Belgh Brasse recently had an unfortunate event occur in April of this year, where a fire swept the brewery. The act was considered a deliberate suspicious event and recently in September the perpetrator was arrested. The fire began in the old section of the brewery which was predominantly wood based and the storage area for their grains. It was certainly a sad day for the brewery and its employees as the loses were considerably high. Currently they are in the planning stages for the rebuild of their brewery and have not been able to brew in the capacity they used to. But with some luck and help from other local Quebec breweries, they have been able to brew beer and distribute in Quebec on a smaller scale to maintain the circulation of their products.

Most folk in the beer world are usually focused on getting their hands on the best of the lot. It’s all about the number one IPA or number one Barrel aged stout and often times other beers are compared to the top 10 of their categories and the comment is passed, it’s good but it’s not the best. I say it, you say it, we all say it! Because naturally in the end we are looking to spend our money on products that are truly worth it. However true and acceptable as this notion is, I find that sometimes the idea and taste of what is considered the best beer can often times distort our perceptions. By checking ratings we are predisposing the outcome of our taste, we are essentially setting our taste buds up to fall. The best way to really try beer is to have an unbiased view and just jump right in. I often try that test and to my surprise the results are always unexpected. I have had some beer that was rated fairly low but it turned out to be amazing for me. I’ve also had beer that was highly rated and it has been nothing but mediocre. Beer is not only about making good beer and tasting good beer, but about your own personal taste. I was not expecting much going into this, but it was a surprise how the results came out. I urge you to sometimes set aside the rating check and just go ahead and try something new!

Kristall Wite
German Kristallweizen || ABV: 5% || IBU: –

The aroma has a mix of Belgian yeast, citrus and coriander notes. On the taste it has the notes of a white Belgian style beer. A kristallweizen is essential a wheat beer and thus it has strong notes of wheat with some dark honey and light sweet floral kick. For me the combinations of taste is not balancing well and each flavor is fighting for dominance. Where as some beers have a balance on the elements or a balance on most elements with one dominating the taste in a fashion where it flows through one by one until the finish, this seems to attack you all at once in a tug of war till the end. I did enjoy the way this beer started but the overall experience for me was okay.

3.25/5

Lager Blonde
Pale Lage || ABV: 5% || IBU: –

I am not a fan of blondes, whether it is from Hill Farmstead or any other high ranked brewery. Most of the the corporate beers are blondes or pale lagers and it is where all beer drinkers start essentially. So there is always that memory of having a bud or a stella at the back of my mind when I taste anything similar. It is more of the beer rather than the quality. However I can still differentiate a good blonde vs the corporate trash. I was really surprised with this one. It has the aromas of your typical blonde but the taste has a very serene floral kick to it. This floral note for me makes it really stand out from the very few craft blondes I have tried. The finish is very light, clean and crisp as you would expect from a blonde.

3.5/5

Words + Photography by Hopcitizen