Nora McGunnigle

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.

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.

NOLA Brewing's tap room is now open for business 6 days a week for beer selling and general merriment. It opens at 2pm on the weekdays (except Tuesday, when it's closed) and 11am on the weekends, and closes at around 10pm at night. ( You can read more about it here .) As this is the second tap room opening in the state, and the first on in New Orleans for quite some time now, I'm hoping we can get the word out about it so that it becomes a must-visit stop for anyone in town looking for some fresh, quality beer. In order to do so, we need it to start showing up prominently on beer review sites like RateBeer and Beer Advocate. So, if you are an active member on either of these sites, go here to RateBeer and here to Beer Advocate and add your two cents. After you've checked out the new tap room, of course. I've been there three times now- once for the soft open during the last Saints pre-season game, once on their official grand opening, and once for my bir...

My previous post about the beer lineup at Bugs & Brew For Drew has gotten some notice: Here's my slightly different writeup for the Gambit blog, posted yesterday. Here's a link from La Trappe Monk's beer blog I love the cask ale love! I hope it leads to more and more of it! Also, re: NOLA's famous (or infamous) brewery tours, starting tomorrow (4/12) they are going to start charging $5 for a pint glass that is necessary to gain admittance. According to a Facebook post made this afternoon: "Starting tomorrow, we're changing the setup of our Friday tours due to the steady increase in size. We will now be charging $5 for a NOLA logo pint glass when you arrive. This will still include unlimited beer and an actual tour, but you will now get to take the glass home with you when you leave!" Personally, I think this policy is long, LONG overdue.Five dollars isn't too much, but it's enough to discourage habitual free loaders (myself include...

OK, so the New Orleans International Beer Festival is this Saturday, March 9, from 2-6pm. Here's a few updates from Louisiana breweries as to what they'll be providing (folks that I didn't include in my last post .) Covington: Will be bringing a cask for the cask garden! Abita is bringing all their standards, including Abbey Ale, Spring IPA, Oyster Stout, and Strawberry Harvest Lager. They are contributing 2 casks to the cask garden: a cask conditioned version of Vanilla Double Dog and ZSB – Zach's Special Bitter. Bayou Teche (got this from the New Orleans International Beer Festival website ): LA31 Biere Noire, LA31 Biere Pale, LA31 Boucanee, LA31 Passionee, ACADIE, and their new seasonal, Saison D'Escrevisses. For more info on what beers will be available at the Festival, visit the Breweries page on the Festival's website. You can still buy tickets here . I'm pretty sure that Gambit and the Beer Buddha are giving tickets away, too. (NOTE, dead...

Louisiana breweries have been getting some great press in the new year! Read about a Bostonian beer blogger's experience in New Orleans, especially at NOLA Brewing. Brenton Day AKA the Ale Runner updates us on what Andrew Godley and Parish Brewing are looking to accomplish in 2013. Jeremy "Beer Buddha" Labadie does his annual 2013 Mardi Gras roundup. NOLA.com explores the Old Rail's current bureaucratic limbo. Very cool to see more and more people talking about craft beer! A couple other items of note: NOLA Brewing is going to release Irish Channel Stout YEAR ROUND !  There will be an "Abita on the Avenue" pub crawl on Saturday that will feature several different kinds of very special cask ales. I want to try the Wooden Indian IPA, the Cask Conditioned Restoration Ale, and the ESB. ESB on cask! I hope it lives up to my expectations. It starts at the Avenue Pub at 3:30pm. I hope everyone turns out to support MORE CASK ALE in New Orleans! Ste...

Top 10 Louisiana Beers of 2012 This is according to Jay D. Ducote, Baton Rouge blogger and personal role model of mine. He asked me, Jeremy " Beer Buddha " Labadie, Polly Watts from Avenue Pub , Vanessa Gomes from Barley Oak , Eric Ducote , and Brenton Day  to submit our top 5 beers of the year brewed in Louisiana and created a Top 10 from our replies. I think I'm attributed in the blurb for every beer on the list that I had a part in nominating. Anyway, GO CHECK IT OUT ! It's awesome to see more an more advocating around craft beer in Louisiana. THAT'S THE DREAM! Check out the other blogger's blogs as well, and make them a part of your Louisiana beer blog reading. ALSO! Stay tuned this week for a write up of what Barley Oak in Mandeville is up to with their new brew pub, The Old Rail. I talked to Vanessa Gomes, the public face of the Barley Oak (formal title: Director of Marketing and Event Coordinator), Nick Powers, the owner of both establishments, ...

Awesome post, over at my other blog! Go read all about Boucherie's beer dinner pairings with the Swedish beers.  It was good times. Man, I love those beers. Also, Boucherie. It's a winning situation all around. WINNING!

So Tom and I had the opportunity to go investigate a brand spanking new brewery that is currently gathering resources and money and investors, etc. So the brewery, 40 Arpent, which right now is a guy named Michael, hosted this free tasting at a bar called The Rusty Nail, which I think is a really great idea. Got me excited about the stuff he's brewing.  He had a lager that was really quite phenomenal and a "Red Beans & Rice" beer that he hopes can be his flagship beer, and with some refining, I think it can be.  (The beer is actually called Keltic Kajun, but due to my irrational annoyance with spelling things unnecessarily with a "K" I will likely always refer to it as Red Beans & Rice beer.) His dunkleweizen and stout are also beers to be reckoned with. Anyway, an unexpectedly fun and informative evening with unexpectedly delicious beer. Michael was very busy making the rounds but was a great sport in answering all my various questions and I just love...

BIG NEWS- a few local New Orleans beer bloggers are joining up to create a NOLA beer website at:  http://nolabeerguide.wordpress.com/ . You may be asking yourself, why does New Orleans need this blog, given that there are several venues to find out about beer here?  There's a Facebook page for all of Louisiana, the major players tend to post updates on Facebook and Twitter, there are several beer bloggers on the scene, including yours truly and the Beer Buddha (who was the one who actually started up the NOLA Beer Guide and asked me to participate.) However, the hope is that this website will consolidate ALL of these points of information, so that we can most effectively get the word out to all New Orleans beer lovers. Since there are several of us posting, we don't need to worry about if someone gets slammed at work and can't get the time to update, or if someone's out of town, or whatever. I will still be posting here- about my personal beer tastings and ...