Nora McGunnigle

Picked a bottle of this at Cork & Barrel a few months ago after Avenue Pub's Brooklyn Brewery's tasting. Sorachi Ace wasn't part of the tasting that night, but it was discussed. At that time I'd actually not heard of the Sorachi Ace hop, a rare Japanese grown hop. During American Craft Beer Week, NOLA Brewing dryhopped their Blonde Ale with Sorachi Ace as part of their dryhop vertical series, following their excellent Blonde Ale dryhopped with Sorachi Ace cask ale a few weeks previously. It's a beautiful color- a golden light orange with a white head that stayed throughout my enjoyment of the beer. It's spicy and faintly herbal, with a lemon citrus aroma. Easy drinking and a dry finish. The style is a saison and the spiciness specific to the Belgian yeast works with the spiciness of the Sorachi Ace hops in a truly unique but very satisfying and drinkable way. I drank this one slowly, savoring it. My opinion, it's a very special beer, and a good on

1) Tom and I were successful in checking a bag full of wonderful beers from CT. We had some time to kill between checking out of the hotel and when our flight left, so we went to Marshalls and got a small hard sided suitcase and three towels on sale, and then went to the Michael's craft store next door for bubble wrap, packing tape, and scissors. We bought 8 bombers of beer that we can't get in Louisiana: * Dogfish Head Chateau Jiahu: BA Review * Dogfish Head Red & White: BA Review * Victory: V-Twelve: BA Review * Avery Collaboration Not Litigation, batch 3 from 2009: BA Review * Cisco Brewery's "Wood" Series Cherry Woods (MA): BA Review * Berkshire Brewing Co Raspberry Barleywine/Strong Ale (MA): BA Review * Long Trail Double IPA (VT): BA Review * Allagash Tripel Reserve (ME): BA Review Tried to get good beer geeky things because they are all for the upcoming beer benefit at NOLA Brewing for Nathaniel Zimet, the chef-owner of Boucherie that got shot last

Have enjoyed a couple nice beers that we don't get in Louisiana. Long Trail Unfiltered IPA- very nice and low key IPA from Vermont. Also had the Long Trail Ale on draft, an alt style ale that is malty, delicious, and highly drinkable. BBC Steel Rail Pale Ale from Berkshire Brewing Company. The weather today was unexpectedly hot and sunny, and this was perfect to have coming in out of it after the funeral. Followed by Widmer's Double IPA. Also tried: Naughty Nurse Amber/Pale Ale from a City Steam, local Hartford brewery. Pleasant drinking, nothing too special, but fine and dandy for pre-wake drinking. Found a bomber of Blue Point Rastafa Rye Ale at the package store- given my weakness for rye beers and Blue Point Brewing, it was a gimme. Was at room temp at the store, and we have no fridge in our room. So between last night and tonight, we iced it down several times in the ice bucket till it was chilled. Ooh, tasty. Seriously beautifully hopped combined with the spicines

Hooray, the culmination of New Orleans' ACBW celebration occurred yesterday with the Avenue Pub's Super Saturday beer tasting. $20 got you a ticket for 12 4-oz samples, with the opportunity for up to three bonus pours if you could produce receipts from other ACBW events. Which, of course, we could. So 15 pours! Let me see if I can remember what I had... NOLA Sorachi Dry Hopped Blonde NOLA Citra Dry Hopped Blonde NOLA Amarillo Dry Hopped Blonde NOLA Centennial Dry Hopped Blonde NOLA Cascade Dry Hopped Blonde Rogue Dad's Little Helper Black IPA (on cask) Brooklyn Cuvee de Noire Rogue John John Whiskey Barrel Aged Dead Guy Ale Stone Highway 78 (Green Flash/Pizza Port Collaboration) Red Brick Dog Days Hoppy Heffe Rogue Capt. Sig's Northwestern Deadliest Ale Abita Abbey Ale (on cask) Moylan's ESB (on nitro) Brooklyn EIPA (on cask) Moylander Imperial IPA My thoughts: I just loved the entire NOLA hop variety vertical, served over 2 different ACBW sessions. Listening t

So... freaking... sleepy... Guess that's what a bunch of beers'll do to ya! So. Local's Night at the Avenue Pub. Where beers from local breweries were featured, and featured quite nicely I may add. Dranken: Always, always start with the cask. Why? Because it's almost as hard to find cask ale in this town as a street without potholes or a vegetarian entree without crab on top of it. So when I SEE IT I DRINKS IT. Usually this works out well. This evening was no exception- it was NOLA Brewing's Blueberry Blond Ale. Not sure what they did to the Blonde and when (shoulda asked, but as you will see, there was a lot of NOLA stuff to discuss) but it was a tasty, subtly fruity beer without sweetness and with a pale blue head. Another awesome thing happening was 4 NOLA Brewing draft packs (which is how they sell their beers) with 4 versions of dry hopped Blonde Ale. NOLA did an amazing cask series at the Pub a month or so ago, and this appeared to be an extension of

So, for the Wednesday night tasting at the Avenue Pub, things got ramped up in honor of American Craft Beer Week. 10 different beers from teeny tiny breweries were available to sample - 6 samples for $18. The breweries represented: Saint Somewhere in Tarpon Springs, Florida. According to Polly's tasting notes, "The brewer, Bob Sylvester, was a long time homebrewer that started selling his stuff a few years back; I'm pretty certain he still has a "day job" Jolly Pumpkin out of Dexter, Michigan. They focus on using open fermentation, which provides a theme of general funk and sourness in their beers. Delicious funk. Dieu De Ciel , a brasserie/brewpub in Montreal, with some amazing beers. They are... not American, but they are definitely "nano" and I believe that they've sent some great stuff to the Avenue Pub and offered to do so again, and this is not the kind of beer you say no to. (this is just the impression I got, though. I might be mak

As part of American Craft Beer Week, Jeremy aka Beer Buddha of Cork & Barrel hosted a beer tasting which featured some new beers on the New Orleans scene. Squatters Brewery is in Salt Lake City and Cork & Barrel had several beers on hand to sample. The first beer we tried was actually not from Squatters, but was from a partner brewery in Salt Lake City. It was a blond ale in a teeny tiny bottles (7 oz) called Little Slammers brewed and bottled by Wasatch . It was your pretty standard golden/blonde ale, nice refreshing cold beer on hot day. And you can like carry it in your pocket! Moving on: Hells Keep, a Belgian Strong Pale Ale. This was very drinkable with Belgian yeast flavors and fruit/spice notes. Not hoppy, most of the flavor came from the yeast characteristics. Easy drinking. The Hells Keep is one of Squatters' Reserve Series beers, as is the next one we tried, the Outer Darkness, a Russian Imperial Stout. Ooh, tasty. A bit lighter mouthfeel and flavor

I am not sure if ACBW officially begins today or tomorrow, but the Avenue Pub kicked it off this afternoon with a couple new beers from St. Arnold Brewing Company - the latest in their Divine Reserve limited series (a double IPA,) and their Weedwacker, which is their Fancy Lawnmower Kolch brewed with a Hefeweizen yeast. I've been waiting for a St. Arnold beer to really impress me, and this one did. It was the perfect beer to quench the thirst of a bike ride over with actual flavor to enjoy at the same time. It has a increased hop presence, which made for an enticing aroma. The citrus and floral hop notes combined with the banana-clove smell of the hefe yeast was quite lovely. The combination of the yeast and the hops also translated into the flavor profile as well. A light, flavorful, really interesting beer. I love it when I find a beer like that! So, St. Arnold, well done. I only had a sip of Tom's St. Arnold Divine Reserve Double IPA , but it was definitely a hop bomb p