Le Trèfle Noir Brewery

 Interview with Alexandre Groulx of Trèfle Noir Brewery

 Non-Flash podcast

One of the most impressive breweries that we encountered at La Soirée des Brasseurs in Shawinigan, QC in August of 2015 was Le Trèfle Noir, from the copper mining town of Rouyn-Noranda. "Noranda" is a contraction of Northern Canada and it lays directly in between the bottom of Hudson Bay and Toronto, 380 north of Canada's largest city. The northern most east-west highway in North America passes through it. So, to say that it's out of the way... yeah, just a bit.

Le Trèfle Noir, which translates as The Black Clover, started as a brewpub in July 2009 -- the first brewpub in their county of Abitibi-Témiscamingue -- and eventually opened an additional production brewery, not unlike Dieu du Ciel and Trou du Diable. Using about $125,000 of governmental economical development grant money, the brewery underwent an expansion in the summer of 2015.

Before co-owner and head brewer Alexandre Groulx graduated from Siebel in 2008, he spent about a decade honing his brewing skills as an amateur brewer. He served as a brewer for three years at the Montréal-based MacAuslan Brewery, where he made primarily English style ales.

Alexandre is excited to be working on a system small enough to experiment with all kinds of styles and techniques. One of our favorite beers at La Soirée was his Berliner Weisse made with cassis. He said that a local farmer ended up with a huge surplus last season and gave him some cassis to play around with, just as he finished brewing a Berliner Weisse that he felt was too dry. Alexandre decided to see what happened when he added in the cassis. The result was a pink hued, tart, refreshing beer with a wonderful black current flavor!



Their flagship beer is Le Trèfle Noir Stout, which is their biggest seller. They make an imperial stout aged six months in bourbon barrels which is also popular, as well as IPA, DIPA, Belgian Double, wheat beer, Belgian Saison, Scotch Ale, and others, including seasonals and one-off brews. Alexandre told us that he wants to exlore a bit with Bret fermentation.  Hear all the details in the podcast!

Trou du Diable's Quality Control

 Interview with Quality Control manager of Trou du Diable, Marylou Trudel

 Non-Flash podcast

What started out some years back as an informal private gathering of Quebec craft brewers has morphed into a full-fledged day-long beer fest, showcasing and celebrating some of the best small breweries in La Belle Provence -- La Soirée des Brasseurs. The fest takes place in downtown Shawinigan and is hosted by that town's brewpub and separate production brewery, Le Trou du Diable. There will be more info about the festival and the brewers who attended the most recent Soirée in future posts.

While at the Soirée, which took place on Saturday Aug. 8, 2015, we met with Marylou Trudel, a microbiologist and professor of microbiology, who serves as the Quality Control manager for Le Trou du Diable. She also happens to be the sister of André Trudel, the brewer.

B.R., André, and Marylou.

A lot of what Marylou does for the brewery revolves around the mysterious little creatures that turn sugar into alcohol. She's responsible for propagating and maintaining 12 unique yeast strains, and protecting the beer from wild yeast and bacterial infections.

Marylou began working with the brewery in 2012 and is a major force in ensuring consistency and high quality of the suds that flow out of Shawinigan. Her favorite TDD beer currently is Apocalypso - a white IPA with Calypso hops - which is fermented with the San Diego Super Yeast strain, her favorite yeast.

Listen to the podcast for more about Marylou's work, and what she finds to be the most challenging yeast strain to work with!

B.R. visiting Alex of Les Trois Mousquetaires.

Fred, the brewer at the TDD brewpub.

Stephane, the chief at Dieu du Ciel.

Isaac, one of the head honchos, at TDD, at the brewpub.

Cantillon and poutine, almost as good as tater tots and champagne -- no, actually better!

The only non-Canadian brewery at the Soirée.
Well, if you're only going to have one, might as well be this one!

Le Trou du Diable

  [link to Le Trou du Diable podcast page]



On June 24 at The Festival in Worchester, Mass., we spoke to Isaac Tremblay of Le Trou du Diable, a Shawinigan, QC based brewpub/brewery.

In the main podcast, we talk about the general details about the brewery, which is located about halfway between Montréal and Quebec City. But in the supplemental podcast, we speak specifically about the "Shawinigan Handshake" story. That short but entertaining podcast is linked directly below.

[link to Shawinigan Handshake podcast page]

Brewer Isaac, second from the left.

The origin of the term comes from an incident in 1996 when Prime Minister Jean Chretien was confronted by a protester. Chretien, who lives in Shawinigan, was likely a bit on edge, his home having been broken into around the same time (his wife chased away the would-be burglar with a piece of Inuit art!), and when the protester got up in Jean's face, Chretrien throttled him and pushed him away. A reporter joked that Chretien simply greeted the protester with a "Shawinigan Handshake", and the legend was born!

Prime Minister Jean Chretien gives Don Cherry a "Shawinigan Handshake"

In 2012 Canada's Junior Hockey championship, the Memorial Cup (the Stanley Cup of for the best 20-and-younger players playing in Canada)m was hosted by the Shawinigan Cataracts , so the brewery did a re-design on the original artwork of the Shawinigan Handshake beer, replacing the devil with Don Cherry. Cherry, an outspoken hockey commentator on the CBC, was the first public figure to support Chretien for standing up for and defending himself when he was confronted. Apparently, Cherry was happy to be depicted in the illustration, which shows, if nothing more, that the guy has a sense of humor. By the way, the hometown Cataracts ended up winning the championship!

Clearly Canadian... ou Canadien!

The Shawinigan Handshake is a 7% top-fermenting wheat beer, inspired by the Brooklyner-Schneider Weisse. They use a German yeast strain and Chinook hops. 

The brewery lists over 60 beers in their repertoire, many with amusing names, such as the La Schieve Tabarnak! Well... amusing if you understand Quebecois!

At The Festival.