Nora McGunnigle

First of all, thanks for all the positive feedback on yesterday's blog post. It was a little on the personal side, so I wasn't sure how it would be received. As I do more and more writing, I'm trying to find my "voice" or style, something that's informative, interesting, and enjoyable to read. Last night was the St. Charles cask crawl. I showed up a little later than usual at the Avenue (had a meet & greet for Nyx riding members at Finn McCool's right after work.) I headed upstairs to try the Parish Envie cask and ran into fellow drinkin' writer Todd Price from NOLA.com who was celebrating his birthday there! That was very cool to finally meet, since we'd corresponded in email and on social media a bunch but never met in person.

And... we're off! (officially) Although the official span of ACBW is May 13-19, the weekend preceding had several fun events . But Monday is when things get real.

So, while I was talking to Vanessa Gomes (Head of Craft Beer Management for Louisiana Craft Beer - Northshore) and Mr. Joel Champagne (President of Champagne Beverage Co.) I discovered that Southern Tier will be coming to Louisiana in the next month or so! I don't know many more details than that, but I was told it was confirmed and OK to share, so HOORAY! If you are not familiar with Southern Tier, they make many awesome beers including Unearthly, Iniquity (one of my favorites), Phin & Matt's, Pumking, Krampus, AND SO MUCH MORE!

Been more or less laying low since the fried chicken beer dinner- we went on vacation to our neighboring state of Florida and we were able to drink and buy Bell's, Lagunitas, Sweetwater, Terrapin, Victory, Southern Tier, and others to our hearts' content. Ahh. Couple of awesome things on the horizon: Next week is Coquette's Spirited Dinner that will involve beer and beer cocktails! Also pork. Lots and lots of pork.  Needless to say, I'm super excited. Also super exciting: Root will be doing beer pairing dinners on August 13 and 27 .  I'll have more info on the menu and the pairing next week- I'm going to help choose the beers to go with Chef Lopez's amazing food! That should be early next week so I am hoping to have a formal announcement by this time next week with the menu, pairing, pricing, etc. Needless to say, I'm honored that Root reached out to me to assist them in planning these dinners. The managing partners/owners have a real love of be...

So we cracked open a few of the beers we brought home from Pensacola. I had the (justifiably) well reviewed Bell's Brewing Two Hearted Ale, a complex but easy drinking IPA. Tom tried the Southern Tier Phin & Matt's Extraordinary Ale. I only had a sip of the Phin & Matt's, but its schtick is that it's brewed with three different hops and three different malts. The Bell's was awesome. Wonderful hop aroma and flavor- full of citrus and pine and pineapple. Balanced and drinkable and delicious. This bottle was dated June 30, 2011, so it was super fresh and tasty. Tried the Terrapin Rye Pale Ale. It initially suffered a little being drunk after the Two Hearted, but it is an excellent rye malt beer. The hops serve to support the spiciness of the rye, and allow the malt flavor to shine, without the characteristic significant malty sweetness. Very enjoyable. Glad we have six packs of these both- my inclination is to hoard them, but of course these beers won...