Nora McGunnigle

Zwanze Day 2011 Today, the Cantillon brewery in Belgium announced the list of 46 locations all over the world that will be serving its 2013 Zwanze vintage on September 14, 2013. Once again, the Avenue Pub on St. Charles Street in New Orleans has made that list, a testament to its beautifully curated beer list and dedication to get the best beer to its customers that it possibly can. It's so great to see them get this kind of kudos and recognition - it's so well deserved.

Sorry I haven't been able to update this week! I was busy at the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience (NOWFE) over the weekend and the life stuff this week. I did publish my Brewsday Tuesday column at the Gambit though!  It has been pointed out to me that I didn't include much for the Northshore, but I will be rectifying that with an article I'll be writing for the Northshore magazine Inside Northside for their Sept/Oct issue. Exciting!

The hubbub of ACBW plus the fact that we are already drinking a bunch of New Belgium after its release a month or so ago has made me forget that New Belgium isn't on draft yet here in Louisiana. On Monday, that's about to change, 'cause New Belgium is rolling out some kegs!

Another day, another 6 different beers sampled. The Avenue Pub held its "Funky Town" sour beer sampling event. They had ten different sour/wild beers on deck, both served on draft and in the bottle. I bought a sample pour ticket and selected the following four: Hill Farmstead / Fantome Five Sciences Collaboration .-  Tasting Notes: When this beer arrived it was not ready to pour. Shelton brothers told us to cellar it for at least two months to allow the re-fermentation process to complete. Many shops put this beer on their shelves right away so people that tasted it then will have tried a completely different beer. Made with Fantome’s famous wild yeast strains it has subtle grapeskin flavors and a lacing of smoke, strong carbonation and lightly tart. Nora's Notes: A very delicate and subtly complex beer, practically dissolving on the tongue as soon as I took a sip. This was a beer that I would have liked to have more time and ounces to get acquainted with. I defini...

IN IT TO WIN IT! Good times last night. The thing about ACBW isn't just the beers that are on display, but it's the event itself. There are people new to beer, brewers, brewery sales reps, industry folks, and beer geeks all coming together to celebrate American craft beer and it's just a lot of fun and the opportunity to listen to and talk with some very cool people. It's part of the celebratory nature of the week, and is incredibly energizing for me.

And... we're off! (officially) Although the official span of ACBW is May 13-19, the weekend preceding had several fun events . But Monday is when things get real.

OMG, Mardi Gras, y'all. Recovering and doing some writing. We mostly drank Sierra Nevada in cans and the NOLA Brewing beers available (Blonde, Brown, Hopitoulas) during parades, with the notable exception of Mardi Gras day itself, when we were outside the Avenue Pub for Zulu and Rex. Check out this beer list! Yum! I enjoyed the Bluebird Bitter especially. More stuff coming up soon, as soon as I put myself back together!

Reveillon Dinner at Restaurant August is a Christmas tradition of ours. In 2009, we were there for Christmas Night dinner, even before we moved here. It was so wonderful that it became a tradition for us right around the holiday- since they are no longer open on December 25, we shoot for Christmas Eve instead. Last year, we noticed that the beer list was pretty extensive but focused mostly on bottles from local breweries like Abita and Bayou Teche. Nothing too exciting, but, you know, August is more a wine-oriented fine food place so it wasn't a surprise to us. This year, though, we decided to take advantage of August's generous no-corkage-fee policy and bring some special beers we'd been saving. The Reveillon menu was online, so I was able to get an idea of the flavor profiles and chose accordingly. I brought a Lost Abbey Avant Garde bier de garde for the amuse and the first 2 courses, and Boulevard and Pretty Things' "Collaboration No. 3," a Yorkshire Stin...

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, ...

And I feel fine. Thanks for asking! Anyway, the whole end of the Mayan calendar is coming up this week and will tie into 2 beer events that I hope we all live to see. First of all, I'd be nervous about this, because the monks of the Abbaye Sint Sixtus are releasing its beer geek Holy Grail, Westvleteren XII, for the first time EVER for sale outside the monastery itself. They SAY it's to finance repairs to the abbey, but the apocalyptic timing seems TOO coincidental. Anyway, this one time only situation has apparently been a bit of a challenge for the distributors, since the monks insisted that the 6 pack (plus 2 tasting glasses) cost no more than $84.99 for the consumer, and that the boxes not be broken up and sold individually. Here are the retailers in Louisiana who will have them on 12/12/12: Whole Foods, Baton Rouge Aquistapace’s Grocery, Covington Whole Foods (Veterans), Metarie Stein’s Deli, New Orleans Whole Foods (Arabella Station), New Orleans The second...

Inspired by Polly Watts' and all of the Avenue Pub staff's work this past weekend. 1) Have a specific plan and communicate it clearly and frequently. The Avenue Pub, upon getting formal notification that Cantillon had chosen it as one of a handful of beer bars in the world for its 2012 Zwanze beer release, immediately sprang into action. Emails went out to the email list, the Facebook event was set up, all with a good general plan of what to expect - the event and its logistics on Saturday, of course, but also what was happening the week leading up to the main event. 2) Explain the system and be consistent. Watts worked hard on getting the Zwanze ticketing system in place last year- she wanted to be able to serve the great demand while making sure her staff wasn't overwhelmed, that customers weren't frustrated, and that the system would be difficult to "game" or exploit. Instead of setting something up so that people would be stressed out about getting i...

Welcome to the latest in my Brewing Bigshot Interview Series!  Today's subject is Andrew Godley, Founder and Brewmaster of Parish Brewing  in Broussard, LA (in Lafayette Parish). Parish has gone through an ENORMOUS transition in size of facility and staff this year, and tomorrow it will be debuting Andrew's baby, the Inaugural Grand Reserve Barleywine at the Avenue Pub , so I thought the time was right to see what's going on here! Andrew Godley founded Parish Brewing back in 2008 while he was still working his day job as a chemical engineer. He was working in a rented commercial warehouse space on nights and weekends, brewing 16 kegs of Canebrake (his wheat beer brewed with Steen’s sugarcane syrup) a week. Then in 2012, he moved his operation into a new, large, state-of-the-art brewery and brewed more beer on his first day there than he had in his entire first year of brewing. To break it down into comparable numbers, Andrew was brewing 150 bbls a year in 2011, a...

Regarding my previous post , I want to make it clear that I am incredibly grateful and inspired by the work that the Avenue Pub, NOLA Brewing, and other breweries and bars are doing in New Orleans and Louisiana. They just shouldn't have to carry the whole load! There's room for everyone at the table! On that note, behold the upcoming craft beer awesomeness here in New Orleans:: First and foremost, ZWANZE DAY is on Saturday, December 1! This is the day that Cantillon Brewery in Belgium reveals their annual Zwanze beer, which is different every year. This year, it's a recreation of their first Zwanze vintage in 2008, a rhubarb lambic.  Since Cantillon is all about "celebrating the style of spontaneous brewing" the road to Zwanze 2012 was a bit rocky, as you can see from this blurb on Cantillon's website : When in early April we brewed a top-fermentation beer which was to become Zwanze 2012, we hoped that it would be ready 3 or 4 months later so that we co...

I have done a lot of travelling this fall (which is kind of weird, for me) and as you might imagine, I tend to focus on beer-related activities while on the road. I have enjoyed many beers and breweries and beer bars over the past two months and would like to share what I've learned and seen. (and eaten and drank) First trip was to San Francisco. My trip to the Bay Area in early October was short and sweet, so I didn't get to go to the many beer places in the city. (Note: I've gone to the Anchor Brewing tour on a previous trip in 2009, as well as Monk's Kettle, Alembic, Toronado, and Magnolia, as well as outside of the city, where of course there's Russian River, as well as Bear Republic, Silverado, Moylans, Anderson Valley, North Coast, 3rd Street Ale Works, Calistoga Brewery, etc. We enjoyed excellent beer service at the French Laundry as well during that trip.) But this past trip, my primary beer activity was focused on my pilgrimage to Toronado - but I was ab...

Wow, it's been a month since I updated? Crazy. It's been kind of a weird month. Hurricane recovery, birthdays, broken husband...  you better believe I've been drinking. Heavily. I kid! (Kinda.) Beer occurrences of note: NOLA Brewing released a new beer, the first in their new high-gravity series, Mecha Hopzilla. It's a pretty tasty beer- well balanced and quite hoppy. It's not really my wheelhouse, but I liked it. I think I like Hopitoulas better, which is good news too, because it'll be coming out in 16 ounce cans soon! In new beers in New Orleans news: Goose Island (from Chicago) has come to town! Right now it's just the three "Vintage Ales" - the Sofie, Matilda, and Pere Jacques. Sofie, looking gawjuss in the Goose Island goblet  I loved the Matilda, the Belgian style pale ale. Subtle, balanced, delicious. Sofie was pretty good, a light colored Belgian farmhouse ale- it was a little... insubstantial, maybe? Just didn't seem to l...

So this past weekend marked the 3 year anniversary of the first cask conditioned ale made by NOLA Brewing being served at The Avenue Pub. According to Polly Watts, owner of the Avenue Pub, you couldn't find cask ale anywhere in Louisiana prior to that. As I am a huge fan of cask ale, NOLA Brewing, and the Avenue Pub, you can imagine that the event planned to commemorate this would be relevant to my interests. The plan was a "Cask Crawl" on St. Charles Ave- NOLA would provide casks to both the Avenue Pub and the Irish House down the street. The weather even took a break from being either steamy or stormy, and just  was mild and comfortable. So, I was looking forward to this event... until I read the description of the one at the Pub. "Peter's Perfect Phirkin"... a Hurricane Saison cask complimented by pineapple, papaya, plums, poblano peppers, peychaud bitters, and dry hopped with Perle hops. OMG, I thought it sounded hideous. I first thought that I just ...

So, although I have about 3 cases of beer from Florida, I've been obsessed with obtaining a beer called Brux which is a collaboration between Russian River Brewing and Sierra Nevada. Because Sierra Nevada is distributed here in Louisiana (and, um, everywhere else in the country), this beer is able to get in this market. However, not a lot (allegedly), so there's been a run on it. Right after I heard about the beer, I went to Stein's after work to pick some up. There weren't any bottles out on the shelves but when I asked Andre, he brought one out from the back. "One per customer," he said. I asked if I could buy one and if Tom could buy one, and was denied. I think they may have milked the "last bottle sold" thing, as I heard that the Beer Buddha got the last bottle on Friday, but then heard about other folks buying bottles through the weekend. It's all a game, a show. Having bought my bottle, I heard that it's a beer meant to continue ...

So, holy crap, Pretty Things Beer And Ale Project (originally from Somerville, MA, our old stomping grounds) is now apparently being kinda-sorta distributed in New Orleans! First, for American Craft Beer Week, the Avenue Pub did a tasting of two beers released through their "Once Upon A Time" project. This particular project was the result of a collaboration with beer historian Ron Pattinson, and examined what happens when you brew the same Mild "X" beer as it was brewed in both 1838 and 1945. From their website: Two X Ales from the same London brewery, 107 years apart: these beers were brewed and sold as the “same beer”. But they weren’t the same beer at all! This side-by-side release allows you to taste history in a very direct, beat-you-about-the-head kind of way. The beers are whoppingly, fantastically different. There’s no way you would think they are connected by the same brewery, brand name and style. Isn’t history wonderful?  We first tasted these b...

So, first of all, you all know that American Craft Beer Week (hereforafter known as ACBW) is this week, correct? Tonight Tom and I are going to the Avenue Pub for their Pretty Things historical beer event, which I've been crazy excited for since I first heard about it a couple months ago. There's lots of other stuff too, check it out! We have many friends coming into town towards the end of the week and over the weekend, so I don't know how many events we'll end up getting to, but we shall see. ALSO, many, many congratulations to NOLA Brewing for bringing home the Gold in the Brown/Amber Ale category of the AmeriCAN Canned Craft Beer Festival held this past week! Good work, guys, and I certainly wasn't surprised, considering how addicted Tom is to his Brown Ale cans.

This past week, the news broke that Green Flash from San Diego would be entering the New Orleans market , hopefully in late May-early June.  The details on the whens and wheres are still To Be Announced. Also, I just found out that Parish Brewing Company , who have been nanobrewing up in the Lafayette Parish for a couple years out of the founder's garage, and have recently build a really truly actual brewery, will be rolling out throughout the New Orleans market between May 24-26. They will be getting some kegs to the Avenue Pub during American Beer Craft Week starting on Wednesday May 16, so we'll get a little sneak peek of what's been driving our neighbors wild these past couple of years! Congrats guys, I'm glad you'll be able to expand your production and am looking forward to having more local craft beer choices. So, I'm excited about the continuation of the craft beer movement in New Orleans!  These are both very promising developments and all beer love...