Beer of the Weekend

After a busy weekend, Sunday night was the perfect time to plop on the couch with Amber and the dogs, and enjoy our company. Sunday night is also the perfect time to enjoy our BOTWE, Unibroue's Don de Dieu.

Our first Canadian brewery to grace these pages, Unibroue is located in Montreal's francophone suburb of Chambly. I've been to Montreal, although not Chambly, but from what I understand, there is an old fort, Unibroue, and not much else there.

Unibroue's saga begins in Lennoxville, where Unibroue acquired shares of an existing brewer that was in financial trouble in order to bypass Quebec's tough restrictions on brewing licenses. Unibroue eventually gained all shares of the former brewer and then mergered the old brewery with Unibroue to create the brewery we know today.

In 1992, Unibroue became associated with a Belgian brewmaster, a nameless person described by the brewery as an "expert in producing beers on lees," that is, unfiltered beers with live yeast in them, which causes a refermentation (or completion of fermentation) that occurs in the bottle.

Don de Dieu is a triple wheat ale at 9% ABV that Unibroue has produced since 1998. It has a deep yellow color, just approaching light orange. The beer is very smooth, although the carbonation is noticeable, and is just slightly sweet with a fruity, malty body. The head of the beer was not as nice as I would have expected, eventually totally vanishing, although I would have to try it again to pass a complete judgement on that. I had mine with some spicy Asian noodles, and it paired ideal. I would imagine it would go equally well with spicy Latin flavors.

Unibroue makes many quality brews, so look for them next time you're in the beer depot, and make sure you try Don de Dieu, our Beer of the Weekend.