Podcast Companion: Microbrasserie Le Castor

Season 9, Episode 59 of the podcast was a long time coming, and featured a brewery that anyone who was introduced to the Québec craft beer scene in the last decade would no doubt be familiar with, Microbrasserie Le Castor from Rigaud, QC. As I live in Ottawa, a short drive across the river from Gatineau, the Québec beer scene was as much a part of my craft beer upbringing as Ontario. One of the earlier really good, hop-forward beers I remember trying, as I suspect is probably the case for a lot of people in the Québec scene, was Le Castor’s Yakima IPA, an absolute banger of a West Coast IPA and a much-beloved Québec craft beer classic to this day.

As Le Castor’s facility is not open to the public, and they get their beer to customers entirely through their distribution network, they do business a bit differently. They also rely mostly on a core and seasonal lineup, much more so than most new breweries these days. They have an interesting story, and you can hear all about it on the podcast! Here we take a deep dive into the brews they tasted on the episode.

Kazbek

Pilsner - 5.3%

First up is Kazbek, a hop-forward pilsner from Le Castor’s experimental Progression Series, brewed with Czech Kazbek and Saaz Late. It pours a slightly cloudy golden straw colour with bubbling effervescence, creating a towering frothy head. The nose gives off aromatics of bread crusts and honey. Right away this is super clean and refreshing. There’s more sweetness to it than I expected, which has it drinking a bit more like a Helles than a Czech pils, however it does have that touch of Saaz spice on the finish which balances it out nicely. It tastes a bit different stylistically, but it’s an experimental series after all, and it’s super refreshing and enjoyable.

New England IPA

6.3%

Their standby NEIPA is brewed with El Dorado, Mosaic and Citra. It’s all peaches and cream on the palate, which is to say it drinks thick and creamy with a notable New England yeast sweetness. Ripe peach and mango are up front on the palate. There’s a bright note of strawberry, kiwi, and a refreshing twist of tangerine rind as well. That tangerine rind flavour contributes more bitterness as it opens up. There is a bit of a sugary sweet burn towards the finish. The thick sweetness is making it taste a tad under attenuated. That said, there’s a nice complexity of flavour here. If the sweetness were dialed in a bit, this could be really on point.

West Coast Lager

The West Coast Lager pours crystal clear and effervescent with a tall fluffy head that has excellent retention. It’s brewed with Pilsner malt, Lager yeast, and Pacific North-West hops. The nose is fairly subtle, with malty sweetness and a bit of pine. The palate gives off tropical flavours of papaya and mango. It has a thick, bready malt bill with some caramel sweetness. The body is thicker than I would have expected for the style, with more caramel sweetness whereas I would have hoped for a more resinous sweetness from a West Coast Lager with some bolder pine or grassy bitterness for contrast. At 6%, the ABV is also a bit on the high side. While the malt bill is great, I think this missed out a bit on the hop profile.

Lutine

Double New England IPA - 8%

Rounding out the set is the big sibling of their core New England IPA which boasts the same peaches and cream profile on the nose and the palate. This amped up IPA is brewed with Idaho 7, Citra, Mosaic and Centennial hops, as well as cane sugar in addition to malted barley and wheat. Like the single, it’s very creamy with flavours of caramelized, overripe tropical stone fruit like peach and mango. The yeast profile (and I assume the cane sugar) has it drinking very much on the sweet side, which along with the thick, creamy feel ends up a bit cloying on the palate. It drinks smooth, and slightly chalky, with a bit of warmth towards the end. It could use a bit of lightening up in body and sweetness but the flavour profile is solid.

Le Castor have been a staple of the Québec beer scene for almost a decade. It’s a fair bet that you can find them at your local depanneur wherever you are in the province. Grab a stand-by from their core lineup, or treat yourself to one of their seasonal or Progression Series brews. Crack one open while you give the podcast a listen and hear more about their story!

Article and photography by Nathan Lefebvre.

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Nathan

Nathan is a craft beer enthusiast from Ottawa, ON. He is the Co-Founder of @TeamLactose, he’s passionate about travelling for beer and he loves talking about beer from Ontario, Quebec and beyond.

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