Belmont Station is an epic beer store stocked with an enormous selection of amazing beers from around the world.  The closest comparable we have here is Brewery Creek, but our liquor laws and taxes prevent them from competing as well as they’d like to.  I was overwhelmed when I walked in to Belmont Station.  I wanted to buy everything, but was obviously limited as to what I could bring back across the border after a two day trip.  I picked up some Russian River brews I’d never seen anywhere else before.  I also bought Aphrodisiaque, a cocoa vanilla bean stout brewed by Quebec’s Dieu du Ciel.  I’d never seen this beer in BC before, which I find upsetting.  You’d think we’d be able to procure some of Canada’s finest?  Another notable purchase was Chatoe Rogue Dirtoir Black Lager, which is made from Rogues home grown barley and hops.  There were others, but these were the notables of consumed and enjoyed so far.

If you can believe it, Belmont Station also has an attached beer bar with 22 taps of top notch beer.  We all ordered something different and all received something wonderful.  For me, it was my first chance to drink the legendary Pliny the Elder.  It stands up to it’s reputation as being one of the greatest beers in the world.  Erik and I were actually angry at how amazing and affordable Belmont Station is.  Why can’t we have something like that here?  Any future trips to Portland will involve a visit or two to Belmont Station.  If you love beer, you must go.

Cheers,

Chris

The first half of our trip was spent in Montreal, and the remainder of our time in historic Quebec City. As I previously commented, Quebec is an amazing beer destination, and I have quite a bit to post about. This first post will focus on Montreal, the second, which should follow shorty, will focus on Quebec City.

Montreal

The people of Quebec are incredibly proud of locally produced products, which makes for a great beer culture. Most restaurants we visited in Quebec featured a number of local craft beers. Unlike in Vancouver, good beer is available just about anywhere. Although the style of beers available in Montreal is quite diverse, most breweries tend to brew with a yeasty Belgian flair.

While in Montreal we visited a number of brewpubs – Brutopia, Dieu Du Ciel and Les 3 Brasseurs. For anyone planning a trip out Montreal in the near future, avoid Brutopia, they claim to be Montreal’s premium brewpub, but their beer is terrible – the other two pubs served great beer.

After landing in Montreal and a confusing hour spent on public transit on our way to our hotel, we sat down for our first meal in Montreal at Les 3 Brasseurs. This establishment belongs to a chain of brewpubs headquartered in France, and they offer four beers on tap (Wit, Blonde, Amber and Brown) and a maple syrup bottle conditioned Belgian style ale. We started out with a taster of all four ales – all were delicious, but the brown ale was my hands down favorite. To end the evening we tried the bottle conditioned ale, which was great, but nothing overly impressive. I just don’t think that maple syrup and beer work all that well together, many people I’m sure will disagree.

The best brewpub in Montreal, and possibly even Canada, is Dieu Du Ciel. They offer 18 beers on tap and a limited menu of bar snacks. We were only able to try 6 of the 18, but all were impressive. Dieu Du Ciel’s beer is clearly brewed with passion, care and creativity – three critical element necessary to create great beer, and food for that matter. The styles available range from German kolsch to a rich espresso imperial stout. The only beer that I thought they could improve was the India Cream Ale – I just don’t think brewers east of the rockies can match the fantastic hop flavors that west coast brewers have perfected.

Brewery Creek in Vancouver carries a number of Dieu Du Ciel’s beers, I recommend trying all of them at least twice.

Cheers

Erik

We left Montreal yesterday after visiting a number of great restaurants and brewpubs.  I will fill you all in when I get back, but so far the best beer experience was at Dieu du Ciel, the worst was at Brutopia, don’t go there, terrible beer!  This province in general, is a solid beer destination.

Sadly I could not get a table at Au Pied De Cochon, but I have eaten fois gras, Martin Picard’s favorite ingredient.

We are now in Quebec City and have plans to eat as much raw milk cheese as possible.

Cheers,

Erik

The Wild Chef Martin Picard

If you were wondering why Erik hasn’t been posting much, and you probably were, it’s because he is on vacation in Quebec.  What’s he doing there you ask?  I hope he’s collecting beer to bring back for me, but he’s more likely enjoying smoked meat and poutine, as well as putting the emPHAsis on the wrong syLLAbles like a French Canadian.  He mentioned a trip to Martin Picard’s (The Wild Chef) restaurant Au Pied de Cochon as well as many other culinary adventures.  He also planned to visit a few of Montreal and Quebec’s wonderful craft breweries, specifically Dieu du Ciel.  I imagine he’ll have a few posts to share with us of his adventure when he gets back.  It is with insane jealousy and anticipation that I await his return, which I’m hoping will include a few treats to share with me.

Cheers,

Chris

To answer this question, I set out to try as many of Mill Street’s brews as possible, which turned out to be rather challenging.  Nowhere in BC can any Mill Street products be found in draught form, but I did manage to track down bottles at a few places.  Brewery Creek carries their Belgian Wit and used to carry their Stock Ale, until I bought the last six pack.  The Irish Heather also carries bottles of the Belgian Wit, as well as their much heralded Tankhouse Ale.  I made a special trip to the Irish Heather just to taste the Tankhouse Ale.  I have now tasted both the Stock Ale and the Tankhouse Ale, both gold medal winners at the Canadian Brewing Awards.

As for the beers themselves, I first tried the Stock Ale in the comfort of my own home.  My first impression of the Stock Ale was nothing whatsoever.  I don’t think I noticed taking a sip.  It really reminded me of macro brewed lager.  I was really expecting great things, and was disappointed as such, but I can’t say that this was bad beer.  It’s just everybody beer.  You’d serve this beer to people who don’t like beer or you’d drink this beer if you wanted to drink 15 beers in one sitting.  I suppose it was true to style, but I expected a touch of genius.

I next tried the Tankhouse Ale at the Irish Heather.  Now this is Mill Street’s flagship beer, and having read so much about it, I was really expecting the greatest beer of all time.  I think it was only the build up that had me disappointed, because I really did enjoy the Tankhouse Ale.  I found it to be good pale ale and I would gladly buy it again.  It has an amber colour, is a little spicy, and a bit hoppy. I found it to be very well balanced.  I read on Mill Street’s website that they use Cascade hops to brew this one.  This got me thinking, most Pacific Northwest brewers use Cascade, which were originally cultivated in Oregon, in a good portion of their brews.  The Tankhouse Ale was quite good, but it is of similar quality to the pale ales I regularly get hereabouts (Phillips Blue Buck for example).

Tasting two beers probably wasn’t a fair assessment of Mill Street (I bet they have some great seasonal and draught beers), but I wasn’t particularly impressed with Mill Street.  I held off originally on the Belgian Wit (not my favorite style), but I will endeavor to try some the next chance I get.  What I find more alluring of what the East Coast has to offer is Dieu du Ciel.  I’ve had three of the six varieties I’ve purchased so far and each one has been an experience.  I plan to do a write up of my Dieu du Ciel experiences in the near future, but I definitely recommend trying any that you come across in the mean time.

To sum up, I think I’ve decided that Mill Street is the best brewery in Canada in the same way that Luke Schenn is the second coming of Bobby Orr (it’s the Toronto factor).  Ontario is always going to get more attention at the national level and I can deal with that (especially when the Leafs are losing).  I’m just happy to be living out West where there is an abundance of great beer, right here in BC and coming up from Washington, Oregon, and Northern California.

Cheers,

Chris