La Houblonnière

Alright! Now we are finally moving into some adventurous territory. And all the beer freaks out there who do not know much about beers from Quebec, this is only the start. As I have written previously, the brewers in Quebec are, in my humble opinion, the best in Canada as a group, and I plan to dig in deep to explore beers from far and distant places within this province ('tis hard labour, but someone has to do it, so why not me?). Lucky bastard that I am, I have two special retail stores relatively close by which stock a great variety of local craft beers - the Atwater Cheese Market at the Marché Atwater, and the Métro grocery store in Verdun on rue de l'Eglise. There is another place, a depanneur in the Plateau Mont Royal on rue Laurier just west of St Urbain, who also has an excellent selection of local (and other) beers. I went down to the Atwater Cheese Market a few days ago to pick up a few interesting brews, and you will be able to read about them in the days to come as I indulge, my only constraint being that I have to make time for and find good places to take the right photo. One beer that I found, and which I had never tasted before, is la Houblonnière, brewed by the Brasseurs du Monde, in St. Hyacinthe, a town just south-east of Montréal. I do not know much about this outfit, only that they are likely to be a very recently founded brewery. Like many breweries in Quebec, they have very interesting labels for their products, as that of the Houblonnière attests: A hops grenade - houblon being the French word for hops, of course. The beer, billed as a hoppy blond ale, has strong hops flavours indeed, including a subtle flower nose and relatively pungent flowery taste, as well as a long bitter finish. In fact, it is hoppy enough for a nice hops belch a few minutes after consumption. I was a little disappointed in the malt balance - there were some caramel and toffee flavours, but they did not accentuate the front of the palate enough for my liking. Overall, though, this beer should please those who like American style IPA and anyone out there who is a lupumaniac (a term derived from the botanical name for hops - humulus lupulus). The photo below shows the IPA-like orange colour and nice head of la Houblonnière.