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| central Saint-Hyacinthe |
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| Saint-Hyacinthe Market |
Their head brewer is Dominic Charbonneau who previously worked at the Saint-Bock Brewpub & Brasseurs de Montreal, he's also a Cicerone and a BJCP beer judge so you know he knows his beer!
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| Dominique in the brewhouse |
After working in the industry for several years Dominique, like many other brewers before him, wanted to have more creative freedom and control so he decided to start up Brasseurs du Monde.  |
| the brewery |
Once you enter the brewery you arrive at a small reception desk and a stack of 12-packs on sale - a promising sign! Behind the corner is the Reserve du Picoleur Bottle Shop stocked high with brewery only releases.
I recommend the Stout au Chocolat (Chocolate Stout) made withlots of cacao rinds that were left over after the majority of the cacao bean was extracted at the chocolate factory down the road from the brewery. From my tasting notes:
"This gives it an insanely fragrant nutty chocolate aroma. It has that intense umami character I associate with all the best stouts I have had. The taste is bitter earthy/woodsy cacao with a bit of sourness in the finish. More dark chocolate, a bit smokey it's very intense with lots of umami savouriness. The main drawback is the body is a bit light...it is a very interesting take on a chocolate stout."
To the right of the lobby/reception is a door into wonderland. You leave the office park behind and are transported into a well-appointed, comfortable and welcoming bar space.
Bright red walls accent the space, wooden furniture abounds and a few comfy sofas beckon you.
At the other end of the hallway you'll find another magical door, this one leading into the brewery itself. Dominique was kind enough to give me a quick tour and show me around.
Brasseurs du Monde are quite a prolific brewery with more than 70 different beers under their belt. But thankfully their line up can be broken down into several easy-to-understand categories.
Gamme Sympathique
This is Brasseurs du Monde's range of basic beer styles for people who are new to craft beer. There's a Blond, a White and a Red Ale which is pretty standard in Quebec following the Boreale model.
However, these are made with a twist. I particularly enjoyed the White Ale which is made with the non-standard spice cardamum. Delicious.
White - It is a slightly cloudy gold. Thin bodied but with a silky smooth wheat mouthfeel. This white ale gives you a nice cardamom & coriander in the nose. The flavor is a great balance of spices cardamom, coriander who are joined by a solid spicy wheatiness.
Blonde - Bottle from the brewery as part of a mix-12 pack. A clear blond/gold that clocks in at 5% the taste is of a bready fruity blonde. Overall it is a nice clean blonde ale that does the trick.
Rousse - On tap at the brewery this scottish style red ale is currently their biggest seller on draft. It is a really solid beer in a style I don't usually like so much. It poured a good-looking clean deep red amber color with malty sweet but balanced profile making for an easy drinking treat.
Gamme Connaiseurs
This is their Connoiseur's Range aimed at people who are more into craft beer. It features:
L'Interdite Pale Ale (60 min boil) which I didn't have the chance to try as well as:
6.5% Interdite 90 is a lovely copper gold while the aroma is funky toe jam plus fruity and piney hop notes. The taste has a solid malt backbone & a clean sharp bitterness of pine boughs and some light fruitiness. Hopped every minute for the duration of the 90 minute boil, while good I was expecting more after I heard it was inspired by the Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA which I love.
L'Assoife 8 continues the Quebec tradition of top quality belgian style beers. It poured a deep red and I got a bit of raspberry in the nose while the taste was dark molasses, sweet pepper & fruits. This is bready Belgian style goodness.
L'Exploite 6.5%
Served at the brewery as a Montreal style cream ale(meaning a Nitro pour). It has a great roasty chocolate/coffee totally mocha aroma.
It's an incredibly smooth and satisfying stout - a double prize winner getting the WBC Gold & WBA Gold in the sweet stout category.
Which it totally deserved, this was a well-nigh spot on stout.
Gamme Passion
This seems to be the range where they play with various ingredients including fruits.
The craze at Brasseurs du Monde last summer was L'Infusee.
This 5.4% beer has a white ale/weizen base and is then infused with three varieties of tea. It was designed as a summer beer aimed at ladies but was so well received it is now a year-round beer.
Wow, what a wild nose - fruity flowery tea, the taste is incredibly fruity peach, cherry, raspberry. Delicious. It walks the fine line between beer and a fruity soda. Ridiculously refreshing. My mother & sister really loved this one as did I.
Houblonniere is A nice slightly cloudy copper gold with a thick beige head. It had hoppy green c-hops, hop pellet and pine aroma. Very bitter but clean, some dankness lots of pine and a bit of caramel malts. A solid hop forward APA that is almost an IPA.
L' Entete on tap is the brewery’s first lager, a dunkler bock. A stone fruit or fruitcake bready aroma. Toasted malts, sweetly balanced and medium-thin bodied but possibly thin for the style in my opinion.Seiglerie, this rye bitter poured a beautiful amber with a thick fluffy beige head. It has a spicy fruity aroma with quite a thick mouthfeel for 4%and a nice malty spice character. A good table beer.
Saison Tradition is a crystal clear gold with a spicy and sweet saison nose. The aim was to make something as close to the original simple farmhouse saison style as possible in that I think they succeeded. A clean and simple saison, very well executed & perfect for everyday drinking.
Big Ben, this beer's first batch clinched it a World Beer Award Gold Medal. It has since gone on to net the WBA as the World's Best Stout or Porter!
It has a nice cocoa and light molasses aroma. The flavor is all malty dark goodness, sweet. A flawless London Porter.
Gamme Grands Connaiseurs
The range for Big Connoiseurs which focuses on big beers.
Le Trinqueur a coriander scotch ale, Le Seigneur Noir an 11.5% Imperial Stout and the new L'Occulte a 9.5% weizenbock. I only had the chance to try one beer from this range but judging by the awards it's won it may be the best~!
Ale de Hardy is currently Canada’s best barleywine and rings in at 10.5% It pours a crystal clear dark amber color with a big fruity malty caramel nose.
The flavor is simply WOW - wonderful sweet sugary malts, candied plums, figs, cinnamon and spice.
Simply delicious malty goodness. Perfect for sipping on a cold winter day.
Gamme Festive
These two beers are made to pair with food on special occasions. This was a really wonderful series with great beers I truly enjoyed.
A Table is , made with 16 spices! It pours a nice clear amber with a fragrant complex nose. Each sip/sniff reveals something different. On it’s own it is really good while with food I suspect this would really pop!
I really enjoyed this series, if you can grab a bottle to celebrate your next special occasion.
Gamme Spiritueux
This was my main reason for visiting the brewery I'd heard via Canadian Beer News that they were launching the strongest beer in Canada and I was immediately intrigued. I reached out to Brasseurs du Monde and they were kind enough to invite me to the brewery for a visit and a tasting. This blog post and my article in Beer Zen on Extreme Beers: Strong Beers Around the World is the result.
Mauvaise Influence has the highest ABV in Canada at 20.92% The name is a tribute to the US brewers who were a bad influence on Quebec brewers!Hahaha you gotta love the name, push everything to extremes. Inspired by Samuel Adam's Utopias it’s a deep ruby pour with a big malty sweet aroma. It has a silky viscous yet eminently satisfying mouthfeel. The taste is port, sherry, maple syrup & burnt caramel. An incredible beer.
Neither of these massive beers are ice beers which surprised me. They were a side-project done in the brewer’s spare time so they took 2 years to make!
Elixir was made with various spices and herbs and has a 17.31% ABV. This gives the beer a nose is of boozy caramel with lots of delicious spices.
It brings to mind someone baking on Christmas morning. The taste is malty sweet featuring raisins, cinnamon, other spices and a bready gingerbread cookie character. It's really wonderful stuff. The best way to imagine it is as an after-dessert liqueur, a digestif. Costing 46$ a bottle it's not cheap and yet it was so good I bought one!
Porter Robuste au piment chipotle 7.5% 2012 this is their chipotle pepper robust porter that was a really smooth caramel, very malty with hints of chipotle smoke and heat.
I got lots of sherry and then the heat kicked in on the 3rd or 4th sip.
It had aged really well, the malts shone with rich candied fruit flavor while the peppers gave some earthy smoke before slowly adding heat in the finish that cumulatively came to the fore as I slowly sipped it.
This is just scratching the surface of what Brasseurs du Monde has to offer, they're constantly innovating and putting out new releases & starting new ranges. Since my visit in August 2014 they now have a Celebrante Platine as well as a Gamme Fruit (Pumpkin Pale Ale & Raspberry Pale Ale) & Gamme Privee (3 Capitaines - an Irish Red Ale inspired by pirates).
On top of all those beers they have the Reserve du Picoleur which is a range of brewery only releases such as Iced Porters and many variants on their other beers (barrel aging, etc).
L'Exploite's Brandy Barrel Aged variant poured pitch black with virtually no head, the nose gave me oaky, woodsy character with little brandy coming through.
Medium to light bodied, the taste was somewhat rum & coke like with cocoa/chocolate, vanilla and some oak. I think the brandy sweetness with the dark malts combined to give that rum & coke feel.
I shared the 11.9% Assoiffe 12 Bourbon Barrel variant with Kouji of Asahiya fame. It was a deep mahogany brown with no head which was surprising as many of the Picoleur bottles gave me gushers upon opening. The nose on this beer is truly great: a big bourbon, vanilla, oak and caramel fudge. Yummy!
It is medium bodied with a syrupy mouthfeel, my bottle lacked carbonation so it seems more like a digestif. The taste was sweet bourbon caramel, some oak and lots of boozy warming heat plus a bit of pitted dark fruits. It’s really nice but gave me more of the feeling I was drinking a dessert liquor.
Cerisette du Bretteux is a cherry fruit beer fermented using Brett. It poured a cloudy copper with a reddish-pink cast to it. The aroma's in your face Brett, musty cherry & strawberry. The taste is tart cherry, a bit sour lactic wheatiness but very approachable. Medium bodied with a lively rough effervescence. I liked it.
Pi 1 & 2 are small beers made with the second runnings of some of their bigger beers like the 11.9% Titanium Imperial Porter. They're called Pi as their ABV is 3.14% cool for people who like math!
Pi version 1 was a crazy gusher that settled into an opaque honey brown with a giant fizzy beige head. I then noticed it was bottled on March 20th 2012 which for such a low ABV beer made it fairly old. Being bottle conditioned it was fine to drink.
It had a nice fruity bready aroma with a touch of spices somewhat pastry/fruitcake like. A very round carbonation and soft mouthfeel made for an enjoyable palate but the body came off as thin & a bit watery - totally normal for a small beer though.
The flavor was pretty good, bread pudding, raisins, cherries, lightly spicy, cocoa powder with an ultra-dry finish. Judging by the gusher I suspect the yeast kept plugging away and possibly boosted the ABV over 3.14% pretty good but I am sure it would be better fresher.
Pi 2 poured a dark molasses brown with a beige head. The nose was sweet & spicy aroma with a bit of sherry oxidization notes. The beers is med-thin bodied which once again is no surprise from a small beer. The taste on this beer was malty, a bit spicy and sweet with cherry notes and some chalkiness in the finish. Not as complex as Pi 1 but a fun experiment.
11.9% It poured a dark reddish brown pour with a thick beige head in a tulip & very little head in a snifter. The nose is rich umami paired with deliciously sweet dark malts. It's med-full bodied and has lots of roastiness while remaining sweet. Very well balanced and the high ABV wasn't noticed. Loved by all who tasted it, mellow dark beer goodness.
All in all I think Brasseurs du Monde are a really good brewery who don't get as much respect as they deserve among Quebec based beer geeks. They are chasing Hill Farmstead, Dunham and Dieu du Ciel (all excellent breweries) while ignoring this brewery from Saint-Hyacinthe who continue to quietly brew away and rack up prize after prize in international beer competitions.
I suspect it has to do with the wide availability of their beers in Quebec. When you can pop down to the local supermarket to buy the beer the excitement of the hunt is lost. I also feel that many people aren't really aware of all the variants offered in the Reserve du Picoleur brewery-only range.
All that to say, Brasseurs du Monde are a solid brewery. When you visit Montreal give them a shot and if you have a chance pop into Saint-Hyacinthe to explore their wide range of one-off creations in their taproom/bottle shop!
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