HomeBrew Shop: La Chope à Barrock

Today we bring you deeper into the world of homebrewing by introducing you to our favourite homebrew shop, La Chope à Barrock. We have been homebrewing for almost three years now, and it is thanks to Stephane Laroch - proprietor of  La Chope à Barrock - for his guidance that we made it this far.

Specialty Beer Shops: Le Marché des Saveurs du Québec

Our next destination in the Specialty Beer Shops tour is Le Marché des Saveurs du Québec, situated within the Jean-Talon market only a few steps away from La Grange du Marché. As the name suggests, their focus is on all things Quebec and artisanal. They offer various products from oils, ice creams, cheeses, jams, honeys, to cream liquors, wines, and beers. There craft beer selection is in no way vast, but it is carefully selected, and they have the added benefit of having opened their doors in 2000. Thirteen years of customer loyalty and distributor loyalty, as Microbrasserie de l'Île d’Orléans' products are only available at this location within the Jean-Talon market, gives them an edge.

Specialty Beer Shops: La Grange du Marché

Over the past three to four years there has been significant growth in the MicroBrew scene. Both, in terms of small breweries and brewpubs, but more specifically in regard to the amount of specialty shops dealing exclusively in the sale of microbrews. In this article we will discuss one in particular: La Grange du Marché, situated within the Jean-Talon market. La Grange du Marché is going on there one year anniversary as of this September.

Henlopen City Oyster House!

Rehoboth Beach Trip: Part 3 

 

This photo of Henlopen City Oyster House is courtesy of TripAdvisor

We found Henlopen City Oyster House while doing a little pre-voyage research on Tripadvisor, it was ranked #2 best restaurant in Rehoboth and the word "oyster" in the name convinced us we had to go. We knew we were in for some good oysters and other seafood but we didn't expect to find a carefully selected list of locally brewed beers and excellent imported bottles; most notably a local favorite here in Montreal, Dieu du Ciel. It seems that Delawareans take a lot of pride in the craftbeer that is being produced right in their backyards, seeing as Dogfish Head helped to put them on the North American beer map. 

EPF!: Secondary and Bottling

Secondary carboy with dry hopped EPF!, you can see the dissolved Helga hop residue around the upper part of the carboy.

Hi Home Brew Fans!

We are back and ready to tell you all about our secondary and bottling experience. The transfer of beer into a secondary carboy is pretty straightforward but nonetheless a crucial step in adding tones of character to the beer. Secondary is done to get the beer off the yeast bed, for various reasons, as well as to add the hops -- a process that is called dry hopping. As I mentioned in the last post we dry hopped with Helga pellets (50g). The pellets are much more economical but like everything else in life they don't compare to the non-processed stuff i.e. whole leaf hops.

Dogfish Head Brewery Tour!!

The day after we arrived in Delaware we had reservations for a tour of the Dogfish Head brewery in Milton, about a 30 minute drive from Rehoboth. We could not be more excited for this tour. Firstly, we have the chance to visit one of the most iconic breweries. Secondly, Dogfish Head!!!! 

Brew Day: EPF!

Brew day, a very charged afternoon of sterilizing, boiling, cooling, and cleaning. It had been a little while since our last brew day, in fact, since February. We started off a little rusty and we had some cob webs to shake off the equipment. We always seem to forget the steps after a couple months of not brewing, only normal though. On this brew day we are going to brew an American Pale Ale, dry hopped in secondary with helga - for more info check out Hops.com.au. This will be an all grain batch, only our fifth to date. Let us begin!

There is no distance I wouldn't go for beer.

Last week we ventured down south to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, to visit one of my favorite and most respected microbreweries (craft breweries as they are referred to in the States) Dogfish Head.

If you are already into microbrews then I don’t need to further elaborate but for those of you who may be new to the world of beer check out their website link above.They not only make some of the most creative beers out there but their corporate culture is way ahead of their time.