WHAT I GOT

Beer Names
Bieropholie IPA
Bieropholie Imperial Stout
Bieropholie Bock Emissaire
Bieropholie Na Zdravi
Brune D'Achouffe
Coeur Dor
Dominus Vobiscum Triple
Dominus Vobiscum Blanche
Hue Beer
La Chouffe
Mc Chouffe
Mort Subite Geuze
Rescousse
Swiss Mountain Beer
Trois Pistoles (750mL)
Vondel
Wildcat Strong

After a number of years of talking about it I finally headed to Montreal for one of the finer beer events in Canada, the annual Mondial de la Biere. After arriving at Stephen's place in Montreal, we grabbed some food while Todd followed the dog around with a plastic baggy. All the necessities taken care of we promptly headed down to the Mondial in eager anticipation of the beers to come.

Mondial
It was a bit of a hike from Stephen's place and I was very ready for a beer when we finally got there. I was surprised to see that Windsor Station was actually right next door to the new home of the Montreal Canadiens - which explained the multiple crowds of schoolchildren. I know Montreal is known to be a bit liberal in terms of drinking age at times, but elementary school field trips to the Mondial would have been a bit much!

The website claims that there were over 350 brands of beer, cider and other drinks from more than 88 different breweries present and I believe it. Many of these were not of interest to me - things like Alexander Keith's, Sleeman's, or Carlsberg are pretty readily available at home so I didn't worry about it. I didn't really think about it at the time because I was too busy racing off to find a beer, but only at a beer festival in Quebec with so many new beers for me to try could I completely ignore the Unibroue booth. This is by no means a slight against them since they were in fact offering some of the finest beer avaiable, it's just that I have tried all of their products and the goal of this trip was to make use of the access to such a variety.

The beers came from all over, with lots of local Quebec micro breweries holding court inside, as well as some Belgians and others, while the Petit Pub outside was host to a massive selection of bottled products, particularly from the US. It was here that I added some beers from New Jersey, and the Yukon to my list of states and provinces I have sampled from.

Dieu Du Ciel!
Collected our belongings and piled into a van cab and headed off to Dieu Du Ciel. A closed tunnel lead to some traffic so we hopped out early and unloaded our gear at Stephen's afer conducting a quick botanical irrigation experiment. Grabbing some schwarma from Sarah's on the way, we soon found ourselves seated at one of the last free tables at Dieu Du Ciel. I had a half pint of the Peche Mortel, rated in the Top 50 beers in the world at Ratebeer, and one I had not yet tried. I was in for an extra special treat since they were serving from an aged keg of the 2002 batch. This creamy bodied brew was quite delicious. A must try if you have the chance.

Cheval Blanc
After breakfast at Beauty's and returning to the Mondial for some more sampling we headed out to Cheval Blanc brewpub. Saturday morning, Far less busy when we stopped by this time and we had time to sit down and relax a bit while we sampled their beers. All were quite nice I thought, though none really blew my socks off. Our group of note takers once again caught the attention of both some locals and a couple visiting from the U.S. for the Mondial. The service was good and the layout while cool, is not really to my own taste if I was going to be there on a regular basis. For the occassional visit though its quite interesting, especially the artwork on the walls!

Lets Get You In The SAQ!
Stopped by the SAQ located in the shopping complex built in the old Montreal Forum, which was both very cool and mildly depressing at the same time, especially as the fate of Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto is being debated. It was not an overly large location but they had such finds as La Chouffe, McChouffe, Hue Beer, Mort Subite Geuze, Swiss Mountain Beer. They also offered Chimay Blue but I decided the $10 sticker price was a bit more than I could justify for that one.

Metro Joanette
MJ was a cool stop again with a ton of Quebec micros available. I am starting to get to the point where the ones I have not had are harder to find though. Radek found a bottle of Seigneuriale Blonde here.

All in all it was a great trip, lots more that happened than I have bothered to include here. Many thanks to everyone who helped me out or just stopped by to say hello at the Mondial. It was definitely a fun trip and I think I will likely have to try and make it out for this one again. Perhaps not next year but eventually.