Beer buddy Alexandre was rallying some of the troops for a Montreal pub crawl the night before the March in Montreal (MIM) Beer Event. MIM is a reason to go to Montreal, and I have been to it the past 12 years in a row. I am pretty sure that despite the claims of one Montrealer, I am the only person to have been to all of them, and I live in Halifax.
Alexandre wants to start at his local pub, a very nice little spot way up on Saint Laurent neat St. Zotique called Vice et Versa. This place's claim to fame is a complete reliance on Quebec produced products, from cheese, to bread, to meats, to drink. There are about 20 beers on tap, all micros, most of which I have never had.
I beat Alexandre there, and order a 1/2 pint of the Brasseurs et Freres IPA (5.6% - ok, thinish, nice hops) to help me contemplate a theme for the evening. Plans were to end up at Le Cheval Blanc, a long ways away, which meant that there were a lot of potential stops in between. But we had until 10 am the next day, when the conference started....
Alex arrives shortly after 5 pm. No one else will be joining us here, as they will be meeting us at Dieu de Ciel, on Laurier and Clarke, about a 15 minute walk away. I'm hungry, and know enough to know I'll need some food for the evening. I order a cheese and pate plate, and follow Alex's habit of ordering a small size glass they sell at Vice et Versa called a "Galopin". It is sort of a large sampler glass. Maybe 4 ounces. I try the Bieropholie Cascade IPA, which was excellent; the Hopfenstark, post Colonial (IPA) 6.5%, drying hop bitterness with good malt balance; and the Hopfenstark, Ostalgia Rousse, nice, hoppier than expected.
True to form, I want more than 4 ounces of a beer. When my food arrives, and to cleanse my palate of the hops, I order a pint of Trois Mousquetieres, Dartagnan Lager, which was clean, a bit grainy, but with a nice malt character and trace of sulfur on the nose. The cheeses and pates are served with great olives (Quebec olives?) and nice breads, some toasted. This makes me happy.
Shortly, we are ready to begin the trek. The success of the IPA tasting here has set my theme, and I'm off to try as many IPA's, or beers close to that, as I can.
At Dieu de Ciele, the Corne de Diable IPA is on cask, on the hand pump. It is against my religion to not have a full pint of cask conditioned beer. This one is soft in the mouth with a very complex malt profile, and long long finishing hops with some vegetal notes. It is strange being here without cigarette smoke....
We hold down the end of the bar for a while, now joined by one of Alexandre's friends, who I'd met the night before. We are subsequently joined by another local beer guy, and once he has his taste, we are off to the Sergeant Recruiteur, not far away, just down Saint Laurent. There I have a pint of Sergeant Recruiteur Hip Hop IPA, which was very yummy, Northern Brewer hops I was guessing, traditional style, and balanced.
We picked up another member of the crawl here, one of the Ontario CABA crowd in for the next day's event. He was on the other side of the bar, and looked familier form previous MIM's.
Next stop was the Reservoir on Duluth, just off Saint Laurent. I had the IPA, a pint (surprised?). This beer was the best I have ever had at this place, known more for its excellent menu (it is really a bistro, well above pub food), with a good balance and chewey hop palate.
From the Res' we head down the hill (this is the right direction to do a walking pub crawl) and decide that the walk to the next brewpub, Amere a Boire, is too far for our liking (or was that bladders?) and we pay a visit to Else's Cafe, a great little neighbourhood pub/resto that is on Le Boullion. There I have a pint of L'Alchimiste IPA (clean, crisp hopping, slightly thin malt, bitter finish), and scarf down three (count em!) samosas, with some hot hot chutney, that went great with the beer.
After the food, we head off to Amere a Boire, on Saint Denis just above Ontario, having lost one of our party to the proximity of his hotel (it is now fairly late, or early, depending on how you look at it). Once there I have a pint of Amere a Boire Pale Ale, a hoppy bitter on cask and hand pump, that is as refreshingly hoppy as most of the IPA's of the evening.
A nod to the bartender, and we are off down the street to the Cheval Blanc. The place is still packed. I get a pint of the Cheval's India Rouge, a hoppy amber ale that is good, but has some slightly hot alcohol and balance issues. Or is that the samosas?
This ought to be the place where we eschew walking and get a cab to Brutopia for their IPA, but I am the only one doing an IPA theme (I didn't mention that, did I?) so we continue on to a nearby place called Yer Mad. This is the mead and cider bar (as well as beer) that Alexandre introduced me to a couple of years ago.
Alex is still in sampler mode, so we try a bunch:
Four Meads: Benoite, Verge d'Or, Marie Clos, Cap des Tourmentes (all good)
Three Ciders: Cheval de Glace, Kerissac, Verger de Minot (I loved the Kesissac)
and a Pommier, blend of mead, cider and Calvados, from a producer whose name escaped me.
We close the bar down.
Of course, no pub crawl that closes the bars in Montreal (3 am) is complete without putting the correct cap on the contents of your abused stomach. We head back up the hill to Deluxe Fries on Saint Denis for a final shot of Poutine.
We all head back to our respective beds, me to wake up the next morning at 9, to shower, and then find my way down the street to begin the beer conference with a breakfast of beer - weizen, and doughnuts.
I am shortly heralded as the king of IPA drinkers... Well, it was not a bad evening. One must really drink full pints to get the full effect, mustn't one? And it really is all about pacing oneself and not going without food.
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