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Montreal’s summer time pageant season will get hopping with the thirtieth version of the beer extravaganza, which boasts choices from 107 microbreweries.
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And we’re off!
Admittedly, a rhubarb brew from Belgium or a tangerine/guava/passion fruit blend from Brazil may not be the ideal way to kickstart a day for most, but so it goes here in Festival City, where patrons of the 30th Mondial de la bière will likely take full advantage in sampling many of the 400 beers, exotic and traditional, being offered from 107 microbreweries worldwide.
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As surprisingly tasty and easy on the palate as the Belgian and Brazilian offerings are, may I recommend, on the far more traditional side, the feisty IPA du Nord Forestier from the Trécarré microbrewery in Quebec’s St-Côme — which should go down well any time of day with any kind of grub.
Festival madness in Montreal officially gets underway in the minds of city revellers Friday with the Mondial de la bière inside Windsor Station and, with weather expecting to permit, at the adjacent Rio Tinto Courtyard. The event wraps Sunday evening. And, yes, for the non-tipplers, there will be a selection of alcohol-free products.
Yup, it’s bread-and-circuses time in town, when dwellers have a three-month diversion to forget about the incivilities of weather and finances and construction and politics.
Also on the party circuit right now are the Latin music fest Fuego Fuego at Olympic Park, Saturday and Sunday; the 18th Festival TransAmériques, until June 5; and the 13th Montreal Comic Arts Festival, Friday to Sunday.
And that’s just this weekend. Festival action celebrating everything from music to murals and movies, and then some, goes on unabated throughout the summer. Save, of course, for the embattled Just for Laughs fest, which is being replaced this year by Quebec City’s ComediHa! salue Montréal, July 18 to 28.
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However the Mondial de los angeles bière holds a unique spot within the hearts and gullets of Montrealers.
Jeannine Marois, the genial co-founder and CEO, counsels as all the time that beer-fest guests chorus from ingesting and riding. That shouldn’t be a infection this week, as our street situations — which might pressure motorists to drink — are so deplorable that there’s a rarity of parking spots within the segment. Plus, the Mondial has simple métro and rail accessibility.
“This is the strongest event we’ve assembled since we first started,” says Marois, sitting within the soon-to-be-filled yard. “It is truly mondial, with 74 microbrewers from outside Quebec offering a veritable smorgasbord of beers.”
Marois, additionally the co-president of Brazil’s Mondial de los angeles bière (marking its eleventh per annum in October), is especially bullish on illustration from this province, with 33 Quebec microbrewers taking part.
On that notice, Marois has helped assemble a pristine journey, Beer Trek, during which fanatics of the amber elixir have a map at their disposal mentioning — depend ‘em — 363 microbreweries and brew pubs spread out across the province. Montreal has an impressive 70 spots on this map.
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“This is for beer super-fans who want to discover all aspects of microbrewing in this province,” Marois says. “These have been tough times for microbrewers in the province. Their profit margins have gotten lower with the cost of raw materials having gotten more expensive, so this should really help.”
And so we will have a new brand of explorer roaming around — the coureurs de la bière, replacing our old-timey frontier folk, the coureurs des bois.
“The Beer Trek will hopefully bring in tourists from around the world to learn about our creations, much in the same way tourists descend on breweries in Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands to sample their beers.”
Yes, who can forget disembarking right off the plane in Amsterdam and heading over to imbibe at the Heineken brewery even before finding a hostel?
Belgium will be under the Mondial spotlight this weekend, with representatives from its microbrew community providing 21 presentations to spectators for free. Marois also suggests the microbrew-curious should sample suds from such faraway spots as Argentina, Estonia and Iceland.
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“What I’m in reality having a look ahead to is the aimless taste-testing for the people,” Marois says. “The most popular will be eligible for three awards Sunday.”
As all the time, there will likely be a lot meals and leisure to counterpoint the liquid consumption.
Marois concedes {that a} batch of taste-testing on her phase is needed for the process.
“I definitely do taste, maybe about 200 different beers in a year,” she says. “But it’s not unlike a wine tasting. I have to familiarize myself with the latest trends and beers from places I’ve never tasted before. I’m always learning. But I can’t complain. This is really a fun job.”
Incorrect confusion.
Marois remembers getting smitten via a microbrew.
“The first one I ever had was a St-Ambroise, and I fell in love with it right away. Before that, I never really even liked beer,” Marois acknowledges, in referring to the hometown McAuslan microbrew.
When Marois began the Mondial de la bière in 1994, there were only about 10 Quebec microbreweries represented, McAuslan Brewing among them. Back then, microbrewers accounted for a next-to-nothing percentage of the marketplace. Today, that number is estimated to be 14 per cent — an impressive stat in light of the fact that the big-name commercial brewers blitz the marketplace with billions of advertising dollars.
Notes Marois: “That’s really been the goal of the Mondial — to allow the public to fall in love with microbrews they’ve never tasted, let alone ever heard of before.”
AT A GLANCE
The 30th Mondial de la bière runs Friday, May 24 to Sunday, May 26 at Windsor Station, 1100 des Canadiens-de-Montréal Ave. For information on prices, times and tastings, visit festivalmondialbiere.qc.ca.
bbrownstein@postmedia.com
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