Brasserie du Bas-Canada is an independent brewery based in Gatineau, Quebec, just across the Ottawa River from the Canadian capital. Founded in 2017, the brewery has quickly become one of the most interesting names in Quebec's modern beer scene, building a reputation around intensely flavoured, technically polished beers without tying itself to one particular style. From the beginning, the brewery's aim has been to make quality craft beer while contributing to the development of Quebec's brewing culture. That independent spirit remains central to the brewery today, with production still based in Gatineau and a constantly changing lineup rather than a huge permanent range.
Hoppy beer is where Brasserie du Bas-Canada has made perhaps its biggest mark. The brewery has become particularly well known for New England-style IPAs, Double IPAs and Triple IPAs, often built around combinations of modern varieties such as Citra, Mosaic, Nelson Sauvin, Galaxy, Riwaka, Motueka, Nectaron and Strata. Its HYPA series is a good example of this approach, with different releases allowing the brewers to explore new hop combinations and techniques rather than simply reproducing the same beer. The beers tend towards the juicy, aromatic and substantial end of the IPA spectrum, but there is a clear emphasis on keeping that intensity drinkable rather than turning every release into a competition to see how much hop character can be squeezed into a can.
The brewery is far from being just an IPA specialist, though. Its catalogue regularly moves between pale ales, lagers, stouts, sour and fruit beers, with ingredients and techniques changing depending on what the brewers are trying to achieve. Domaine, for example, is a 5.5% Pale Ale built around Citra, Nelson Sauvin and Galaxy, while other releases go in completely different directions. The brewery has also developed a serious mixed-fermentation and barrel-aged programme, allowing it to work with more delicate acidity, fruit character and extended maturation alongside its fresher hop-driven beers. That willingness to move between styles is a big part of what makes the brewery's output so interesting: there is no sense that every beer has to fit neatly into the same house template.
Bas-Canada also has a taste for beers that are deliberately excessive, particularly when it comes to its imperial stouts and heavily fruited releases. Connexion, for example, is an Imperial Sweet Stout incorporating organic macadamia nuts, organic coconut and Madagascar vanilla, with some versions receiving further maturation in bourbon barrels. Other beers in the range have involved mango, passion fruit, guava, raspberry, banana, coffee and various combinations of fruit and adjuncts. These aren't subtle beers, but the brewery approaches them with the same attention to texture and balance that goes into its IPAs. The aim is generally to make the ingredients work together rather than simply adding things for the sake of making a more ridiculous label.
Perhaps the most appealing thing about Brasserie du Bas-Canada is that it feels like a brewery still enjoying itself. The output is constantly changing, collaborations are an important part of the programme, and the brewery has built relationships with respected producers well beyond Quebec, including recent collaborations with Track Brewing Co. in Manchester. Its beers can be polished, huge and technically impressive, but there is still a sense of curiosity behind them. For a relatively young brewery, Bas-Canada has already developed a recognisable place in the North American beer landscape: Quebec ingredients and brewing culture at its core, modern American-influenced hops and an appetite for experimentation that means you never quite know what is going to come out of the brewery next.
