Les Trois Mousquetaires S.S. Kellerbier

Brewed by Les Trois Mousquetaires
Style: Zwickel/Keller/Landbier
Brossard, Canada

750mL bottle from a trade with a friend in Ottawa. Pours a nice hazy orange colour with a huge beige head. A style I should by all reasonable logic be in love with (a nice big F*** YOU to the Beer Store and the LCBO for neglecting such an awesome style). So this one really was awesome. Like a caramelized version of Christoffel Blonde. Huge hoppy aroma with promising Munich malts underneath. Awesome toffee-caramalt body with huge piney hops to add perfect balance. Not a whole lot of yeast considering it’s unfiltered, but the flavours present more than make up for that. Mouth-feel is medium but definitely fuller than a regular Pilsener. Delicious tasting beer. Kind of an ambiguous beer stylistically. Not a whole lot that I can say for some reason, but that in no way reflects how great I find this beer to be. 750mL just isn’t quite enough!

750 ml bottle shared with jessem. his bottle, thx for the share jesse! pours hazy gold with a lasting white head. just the way an unfiltered beer should look. nose of tropical fruit, light malt and hops. the flavour is similar to the aroma but just amplified. big in the mouth and complex while achieving balance. this one blew the creemore keller out of the water in a side by side. i really wish i could get more unfiltered lagers.

5,79$ for 750 ml bottle, green label, summer ’09. The aroma is quite discreet for such an intense taste, which is quite dry, very herbally hoppy, with dominant notes of citrus. Dry hoppy mouthfeel, tongue-tingling and long lasting aftertaste. So summertime and tasty, I just love this one!

My Bottom Line:
Herbaceous, grassy hops grow amidst farmy, grainy cereals before caramel-laden bread brings the tastebuds to a long noble hop bitterness in this peacefully carbonated and immensely poundable Québécois Kellerbier.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A lasting tower of foam provides fine lacing atop the hazy blondish amber with golden highlights.
-That nose is astoundingly rural. I know the Frontenac malts must have something to do with it, but they are so brilliantly paired with the noble hops and the chosen yeast that they don’t appear crude (which they often do).
-The carbonation nearly emulates that from actual Kellerbiers served from the cask; big bubbles, but so soft.
-Where’s my Mass krug?

From bottles and on tap at Vices et Versa.

750ml caged-corked cellaring bottle. Pours a lush hazy unfiltered amber-gold lager into the stein with a 3 finger sticky white cap. Fantastic lacing on the glass. Lively carbonation Aroma is pungent bready sweet malts with some fresh green apple and musty woody tones from noble hopping. Rich silken mouth feel with an incredible amber Munich malt spine in perfect balance with both bittering and aromatic noble hopping. Flavour profile starts with a big chew of thick bready malt in the front which is quickly balanced by Hallertauer and Hersbrucker bittering, mid palate some sweetness and light apple tones get a musty woody undertone from the Spalter and Tettnanger hopping, then a clean dry finish with a biscuity after taste...bloody awesome lager

750ml brown bottle, corked. Golden colour, hazy with a full, fluffy white cap. Great lacing. Hoppy nose, lemony, grassy, some sweet floral aromatics. Malt base, some sweetness, grains, but hops take centre stage - good grassy flavours. Long hoppy finish, grass aftertaste, light mouthfeel, mild in body and lightly carbonated. Nicely put together and very drinkable. This is a style I’d like to see more of.

I heard nervous stories about Quebec barley when I was there in March. The beer I tried there made with Quebec barley tasted very green and raw. I shared a 750ml bottle of this with my son on the porch. Golden orange amber with a thick head. Raw grainy scent like sniffing a glass of lightly toasted barley. Taste is the same tasty barley advertised in the aroma. A little green but definately full of flavour. Big grain taste, bready middle and a sharp pilsener hop finish.

Objectively speaking: A fresh pilsner out of a 750mL bottle. Clean, fresh and vibrant.
I like: Charming fresh pils malt aroma. Generous lacey white head. Almost expansive carbonation is pillowy soft, not crisp as you’d expect, becoming rather creamy in fact, but very smooth and pleasant all the same. Soft hoppiness providing just enough bitterness to enhance drinkability and neglecting the aromas as per German influence. Not as lean and dry as you’d expect a German pils, but the malts are absolutely charming. Of course it’s not as idiosyncratic as the MacAllen, but it’s just as well brewed.
I dislike: Some rumours spoke of some bottles being spoiled by DMS. This was certainly not the case of my bottle which was as clean as it gets.

I just tried the new 2009 version, the 750mL green label. It remains a relatively dry, highly drinkable beer with a strong leafy, very herbal finish. The Frontenac maltiness is highly perceivable, round, green and strawy. I remembered last year as more refreshing, but perhaps less bitter. Still, it’s a true pleasure to bathe into such great yet uncommon beers. Not changing the rating.