Nora McGunnigle

Taps at the Wayfare So, one of the things I'm lucky enough to do is experience a pretty wide variety of beer and food pairings with local and national craft breweries (and occasionally some international ones too). I think that this has honed my palate over the years to appreciate the interplay between different food flavor profiles and the diversity of flavors that comes from beer's malt, hops, alcohol content, and thousands of other chemical compounds and interactions. It takes practice, and I've been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to practice a lot. A specific opportunity recently came my way with the Wayfare restaurant on Freret, who reached out to me to pair a beer with one of their dishes. I chose Great Raft's Provisions and Traditions 3, an oak-aged Marzen style. It was a bit of a gimme, given that it was created in partnership with Chef Drake Leonards at Luke, and was therefore very food friendly. I headed to the Wayfare and ordered an insan...

 Happy Carnival, y'all! First, the contest. No, wait, first, the apology for letting too much time lapse between blog updates. I've had a lot of deadlines and doing any writing that I absolutely didn't NEED to do was not at the top of my list... OK, now the contest. I have a pair of tickets to the NOLA Eats New Orleans King Cake Tasting on February 1 at the Little Gem Saloon. And all you need to win them is to visit my Facebook page and leave a comment on the contest post with the perfect beer to pair with king cake. The beer should be available to purchase in New Orleans, and you can be as specific or general with what kind of king cake you're looking to pair your beer choice with. I'm the sole judge, but I can definitely be swayed by "likes" on your contest entry. Share as many ideas as you'd like! Contest winner will be announced Monday, January 20. Onto the all important links!

Tin Roof's new seasonal out in cans I started a new column for Propaganda New Orleans, called "Hopaganda" (see what I did there?) and I'm really excited about working with them. It'll be a much more laid back style of writing, maybe like one step up from this blog in tone, but a step down from the informational, interview-heavy reporting that I have been focusing on. This column focuses on my memories and thoughts about the beer scene here as a New Orleans transplant back in 2010.

Saint Arnold beer dinner at Domenica last week I've got a new post up on The Alcohol Professor about my GABF experience . It's been a while since I had the opportunity to contribute to them, but hopefully I'll have more stuff published there soon. Almanac Brewing's founder Jesse Friedman also published a post about a brewer's take on GABF , which was cool. This week's Brewsday Tuesday focuses on the two new breweries in Shreveport , Great Raft and Red River, who have just been licensed by the state to start brewing. ( NOLA.com also ran a piece on the new Shreveport breweries) I also had a post published about a couple beer dinners happening this week - last night's at Dat Dog and tonight's NOLA Brewing dinner at Delmonico.

I'm putting this list of links together early so that I don't have to worry about dropping the ball while I'm out of town in Denver for the Great American Beer Festival. I am SO EXCITED. I should be on my way to Fort Collins to visit the New Belgium Brewery by the time you read this on Thursday. This week, for Brewsday Tuesday, I interviewed Wolf Koehler , founder, owner, and brewmaster of the Crescent City Brewhouse in the French Quarter. He's a very interesting guy who is passionate about beer, and has a lot of interesting stories and perspectives. I enjoyed talking to him. While I'm gone, you can still get tons of news from the beer world, from Drink All The Beers' new news page . The official presentation of the Louisiana Brew Trail by Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne caught the attention of the New York Times , which is pretty cool. An issue close to my heart, an article exploring why chefs seem to be shy to work with craft beer , is up this week. The author ...

It has been a crazy week - I can't believe it was only one week ago yesterday that we were hanging out with the Bayou Teche guys, one of whom was dressed as Napoleon. I had some really cool experiences during this week, some of which I'll be expanding upon in the near future (either here or other publications). But for right now, here are some highlights: 1.

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.

I'm experimenting with sexier blog post titles! My second day as a Beer Blogger Conference attendee started out with several dozen other sleepy conference attendees boarding a bus on a drizzly Portland morning. We were heading down to Portsmouth, NH to have lunch at the beloved Portsmouth Brewery (and brewpub).

One of Maine's many state slogans is "The Way Life Should Be," and my time in New England so far would bear this sentiment out. The reason I'm here is to attend the Beer Bloggers Conference, held in Boston but with a pre-event excursion in Portland ME and Portsmouth NH.

On Tuesday, July 23rd, Dat Dog on Magazine street hosted a unique beer and food event, a six course pairing of beers from New Belgium with a selection of “Haute Dogs”.   The menu Nora was on a plane to Boston at the time, so I attended in her stead. Each course consisted of a smaller portion of hotdog and bun, paired with a 4oz pour of the accompanying beer.

I did a writeup of upcoming beer dinners (and brunches!) as well as a mention of NOLA Brewing's beer brunch at Crescent Pie & Sausage Company this past Saturday. (It was gooooood.)

Good morning, beer peeps! I'm out the door to head up to the Northshore, but I wanted to share a couple things:

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.

We (briefly) interrupt our coverage of American Craft Beer Week to share this press release from Bayou Teche. Being selected to present at SAVOR is a huge honor, and it's a very prestigious national event. I'm super excited because I will be attending this year to chronicle the Louisiana offerings and events (Abita is a sponsor and will be present as well.) This is the press release in its entirety directly from Karlos Knott, co-owner of Bayou Teche. Has a lot of cool info about the beer, the food, the brewery, and the event itself.

I just found out about a whole host of food-craft beer pairings that are happening this week at the Irish House . Chopped winner chef Matt Murphy has created a small plate to pair with a specific American craft beer for every night this week, starting tonight. All pairings are $11. Monday, May 13: Stone Ruination IPA served with an Irish cheese plate Tuesday, May 14: Ommegang Abbey Ale with fish & chips Wednesday, May 15: Harpoon IPA with truffled chicken Thursday, May 16: Green Flash West Coast IPA with baked redfish Friday, May 17: Rogue Dead Guy Ale with corned beef & cabbage Saturday, May 18: Anchor Steam with bacon & cheese croquettes Sunday, May 19: Covington Strawberry Ale with BBQ oysters Also on Thursday, May 16, the Irish House will be hosting a three course beer dinner with NOLA Brewing. It's $45 and starts at 7pm. Limited seating, call 504-595-6755 for reservations. Here's the menu:

1) Ron Swodoba, Director of Craft Beer Education at Crescent Crown Distributors, is now the second person in New Orleans to be designated a Certified Ciccerone! The test sounds really hard, and I'm really glad his hard work paid off. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. 2) Got a peek at August's new beer menu from my old friend Robert Wailes ; and it looks nice. our beer Saison Dupont ,   farmhouse Ale   Belgium Citrus and spice notes, full-bodied and malty; It sparkles on the palate and finishes with a zesty hop and citrus attack.  12. Duvel Belgium A strong, golden ale with aromas of citrus, apple, hops and yeast.  It has a delicate sparkle and a refined silky taste.  9. Brasserie Trois Dames, L’amoureuse No. 1 Ste-Croix, Switzerland  This ale is brewed with 15% of Chassalas grape must Medium in body.  Malt forward with light hops, bitterness and a dry finish  13. Unibroue,  La Fin Du Monde Canad...