Thirsty Thursday

Son of a Peacherman collaboration between Fairhope Brewing and Druid City, both AL breweries

First of all, congrats to Chris Paylor who won a pair of tickets to the NOLA Eats King Cake Tasting by suggesting a pairing of NOLA Brewing's Seventh Street Wheat with Haydel's king cake, on my Facebook page. Though I won't be able to make the tasting, I'm pretty excited to check this pairing out before Mardi Gras.

Second, Stein't Deli's Annual Beer Day is happening on Saturday! It involves a brewing demonstration and a bottle share. Also on Saturday: Abita's 2nd annual Abita on the Avenue, the Avenue in question is St. Charles. Go here to check it out.



Third, and this came over the wire while I was composing this post, but Bayou Teche's Loup Garou barrel aged stout won a silver medal in the World Beer Championship, in the Barrel Aged Beer category. Way to bring it, guys! Also, they are serving a variation of the colonial-era Cock Ale, which was brewed with a chicken back in the day; in this case it's brewed with duck, orange, and ginger and called Duck Blind Ale. Apparently it's super popular in their tap room, so if this intrigues you, don't dilly-dally about getting over there and trying it.

Fourth, Santa Fe Brewing is being released in the New Orleans market next week (Monday 1/27-1/31). I am hoping to check out the release at the Bulldog Uptown on Monday as well as the food pairings (specifics still TBD) at Borgne. I love their food so I'm pretty excited about that.

Fifth, links and thoughts about links:

Stuff I wrote: Brewsday Tuesday talks about my recent trip to Fairhope, AL to visit Fairhope Brewing, hang out with the wonderful people working there, and drinking some damn delicious beer. Also, the Alcohol Professor published an article I wrote about the Avenue Pub.

Speaking of Alabama, this is a great article about the explosion of craft breweries in the state, and how tap rooms are a big part of that success. Also, note: Alabama has 20 breweries, Louisiana has 9.

In local brewing news, Parish got a great writeup in the Lafayette-area paper, the Advertiser.

I read this article by "The Craft Beer Girl," Amy Ellsworth, about her decision to quit the safety of her job in order to focus on craft beer work exclusively. Obviously, it struck a chord in me, because that's exactly what I did last summer.  After totaling up my income and expenses for my taxes, it's easy to look at those numbers as a failure, but last year was much more about putting things in motion than making money. The other thing I loved about Ellsworth's post was the thoughtful and honest discussion of her experiences as a woman in the craft beer world. I recently wrote a (not yet published) post about this, so it's kind of on my mind.

A close second in beer articles/post I read and loved this week was this fantastic breakdown of the Best Five Beers in the World. Not only do I agree with what he says, but I love how he took on this tired beer writing trend and flipped it upside down.

Random Cool Stuff: Stone is releasing a session strength (4.5%) IPA called Go To IPA, and it's coming out in March and I am super psyched... The Alchemist in Vermont is moving forward on building a second facility which will be better equipped to serve and sell Heady Topper. Note: I'd love to get more intel on their other beers as well. I remember going when it was a brewpub and ALL their beers were awesome...This whiskey has been distilled from Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA, your argument is irrelevant...

The More You Know: I have learned that I need to wash my beer glasses in a much more thoughtful and specific manner... There's a cask conditioned ale festival in Atlanta on Saturday (I wonder what everyone's favorite Atlanta-based curmudgeon re: cask ale and session strength thinks about this?)... Serious Eats did a map which I am sure is not constructed for maximum click bait and will promote no kinds of controversy which lists their favorite beers from each state.

Quote of the Week: 

"I've only come to understand the beer world [in] getting involved in this, but apparently, the Trappists have a reputation for quality in their products," says Damian Carr, the abbot of St. Joseph's.

From an article on NPR.com about the new Trappist brewery starting in MA. Great read, although that quote made me laugh.