Les Brasseurs de Montreal Griffintown
One of the bigger operations on this list, les Brasseurs is based in the still-kind-of-industrial neighbourhood of Griffintown. They brew a wide selection, but you canโt go wrong with the aptly named Griffintown, a clear and malty blond. Youโll find it all over the city.
LโAmere a Boire
This brewpub on Saint Denis has been around for almost two decades, and itโs a destination for beer afficianados. Their namesake brew is a red British style thatโs strong and bitter and really, really good.
Benelux Session dโete
Right in the heart of the University district, Benelux is a brewpub that looks almost too polished for its own good. But the atmosphere is friendly and the beer, brewed in house, is delicious. Weโre particularly fond of the Session dโete, a light summer beer that you can drink all day long.
Within a few years, Dieu du Ciel couldnโt keep up with demand, so they expanded. They even started bottling the stuff. You can now get it all over Canada, which is pretty far reaching for a post-grad science project โ although itโs best enjoyed fresh. Their brewpub on Avenue Laurier has become quintessentially Montreal. Itโs a chaotic heap of mismatched tables and chairs, chalkboard menus that ricochet between English and French (and are indecipherable in either language) and the smell of sticky lager drying on the floor. The patio juts right out into the middle of the street and is always packed during the few months of the year itโs open. Itโs kind of a dive โ albeit one that serves award-winning $9 IPAs. Itโs exactly the kind of place that would be dreamed up by a couple of mad scientists (or mad science students).
Itโs also the kind of place people that has become a destination for beer lovers all over the country. It isnโt just that Dieu du Ciel has won awards for its beer โ which it has, more than are worth listing here, at the Canadian Brewing Awards and at international events like the San Diego International Festival of Beer. Itโs that Dieu du Cielโs beers are different. Theyโre ambitious. Theyโre curious. Theyโre a little eccentric. Theyโre almost like science experiments. Delicious, delicious science experiments.
The breweryโs current roster includes about three dozen varieties. Sure, there are relatively simple brews like the 6e Soir, an American-style pilsner thatโs light and easy to drink, especially in hot weather. But it gets exponentially weirder (or at least more adventurous). Thereโs the Aphrodisiaque, for example, a black ale with hints of vanilla, cocoa and bourbon. Or the Rosee dโhibiscus, a pink wheat beer brewed with hibiscus flowers. Or the Equinox du Printemps, a malty scotch ale brewed once every spring using real Quebec maple syrup. Plus, Dieu du Ciel is a frequent collaborator with other top breweries around the world, cooking up strange one-offs with the likes of Torontoโs Bellwoods Brewery, Delawareโs Dogfish Head, and Nagano, Japanโs Shiga Kogen.