Montreal has no shortage of cozy, craft bars where this marvelous elixir is on tap to quench your thirst. These local microbreweries are just a hop, skip and jump away.
This bistro tavern, open since 1997, has no less than three bars on three floors. That's enough to satisfy anyone! They have ten house beers: an IPA, a honey beer, a nut brown ale, a blonde extra, a raspberry beer, a chocolate stout, scotch ale, the cream ale, a porter and a light red.
The Cheval Blanc was probably located on Ontario Street before Ontario Street existed! This artisan brewer serves you a ton of homemade products including the Admiral 70 (passion fruit), the Gose cheval de mer (cilantro and sea salt), its own pilsner, and the Double Bonheur (hops and nitrogen bubbles), plus beers from the Trou du diable and Castor breweries.
This can't-miss spot in Villeray is always crowded, and it’s not without reason. Have a drink of Pit Caribou, Trou du diable, or the Charlevoix microbrewery (among others), but also be sure to try the house beers: blonde, red, wheat IPA, mead, a robust brown, and more.
This institution on Laurier Avenue West opened in 1998 and offers no less than 20 beers on the menu at any time, including the Païenne (red), the Aphrodisiaque (cocoa and vanilla stout), the Rosée d’hibiscus and the Menthalité (bourbon and mint).
More than 30 beers await you here, on tap and in bottles. We’re not going to list them all here, but a visit to this fine establishment and a tour through their tasting menu will take care of that. Go nuts!
Newly situated in the Plateau, the West Shefford has its own eponymous brewery supplying it with some standout microbrews. Give them a try, especially Cette sorte-là (ale), L’Autre sorte (a brown), Les trois lettres (the compulsory IPA) and the Pretty Bastard (the coffee stout of your dreams).
The two Brouhaha pubs serve excellent beer (and a sublime poutine). From their great selection of house beers, try a pepper beer, the Gaz de course (barley wine), the Fleur du diable (Belgian style pale ale), the Luxura (triple IPA) and the Papineau-Fleury (with pinot noir). There are also many other great microbrews from around Quebec for you to sample.
The Saint-Bock offers more than 40 products on tap, so the choice is between the house beers and beers from breweries like Pit Caribou, Archibald, and Dieu du Ciel. On the house side of things, try the Dénouza (double stout), the Nux Indica (coconut and chocolate) and Colonel Moutarde (guess what’s in it).
A dozen different house pints are waiting for you at the Benelux, including the Antonyme (dark), the Flimzie (Abbey blond) and the 9% Anniversary Special, to be enjoyed with love ... and moderation.
Tapas and burgers go so well with the dozen or so house beers here, including the German-inspired Montreal Hell, the Amère à boire of British inspiration or the Fin de siècle, an IPA that has no equal.
Head on over to Harricana to check out their dozen house beers, each with a distinct personality. For now, let’s mention the champagne beer, the Porter Maya (cocoa and chipotle), the Rauchbier (smoked lager) and the White Buddha (citrus).
Do you like quiz nights, karaoke and good beer? Bingo! Here, there’s no less than 16 beers on tap including the Blonde du vestiaire (Alchimiste), the Déesse nocturne (Dieu du ciel), the Dominus Vobiscum Blanche (Charlevoix Brewery) and the Déserteuse (Le Trèfle noir).
At Isle de Garde, microbrews are served on tap in large quantities. Go with Mint-Chlorophyll from Rise Kombucha, the Berliner Weisse from Bilboquet, the Old Ale Brett with molasses from Hermite, or the Vin de Sarrazin from Brasserie sans gluten.
This new Rosemont bar serves beer in the German style, so you’ll need both hands to hold your draft. There are 20 different beers available, and half are German imports.
More than a dozen homemade and hopped-up products await you in this bar that is fond of a good quiz night. Notable beverages include the Citra (an American pale ale with tropical fruits), the Abstracte (a coffee porter), and the Barley Wine – but watch out for this last one: it'll pickle you with its coniferous flavour and 10% alcohol content.
Go atone for your sins by tasting one of the many house beers. If we had to name just one, we’d go straight for the Amère supérieure (Best Bitter), for its fantastic name and its extraordinary flavour with hints of spruce.
An unmissable place by the Lachine Canal, this pub serves cask products by the brasserie McAuslan, in the open air no less!
This pub in Old Montreal likes to say that it serves a dozen draft beers in constant rotation. In early 2016, they launched the Monocle, an American pale ale at 6.5%.
A taster’s paradise: Bier Markt serves 150 beers from around 30 countries ... including ours! These include, in rotation, seasonal beers from Quebec such as the Pale Ale Estivale (Summer Pale Ale) by the Brasserie Farnham, on tap.
This microbrewery restaurant offers a dozen homemade products such as the Bloomfield (a white wheat beer) and the St-Viateur (a chocolate and coffee stout). They also serve beers made by the Compagnie de bière Brisset.
Yes, Trèfle is primarily an Irish pub, but let it be known, the selection of bottled Quebec microbrews to be found here is impressive: Brasseurs GMT, Trou du diable, Dieu du ciel, Dunham, Trois mousquetaires, Brasseurs du monde, Archibald, Brasseurs sans gluten, Brasseurs du Nord … you name it, you’ll probably find it!
Here, they mostly serve the brews of the Brasserie Hopfenstark de l'Assumption, including malted, Belgian-style, English style, hoppy and fruity beers.
Preparing for a big game or show at the Bell Centre? Before you head inside, take a tour of the nearby Brasseurs de Montréal and enjoy one of the dozens of house beers that rotate according to the season. You can even watch the beer brewing as you sip your glass or pint.
These neighbourhood brewers, as they call themselves, like to vary their products according to the seasons. So you may have a chance to taste their jour de la marmotte (banana and lemon), the Douce (an amber ale that celebrated Montreal redhead comic la Poune would surely have loved), and the Ptit Dej (an oatmeal stout).