Nos. 259 – 262 – Brasseurs du Moulin in Beloeil
It’s nice to feel like you’ve earned a beer, that’s why I think bars should be located at the tops of hills. Yesterday, I earned my four beers by exploring the nature reserve at Mont-Saint-Hilaire. My legs hurt today…
No. 259 – Smash Beloeil
I was hoping for a lot from the beers at this bar as I’d meticulously planned my trip to Mont-Saint-Hilaire and Beloeil and knew that I would probably be in pain by the time I sat down for lunch. I wasn’t aware of what this was supposed to be as I couldn’t see the description clearly from my table. I immediately thought it was a hoppy pale ale. Pretty close in fact, as it is a hoppy blonde ale. However, it doesn’t taste like a blonde – it made me think a lot more of pale ales that I’ve tried from Archibald and St. Ambroise. It seemed a little watery and bland by comparison. It gets 2/11 for being all right (1), for the price (0.5) and for the description (0.5).
No. 260 – Le Matsi
This was an odd beer. It’s an English Red Ale, with a more caramel brown colour. The aroma was a little surprising – a strong and distinct milk chocolate aroma with hints of toffee. This is more common in slightly darker beers so I wasn’t expecting it here in what looks like a lighter red ale. The aroma follows through into the taste. It still seemed a little watery but there was enough here to impress me enough to give it a decent mark. It gets 6/11 for being good, for the description, for having something slightly different, for the price, for drink-again-ability and for recommend-ability.
No. 261 – La Douce Caroline
I had to try this as my ukulele is called Caroline. Anyway, it’s blonde ale and it looks pretty good in the glass, with an almost burnt aroma, which I cannot describe in a better way. This was promising. Unfortunately, it was a little bland like the Smash Beloeil. It did however have more of a blonde ale feel to it. It was malty and a little thicker than the majority of other blonde ales I’ve had. I like maltyness so this was a good thing. It’s getting 4/11 for being good, for the price, for the description and 0.5 for drink-again-ability and recommend-ability each.
No. 262 – La Noire Bassine
And a milk stout to finish. This was fine, it doesn’t compare to the best stouts I’ve had this year so far but for a weaker stout that’s no surprise. It made me think of an average pint of Guinness, with similar creaminess in the head and a similar flavour in the body. I can’t really fault this beer for what it is so it’s getting 5/11 for being good, worth the price, accurately described, for drink-again-ability and for recommend-ability. The problem with the beer is that it is not a pint of chocolately-coffeeish heaven.
So, I didn’t find a great beer here, which is disappointing but three decent beers out of four is still pretty good.