Beau’s keeps sending new beers out our way and I’m happy about that. While I am mostly focused on what’s happening here locally, and what beers we can get from our local folks, I do enjoy reviewing these beers from Beau’s.

I did a pretty in-depth write up about Beau’s when I met with co-founder Steve Beauchesne, but I do want to reiterate a bit about the brewery. Founded in 2006 in Vanleek Hill, Ontario by father and son Tim and Steve Beauchesne, Beau’s is an employee-owned and completely independent Canadian craft brewery. They are also the official beer of Canada’s 150^th anniversary.

The Patersbier from Beaus is starting to pop up on shelves in Liquor Marts around the city. So now is the perfect time for a writeup of this beer.

*Writer’s Note: I did receive this beer review free of charge. This did not influence my write-up. *

Patersbier (Father’s Beer)

While it might be surprising to some of you, those monks who brew all the delicious Belgian strongs, tripels and quads, do not spend their time drinking these high alcohol beers. If they did, I’m sure they wouldn’t get a whole lot done. Instead, they brew this style of beer, a lighter variety called Patersbier (literally “Father’s Beer” in Dutch). They drink this beer instead of their high ABV products to allow them to enjoy the fruits of their labour while still being able to carry on the tasks of the day.

This style of beer is also known as an Enkel (single in Dutch) a name that likely comes from when the monks do an additional sparge on the grains to extract any remain sugars and then then use this collected sparge water to brew a highly sessionable beer. Singles from Trappist breweries are rarely available outside of the monasteries. So if you want to try one from a true Trappist monastery, you might have to travel.

Lucky for us, Beau’s has used their brewing skills to produce for us a Patersbier we can enjoy. With the weather warming up, these low ABV beers are a godsend for those days toiling away out in the sun on gardens, mowing lawns, or playing your favorite sport. So, how does it taste?

ABV – 4.7%
Appearance – Pours a light yellow with a slight haze, likely from acidulated malt and wheat malt, with a small bit of white foam that dissipates quickly.
Smell – Sweet notes of honey and subtle floral notes as well as some bready notes from the malt.
Taste – Sweetness on the front with a bit of an odd metallic note, as well with notes of lemon, and a touch of clove as well a bit of pepperiness.
Mouth Feel – Light bodied, clean drinking, good finish and rather refreshing.
Overall Thoughts – Overall this beer comes as described. The beer is easy to drink and has some nice flavour notes to it. It is a touch metallic upfront which is a bit odd. Despite that, the beer is as described, a great lawnmower beer that is refreshing and tasty.
Do I like it? – I did enjoy this. Despite the somewhat odd metallic note which wasn’t overly noticeable and easy to ignore, the beer was well done. It is refreshing and has some of those same Belgian characteristics that you get from other abbey style beers.

I hope that this write-up was informative. I encourage you to get out and try as many new beers as you can. Broaden your horizons and your palate.

I’m really looking forward to next week. Not only do we have the Manitoba Brewers’ Event happening down at Brazen Hall on June 6^th, we also have Surly arriving in town on June 7^th and Flatlanders’ Beer Festival coming up the weekend. It’s a pretty sweet time to love beer in Winnipeg and I’m psyched to partake as much as I can.

Keep following along as I keeping doing what I can to write about beer, breweries and brewers.

-Beer Winnipeg