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.

So, obviously, a significant part of any trip I take is about the beers I can find and drink that I can't get here at home.  Therefore, I report here, the tales of my San Francisco beer adventure! First night in the Bay area, we were in Redwood City, south of SF. We went to an English/Scottish gastropub type place called Martins West , which had a very nice selection of beers on draft. I started with an Evil Twin by Heretic Brewing, which was fantastic. Such a well balanced beer.  Had a Honey Saison from Almanac Beer Co., out of San Francisco. I had a sample before committing- but I was impressed. It's a very nice saison, the yeast, hops, spices, and honey balanced nicely. I recommended it to someone sitting next to me, who dismissed it as "something girls drink" and therefore I needed to hold forth and lecture about what girls ACTUALLY DRINK. Which is to say, everything. The next day I enjoyed a Scrimshaw Pilsner with my oysters at the Ferry Building (I...

I was actually planning to write about Professor Fritz Briem 1809 Berliner Weisse today, because I'd heard it was a session beer, only to find out that it is 5% and therefore exceeds the cutoff of 4.5% ABV as set forth by the Session Beer Project (which I find entirely reasonable as a cutoff, I'm just disappointed the Berliner Weisse doesn't qualify, because that is a tasty beer with a very interesting history.) However, I also tasted another beer today that actually does qualify as a session beer, so I am still on schedule with my Session-Beer-A-Day-Writeup project. That beer is North Coast's Scrimshaw Pilsner, and at 4.4% ABV, it qualifies with a tenth of a point to spare! It's a traditionally brewed Pilsner that uses German hops (Hallertauer and Tettnang) and Munich malt. Today began a stretch of humid days in the 80s that is supposed to last all week long here in New Orleans. Very fitting that Tom and I enjoyed a beer so well suited for the weather! It has...