Microbrasserie Le Bockale , located in Drumondville, Quebec, one hour and fifteen minutes south east of Montreal, is a fairly new brewery to hit my knowledge. I am unsure about the history of this brewery, but I believe they are fairly new to the beer scene here in Quebec. As listed on their website they define themselves as:

“BockAle: n.m. Établissement québécois doté d’un savoir-faire remarquable où l’on brasse du plaisir à revendre.”

Or a really crappy google translation of that:

“BockAle: n.m. Establishment in Québec with a remarkable know-how where you can enjoy a lot of fun.”

Google translate is absolute shit for translating, but then again, linguistics ain’t no walk in the park. Translations can be tough, but I think that the rough translation sums up the meaning for the most part. With one of their newer beers to come out 2 months ago it is proven that Le Bockale certainly do like to have some fun, a Milkshake NEIPA? Jebsus fuck yo that is some crazy next level shit. Some of my friends looked at the label grinned, and *face palm.* I looked at the label and name and was like “feeeed me.” So I tackled this beer with great enthusiasm. Because after all, why not mash a milkshake IPA with an NEIPA? The world gives you lemons so make lime-onade, isn’t that the saying? Well whatever, the world gives you lemons and lime so just throw them in together at the same time, sweet and sour, tomato, tomato. Uh.. tom-Ah-toe.

Bockale Milkshake NEIPA
Milkshake NEIPA || ABV: 6.0% || IBU: 47

Appearance is a light yellow sunshine bursting with brightness into my ever so faint pupils. I’m sure we all know the feeling of fridge-lock. That is when you buy too much beer to be able to physically consume in any shape or form. So you find yourself having to drink beer after beer more often that you would like in order to clear some fridge space. There is a simpler solution… stop buying so many damn IPAs! But hey that is the beer drinking life, get too hopped up, take a weeks break and then crave some hops. Or maybe that’s just me. Anyways, so the appearance is radiating sharply and brightly causing my pupils to contract. Kind of like seeing a crazy painting of a sunset when maybe you have had to much special stuff to smoke. The Aroma has a wonderful fruity hop profile. Hopped with Citra, Fantasia, and Azacca, the Citra is really shining on the nose for me. Also loaded with lactose and vanilla, as is the standard with Milkshake IPAs, you can sense the aromas of the sweetness and vanilla flowing through to your nostrils. Like a weird dance that makes cats go ape shit on catnip.

The Taste is wonderful, on the first sip you get a bold vanilla kick followed by a balanced bitterness, strong lactose and a great balance of hops to add to it. My personal opinions, this is a solid beer and I truly enjoyed it. Not sure what the consensus of the craft beer drinkers from Quebec is. But for me personally I’m a sucker for vanilla and have a really bad sugar tooth, so anything with some of the vanilla and lactose sweetness makes me uh… wet.. relax people I mean it makes me salivate, jeez get your brains out of the gutter! This beer tells me one thing for sure, I want to try some more stuff from Bockale! To me it seems they are on the right path to making some mouth watering beer.

4/5

Words + Photography by Hopcitizen