Nora McGunnigle

My Inside Northside article has been posted online!  http://www.insidenorthside.com/craft-beer-revolution/ I also updated my Published Article page, did y'all know that I have that? It's a tab near the top of the page right above my cartoon self banner. There should be more going up in the next couple of weeks...

I have a new and diabolical (OK, not really so much with the diabolical) plan to post a weekly roundup of beer related links I find interesting. This post will likely appear every Thursday or Friday. If you have links you'd like me to include, please email me at nora(at)nolabeerblog(dot)com or share your link in the comments below.

So, there will be no Brewsday Tuesday this week, because I am transitioning to having my beer column included in the print version of the Gambit, starting with next week's issue.

Image courtesy of Brian Broussard Not only has Chafunkta announced that they would be debuting their Kingfish Ale during the Grapes and Grain fundraiser, but also Covington Brewhouse will be releasing their Anonymous IPA at the same event. I'd already tried it at the WYES Private Beer Sampling in June, and thought it was excellent. So not only will Anonymous be available at another fundraiser, but according to head brewer Brian Broussard, it will released as one of Covington's beers during Louisiana Craft Brewers Week in September!

Baton Rogue Metro Council has approved an ordinance amendment to permit breweries to sell up to 10% of their product in a tap room environment. This means that Tin Roof can move forward with their planned tap room construction, which is great news for them.

I'm a little behind on updating since I've been on vacation without my laptop, but behold the following:

Got home from San Francisco in the wee hours, so I'm not quite focused enough to do a thorough summary and analysis, but here are the quick highlights:

There's a beer-focused fundraiser (OK, also wine and food) happening in Mandeville on August 23, 7-10pm at Benedict's Plantation (1144 North Causeway Blvd.) The big news (from my perspective) is that Chafunkta Brewing has announced that they will be debuting a brand new beer at the fundraiser. It's still a mystery right now, but Josh Erickson, head brewer, gave this as a hint:  "We wanted to bring our passion for quality, craft beer to a larger audience. We selected a style that, to our knowledge, is not currently being commercially brewed in Louisiana. It's one that we think will appeal to a broader market, but the style is one that still takes quite a bit of care to brew correctly."

And you know what that means... new column up on The Gambit's blog . It's a very condensed version of my impressions of the Beer Bloggers Conference, focusing on my Louisiana compatriots and the two breweries that we have access here in Louisiana, Samuel Adams and Harpoon. I'm currently working on a Sweetwater beer review piece for the next Brewsday Tuesday, so keep an eye out for that next week. I hope everyone had a great IPA Day last week! I ended up enjoying several delicious beers at the Avenue Pub, the highlight being rum barrel-aged Hopitoulas from NOLA Brewing. Then I came home and had a Heady Topper, just because.

My "bonus day" in Massachusetts allowed me to go to a brewpub and a beer bar in Cambridge, and a brewery in Everett. Why yes, I AM! (Sign outside Lord Hobo.)

Putting the "blogger" in the educational content, the last day of the conference kicked off with 10 different blogger attendees sharing five-minute presentations on the work they do, be it with a specific audience, using a special tool, or working with public or private partner organizations. Louisiana's own Jay Ducote of Bite & Booze fame presented on his work with the state travel authority, LouisianaTravel.com, by providing the content for their LA Beer Trail page and filming a video of Louisiana's breweries. There were also presentations on generating revenue from blogging (hint: really not so much) and one I was super excited about, an introduction to a new beer app called Brewhorn . Brewhorn is an app that helps beer drinkers figure out what they would like to drink based on their preferences and location. I think it will really help people new to craft beer or curious in expanding their craft beer horizons in a way that is respectful to the consumer's

Speed blogging is pretty much what it sounds like - think speed dating but between brewers and bloggers. And the brewers have beer. And the bloggers write about it. Quickly, though, 'cause you only have 5 minutes with each brewer/beer before the bell tolls and they move on, and a new one moves in. We arrive via bus at the warehouse run by Burke Distributing, a member of the MA Beverage Alliance  and sat at one of 14 tables, and waited for the process to begin. I think that the gist of the tasting is best provided via tweets, just to get a feel for it.

Saturday was the main educational component of the Beer Bloggers Conference. For the entire morning we had sessions like "The Current State of Beer Blogging Survey Results" and "Mechanics of Beer Pouring" while conversing on Twitter. I particularly enjoyed the panel of "industry" bloggers - bloggers and social media gurus working for breweries. It gave an intriguing view of the different paths this blogging thing could potentially lead to, if an independent blogger was interested in making that switch.