Nora McGunnigle

Ommegang seasonal at Coquette Almost at the end of ACBW, hope everyone is holding up OK! Yesterday afternoon/evening was gorgeous in New Orleans and today is shaping up to be the same. I'm heading over to the Avenue Pub to drink some of the newer, smaller, local breweries' beer this afternoon - hey, did y'all know that the Avenue balcony opens at 1pm on Fridays? - and then head over to Crescent Pie and Sausage. I saw a bunch of ACBW stuff around on social media, and I thought it would be fun to post through other folks' eyes (i.e., Twitter accounts).

(Note: behold a post/rant from my blogger in crime, Tom. I also posted a little something about this in the Gambit this week. This month's new Where Y'At also has my more in depth article on this subject. - Nora)  "It shall be unlawful for any person to carry or drink from any opened glass container in or on any public right-of-way, including any street, sidewalk, park or alley within one block of a Mardi Gras parade route, two hours before the published beginning time of the parade, during the parade, or within one block of the published disbanding area of the parade within two hours of the published or actual ending time of the parade, whichever occurs later."

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.

This week's Brewsday Tuesday focuses on the upcoming Bayou Beer Festival, with a hat tip to the other beer festival happening on the 16th, the Gambit's FestivALES.

Just a quickie post to share a couple of pictures of my writing out in the world! This one is of the article that I wrote for Houma Point of Vue. Since I won't get my hands on a copy for a couple of days, I was super excited that Joel Ohmer (one of the guys who founded the Bayou Beer Society that I interviewed) sent this to me this morning. And this evening a friend of mine sent me a picture of some beer signage at Whole Foods that I wrote the copy for. Whole Foods reached out to a bunch of local beer geeks to do these writeups, including me and the friend who sent me the photo. So much fun!

Several weeks ago I was contact by North Carolina blogger Bryan Roth , who has been working on what he calls " The Six Pack Project ." The idea is to select six beers that are in bottles or cans to properly represent the craft brewing culture of the state of Louisiana.

Baton Rogue Metro Council has approved an ordinance amendment to permit breweries to sell up to 10% of their product in a tap room environment. This means that Tin Roof can move forward with their planned tap room construction, which is great news for them.

There's a beer-focused fundraiser (OK, also wine and food) happening in Mandeville on August 23, 7-10pm at Benedict's Plantation (1144 North Causeway Blvd.) The big news (from my perspective) is that Chafunkta Brewing has announced that they will be debuting a brand new beer at the fundraiser. It's still a mystery right now, but Josh Erickson, head brewer, gave this as a hint:  "We wanted to bring our passion for quality, craft beer to a larger audience. We selected a style that, to our knowledge, is not currently being commercially brewed in Louisiana. It's one that we think will appeal to a broader market, but the style is one that still takes quite a bit of care to brew correctly."

... Go crazy? Don't mind if I do! I kid! Although ACBW was a very busy week and I got pretty tired by the end of it, everything was so much fun. Great beers, great people, great general vibe. Yesterday's Grand Tasting at the Avenue Pub was the showcase event of the week, and I think Polly and her amazing staff pulled off a high quality and smooth running event.

I am so tired. I'm not hungover, and I've been getting a decent night's sleep every night - the precautions I've stuck to have definitely been working. It's like a cumulative exhaustion that gets more and more intense every morning I wake up. I love beer, I love drinking beer, I love talking to people about beer, I love seeing others enjoy beer. I love it more than pretty much anything else. I am still enjoying myself going to events. But I'm tired.

OK, I'm late getting this blog post up - I am working on an article about American Craft Beer Week, so that's been taking up a lot of my beer brain space. But! Bugs and Brew For Drew was a huge success (so it seemed!) and a whole lot of fun. We were signed up for the cask beer "garden" tent, which had casks from Abita, NOLA Brewing, Covington, Parish, and Bayou Teche. Tin Roof didn't do a cask, but they did do a special keg of their blond ale fermented with Thai chiles which was crazy spicy on the aroma but pretty fruity and balanced on the tongue. Interesting, and a nice surprise. My favorites of the day were Abita's ZSB (Zach's Special Bitter), which I've had several times before, but this was by far the best. I think it's pretty cool that they have such a solid, approachable beer as exclusively served on cask. Definitely gives the concept a lot of exposure to folks who haven't had cask ale: I think the Abita name is trusted by the local,...

The New Orleans International Beer Festival is returning to Champions Square on March 9. It moved over here from the Northshore last year and has had a good turnout and reputation for engaging local breweries. It's sponsored by Abita, with participation of all local breweries like Tin Roof, NOLA Brewing, Parish Brewing, Bayou Teche, and Chafunkta. Yes, Chafunkta! This will be their debut appearance as a fully licensed and legally distributed beer - stop by their table and try their Voo Ka Ray IPA and Old 504 Porter, a coffee-infused vanilla robust porter. And congratulate them for their huge accomplishment! Andrew Godley with Parish Brewing says that he'll be bringing his trademark Canebrake wheat beer along with the first commercial batch of their new year round beer, Envie Pale Ale and a keg of 2012 Grand Reserve barleywine. Tin Roof is sponsoring the cornhole tournament (come out and cheer for New Orleans' own Beer Buddha team!) and will be bringing their fla...

Tonight! My House, an event planning organization that works on pop-ups and food truck events, is having a BBQ and craft beer dinner tonight at Casa Borrega (1719 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd.) There will also be... dancing! It starts at 7pm, and you can still purchase tickets online (for $8! They are $10 at the door) until 3pm- click here for that . I spoke to Barrie Schwartz, the founder and director of My House, and she told me that although she's lived here for two years, and loves New Orleans and its creative culinary community, she does miss the craft beer culture in her previous home of Michigan, and wanted to bring a bit of that to a New Orleans event. So she got local "BBQ Master" Richard Shilling (I don't think I've ever had his food before, so I'm looking forward to it) to cook and paired it with local New Orleans beers. Richard will be serving ribs, collard greens, and mashed potatoes, and there will be a cash bar serving beer, with several loca...

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...

OK, this event was like three weeks ago, and I had so much fun talking to local brewers and other awesome folks, and I didn't even post anything in a timely fashion! Since I was out of town this past weekend and missed the rescheduled New Orleans on Tap (as well as the Outlaw Homebrew Festival in Hattiesburg, MI, which John from the Keg and Barrel had invited me to judge) I figured I'd discuss the recent, more low-key local brewery and cheese/charcuterie event held on October 24 at the St. James Cheese Co. Peter Caddoo was there with a firkin of NOLA Brown ale, Gordon Biersch had something that was pretty unremarkable but fine. Gnarly Barley was there, and I hadn't met them yet. They had a very interesting rye beer, that was being called an IPA but didn't quite fit into that category, in my opinion. I think if they can call it something so that the IPA expectation isn't there, they'll have something. They also had a pretty decent coffee porter on tap. ...

Unite! Or something. I have some people coming from out of town in the next couple of weeks and I have been thinking about places that beer lovers would enjoy an amazing New Orleans experience. Here are some thoughts: BARS: GOLD MEDAL: Avenue Pub : Anyone who has read this blog before knows that I spend a lot of time at the Avenue. Plain and simple, they have a large and thoughtful (and amazing) beer selection. Local stuff, Belgian stuff, great American Craft stuff... if you want to get your beer geek on, this is the place to be. SILVER MEDAL: places that have fun atmospheres and decent beer lists. Bulldog ( Uptown and Mid-City ), Bayou Beer Garden , Rendon Inn (Broadmore/Gert Town), Twelve Mile Limit - primarily an amazing cocktail bar but with a small but eclectic beer selection. d.b.a on Frenchmen. Crown & Anchor in Algiers (just hop the ferry!), Finn McCool's in Mid-City, and Cooter Brown's uptown . Also check out the Bridge Lounge on Magazine Str...

(this is cross-posted with my other blog, Nora in Nola . Apologies for the redundancy, but I didn't think I needed to re-invent the wheel for a new post!) Longtime readers of this blog may know my deep and abiding love for the Riverbend area restaurant Boucherie , one of my favorite places in the city. A couple weeks ago, the chef-owner, Nathanial Zimet, was shot and seriously wounded in an attempted armed robbery. He has no health insurance, and the hospitality industry has galvanized into action, contributing proceeds from dinner sales, wine sales, tips, and the major and amazing fundraiser on July 10 at the Howlin' Wolf called Beasts & Brass . However, the beer community wanted to be involved too. It all started with a blog entry by Jeremy "The Beer Buddha" Labadie: If you've ever been to Boucherie you know that the food is fantastic as is the beer selection. The Brooklyn beer dinner that was held in New Orleans was held at Boucherie and was amazing. N...

Tonight, Tin Roof Brewing (of Baton Rouge) debuted in New Orleans at Squeal BBQ . So, we went for dinner and to try a couple of beers. They have two flagships that they are focusing on- Tom, the brewmaster, said that he's tweaking and getting everything in place and exactly the way they want it to be. I think they have some solid potential, but they have some room to take it to the next level. In my conversation with the brewmaster, I got the feeling they knew that too. Which is exciting, because I am looking forward with what they come up with. The two beers, the Perfect Tin Amber and the Voodoo Bengal Specialty Pale Ale, came to our table looking more or less alike. There were some slightly redder tones in the amber than the pale ale, but it was a very subtle distinction. Perfect Tin: No noticeable aroma (although I am recovering from a cold), but the taste was clean, drinkable, and drier than I'd anticipated. This was a pleasant change from Abita, which has a sweetnes...