IPA du Lièvre

I did not think that I would be able to get a beer starlet on stage this week, but a strange feeling compelled me to put one up at the very last minute. Mind you, this is a monster of a beer, judging by midget extinguisher standards: The IPA from la Microbrasserie du Lièvre in Mont Laurier, Quebec. On a Sunday evening, with the next work day looming, what stronger force might there be than a 1 l jug of 6% beer to help you start the week in style? And how I adore that swivel top bottle, which would have made a fine addition to my collection of Fischer Bitter bottles that I used back when I was still brewing at home.

Stephen Beaumont reports in the second edition of his great Canadian Beer guide that when this brewery opened for business in January 2000, the first batch was given away for free to the guests at the opening ceremony. That's what you might want to call class! If you go and check out the beers from this brewery, you will also find yet another good example of the fine artwork that we have here in Quebec on our beer bottles. Many of the labels of du Lièvre seem to mix Carlos Castaneda with Tim Burton's the Nightmare before Christmas. IPA, of course, is a beer style that always needs to have that tiny extra kick, a little more alcohol and many little - or big - shovels full of hops to make sure that the beer does not go bad on the long journey to India. Just in case you did not now, both alcohol and hops act as preserving agents in beer, and when sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, no-one wants to fend off scurvy with rotten ale. If the Suez Canal had been dug in earlier times, the world of beer might just have been poorer for the absence of this fabulous style.

The IPA du Lièvre certainly is an IPA typical of those found in Quebec: it is quite malty, loaded with dark caramel and burnt toast notes, and even its appearance makes you think more copper or red ale, than pale ale. The beer does have a lovely floral hop character that balances well with the caramel malts, first by spicing up the sweetness of the front palate and then by rounding out the middle palate with a rich haystack pungency. The back palate is wonderfully clean, with some burnt toast lingering on for a short while. And, there is plenty to have as the evening progresses.

Pale or not, that is the question:

Dancing hare (lièvre) with spear, juiced up on peyote buttons and ready for the Halloween dance with Jack the Pumpkin King.