La Belle Crawl – Dieu du Ciel!

Ummm, okay, here’s the thing:  Dieu du Ciel!, it’s like a beer Mecca.  If you don’t know, they make a huge variety of incredible beers, lots of Belgian styles, but also heaps of new-school brews, from badass AIPAs to BIPAs to RISs.  Haha, jargon abbreviations kick ass.  Suffice to say, these guys are just a few inches ahead of the cutting edge.  They have two locations, the brewpub in Montreal at St. Laurent and Laurier west, and their brewery in St. Jermaine.  After a bit of a walk up St Laurent, in which I constantly pointed out a variety of signs to Rob that were in English, just to annoy (including common English words like “baguette”, “brioche”, and “poutine”), we hit up the pub in Montreal, and it looks like this (from the outside):

Dieu du Ciel! Brewpub

Dieu du Ciel! Brewpub

When you walk in, you find yourself in a comfortably hip bar.  A bit dark, even in broad daylight, with lots of cafe style tables, red and black accents, and a great view of the brewery.  A large chalkboard tells you what is on offer on that particular day (18 taps worth, 15 serving DDC, 2 from Trou du Diable, and a cider).  We sat by the bar and opted for sample glasses which were nearly half-pints, and cost a pittance (I’ve forgotten and didn’t make a note, but it was something like $2.25 for <7$ $2.75 for >7%).  After some discussion with our friendly server we decided on glasses of:

  • Corpus Christi
  • Trou du Diable La Biscornue
  • Isseki Nicho
  • Penombre
  • L’herbe a Detourne
  • Chatian
Six samples at Dieu du Ciel!

Six samples at Dieu du Ciel!

The best part?  I had never heard of any of these before.  Below are my tasting notes, but beware:  I was already coming down with the infection that lead to my pneumonia at this point, and I was also not making a huge effort; instead I was just really really enjoying myself.

Corpus Christi – Rye Pale Ale – 5.4%

All hops from start to finish, a hint of rye in the middle, and a crazy velvety finish.

Trou du Diable La Biscornue – Pale Ale – 5%

Very malty and rich, with a lightly mineral/earthy hops that cleans up the sweetness nicely

Isseki Nicho – Siason mixed with Porter – 10.2%

Immediately a fruity saison that moves to a liquorice and roasty malted finish, like a big old porter.  Crazy good.  Top pick of the six for me.

Penombre – Black IPA – 6.8%

Unusual, like a really hoppy stout, very earth and sharp, roasty and warm, but with a mouth-coating hop.  Very cool.

L’herbe a Detourne –  Tripel with 100% Citra hops – 10.2%

Crazy citrusy hops, not really bitter, but sharp and sour.  The hops (slightly) give way to a warm sweet Belgian feel, with a touch of spice that doesn’t quite balance the hops, but does give an interesting taste to juxtapose the hops.  Not at all what I expected.

Chatian – Imperial Pale Ale – 9%

There is something that is very much like oregano, I’m guessing it’s the hops?  It’s a lot less boozy then I expected it to be.  There is a good hop bite on the finish, which is a good balance of both a nice floral hop, and a bit more of the herbal hop.  The finish is a lot quicker then I expected, especially for a 9% beer.

As I payed our bill, another server directed me to Super Marche Rahman, a dep down the street renouned for it’s enormous selection of bottles.  He recomended that I get myself a case of Corne du Diable IPA, and I must say, he was right in saying so.  Killer IPA.

All in all, Dieu du Ciel! was worth the drive alone.  Shame I was starting to feel ill, and we had to run along.  I could easily have spent all night there.  Oh well, there’s always Mondial.

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