So, Montreal.

As far as I could tell, there wasn't as much beer variety in stores as in Minnesota (or Wisconsin of course — my fridge is full of Dogfish Head and Stone and New Glarus right now, beers I've never seen in this state), but every bar seemed to be a brewpub, and you could buy beer in the grocery store. (sigh)

I completely underestimated the brewing scene. We hit up several bars, probably about two a day on average, and I don't remember all of them, but I can give you the highlights.

My first beer was the Belle Geule Pilsner from Les Brasseurs R.J., which I'd have enjoyed much more if it was the beer we'd all tried to order. It was very Czech.

What we'd actually wanted was this crazy pilsner that Jess recommended. It was really fruity, so much that I had a very hard time believing that they managed to make a lager taste like that. I'll try and find out the name. It was an impressive beer.

(The bar was cool too, or at least the bartender was — and I have such terrible luck with bartenders usually.)

Back at the hostel, Jess gave us many gifts, most notably some Brugse Zot Dubbel from Brouwerij De Halve Maan, which she'd ferried over from Europe for us. Delicious.

Back to Canadian beers. I knew to avoid Molson and Labatt, but they had this brand called Rickard's everywhere, passable but effectively the Summit of Montreal. And now I see that it's a Molson thing. Well played Molson, well played.

The Boréale beers from Les Brasseurs du Nord, also ubiquitous, seemed to be a little better. I had tried a bunch of their stuff.

Worst beer of the trip: the Route Des Épices from Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel. It's a rye and pepper beer for people who find the spices in the likes of Surly Cynic to be far too subtle.

(Although I'm still curious about their Rosee D'hibiscus, a wit beer flavored with hibiscus flowers. One of these days I'm going to be one of those guys who swaps beers online.)

I knew that Unibroue had some good stuff (I've still got that bottle in my fridge) so when Markie was getting the Route Des Épices I plunked down for a six pack of U Rousse. It was OK, but it's also apparently one of the worst Unibroue beers I could have purchased.

The second day of the trip we went to the Benelux Brasserie, which brewed an interesting variety and had a $9.50 beer-and-eurodog special. We went through the whole menu, essentially: I had a Saison and then finished with the Dreadlux, their Russian Imperial Stout.

Neither was bad, although in the Imperial's case it was more a matter of my liking the beer than liking the style.

Rachael's friend Fred introduced us all to the "Black Velvet," at an Irish pub that night, but the Internet is telling me that cider and Guinness is a Snakebite, and that we should have gotten champagne and Guinness for what we ordered. Whatever. It was decent, but not really my thing.

The last bar we visited was Les 3 Brasseurs, home of the "Meter of Beer."

Back at the hostel on the last night I started off with a bottle of Red Amber Ale from Alexander Keith's in Nova Scotia. That was very good, surprisingly so. I find myself disagreeing pretty heartily with the beer advocate reviews, so this could be a case of "the best beer is the beer you drink with friends" syndrome.

Then we drank some generic beer. Honestly, the most fun I had in Montreal was probably the afternoon where we had cheese and crackers and box wine. I've had good boozing and mediocre boozing of late, and that was definitely the former.

Labels: Alexander Keith's, Benelux Brasserie, Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel, Brouwerij De Halve Maan, Brugse Zot Dubbel, Dreadlux, Les Brasseurs du Nord, Red Amber Ale, Route Des Epices, Saison, U Rousse, Unibroue