Brasseurs Du Temps

Ottawa didn’t have much in the way of brewpubs, but we did discover another brewpub in Gatineau called Brasseurs Du Temps (BDT). So we walked across the bridge from our hotel to the pub (maybe next time we’d take a cab - it was about an hour walk) to check it out.

Here, as usual, is Jeff’s take on the brewery and brewpub.

BDT is right on the water with a great patio for a hot summer day - which is what we were having when we were there. The brewery had 12 of their offerings on tap - not a bad selection. We ordered the “L’Horloge” (the clock) which is a tray of 3oz samples of each of their beers.

Et la Lumiere Fut! was the beer suggested to try first - a pale ale at 5.5% ABV. It poured a golden straw colour and had nice lacing. The beer had a pear nose which followed in to the taste with a touch of honey. The finish was dry and floral. This beer was very drinkable - but not bland.


Next up was Le Bouillon de la Chaudiere: A weizen at 5% ABV. It was a lighter straw colour and rather opaque because it’s unfiltered. I got clove and spice on the nose and the taste was undeniably banana. The beer menu said to notice ginger; I couldn’t find it but Kate could. I quite liked it and had another pint of it, but it was too spicy for Kate.

The ESB 1821, a 5.5% ABV extra special bitter, was the next beer in the list. It had a hazy apricot colour with a good amount of lacing. When I tasted it, I got a lot of bubblegum sweetness. It was too bitter for Kate. I thought the bitterness was lacking and couldn’t stop focusing on the sweet. This beer was a miss for both of us.

The patio.

The fourth beer was L’Allumante - a 5.5% ABV nut brown ale. It had an orangey colour with a hazelnut and caramel aroma. The hazelnut really carried through in the taste. There was a nice caramel that lingered at the end, but it wasn’t too sweet. It had a great mouthfeel and was another really drinkable beer.

Mille Neuf Cendre was a rauchbier at 5.5% ABV. The name is a play on words in French and alludes to the great fire in Hull in 1900. Since this is a smoked beer, it automatically smelled like summer sausage to me. On the upside, it was the most pleasant smoked beer I’ve had. The smoke taste wasn’t over the top and there was some honey to help balance out the smoke. Kate liked this one, I didn’t though.

The stout (a pint after the clock was done).

La Nuit des Temps is BDT’s 5% ABV stout. It poured a dark brown/black and smells roasty like a stout should. The taste didn’t disappoint with it’s delicious roastiness and coffee flavours. The bitterness from the hops finished the beer like black coffee. There was a little bit of nuttiness in there as well. It was Kate’s favourite of the twelve.

BDT offers a 5% ABV raspberry pale ale called La Framboyante. It had an orange-pinky colour to it. The beer screams raspberries in the aroma - as the name would imply. But to me it tasted like a cordial, not a beer. The drying finish was definitely like biting into raspberry seeds as the menu suggested. Kate absolutely hated it. I wouldn’t order it again, but I’ve also had worse.


By the time we go to Dumduminator, an 8% ABV doppelweizenbock, Kate was more than a little tipsy. I think she was dehydrated from walking to BDT in the heat. (Wifey note: What? Me? Tipsy? Never! And that was a long walk.)

Continuing with the Dumduminator, the beer poured an orangy-brown colour and a ring of lacing remained through to the end of the beer. Dumdum was all about bananas. When I smelled it, I thought I was diving into banana pudding. The beer tasted like bananas foster: Banana, caramel and alcohol. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it - Kate didn’t like it as much and struggled to finish it.

The "clock" of samples.

The ninth beer on our beer clock was La Saison Haute (7.5% ABV). It had the colour of apple juice. And while the beer had been sitting outside for a solid 15 minutes already, lacing remained. The nose had pepper, floral and slight orange notes. I didn’t get the explosion of citrus the menu promised in the taste but I did get the pepper. I did notice some lemon on the finish - this wasn’t one of my favourite beers.

Trois portages was the next beer, a 9% ABV tripel. It poured a hazy orange colour. The nose was very fruity but not bright. It was more like drying fruit. The taste was super sweet. Way too sweet. The menu said there was some bitterness that kicked in at the end but I found no relief from the sweetness. It was like that episode of the Simpsons where Homer asks a Brazilian to make him the sweetness drink possible. This was absolutely my least favourite beer.

The penultimate beer was the first IPA on BDT’s menu: Au Pied du Courant - an American style IPA at 6.5% ABV. It poured a nice amber colour and even though it was the 11th beer, it still had lacing. The nose was promising with citrus and pine. But then I got pepper in the taste - not what I was expecting from an America IPA. There was some biscuit malt at the beginning and a bitter finish as expected, but that’s all it is: Bitter. There’s not much flavour in the end. I was disappointed and Kate couldn’t finish hers. At this point, Kate was pretty much sauced. (Wifey note: Hey! You’ll catch up to me soon enough in this post, sir. Jeff was sauced by the time we left.)

The last beer was a big beer: Diable au Corps, an imperial IPA at 9.5% ABV with 100 IBUs. I had been looking forward to this one all day. Could this IPA redeem the performance of the Au Pied? It was an apple juice colour that amazingly still had a cap of head after 30 minutes. I got citrus on the nose and had citrus for taste... and the end was bitter - but the 100 IBUs is counteracted with a wall of sweetness. And the sweetness lasts and lasts and lasts. Kate would not drink more than a sip. I was really looking forward to an imperial IPA and I was really disappointed. This was a close second for worst of the day.

Overall, the brewery has a great selection of beers: Twelve beers that cover a wide variety of tastes. Plus, they also have guest taps for other craft brewers - I like the sense of comraderie. The beers have what I think are a definitive Quebec spin to them. I’d recommend Le Bouillon, L’Allumante, La Nuit des Temps and Dumdum over the rest - and I’d avoid the IPAs if you’re expecting a west coast IPA. And like I said earlier, this place has a great atmosphere and it’s miles ahead of the Clock Tower Brew Pub - and only a couple of miles away.

So take the extra time and get to the Gat for BDT.

(Wifey note: If you’re going with a group, this pub offered this cool table at the front of the restaurant that had a tap at a table. We were both pretty impressed by that. As well, Jeff has decided “Get to the Gat” should be the new tourism slogan for Gatineau - but now that he’s put it in this blog, I don’t think anyone would pay him for his idea.)

A waitress going to the patio.