Home of the BrewNosers

Quick story: I was in Iles de Madeleine a couple days ago and I dropped in on À l'abri de la Tempête. After a lengthy discussion with the woman behind the bar about beer (she seemed to have some stake in the business) I ordered a bunch of cases to bring back to the PEI/SAAZ guys. (Sorry I didn't mean to omit everyone but I only had space for a four-ish cases). She must have slipped off to tell the brewer that there was some beer nut buying a whole wack of all his beers. He came up and we started talking. Apparently the Quebec brewers are trying to define a Quecbec style. One of there more famous beer critics (maybe a brewer?) is pushing the idea. He was surprised I didn't know who he was talking about, I felt dumb. Anyways he harvested some yeast from the oldest brewery in Quebec city and distributed it to a bunch of breweries to make an almost fir/spruce beer. À l'abri de la Tempête's version is quite tasty, but I like fir beers. Anyways I thought this was a cool idea and wondered if anyone knew anymore about it? I am not bilingual by any means, so I couldn't ask all the questions I wanted too.

I also gave him one of our cards.

Very cool. Does the strain of yeast have any sort of particular characteristics that distinguish it from a standard American or British Ale yeast? Wondering if it might be a Bière de Garde yeast that was brought over from France or something like that?

So it was you! My buddy from Pennsylvania was there this week (all week), and they saw the cards and heard that some Brewnoser was picking up a bunch of beer. I didn't know who it was, so wasn't sure if it was for sharing or not. Cool!

You don't remember the "critic's" name, do you? When Deuane is here tomorrow, he might have more info.

Cool! I don't have any other info on it, I'm just chiming in because "À l'abri de la Tempête" is probably the most appropriate name for a brewery on the Maggies that anyone could ever conjure up.

Yes, Graham was kind enough to bring us back a nice haul of beers!

The next Aleanders meeting is going to be legen - wait for it - dary!

Well, they might as well try to grab the trademark before inbev does, ala the 'Nova Scotia Style' series.....

jeffsmith wrote:Very cool. Does the strain of yeast have any sort of particular characteristics that distinguish it from a standard American or British Ale yeast? Wondering if it might be a Bière de Garde yeast that was brought over from France or something like that?

I think it was harvested from the air, but my french sucks and there was a bit of a language barrier. I finally have a very good reason to improve my french... beer, but too late for this trip.

I found out some more about this in the last few days. The style is called "Annedd'ale". A few Quebec breweries have versions of it out now. Basically, here's the goods on the style, as found on Wikipedia:

"...a new type of beer which is being developed using only products which would have been available in Quebec in 1536.[1] The goal of the project is to create a distinct style of beer for Quebec. The two main ingredients are the annedda or balsam fir and a yeast harvested in the vaults of the first commercial brewery in Quebec. It is being developed by Mario D'Eer, Philippe Wouters and Michel Gauthier."

"Corne de brume" and "Corps Mort" are my favorites from A l'abri de la tempète. I hope they return to the seaport beerfest this year. As for the style, a lot of the info I see was from last year (including the french beer forums). To me, it sounds like a great attempt to get to a traditional beer, much like our spruce beer. Regardless, looking forward to see whatever comes out.

thecyr wrote:"Corne de brume" and "Corps Mort" are my favorites from A l'abri de la tempète. I hope they return to the seaport beerfest this year. As for the style, a lot of the info I see was from last year (including the french beer forums). To me, it sounds like a great attempt to get to a traditional beer, much like our spruce beer. Regardless, looking forward to see whatever comes out.

it basically was a spruce beer (or maybe more appropriately fir). At least A l'abri de la tempete's version. Although I found it really good and not excessively fir tasting.

mgc wrote:

thecyr wrote:"Corne de brume" and "Corps Mort" are my favorites from A l'abri de la tempète. I hope they return to the seaport beerfest this year. As for the style, a lot of the info I see was from last year (including the french beer forums). To me, it sounds like a great attempt to get to a traditional beer, much like our spruce beer. Regardless, looking forward to see whatever comes out.

it basically was a spruce beer (or maybe more appropriately fir). At least A l'abri de la tempete's version. Although I found it really good and not excessively fir tasting.

Going to have to try that one this weekend. I opted to go for the other specialty one first, the Amber that had sea salt in it I believe. It was really interesting, reminded me somewhat of salt water taffy.

Coincidentally, I just ran into a reference to what must have been the precursor to this "Annedd'ale", I was reading River City, which is a Canadian historical fiction/mystery novel. It includes a fair bit about Jacques Cartier's explorations in New France, and "anneda" was a 'magical' elixir brewed by the Iroquois that saved his men from scurvy. French wikipedia says that the tree "Anneda" is actually White Cedar.

Excellent sleuthing!