my day consuming.  Grade: A/A+

I would next note another brew - in yet another style - from Colorado once again; this time their Berthô (an 8% ABV American Brown Ale).  Pouring a light-ish brown, this beer presents a malty sweet nose dominated by mild caramel notes and traces of nuts.  The taste is similar, yet finishes with a slightly drying earthy and herbal hops.  It offers a full body and a tingly carbonation, yet the body smoothes out this strong carbonation giving it a creamy edge nonetheless.  Grade: A-/A

Finally, I'll briefly assess Cervejaria Bodebrown's Black Rye IPA (7% ABV).  This style-mixer poured a deep, dark brown, with a solid beige head even for a sample.  It wafted notes of pine without much presence of the malt base.  Tastewise, there were some notes of toasted bready maltiness preceding a dry piney, resinous finish with some grapefruity citrus notes in the linger which also picks up some spicyness.  Medium-bodied and carbonated, and fully drinkable!  Grade: A-/A

I'd also send my warmest regards to Whitaker & Vega Cervejaria for their Karavelle Dunkel and Cervejaria Coruja for their Labareda Keller, which both nearly made the review cut, but fell into the pleasant, but not fantastic category for my own tastes.  (Neither, however, falls in a category I love - though I do like both - but fans of these styles may wish to seek them out for a more thorough, personal assessment!)

I promise a brief best-of-show final review shortly, but til then, drink well but responsibly, and if you find yourself on vacation, seek out these marvels worth your dollars.

For the Lager Drinkers, Plus a Nod to a Great "Macro" Craft Beer

Happy Father's Day!

And now for something (not so) completely different... I will review a couple of excellent (Quebec) lagers and also a Macro-owned craft beer marvel recently purchased at the LCBO in Ontario.

Those who know me and those who read me are probably either acutely aware or sub-conscously observant of my general avoidance of pale lagers.  It's not so much that I dislike them (all), but rather that I rarely like them anywhere near as much as almost any other beer style and, hence, there are always more to try in styles I greatly prefer.

I have learned something valuable, however.  A beer in a style you don't typically enjoy from an excellent brewer is usually much better than your favourite style(s) from a terrible brewer (or even a mediocre one).  This may seem obvious, but choosing "imperial stout" over "pilsner" seems like a no-brainer for me... until I consider this important additional piece of information.

Thus, I have to give a dual nod to Brasserie Dunham, whose continual high standards led me to try both Dunham Pils and their Snowy Spring Royal Pilsner (brewed in collaboration with Andres Kissmeyer).  These are easily the two best pilsners I have ever had and Dunham, as always, deserves its praise.

The Pils (5.4%) is currently available in bottles at finer beer stores in Quebec (or at the brewery or some excellent draught pubs around the province) and pours a cloudy yellow with a nice grassy aroma.  It is quickly and fully drying, but nowhere near bitter or astringent, rather I would call it simply enticing.  Grade: A

The Snowy Spring (6.7% ABV) is currently on tap at Vices et Versa and available who knows where else, but is hopefully going to be bottled as was their last collaboration.  This is similar to the Pils but seems amped up all-around, with typical but more inviting grassy notes and hints of floral, earthy hops. The taste dries up faster and more deeply with a piney hops linger that almost makes me want to call this an India Pale Pilsner!  Though not excessively carbonated, it is tingly nonetheless with a medium body and is a pleasure to imbibe, indeed!  Grade: A+

In a slightly related vein, related in the sense of beers I normally don't consume, I am torn about the purchase of Goose Island by AB-InBev - one of the big three macro beer companies (owners of the B - Budweiser - in BMC).  The feared drop in quality seems not to have happened and though I'd almost always rather support smaller breweries, this means Goose Island products are beginning to show up at the LCBO.

Amongst these is the highly respected saison called, simply, Sofie.  Sofie (6.5% ABV) was the first of these super-hyped Goose Island beers I managed to get my hands on... and despite the hype, Sofie impresses admirably!  Sofie pous a clear yellow with an explosive, audible, white head, though with only slight retention and thin lace.  The nose is lightly tart with fermenting fruit aromas, while the taste complexity is noteworthy.  The tongue picks up citrus rind notes up front preceding a dry white wine and vanilla-oaky finish.  There is just a hint of lactic acidity and barnyard funk, but this is just slight and complements its flavourful complexity.  Medium-bodied and lively on the tongue, this is a delightful beer and I must grab more and cellar a few as it promises improvement/evolution for up to 5 years!  Grade: A+

Cheers, Dads!

Mondial Review 3: Pure Laine Quebecois Beers Stand Up to the Best

As I typically prioritize trying new beers, one would think I'd spend little time at Mondial de la biére trying local Quebec offerings.  However, many of these delights are either seasonals/one-offs/trials and/or they come from small, excellent breweries who are struggling to meet demand making their products scarce even here.

Shawinigan's Le Trou du Diable is beginning an expansion that is making their highly respected offerings more widely available, as it seems is Hopfenstark from l'Assomption.  Though I have personally experienced and heard great things about each of these breweries, I had been restricted to sporadic (if increasing) bottles and periodic tap offerings at Vices et Versa and Le Saint Bock.  However, a wide selection at the festival, increasing production capacities, and Hopfenstark's pending new Station Ho.St bar at 1494 Ontario in Montreal mean increased recent and future enjoyment of these Quebec marvels.

As great as Le Trou du Diable is, I wish to note the following: the hype around Hopfenstark is legitimate.  I am a huge fan of Dieu du Ciel! and have, on many occasions, called it Canada's best brewery (in both my opinion and the crowd-sourcing of ratebeer).  However, Hopfenstark is challenging that for me and I don't say this lightly.  The more I drink their beer, the more I want to drink their beer, and brewmaster Fred and his friendly crew assured me many tastes of some gems throughout my time at the festival.  So did many other breweries and, for that, they will all get their due, but Hopfenstark gets the extra shout-out not simply for chatting and imbibing, but for the stellar product they are producing.  I, for one, cannot wait for the new establishment to open!

After 15 months living in Quebec, I now feel sufficiently able to say, however, that there is a stellar high end of breweries here, but that the low end is not good at all (with some in the mid range).  Dieu du Ciel!, Hopfenstark, Charlevoix, Les Trois Mousquetaires, and Dunham really are the cream of Quebec's crop, with Le Trou du Diable, Benelux, McAuslan, Unibroue, and Le Cheval Blanc just behind for me, while there are a few other decent ones but also several I have consistently drain-poured and would be loathe to ever buy again... but man, is the high end solid!  Thus, there are many gems to recommend here and this post, hence, promises to be lengthy!

The very broad categories containing Quebec's Personal Best of Fest are: 1) Sours, Saisons, and Such; 2) IPAs, DIPAs, Etc; 3) Belgian Strongs; and 4) Stouts - literally, two Export Stouts and nothing else of extreme noteworthiness.

Again, there are many solid beers that didn't make the best-of-the-best cut, but without further ado...

1) Sours, Saisons, and Such

The personal winner for me here comes from Hopfenstark (let the deserved praises continue!) with their super-sour Berliner Weisse called Berlin Alexanderplatz Epilogue (3.5% ABV) which was actually my 1000th rated beer!  Not only do I love the sessionable nature of this 3.5%er, but its sour lactic notes and drying tart acidity are excellent for a sour-lover like myself.  I understand this to be an amped (soured?) up version of the original Berlin Alexanderplatz with added raspberries, and deliver that punch it does indeed with a cloudy white body and some slight head sending forth just a lightly tart nose with very mild fruity hints, alongside a mouth-puckeringly sour, acidic raspberry-lemonade flavour without any residual sweetness.  Lightly tingly with a light-to-medium body, the feel perfectly complements the intensity in my mouth.  I would easily call this may favourite Berliner Weisse I have as yet had, while acknowledging that it is a style variant that fits my personal tastes, though a few Gueuzes and American Wild Ales have still topped it on the more general 'sour' front for me.  That said, I am, of course, talking about different animals here (literally, if considering the bacteria) and, moreover, I am thinking of beers brewed by Cantillon and beers like Russian River's Supplication, so it remains pretty fucking good, sir!  Grade: A/A+

Insofar as they specialize in Saisons and such, one shouldn't be too surprised that Hopfenstark's rare and unique Saison du Rèpos (7% ABV) comes in just behind their super-sour winner in the category.  Though some lament the differentiation from the style norms here, they aren't so far off as to make this a different beast; that is, this is a saison through and through and a damn good one, if slightly untraditional.  It is in variation that Dieu du Ciel! stands out and so too this is how Hopfenstark makes their mark if you ask me.  Anyway, this beer pours a clear yellow with an excellent funky-sour barnyard nose of the best sort saisons offer.  The taste is unique and complex offering a clear evolution from citrusy sweetness to Bretty funk to a pleasant, delectable dry finish that cleanses the palate in anticipation of more.  Dry-hopped with citra, the linger is pleasant while the strong carbonation balances finely with the balanced complexity of flavours.  My only complaint?  That this is such a rarely available product!  Perhaps my favourite saison I have ever tasted!  Grade: A/A+

Equally impressive was Le Trou du Diable's Dulcis Succubus (7% ABV) which is sometimes called a Wild Ale and sometimes a Saison, as it has characteristics of each such that the brewers call it a "Wild Saison."  Aged in white wine barrels and fermented with wild yeast, as well as the standard Brettanomyces, this clear, lightly reddish brew wafts notes of honey, apricot, and tart cherries while the taste offers hints of vanilla wood up front with a drinkable, yet delectably soured (if not fully sour) finish.  Enjoyably complex with a fair body and prickly carbonation, I could drink this all day.  Sour but not puckering and multi-dimensional as it is, this beer is a gem!  Grade: A/A+

Falling only ever-so-slightly behind those gems comes Boquebière's Hildegard Saison Brux (7.5% ABV) another Wild Saison hybrid, which pours a cloudy amber with some lingering heady lace.  The nose is a decent mix of barnyard funk and acidic tartness, while the taste is Bretty and funky without much in the way of acidity.  In other words, it smells a bit more wild and tastes a bit more Brett-y (like a standard Saison).  A nice full body and strong carbonation complement it well.  Another successful marvel of Quebec's recreation of the French-Belgian styles!  Grade: A 

In order to keep this post manageable, I will simply send my praise to the following runner-ups without adding notes (let me know if you wish a full review and I shall in the comments perhaps).  These are all excellent as well and only fall short of review herein due to the strength of the competition:
Le Cheval Blanc's Ponette Cerise (8% ABV sour mash blend of Brett with wild yeast and cherries);
Benelux's Grisette (a 4.5% ABV Sour Saison);
and Hopfenstark's original Berlin Alexanderplatz (the less sour version of the praised epilogue which clocks in at 3.2% ABV). 

2) IPAs, DIPAs, Etc

Dieu du Ciel! tops the list here with their phenomenal IPA called Moralité (6.9% ABV) brewed in collaboration with The Alchemist (brewers of the famed Heady Topper).  It pours a fairly clear body that is light amber in colour with a creamy white head.  The aroma is of fruity, delightful, and powerful citrus with some malty hints detectable rounding out this inviting aggression of hops.  A complex finish of pine alongside some citrus, grapefruit, and mango fruity flavours dries out the fairly malted base.  Medium-bodied and very tingly with a sharp, prickly carbonation.  This beer is a marvellous delight, if not for the faint of hops!  Grade: A/A+

Hopfenstark again makes my list, coming in second here with a hybrid beer that seems a better fit here: 7 Sisters/La Pléiade Alcyone (8% ABV) is a black IPA fermented with saison yeast.  It pours a deep, dark brown while expressing a toasty-roasty coffee nose nearly reminiscent of an imperial stout, while the flavour offers an earthy/piney drying finish that is mild, but pleasant, tempered no doubt by the malt but its sweetness is likewise mild and checked.  A nice full body and an easier drinker than I imagined.  Not so much the typical extreme beer despite blending these diverse styles, but a pleasant one to drink without question.  Grade: A

A three-way tie just below these brings forth the following brief tasting notes:

Le Trou du Diable's Le Smash IPA (a 5.5% single-hopped Citra IPA) which has a solid citrus nose and a similar dry taste with some lingering resin notes.  Grade: A

Benelux's Anniversaire 2013 (a 9.3% Imperial IPA) has nose and flavour dominated by typical citrus and pine, with a decent backbone.  I often find I (slightly) prefer the nose to the taste on a DIPA and this was the converse (though maybe it just seemed so after smelling Moralité), but this one tasted like gold and could simply use a bit more dry-hop but was another I could drink all day - though at 9.3%, the day would be brief indeed!  Grade: A

Benelux again makes the tie-list here with the Sabotage IPA (7% ABV) which I had had once before I  had fully learned my love of hops!  Now, the excellent citrusy notes of grapefruit and rind are marvels I'd seek again and again!  Grade: A

I'd like to give a special shout-out to the top-runner up just below the review cut to La Succursale's Angus IP "AAA" (7% IPA), which again would make the cut were the competition not so fierce!  ANother solid beer amongst many in this style new to my discovery (and a nod as well to Hopfenstark's Postcolonial IPA for the taste, nose, and name!).

3) Belgian Strong Ales

Tops here for me was Benelux's Heksen (8.8% ABV) which pours a hazy amber appearing somewhere in between a strong pale and strong dark - seeming more like a well-malted pale in aroma and flavour.  Notes of fermenting pear greet the nose, while the taste begins with a fruity sweetness that dries out nicely in that combo mild hops/earthy yeast way one would expect of a Belgian strong pale.  The linger is nice and lightly funky.  A quite enjoyable beer.  Grade: A-/A

Next came La Succursale's Abt (10% Quad) which pours a nice reddish-brown and offers notes of sweet plums and a hint of licorice.  Taste-wise it is fruity and sweet up front with a fair drying finish.  Quite good at first, but the sweetness seems to grow as it gets consumed and begins better than each subsequent sip.  Still, quite good if room to grow.  Grade: A-

The honourary mention here goes to Hopfenstark's 7 Sisters/La Pléiade Maia.

4) Export Stouts

Ironically, both of the standout, new (to me) Quebec stouts and porters at this event were of the Export variety.

Tops was Dieu du Ciel!'s Libre Échange (6.9% ABV) which pours black as midnight with a fine mocha head of solid retention and clingy/sticky lace.  The nose is of enticing chocolate predominantly, while the flavour is roasty and of lightly burnt toast with a full, nearly oat-like mouth.  Just another masterpiece from this wonderful brewery!  Grade: A+

Coming in second behind this marvel is no insult to Hopfenstark's Greg (8% ABV) which offers sweet lace itself and a roasty biscuity nose alongside flavour notes of biscuits with a very dry lingering roasty finish.  Some may not appreciate how dry this finishes, though it was so good this was fine for me, while my token criticism is that the body is a touch lighter than it should be.  Grade: A-

That's all for now, folks!  The Brazilian's and the Mondial wrap-up?  Soon come!

New Homes Away From Homes

As I settle in to my life in Montreal, I am increasingly feeling like I have two hometowns: Toronto and Montreal.  And, as each home has its excellent beer bars, two new ones are being added to the mix around the same time.  One in each place.

Hopfenstark is adding their Station Ho.St Montreal bar at 1494 Rue Ontario any time now (assured to be within three weeks a week and a half ago), while Toronto's Amsterdam Brewery is set to open their Harbourfront BrewHouse at 245 Queens Quay West on July 1st with enough space for - get this - 800 people including a 300+ person lakeside patio!

This doesn't bode well for my pocket-book, but great beers, great reviews, and great times are assuredly forthcoming!