Nora McGunnigle

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

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."

While I have been in my own little world at New Orleans' Tales of the Cocktail, several very interesting tidbits of beer news has come down the pike.

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...

I had the opportunity to try a few other beers and take advantage of the New England location while up in CT. Had a couple Brewtus Maximus beers at Max Burger in West Hartford.  Allegedly, it's brewed specially for them from Thomas Hooker Brewing .  It was tasty and went down oh so smooth. I also picked up, at the beer store, Sebago (in Maine)'s Local Harvest Ale . It was hoppy, malty, tasty deliciousness.  Damn, that shit was good. Highly recommend.  Look how pretty! As the Alström Brothers say , "High marks for bringing hop flavor to new heights, lordy be, this is an amazing beer."  I don't think I can say it better than that.  Maine, you totally rule. At the Atlanta airport on the way home, my gate was right next to the Sweetwater Brew Pub and I went in there and ordered a Sweetwater 420, which is a Pale Ale I enjoyed during our vacation in Florida.  I looked at the big board before ordering though, make sure I wasn't missing out on...