Ale Street News Online

Le Mondial de la biere pulled out all the stops for its 15th anniversary. Not only were there a record number of new (to Quebec) beers on display at the Montreal beer festival, but also it seemed a record number of visitors from the U.S. and from Europe.

Mondial has long been active in presenting U.S. beers at its Petit Pub pavilion. This year Italian beers, which are becoming better known in North America, and French craft beers which are virtually unknown, joined the ranks of newcomers.

Strasbourg Connection

The reason for the large French contingent became clear at the Friday awards ceremony when Mondial president Jeannine Marois announced a European version of Mondial to be held in Strasbourg, France in October of 2009. In all, 15 French breweries offered approximately 50 different beers. Among the highlights were L’ete Indien (Indian Summer), a 6% brew dedicated to Quebec flavored with chestnut and peach extract; floral beers from MontBlanc brewed with violets and mountain spring water; and perhaps the hoppiest of the bunch, Etoile du Nord from Thierez, nestled along the Belgian border.

The Quebec contingent was not inconspicuous either. Fifteen breweries from the province brewed a commemorative beer for the festival’s 15th Anniversary. Tops among them, according to a popular vote, was St. Andre Claymore Cerise, a cherry Scotch ale brewed by Trou du Diable (Devil’s Hole) of Shawinigan. Le "Trou" also fared well in the Mbiere blind judging competition, winning a gold medal for La Grivoise Double.

Mbiere Competition

Other gold medals were won by the Montreal brewpubs Benelux (Ergot) and Dieu du Ciel (Aphrodisiaque); and Quebec brewpub Broadway Pub Brasserie Artisanale (Tchucké). U.S. breweries did well too, particularly Rogue Ales of Oregon winning four golds for Imperial Red, Imperial India Pale Ale, Chocolate Stout and Chipotle Ale. Maui Brewing (Big Swell IPA) and Boulevard (Saison) also won golds. The real laurels however went to a couple of Quebec’s smallest breweries, Bilboquet for La Corrivaux and Hopfenstark’s Saison 10, which took home Platinum awards. Said competition chair Steve Parkes of Otter Creek/Wolavers, "I really enjoyed the unique style of judging where the judge’s skill and style knowledge were thoroughly tested (it is up to the judges to determine what style they think a particular beer is). The event was extremely well coordinated and ran very smoothly, and the quality of beer was superb across the board."

Hopfenstark & Dieu du Ciel

No sooner were the awards dispensed than a score of beer enthusiasts and journalists boarded an ASN-sponsored bus bound for the newly award-winning Hopfenstark brewery. Hugues Dumontier welcomed us to the tiny brewery located in L’Assomption at the edge of Montreal. Production is very small and bottling is by hand, but the location provides plenty of space to grow. The range of beers is large however — they served over a dozen at the Mondial, including three different Saisons. The beers are available mostly on tap in and around Montreal including at the brewery’s bar. Some styles are also available in the U.S. having piggybacked on Dieu du Ciel!’s distribution alliance with the Shelton Brothers.

It was to that brewery the bus headed next. The landmark Montreal brewpub, Dieu du Ciel!, has opened a production brewery in St. Jerome, about 45 minutes outside of Montreal. Brewer Jean-Francois Gravel welcomed us to the gleaming, 30-bbl. Newlands brewhouse. (If you’ve seen Brooklyn Brewery’s setup, this one is very similar). We chose from some of the well-known offerings at the bar — the aforementioned Aphrodisiaque, which won the people’s choice award at Mondial as well as the Mbiere gold medal, Rosee d’Hibiscus, runner-up people’s choice; and the cult Peche Mortel (Mortal Sin), imperial stout with beaucoup coffee beans.

Traffic notwithstanding, the bus deposited us back to Montreal in time to catch one of the Mondial’s many sideshows, an evening of appetizers paired with beer and wine. Featured guests were Dogfish Head brewer Sam Calagione and wine Sommelier Marnie Old, fresh off their book tour, He Said Beer, She Said Wine. The stand up, grazing format was not completely conducive to Sam and Marnie’s usual dinner table schtick, as they each promote their favorite beverages with various choices, but the pairing combos were virtually limitless, from a large assortment of appetizers to cheeses and chocolates.

He said Beer, She Said Wine

Not surprisingly beer edged out wine as the overall preferred choice. The evening is a small version of Mondial’s Flaveurs tasting event which is scheduled for mid-November in the same location, Le Windsor.

One of the beauties of the Mondial de la biere is that you can come and go as you please. There’s no entry fee, and since the fest is open 11 hours a day (11 a.m.-10 p.m.) Weds-Sun, there’s plenty of time to mix fest time with Montreal’s other ambience.

For the true beer knowledge seekers, the Mbiere conferences provide an early start with seminars the first three days before the fest opening. ASN’s own BeerSensei Warren Monteiro led off with a talk on Beer Touring. American brewers Rob Tod of Allagash and Steve Parkes of Wolavers spoke on barrel aged beers and organic beers respectively; Suzanne Hecht and brewer Hans Peter Drexler of Schneider gave a German perspective on beer and food pairing while the inimitable Lorenzo Dabove brought us up to date with Italian beers.

Conferences & Workshops

Yours truly gave a workshop on the American beers (from West to East, the U.S. was represented by some truly heavy-hitting beers from Maui, Rogue, Ballast Point, Avery, New Holland, Kuhnhenn, Boulevard, Sly Fox, Otter Creek, Allagash, Captain Lawrence, Defiant and Dogfish Head). Instead of just describing the way they tasted, we explored the concept of what the beers evoked, where did they take us. I interpreted a couple of them with notes on the flute (the exotic Chateau Jiahu from Dogfish Head, Defiant’s dark and sinister Stout of War and Kuhnhenn’s dense and fruity Tenacious Cassis). Later I switched to the penny whistle to play along with Celtic band McTalla Mor, then back to the flute to join a didgeridoo duo, or is that a didgeriduo, invited to appear by ASN columnist and Mondial regular tune spinner DJStockbizzy.

Stockbizzy, aka Matt Sciacca, whose tent was at the end of the outside courtyard, had to endure some wet weather over the weekend that kept a majority of the crowd in the covered part of Windsor Station or inside beer tents such as the Unibroue/Sleemans/Sapporo combo or the Petit Pub, home to American and European beers. But, it seemed the worse the weather, the harder he span.

Another new feature this year was a beer carton contest, co-organized by ASN Quebec correspondent Deborah Wood which elicited nearly 500 entries from 30 countries around the world. Gold, silver and bronze steins were awarded to winners from Romania, Russia and the Czech Republic.

Five days was almost too short to sample from 450 products on display — 235 of them new. Despite wet weather the final two days, the festival once again drew more than 75,000 visitors. Mark your calendars for Flaveurs Nov. 14-15, 2008; and for 2009, Mondial in Montreal June 3-7 and Mondial, Strasbourg, France, Oct 16-18. For more information, see www.flaveursbieresetcaprices.com and www.festivalmondialbiere.qc.ca.