New Moon Niceties: Better Know Your Brews! Édition Québec

Your monthly brewmeister extraordinaire, Double A, is on the road, assessing the best beers Canada has to offer. With the help of my Francophone, sexy babe girlfriend, I am discovering Canada’s full palette of beers. Canada has gained a bad rap in the beer department for such barf-worthy beers such as Labatt Blue, Moosehead, and Molson Ice. PLEW!!! As your monthly beer expert, I will guide you to the renaissance in Canadian beer taking place in Quebec. We’ll take a look at two brews from there, both wheat-based in malt and both enabling you and your sexy Québécois girl to get fucked up enough to forget the night. Tonight, I tasted the best of Québécois beers at Ste. Alexandre’s Pub located in Quebec City, Quebec. With twenty beers on tap and over 100 bottles, you’ll have plenty of variety to taste.

-Aaron Nielsen


RJ Blonde d’Achouff (Belgian Strong Ale)

Brasseurs RJ (Montreal, Quebec, Canada)

I, personally, have not tasted beers from RJ before, but I am always enthusiastic to try Québécois beers. This beer is advertised as a “blonde” on the menu and on the bottle as a “spicy, strong beer”. Either way you cut it, it comes from a wheat-based malt, has approximately 8% apv, and runs only 5.75 $CAD for 12 oz. in the bottle. Our beer taster of the week found the bottle’s label to be very “cute”. The head is almost non-existant, but is white and disappears within moments of the pour. In the appearance, you’ll see you a dark yellow-orange, very hazy look. There was plenty of sediment suspended in the beer, not necessarily in bottom of the glass. Corriander is the most obvious scent of the beer, but overall, you get a sweet, citrus-like aroma when taking in its aroma. When imbibing your first taste, there’s a medium maltiness that only burns if you hold the beer in your mouth more than four seconds. Most obvious in the taste is a light, somewhat citrus-like flavor with light carbonation and strong hints of orange peel. The finish is overwhelmingly smooth with no hint of the strong alcohol present. You are left with a slightly sour taste in your mouth, but in a way, it’s refreshing.

Aroma: 11/12
Appearance: 3/3
Flavor: 18/20
Mouthfeel: 3/5
Overall Impression: 8/10
Total: 43/50 (Excellent)

Aaron's Rating: 8.5/10


Blanche de Chambly (Belgian White)

Unibroue (Chambly, Canada)

From my personal experience, Unibroue has the best beer Canada has to offer. Following in the footsteps of the Belgian beer tradition, Unibroue has an amazing Abbey Tripel (La Fin du Monde), a great Belgian Strong Ale (Trois Pistoles), and for the ladies, a tasty Apple Wheat beer (Éphémère Pomme). Blanche de Chambly is the most widespread and the most enjoyable beer to the mainstream. Mon frere, Chad, who has sucked down far more brewskies than I, considers this beer one of his personal favorites. In America, you can get a 750 ml for $8.99; in Canada, I received a 20 oz. glass on tap for 8.00 $CAD.

Upon ordering a Blanche de Chambly, you’ll get a beer that has a mild, pearly-white head. In appearance, you’ll immediately notice that this is a unfiltered wheat beer and in particular, it’s a Belgian-style witbier. The appearance is a very hazy and in color; it looks like honey, that is a yellow-orange typical of Belgian White beers. Inhaling its aroma, you will get the essentials of the beer: orange peel, coriander, and overall citrus-like characters. Overall, the beer is very smooth with a slightly spicy, citrus taste, but rather neutral and enjoyable. On the downside, it can be a little watery, but you can use this to your advantage. Drink this beer in large quantities at the end of the night, and I guarantee it’ll go down like water and you’ll be more than prepared to take that special lady home. Speaking of which, the ladies overwhelmingly love this kind of beer and Blanche de Chambly goes down so smoothly, there’s no chance she’ll be able to keep track of how many of these she’s had. It doesn’t have as strong of presence in fragrance or in flavor as Hoegaarden, but it goes down smooth and easy. If you’re with your fille de la nuit, share a couple pitchers of this easy drinking beer and she’ll be ready to faire une pipe or, at the very least, take care of your visible trique.

Aroma: 10/12
Appearance: 3/3
Flavor: 15/20
Mouthfeel: 4/5
Overall Impression: 8/10
Total: 40/50 (Excellent)

Aaron's Rating: 8.5/10


And not to leave out ma belle amie, who tried this cidre:

Verger du Minot Mystique Cider (Cider)

Verger du Minot (Hemmingford, Canada)

Guest rater, Rachel: Délicisieux, rafraîchissant, comme avoir croqué dans une pomme croquante. Miam-miam ! Il faut le goûter.

Rachel's Rating : 9/10