Les Trois Mousquetaires

 Interview with Christian Marcil of Les Trois Mousquetaires 
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Les Trois Mousquetaires (LTM) was founded in 2004 by three partners who had been co-workers at Canada's Imperial Tobacco company. When that company closed the plant, the three decided to band together and strike out as a team to form a brewery. They started by acquiring a brewhouse from a brewery which had just closed, Express Broue in St-Eustache, QC. They established their operation on the South Shore of the St-Laurent river, in Brossard, just south of Montréal, nearby where they lived.

Bob, Christian, and B.R.

Over time, the brewery expanded their offerings from simple pale ales and red ales to exciting European styles, such as Bocks, Baltic Porters, Hefeweizens, and a host of specialty barrel aged beers. They brew about 12 regular styles year round, and six to seven seasonal offerings. They package their beers in 12oz, 750ml, and 3 liter (Jeroboam) bottles, and in 30 liter PETainers and stainless steel half-barrels.

Brewer Alex.

With their 15hl brewhouse (about 12bbls) they're able to brew four batches per day, and it takes seven brewing sessions to fill their largest fermentor, a 10,000hl vessel! Some brews skip the stainless tanks and go directly into oak barrels for primary fermentation, such as the Saison Brett, which gets a dose of wild yeast following the first fermentation, and ferments and conditions in Chardonnay wine barrels.

The bottling line.

In 2011 the brewery moved into a new facility down the road in Brossard, three times the size of the original building. They needed the space to keep up with their ever expanding production and their growing barrel aging program. They're currently working with about 140 various barrels, mostly oak bourbon barrels, but also brandy barrels and different wine barrels.

B.R. stakes her claim for the USA!

LTM is the largest brewery using 100% Quebec-made malts for their main production beers, sourcing the grain from Frontenac and Maltbroue malteries. Those suppliers are located in Thetford Mines and Temiscouata-sur-le-Lac respectively. Of course, they use some specialty malts from outside of Quebec -- malts that simply aren't available in the provence, such as smoked malt and torrified malt. They'd be interested in using more Quebec hops, too, but the supply just isn't available at this point in time, and the price is also a bit prohibitive. Hopefully that will change, with the demand for hops growing globally, as well as the demand for local grown ingredients possibly making hops a viable crop for QC farmers.

Quebec malted barley.

The brewery had an output of about 4,000hl (about 3,300bbls) in 2015, and looks to grow that in 2016. They currently sell their beer all over Canada, in the USA, Germany, France, Belgium, Australia, and recently began exporting to Brazil. Keep an eye out for their brandy barrel aged Old Bruin, set to hit the States in 2016!

Jack Daniels barrel.

Heaven Hill bourbon barrel from 1978.

In the grain room above the brew house.

Grain room.

Grain room.

The brew house.

Mash tun.

Mash tun.

Filter.

Mini-fermentor.

Fermentors.

Bottling line.

End of bottling line.

View of bottling line from above.

Numerous awards.

Gänstaller Bräu

 Interview Andy Gänstaller of Gänstaller Bräu

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We all know of at least one, probably more, home brewer who successfully took his or her game up to the commercial level. And it helps to start early to get the necessary experience. Andreas "Andy" Gänstaller, who has been brewing beer for almost 40 years, started at the age of 15 -- is that early enough for you? Andy is the owner/brewer of the 35hl/30bbl Gänstaller Bräu located in the small Franconia village of Schnaid, near Bamberg.

Andy began brewing professionally in 2007. Early in his beer life he was inspired by the Weltenburg Kloster brewery, and counted wheat beers among his favorite styles. After working for others, he established the Gänstaller brewery to produce a wide range of traditional German, non-traditional German, and uber-traditional German beers. He's well known for his Smoked Doublebock Beer, the 9.6% Affumicator. But his most popular brew is the Zoigel, an unfiltered, malty Kellerbier.

B.R., Andy, and Bob at Greenpoint Brewing/Dirck the Norseman.

Zoigel is a regional dialect (Oberpfalz) variation of the word "zeige", meaning to show, or a sign. In the old days, a pub or guesthouse would have an arrow hanging out front, and if there was beer to be had, the arrow pointed up. If not, then down. And after having tasted Andy's incredibly delicious, fresh Zoigel on tap at Threes and Jimmy's No. 43 when he recently visited, you can be sure that a skyward pointing arrow is much preferred!

Gänstaller sells their beer in their own local pub/restaurant, the Zoiglstube located in Strassgiech a few kilometers down the road from the production brewery in Schnaid, and at a few other local pubs. Much of their production is sold outside of Germany, in Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and now the United States. 

Enduro, a coffee Berliner Weisse, a creation of Greenpoint Brewing.

A few things set the Gänstaller brewery apart. First, they use traditional decoction mashing, which, while utilized by many smaller artisanal brewers, is still not the norm. A bit more uniquely, though, especially for a German brewery, they cool the post-boil wort in an enormous cool ship, allowing the open air to bring down the temperature of the unfermented beer so that live yeast may be pitched in to begin fermentation. Lastly, Andy uses many ale recipes (pale ales, IPAs, stouts) but exclusively employs lager yeast. He often will ferment his ale-style beers with the lager yeast at higher temperatures. And, of course, he makes plenty of great traditional lagers, bocks, and Märzens.

Greenpoint's Jeff, Erik, Andy, Chris, and importer Joel.

Andy's wife Manuala, Joel, Greg, and Andy in the Threes brewhouse.

Andy, Threes' Greg, importer B.R., Threes' brewer Joel, and importer Joel.