THE BREWPUBS OF MONTREAL: L’Amere aux Boire
Greetings,
As far as I can tell there are at least eight brewpubs in the city of Montréal . On a recent trip to that city I had the chance to visit four of them. The following notes are but a guideline.The first brew pub on the list is the L’Amere aux Boire. It was almost directly across the street from the small hotel that my wife and I stayed in.
We arrived at around three o'clock in the afternoon. After parking the car and putting our bags up in our room, we were thirsty for a beer. We were in luck because we knew that just across the street was the L’Amere aux Boire, which had a reputation for their beers and their interesting bar food.At four in the afternoon, it was between services, and the place was almost empty. The beer menu was written in French, and so it was a little difficult to understand. However, the pictures of the beers served at this place are very accurate.
As I perused the beer list I noticed the interesting way in which brewpubs categorized their beers. It was rather simple. There was a blonde, a white/wheat beer, a red and the black. (I would later find out that there were also other beers, but these were usually specialty beers and listed in another part of the beer menu.) In fact, that is one of the interesting things about Montréal when it comes to ordering a beer and a brew pub particularly. It tends to make life simple, and it is fun to compare one blonde with another.The ease with which we ordered the beers was not matched by the ease with which we received them. As a veteran of many French restaurants here in Brooklyn , I chalked it up to local custom. When we did get our beers, they were both very tasty, and quite drinkable.
I had the blonde and my wife had the red. The picture of the red can be found below. As noted previously, it was in the late afternoon after a long drive from the state of Vermont . I was thirsty. My beer notes suffered what I did manage to write down. You can find below. Please excuse the brevityThe three people sitting on the patio in front of the restaurant all seems to know each other and seemed to be from the neighborhood. From what little French, I know they were discussing family and friends. I will admit that if this was my neighborhood pub I would certainly spend a good deal of the afternoon sitting on that "patio".
As it was our table just inside the door gave us a full view of the street as well as the inside of the restaurant. I promised that the next time a wee visit my beer notes will be more expensive and we will make an effort to try some of the bar food. 1) L’Amere aux Boire
This is a cloudy copper penny colored brew with a creamy white head. There is little aroma of hops or malt, and just a trace of phenol. The flavor and body is medium with a less than obvious presence of either hops or malt, the result of a rather fine balance of both. The finish is quick with a dusty hop finish.
Figure 1 L'Amere aux Boire Amber
Next we will visit BENELUX (brasserie artisanale et café). Cheers! Peter LaFrance
