Nora McGunnigle

As we stand on the edge of Louisiana Craft Brewers Week, let us think of the breweries that have joined the ranks since this time last year - Courtyard Brewery, Mudbug Brewing. Broken Wheel, Flying Heart, Second Line, and Cajun Brewing - and rejoice.

Hey, all - I didn't do my post of the week last week because I wasn't feeling well at all so things got a little FUBARed. However, one of the things I was working on was pulling the schedule together for Louisiana Craft Brewers Weekend, happening September 12-19, which will run in the Gambit next week. (In the meanwhile, you can peep the schedule here . Let me know if you know of any corrections, updates, or cancellations.) In other news, my All About Beer Magazine piece got put up online , and Beer Advocate released the cover of this month's issue, and the cover story (Family Brewed) is my story!

Bayou Teche's collaboration with French brewery La Bambelle I've been working with Propaganda New Orleans for a couple months - it's an opportunity to write more about what I really love and use a writing style and tone that I can't really use when writing my more newsy and reporting pieces. The piece, " Ladies Who Love Beer In What's (Traditionally) A Man's Man's Man's World ," was published yesterday and I have gotten some great feedback from other women. It really seems that my words resonated with people and seeing that is so rewarding in a way that I wasn't expecting. The experience has shown me that being a writer isn't just about selling my ideas and writing articles, but about people reading what I write. This is a huge revelation!

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 .

 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!

My Christmas gift to you is lots of interesting articles about beer! Bayou Teche's Karlos Knott sitting behind a pint glass full of cracklins, because why not.

Winter beers are still my bread & butter right now: check out my writeup on the Alcohol Professor . I'm pretty sure next week I'll have yet another one published online. For my weekly Gambit column, I discussed Parish Brewing's upcoming Grand Reserve Barleywine release .

How was your Thanksgiving? Uh-huh, uh-huh, that's cool, I don't really care. So much is happening in the wide world of beer! My cover story for the current edition of Southern Brew News FIRST of all, NOLA Brewing is gearing up to release their newest New Belgium collaboration called Black Strap Chicory Stout. It's a milk stout made with black strap molasses and chicory. Brewmaster Peter Cadoo and brewer Mike "Indy" Grap went out to Fort Collins at the end of October/start of November to brew the beer. Stay tuned for info on its release.

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.

Parish Brewing's Dr. Hoptagon at the Avenue Pub on 9/25 Super link-a-licious this week. Not only has Louisiana's Craft Brewer Week hit the national press, but a few of my own articles came out as well.

Apologies for not getting these out yesterday, but I've been under the weather. This week was a two-fer for me in the Gambit: my feature article on Louisiana Craft Brewer Week and my regular Brewsday Tuesday column on the Avenue Pub's badass events in the recent past and near future. I also suggest you investigate my other blog to read about local eatery Salu's Oktoberfest kick off pig roast that's happening tomorrow, Saturday 9/21 for both lunch and dinner. Also, check this blog out for my writeup on the new NOLA Brewing taproom as well as suggestions as to how to help get the word out about it on national beer sites. Speaking of NOLA Brewing, Thrillist named it the best craft brewery in Louisiana in their story choosing the best craft brewery for every state. And also speaking of Louisiana Craft Brewer Week above, Todd Price did a great writeup in NOLA.com in which he spoke with local brewers like NOLA Brewing and Gnarly Barley. Love it! I am so ...

The NOLA taproom opened this week! I have been keeping busy working on a couple pieces for the Gambit and Where Y'At as well as hustling doing pitches for other publications, which is why I haven't been able to write a blog post about the awesome Bayou Teche beer dinner I had at Sainte Marie Brasserie last week (a week ago today, actually.) I'm really hoping to get that up with some pictures in the near future, because it was pretty kickass. The chef, Kristen Essig, was so warm and welcoming and so excited about the pairings! It was great. ANYWAY, for your links du jour:

My new print column! First of all, per last week's breathless announcement , here is the link to my Inside Northside article.  http://www.insidenorthside.com/craft-beer-revolution/ . Also, my Brewsday Tuesday post , which will be published in the upcoming print version.

I have a new and diabolical (OK, not really so much with the diabolical) plan to post a weekly roundup of beer related links I find interesting. This post will likely appear every Thursday or Friday. If you have links you'd like me to include, please email me at nora(at)nolabeerblog(dot)com or share your link in the comments below.