Beer in Quebec facts for kids
Quebec beer is a special type of beer made in Quebec, Canada. It often uses ingredients found right in Quebec. The way it's made usually follows old recipes from France, Belgium, and Britain. This makes Quebec beers a bit different from other beers in North America. Some breweries also make German-style beers.
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History of Beer in Quebec
The story of beer in Quebec began a long time ago. It started when French settlers first arrived. Later, in the 1800s, bigger factories began making beer. Then, in the 1980s, smaller breweries, called microbreweries, started popping up. Today, you can find these small breweries all over Quebec.
Early Days: New France
In the 1600s and 1700s, people in Quebec made a unique drink called spruce beer. Today, spruce beer is usually a soft drink. But back then, it was a real beer! Instead of hops, they used spruce branches. Sometimes they added roots or other "spices" too. This was similar to how root beer was made.
Historian Benjamin Sulte said that early settlers came from parts of France where beer and cider were popular. They likely brought a drink called bouillon with them. It was an alcoholic drink from certain regions of France.
Pierre Boucher, the Governor of Trois-Rivières, talked about the colony. He said that rich families drank wine. Less wealthy people drank beer. Others drank bouillon. The poorest people just drank water, which was very good quality.
Records from 1646 mention that Brother Ambroise made beer for the people living there.
A marriage paper from 1650 shows there was a brewery in Montréal. It says the Governor of Montreal, Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, gave land next to the brewery to a new couple.
In 1690, a man named de Longueuil built a brewery on his land. But by 1735, it was in ruins. From 1704 to 1744, the Charron brothers added a brewery to their hospital building. These early breweries only sold their beer locally.
The first big commercial brewery was started by Intendant Jean Talon in 1671. It was in Quebec City. This brewery made up to 4,000 barrels of beer each year. All the beer was made with Quebec products. Half of it was even sent to the Caribbean and Europe! But this brewery did not last very long.
Growing Bigger: Industrialization
The first large-scale breweries were started by English people. One famous one was founded by John Molson in 1786. Later, a company called Canadian Breweries (CBL) from Toronto bought many breweries in Montreal. This included Molson's main rivals, Dawes and Dow. CBL later became Carling O'Keefe in 1973.
Labatt was another big beer company. It started in London, Ontario in 1847. Labatt opened a brewery in LaSalle, Quebec in 1952. But their beers were sold in Montreal much earlier, starting in 1878.
Molson and Carling O'Keefe joined together in 1989. In 1995, a Belgian company bought Labatt. Then, Molson joined with Coors in 2005.
A New Beginning: The Renaissance
From the 1960s to the early 1980s, only three big breweries made most of the beer in Quebec. These were Molson, Labatt, and Carling-O'Keefe.
In 1982, a small brewery called Brasserie Massawippi made the first craft beer for sale. It was called La Massawippi. This beer was made following an old German rule from 1516. You can still try it in a bar in North Hatley today.
In the mid-1980s, new rules allowed places to brew their own beer and sell it right there. This led to the start of "brewpubs" in Quebec. This happened shortly after British Columbia.
On July 1, 1986, the Golden Lion Brewing Company served its first beer in Lennoxville. One of the first brewpubs in Montreal was Le Cheval Blanc. It opened in 1986 on Ontario Street.
Many microbreweries started appearing across Quebec in the late 1980s. Some of these included McAuslan, Les Brasseurs du Nord, and Unibroue.
Unibroue was founded in 1990 and became very successful. It was later bought by a company from Ontario.
Since then, many more breweries and microbreweries have opened. Some examples are Les Brasseurs RJ, La Barberie, Brasserie Dunham, and Le Trou du Diable.
By 2008, Quebec had 59 active breweries. They made about 402 different kinds of beer! By 2014, there were 140 licensed breweries.
Mondial de la bière
Since 1994, Montreal has hosted a yearly beer festival called Mondial de la bière. This festival celebrates both big and small Quebec breweries. About 80,000 people attend this five-day event every year.
The festival usually has around 100 breweries. They offer more than 500 different beers and related products. This event traditionally takes place at Gare Windsor.
