My first French brewpub! It’s owned by a Canadian guy, but still, it’s in France, and maybe he’s French-Canadian… Anyway, after the Netherlands, I headed south to Gstaad, Switzerland, where two climbing friends of mine are now living.  I tagged along with them on a weekend jaunt to Chamonix.  They went climbing, but my shoulder was bugging me, unfortunately, and so I went on a couple of spectacular day hikes, instead.  Yes, it’s a rough life I lead.  My friends mentioned the Micro Brasserie du Chamonix (MBC), and so of course that got my vote for post-climbing/hiking beer/dinner on Saturday. MBC was out of its Blanche des Guides brew (my friends’ favorite), but I got to try the other five on tap, including a seasonal. They have a good veggie burger, too, which went down fast after a long day of hiking. After four or five weeks of European beers, it was comforting to find a place that made the kind of beer I’ve grown accustomed to in Seattle. As far as alcohol percentages go, all the MBC beers are 5%, conveniently enough.

Little tasters at the MBC — Chamonix, France

Rob’s Picks
• Blonde de Chamonix – Nice and light, with honey flavor. Not so bready, but good balance with light hops. Quite bubbly, goes right down. Great post-hike beer.
• Granite de Pale Ale – Nice full-bodied pale ale. Big maltiness, but not too big. Hints of caramel. Good hoppiness in the aftertaste.
• Dark Vador – Their bock, but doesn’t have that bock-y malty sweetness I don’t particularly like, although it does have a malty taste to it. Fairly smoky, too. More like a porter.

The Rest
• Stout des Drus – Sort of a watery Guinness, but not bad. Dry smokiness, not too heavy. The problem with a Guinness-like stout is that I always compare it to a Guinness…
• Seasonal (Snowslayer Ale?) – A light ale. No honey flavor like the Blonde, a bit more watery, and a slight caramel flavor. A little odd.

As I was typing up this post I finally realized that the MBC acronym sounds like “embassy,” and their logo features those letters in a Canadian maple leaf, so I suppose this place is basically the unofficial Canadian embassy.