Blonde Du Quai - Shiretown (Canada - New Brunswick - Dalhousie)

Blonde Du Quai - Shiretown (Canada - New Brunswick - Dalhousie) 4.5%

Very hoppy and floral with a sweet and malty flavour capped with a punch of grain flavour. The flavour makes it quite bitter but it doesn't dominate as there is a lot of nice things going on here. A very nice blonde ale.

As far as where to get your hands on it, well, it is available in growler for from the brewery in Dalhousie, N.B., on tap in a few fine beer bars in New Brunswick (Marky's Laundromat Espresso Bar and the Garrison District Ale House) and Shiretown has recently announced they are going begin bottling and selling their beer through NB Liquor so look forward to that.

Blonde de Chambly - Unibroue (Canada - Quebec - Chambly)

Blonde de Chambly - Unibroue (Canada - Quebec - Chambly) 5.0%

Gold in a glass with a full frothy head. Nectary and flowery yeast aromas; quite sweet with a honey flavour and a touch herbal. Quite a spicy taste to go along with floral yeast flavours - quite obviously a beer on lees. The aroma especially, but also the taste, settles down to some thing more conventionally malty and sweet. However, there are still effervescent and delightful hints of the yeast flavours throughout the beer getting stronger as you get closed to the bottom. If pouring the whole bottle into a glass at once, it is worth swirling the last inch of so a bit to grab some of that tasty yeast off the bottom.

The history behind the name Blonde de Chambly is interesting: Unibroue named it les Filles du Roi, young women of marriageable age who came to Nouvelle France to help populate the colony in 1665. With the cool story, the handsome label, the matching gold foil and the tasty brew inside this is a very nice beer, definitely worth picking up.