Around 1830, Colonel Cantley was granted land in the area that would later bear his name, for services rendered in the War of 1812 and for his contribution to the construction of the Rideau Canal. Nutty brown ale, this beer has flavors of toast and toffee.
Colonel Cantley was an English army officer who fought in the War of 1812 against the United States, a country that had been independent from England for barely 36 years. Remaining in the colony afterwards, his services were required to assist Lieutenant-Colonel John By in supervising the construction of the Rideau Canal. The Rideau Canal project was in fact a military logistics project: a supply and retreat route in the event of another American attack. Colonel Cantley was one of Colonel By’s most senior officers on the canal site.
The canal project lasted 6 years, from 1826 to 1832. In gratitude for the services of his most important assistants, John By allocated crown lands to them. A large strip of land on the east bank of the lower Gatineau, known as Lot 9b of Range XIV, was thus allotted to him. He settled there in the early 1830s with his brosseur (the name of an officer’s servant) turned blacksmith, a man named Johnston.
Cantley was buried in the orchards of the McClelland farm, in an unknown location with no inscription. Prior to 1989, when the newly independent municipality was named Cantley, only the 1857 post office had the honor of being named in his honor.
What better and sweeter way to honor an English pioneer of the Collines-de-l’Outaouais than with a 4%, easy-drinking English brown ale? This style is steeped in history and rooted in British tradition. Here is a beautifully full-bodied example, with burnt-sugar caramel branching off into notes of light hazelnuts and toasted bread.
This beer was built on a base of English Pale Ale from Innomalt in Sherbrooke, to which we added a nice amount of dark caramel malt from MaltBroue in the Lower St. Lawrence. We then slightly bitterized it with Magnum from Houblonnière Lupuline in Pontiac and infused it with Golding from the same hop house. A well-selected yeast from Labo Solution Brassicole de la Pocatière worked its magic, transforming the sugars into alcohol, leaving behind some fruity esters that add a little complexity to the beer.
