Sticke Alt - Les Trois Mousquetaires (Canada - Quebec - Brossard)

Sticke Alt - Les Trois Mousquetaires (Canada - Quebec - Brossard) 6.0%

A reddish brown and slightly cloudy colour in a glass with an off-white head of resilient foam. The aroma is sweet and sticky with dark fruit and caramelized sugar tones that border on light molasses. Toasted bread and nuts with some faint wood tones as well in the aroma.

Roasty sweet taste with a strong, nutty, grain flavour. Quite a bitter finish and just a bit spicy from the hops. Raisin, molasses (not blackstrap, much lighter instead), prunes, touches of apple. Put all that together and I would say Les Trois Mousquetaires's Sticke Alt tastes like baked red apples, prunes and raisins with honey, and half-caramel molasses over toasted nutty bread with a bitter finish and a umami aftertaste. A beer such as this is best paired with food and, as the label suggests, grilled food and semi-soft cheeses are well suited.

Maibock - Les Trois Mousquetaires (Canada - Quebec - Brossard)

Maibock - Les Trois Mousquetaires (Canada - Quebec - Brossard) 6.8%

Gold and clear in a glass with a fairly quick fading white head. There is some fine sediment at the bottom of the bottle and as long as the beer has been resting for a while most of it will stay there. Although, as you pour out the last drops, the beer in your glass will get cloudy but the flavour does not change noticeably.

A distinctly lager-like aroma plus some dry, European hops tones, grain, a hint of apple-like fruit esters and just a little impression of creamed corn (DMS) and something like the yeast smell of leavening bread.

A surprisingly bitter (though not very bitter) taste. It's only surprising because I didn't pick that up at all in the aroma. Floral and herbal tastes, a little peppery on the tongue, as well as grain and the taste is also a little bit yeasty. There is some sign of the high alcohol content as drinking Maibock certainly warms your chest.

This Maibock by Les Trois Mousquetaires is an excellent example of the style (except for the lack of the mostly superficial resilient head of foam). Maibock, for the record, is brewed in the spring and is essentially a Helles Bock that is brewed to a higher alcohol level.

Kellerbier - Les Trois Mousquetaires (Canada - Quebec - Brossard)

Kellerbier - Les Trois Mousquetaires (Canada - Quebec - Brossard) 5.5%

Full gold in a glass with a head of white foam that leaves behind nice lacing. A banana, herbal and slightly sweet grain aroma. There is some very fine sediment in the bottom of the bottle of this unfiltered beer but only the very slightest amount ended up in the glass.

Quite bitter with a distinct herbal taste with just a touch of citrus (lemon). Toasted bread and grain tones make up the malty body. A very bitter finish and lingering bitter aftertaste with an appetizing grain flavour and hints of the aforementioned herbal flavour. The bitterness fades as your taste buds adjust but also as the beer warms a bit.

Gose - Les Trois Mousquetaires (Canada - Quebec - Brossard)

Gose - Les Trois Mousquetaires (Canada - Quebec - Brossard) 3.8%

Lime, coriander and light floral hops aroma; sour and very intriguing. Orange and somewhat cloudy in a glass with fine sediment swirling about. Some fine sediment also remains in the bottom of the bottle.

Very tart taste. Coriander works it's way into the flavour once you get used to just how sour this sour beer is. There is even some sweetness too as well as creamy wheat flavours and mouthfeel. The combination of coriander and the sour flavour reminds me more of sour limenade than the sour lemonade mentioned on the highly attractive label but, at any rate, Gose has a flavour much like that of a sour and tasty citrus beverage.

The interesting flavour of sour beers makes them suitable for food pairings with light foods like salads or sushi, but also Gose would go great with guacamole or similar flavourful food that has a trace of lime.

Like every other product by Les Trois Mousquetaires, Gose is well-made, very tasty and presented in a beautiful bottle with a sharp looking label that is full of useful information. This is a perfect summer beer and a much more interesting, traditional and flavourful alternative to lagers flavoured with lime.

Hopfenweisse - Les Trois Mousquetaires (Canada - Quebec - Brossard) 6.0%

Hopfenweisse - Les Trois Mousquetaires (Canada - Quebec - Brossard) 6.0%

A big frothy proper wheat beer head with impressive resilience and nice lacing. The orange, citrus aroma typical of wheat beers brewed with orange peel is accentuated by the choice of hops to give an aroma that is exactly as they claim on the label: papaya and mango. I can also detect something like banana too although more like banana, in fact the whole thing smells a lot like a smoothie but with a hoppy pine-like touch. As time passes, a more herbal aroma comes out as well. Hopfenweisse (a pitch perfect name too, by the way) is a glowing orange in a glass and is cloudy with some light sediment.

The taste is quite bitter: a great deal more of the pine aspect of the hops character comes through. The papaya and mango flavour is still there but more muted. Malt and wheat characteristics are also there but again mostly overshadowed by a fairly bitter pine hops flavour with some touches of mango. No surprise that this reminds me of the last hoppy wheat ale I tried, Electric Unicorn White IPA by Phillips Brewing out of Victoria, British Columbia.

The marketing reps earned their pay-cheque with this one: the stylish bottle (like a mini champagne bottle), minimal but chic label and lettering, and the clever name all ooze opulence. The aroma is very cool and the taste is quite good too but I am just a little disappointed that more of the papaya, mango couldn't come through in the taste also the wheat characteristics are somewhat silent. All that being said, the hop aroma is nearly worth the price of the beer on its own and the taste is going to be very pleasing for you hopheads out there. Hopfenweisse is an interesting example of what I would characterize as an American Wheat: a wheat ale with a pile of aromatic hops.