Brasserie du Bas-Canada opened its Oktoberfest release this morning with a Pils, brewed in collaboration with the Montreal brewery Mellön. The Gatineau brewery describes it as a Franconian-style Pils and says the lineup starts here, in force.

The beer is 4.8 percent ABV in 473 ml cans, with a limit of 24 cans per person. Bas-Canada says it combines herbaceous and floral hop notes with the crackery flavors of baguette bread, and calls the result the ultimate thirst-quencher.

The style qualifier is doing real work. Franconia, in northern Bavaria, has one of the densest concentrations of small breweries anywhere, and its take on Pils leans drier and more firmly bitter than the softer interpretations further north. It is a regional dialect rather than a separate style, but the distinction is audible in the glass: less rounding, more snap, and hop character that arrives as bitterness and aroma rather than as sweetness held in check.

That fits what the brewery says it was chasing. Crackery baguette crust is a description of lean, well-attenuated malt - bready without body left over - and floral and herbaceous notes are the classic register of continental hops used generously late. At 4.8 percent, there is not much alcohol underneath to soften any of it.

Mellön, the collaborator, opened in Montreal's Petite-Patrie in 2021 and takes its name from the Elvish word for friend, drawn from The Lord of the Rings. Its founders are Tolkien readers, and the brewery has built a reputation around conviviality and Czech-style pours. A thirst-quenching Pils is squarely in character for both parties.

The can is the most restrained design in the release: white with gold pinstripes, two gold medallions carrying a barrel and a crown, and the words Pils Deluxe in small italic type at the base.

Cans went on sale online at 11 a.m. today at bascanada.beer, released from the brewery's Hautes-Plaines location, with a week allowed to collect orders. Pils Franconienne is one of the four lagers offered in the $30 Oktoberfest tasting package running September 17 to 20 at the Gatineau and Hautes-Plaines tasting rooms.

Editor’s Take

There is a pleasing symmetry in this one that I suspect nobody planned. Mellön takes its name from the Elvish word for friend - the password at the Doors of Durin, where the whole problem was that the answer was written plainly on the gate and everyone kept overthinking it. Then two breweries get together and make a Pils. Not a pastry Pils, not a Pils with anything in it. A Pils. The answer was written on the gate the entire time.

And Franconian, specifically, which is the version that declines to be polite about the bitterness. Bas-Canada calls it the ultimate thirst-quencher and then builds it at 4.8 percent, which is the part that shows they mean it rather than just saying it. Plenty of breweries describe a beer as crushable and then hand you something at 6.2. Baguette crust, floral hops, four-point-eight, speak friend and enter. I would drink several, which is rather the point.

Source & Editorial

JollyPint independently prepares release articles using information published by breweries through newsletters, websites, and other official public communications. Brewery-supplied descriptions and tasting notes are reported as provided, while editorial context is added by JollyPint.

Pils Franconienne Is a Collaboration With a Brewery Named in Elvish

A Franconian-style Pils brewed with Montreal's Mellön, described in herbaceous and floral hop notes over crackery baguette crust. The brewery calls it the ultimate thirst-quencher, and builds it at 4.8 percent to mean it.

Source & Editorial