Nora McGunnigle

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.

May 5 is the eleventh anniversary of when Tom and I started dating. To celebrate that, Cinco de Mayo, and National Homebrew Day/Weekend, we collaborated on a beer together. Since I had Tom's partnership in this endeavor, we decided it would be fun to try an all-grain recipe. I was intrigued by a cool looking malt bill in an English Mild recipe I saw in Zymurgy, and started brainstorming around that. We ended up brewing the Mild recipe out of John Palmer's "Brewing Classic Styles" book, and I have a cunning plan to dryhop the Mild (which obviously makes it not a traditional style) with Simcoe hops. So it's like a British-American combination, much like Tom and myself. Doing a mash and a batch sparge and vorlauf and all that stuff was pretty labor intensive, I kind of almost forgot everything I learned on my first brewday. However! It did all come back to me, more or less, with some gentle reminding. We went to Brewstock to acquire some Maris Otter, Crystal 60, Cr...

After my previous gravity check , I waited 12 days to check again. I really only meant to wait a week, but things have been crazy busy. When I checked it yesterday, it measured in at 1.012 exactly, hooray! So that was super exciting. The taste was much less sweet as well. That meant that bottling would have to be done this weekend. Let me first say: My Kingdom for a Kegerator! Sadly, that is not really an option at this point, so bottling it shall be. First step: check to see if all supplies are in the house (priming sugar, bottles, bottle tops both regular or flip, sanitizer, siphon thing, bottling wand, tubing. Second step: go to Brewstock to get the random flip top cages and assembly as well as a couple new liter swingtops. (subset of the second step, burble to Aaron about your beer and your future homebrewing plans and get the scoop on the First Annual Louisiana Homebrew Competition). Third step: Sanitize the living crap out of everything, starting with the bottle tree, the...

Today has been bananas. Planned to get up & at 'em early-ish (9am) to start prepping for brew day. Today is the first time I've ever homebrewed, exciting! Woke up to find out that there was no water in most of the city. So, that's a problem. Then after a little while, it came back, but we were under a boil advisory, so while that didn't cause too much of an issue, it did cause us to waste like a case of bottled water when we added it to the wort after it cooled. I discovered that brewing involves mostly two things; 1) sanitizing and 2) waiting. I decided to do an easy recipe so I could focus on the process - I love a nicely hopped pale ale, and I purchased a monthly kit from Brewstock - their March kit is called "Pontchartrain Pale Ale." Designed with spring in mind – this hoppy pale ale (not as hoppy as an IPA), will go with a walk along the lake, a picnic in the park or a concert in the square. Single hopped with Centennial, we balanced the bold f...

Attn: all homebrewers! There are TWO upcoming homebrew competitions in Louisiana which sound quite exciting. 1) Aaron Hyde at Brewstock has announced the organization of Louisiana's first statewide homebrew competition in November 2013. It looks like it will coincide with all matter of beer celebration as well! The specific rules will be posted this month, but according to the press release : All 23 BJCP beer categories will be allowed for entry, with ribbons going to the top three beers in each category.  Prizes from sponsors will also be awarded.  The competition will be open to residents of Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Arkansas only.  Judging will take place over the course of a weekend in November, to be determined. 2) Covington Brewhouse and Main Grain Homebrew Supplies are co-sponsoring an excellent homebrew competition that may result in your beer being produced for distribution! In the tradition of Iron Chef, Bombastic Brewer will p...

Aaron Hyde, owner of New Orleans' only homebrew store, Brewstock, has a dream. A dream that Tom and I definitely share. A dream of creating a brewing cooperative that the entire beer community of New Orleans can participate in and benefit from.  I urge you to take a look at what Aaron is envisioning and perhaps make a donation at his Indigogo fundraising page . I hope that he can raise $55,000 in 12 days, but he needs YOUR help to make it happen! When Tom and I moved to New Orleans, one of the reasons was that the beer culture here seemed to be poised on the edge of greatness. It has one fantastic beer bar, one amazing brewery, many passionate supporters, restaurants that are improving their beer lists, all that. We wanted to be a part of that. We are still trying to find our way. If money were no object, I'd love to open another beer bar, maybe on the other side of Canal. If we were 20 years younger, then trying to open a brewery or find work at one would be our goal. I...