La Montoise
Microbrasserie du Lièvre

 

If you've ever wondered what beer looks like naked, here's your answer: La Montoise is a hazy, pallid summer wheat coloured ale with an almost whitish tinge. Nevermind its appearance, the aroma is truly bare-bones: there's nothing but damp, musty cereal grain. It smells like a barn after a heavy rain.

It's hard to give a beer even an "average" rating when it can't retain - let alone create - a head (this despite a steady and active stream of bubbles). What this might normally suggest to me is that not enough grain was used, except in this case that's literally the only thing one can smell or taste...

And when I say 'grain' I don't mean 'malt' - malt is created by modifying the grain's starches into delicious sugars and unlocking an encyclopedia of flavours that can be bready, nutty, toasty, sweet, complex and all numbers of other things. La Montoise, however, tastes more like horse feed.

Let me be clear: the beer is not at all unpalatable, it's just really, really plain (even by Blonde Ale standards). The appropriate metaphor to drinking this would be watching paint dry. Frying an egg is more complicated. AM talk radio is more stimulating. Barnett Newman paintings are more intricate.

La Montoise is a beer that aught not even have a name. It's a shame to waste such wicked label art on something so terribly dull. Perhaps the most casual of beer drinkers will appreciate the basic, unornamented, unsophisticated graininess - and complete lack of other characteristics - but I didn't.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bought in Quebec City in July 2010. Poured into a beer mug.

Looks like a blonde ale to me, yellow with a wisp of orange and lightly cloudy with a nice white head that laces lightly. The aroma initially hits me with yeast, then followed by a dank earthiness. Taste? How best to describe it? First mouthful I am thinking "Worchestire sauce? In a beer? WTF? Is 'blonde' french for crazy spices in beer?" It has a weird taste that is hard to describe or place. Not spoiled. Not pleasant. Let's just say that it is not a beer I would ever want to try again. There is a bit of residual sweetness and bready malt and the carbonation is appropriate.

Nevertheless: Drainpour.

12oz bottle poured into a pint glass

Appearance - The beer pours a slightly hazy pale gold colour with a nice size frothy and fizzy white head. There is a low to average amount of carbonation showing. There is some faint lacing and the head lasted for a minute or two.

Smell - I can smell breads and grains, also some hops, and a corn syrup sweetness.

Taste & Mouth - The beer has an average mouth feel, perhaps a little under carbonated. I can taste citrus zest, a grassiness, and some hops at first. In the middle I get some hints of malts, and yeast. The beer finishes with a lemony bitterness.

Drink - An unremarkable beer.. it's not bad, it's just not something that stood out.

This bottled beer is totally different now, from what I've read and what I think of it. They also changed the sticker, maybe to make notice to everyone that the recipe has changed? Who knows.

The beer is clear pale yellow with lots of carbonation. Nice aroma, however the intensity is low. Floral aroma, some fruits and faint notes of hop... floral hops.

The taste is slightly bitter and I would say a nice choice instead of taking a macro beer. Not at all a tasty beer, more of a day-to-day beer. This beer is very refreshing. The mouthfeel is thin.

This is an honest pale ale. Not overly hoppy (only faint trace), but not adjunct too.

Ordinary beer for ordinary day!

341 ml bottle- I like the art work on this one, but that's where my enjoyment ended. Pours slightly hazy amber with a loud fizzy white cap. The nose is grainy and dominated by yeast and sour grapes with a weird bready malt thing going on. Tastes sweet and grainy at first, which leads to an almost sour yeasty flavour. These aren't completelt offensive, but there are qualities here I do not look for in a beer. The finish is somewhat dry and grainy. This beer suffers from yeast overload, and needs hops badly. A funny thing I have noticed is that a lot of these Quebec beers have the same overly yeasty sourness to them.

bouteille brune de 341ml.

nouvelle étiquette, nouvelle bière aussi ?

j'ai bien aimé cette bière, d'une belle couleur dorée foncé, de beau arome de malt et de houblon se présente, en bouche elle est piquante, épicée et les houblons sont présents en fin de bouche. bonne ale.

Bottle notched July.

A- Nce initial head, but this quickly goes down toa ring with a bit of lacing and completely dissapeared before I finished the drink. Colour yellow, slight red highlights. A bit cloudy.

S- Floral hop smells plus a faint sweet fruit. Pineapple and honey notes.

T- Fairly well balanced hops but they lead to a slightly off aftertaste. The middle flavours are weak and the beer is too watery to get high marks.

MF- Very light. Carbonation level OK.

D- Very easy to drink. Not bad as a thirst quencher after a day of outdoor work.

Overall I liked this beer as an easy to drink thirst quencher, but it suffers from being a little bland.

Unfortunately, this one is not quite what you would expect from a "brasserie artisanale". This beer could have been brewed by Labatt. If this where the case, at least it would get a cool label and pointless promo ads.

Carbonisation was weak, so has the head. Lacing was absent. Smell and taste where bland corn and a little skunk.

If you are to try anything from Brasserie le Lièvre, please don't purchase this one. Brune de miel was much better.

Bottle – Poured a deep gold brew with almost no head and no carbonation. Smells and taste of corns with some skunk juice coming through at the end. I would drink a macro any day instead of this. I tried to promote regional products but when confronted but this type of beer there is not much I can do. Hoping the other beers I bought from this brewery will be better.