This year will be the 17th edition and visitors will again have the chance to experience one of North America’s premier beer events.
More than 500 beers will be presented at this year’s Mondial with a heavy accent on brews from Belgium, Italy and Brazil. The Mbiere presentations will this year be open to the public featuring guests such as Eric Wallace of Left Hand Brewing, Christian Bauweraerts and ASN’s Tony Forder.
While, as of this writing, the 17th Mondial is not yet in the books, the Mondial team is already looking forward to next year when the festival will move to Place Bonaventure, a stone’s throw a from it’s current location.
Mondial president Jeannine Marois said she’s sorry to end the festival’s 10-year run at the Windsor Station, but the quarters have just become too tight with the festival’s ever-growing popularity. Although primarily an indoor location, Marois said there are plenty of opportunities to preserve the Mondial’s outdoor feeling at Place Bonaventure. Among the plans are the Biertrotters Beach, an Oktoberfest Garden, a Silent Dance Esplanade, and lunch and happy hour access to the Hilton Bonaventure’s rooftop terrace and pool.
If this isn’t keeping the Mondial team busy enough, they are also busy recruiting breweries worldwide for their 2nd Annual Mondial de la biere festival to be held in Strasbourg, France Oct. 22-24.
In Montreal each year special brews are commissioned as official festival brews; this year, for example, Hopfenstark will brew a German Helles Lager with 5.5% seasoned with Perle, Hallertau and Tettanger hops. This brewery has a reserved beer tap at one of the 10 hottest beer bars in North America, the Spuyten Duyvil in Brooklyn — just one indication that Quebec breweries and brewpubs have an increasingly worldwide reputation for the quality and the originality of their beers.
Two of Quebec’s breweries recently returned from the World Beer Cup in Chicago with awards. Unibroue won a pair of bronze medals for La Fin du Monde and for Ephemere. Shawinigan’s Le Trou du Diable took home a home a silver medal for a Belgian-style dark strong ale, La Grivoise de Noel.
Both breweries will be featuring new brews at this year’s Mondial de la Bière. Go try the Trou du Diable’s Saison du Tractor at their stand with 6.5%, and a complex well balanced nose and finish.
Unibroue will be giving festival attendees a special treat with a sneak preview of the newest member to the Chambly beer trilogy. The Chambly Blonde, 5%, is bottle refermented with Belgian ale yeast; it will join the Blanche de Chambly and the Chambly Noire, as another historic elegy to les Filles du Roi.
The Quebec brewing scene is vibrant with new breweries and brewpubs constantly being created, so keep up to date with a current Beer Trek map!
Pub crawling on a warm summer night can be a fantastic experience and is much easier when you know where you can find the perfect pint! In Montreal there are so many choices; try Dieu du Ciel, Le Cheval Blanc, L’Amere à Boire, Saint Bock, Les 3 Brasseurs, Les Brasseurs du Montreal, Brouehaha or Brutopia.
Québec City is catching up with the addition of the Korrigane and Le Corsaire to the legendary Barberie and the newly re-located L’inox. Sherbrook also has two downtown brewpubs with Boquébière and Siboire. To obtain a Beer Trek map published by the Petite Futé please consult: conwww.routebiere-beertrek.com.
