Wednesday 10th of June 2009 11:01:19 AM

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It was rainy in Ville du Quebec and a bit cool, which, to me, is perfect beer drinking weather, so I went off to find this place.
Really strange location. It's basically underneath a freeway and not really near to anything else except for a parking garage across the street. I approached from the back and thought, at first, that it was just a brewing facility and had no bar, but the bar faces Rue St-Roch. If you're coming into town though, the ViaRail station is very close (Rue Gare du Palais becomes Rue St-Roch as it goes under the freeway).
Very cool atmosphere. Younger crowd of people just sitting around drinking. The place ended up filling up as I left around 8:30 though. There's a patio out back as well as out front, and a separate, raised area with a dartboard. The bar is U-shaped and dominates the room of small, cafe style tables. Lots of art on the walls. It was a very warm and inviting place, sort of like a cross between a neighborhood bar and a cafe.
Tasters are $2 each and they have set tasting tray menus per, I assume, the brewer's choice, of 8 tasters for $15. Not cheap, but it seemed reasonable to me. Glasses of the lighter beer run $3.50, pints at $5.50 while glasses of the stronger stuff (7.5%+) are $4.
The bartender spoke English well enough and was really very good at what he did. As the room filled up, he handled the whole room himself, although no one seemed to be ordering food (although they have food, I didn't look at the menu).
I have to comment on the music too: wonderful. They had some nice French pop-rock on when I entered, but put on The National after that, which I thought was perfect. It was all from the bar's computer and was per the bartender's choice.
First thing that impressed me was that they had three separate stouts on tap. I ended up with the tray that had just one on it though, because that selection seemed more interesting.
Everything was really great. That stout ended up being just about perfect and I ended up with a glass of the imperial stout, which was even better.
They had some strange ones too. Some sort of "The" beer that smelled just like tea, but tasted and went down like a lager. There was also the "lime et framboise" which smelled a bit like lemon-raspberry, but the taste only hinted at those flavors, and it was very smooth.
The one that threw me off a bit was the IPA. It had the flavor of an IPA (a very nice, smooth flavor) but had no discernible amount of hops. I tried it on cask and was even less impressed.
A warning though: NO CREDIT CARDS. I ended up having to walk out to an ATM down the street to get some cash to pay the poor guy. They take debit cards but, as you may know, American debit cards do not work as debit in Canada for whatever reason.
Strongly recommend this one, especially if you're coming into Quebec City anyway.