Nora McGunnigle

The Goose Island Matilda (Belgian Strong Style Pale Ale brewed with Brettnomyces) is really, really, really awesome. Not really brett-y, the sourness/funk is subtle and incredibly balanced and delicious. Well done!

So, yay, Ohio beer that I can't get in Louisiana! Acquired: Great Lakes Commodore Perry IPA, Chatoe Rogue First Growth Wet Hop Ale, Goose Island Winter Mild, Dogfish Head Raison d'Etre, and a few Goose Island Reserve Ales: Sofie, Matilda, and Pere Jacques. Have not busted into the Goose Island Matilda yet, but here are some quick thoughts on the ones that were sampled: Great Lakes Commodore Perry IPA : a solid, tasty IPA. Hoppy with citrus notes. Very drinkable and a beer I almost always reach for when I come visiting this part of the world. Apparently Great Lakes makes a small batch of a Christmas Ale that is supposed to be amazing, but we couldn't find it. Sad! But we had others to drink so sadness was tempered. Dogfish Head Raison d'Etre : I was feeling nostalgic for this while watching Brewmasters (though I would have been more psyched to see Indian Brown Ale). A Belgian Strong Dark Ale. Dried fruit aromas and sweetness on the tongue, balanced by a nice hopp...

You ever think, "YAY BEER!!!" because it makes you so goddamn happy? Yes, often under the influence of beer, but who cares? Beer had made me friends that I never would have thought I'd have. Beer is delicious. Beer is basically, as Ben Franklin says (??), proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. (Tom the atheist likes to say instead that "beer is proof that SCIENCE WORKS, BITCHES!") Beer was a huge part of my wedding and of many excellent adventures I've had with my best friend FOR LIFE. YAY YAY YAY FUCKING YAY BEER! Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year and all that stuff, but mostly, Give Thanks to Beer! Bitches!

Last night we hosted a beer tasting for a few friends at our house. We got a spread of cheese from St. James Cheese Company - a Mrs. Applebys Cheshire, a Lincolnshire Poacher, and a Lagiole from France. Also a wild boar salami and a goose, duck, and chicken pate. Now, the beer! We started with a mellow Mana Wheat Ale from Maui Brewing Company - a Hefeweizen brewed with Maui Gold Pineapple. I actually didn't know about the pineapple until I just looked at the can right now. I think the fruity characteristics that are often present in Hefeweizens really lent itself to the inclusion of pineapple to a very smooth and delicious result. Next up was a Goose Island special series beer called Fleur . It's a Belgian Style ale with steeped hibiscus flowers. Excellent. Goose Island produces some seriously high quality beers, and I was grateful to have the opportunity to try this one. Became more complex and flavorful as it warmed. Hibiscus seems to be somewhat of a trend these d...

Enjoyed a lovely evening at The Avenue Pub , as is par for the course on Friday nights with the Beer Advocate gang, including the Beer Buddha . One of the regulars had some visitors from out of town, his daughter and her boyfriend who both work for New Belgium Brewing . Very cool to babble on about beer drunkenly to new people! Who work in the beer business! And don't know me, so they listen! Anyway, even better, they brought presents. Three beers from their Lips of Faith series: Imperial Berliner Weisse , Belgo IPA , and Sahti Ale . New Belgium is not available in either New England or Louisiana so this was a real treat. I have enjoyed their flagship beer, Fat Tire , while in San Francisco, but it's not something I've had very often. I love a Berliner Weisse, and this was a nice one. Nice Brett and lactic sour flavors, but I thought it was a nice balanced beer, suitable as a sour beer intro, but flavorful enough for sour beer lovers to enjoy. The Belgo IPA was jus...

It's the anniversary of the passage of the 21st Amendment, which repealed the Prohibition of alcohol (aka the 18th Amendment) Happy Repeal Day!

Ken, I got hammered on Friday night and lost your card. Can you email me at nora.deirdre@gmail.com?

I believe that St. Arnold's is a new product in the New Orleans market. We won a mix six pack for our 2nd place showing in the Avenue Pub's pub quiz the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, with 2 bottles of Texas Wheat , 2 bottles of Elissa IPA , and 2 bottles of Brown Ale . The Texas Wheat pours a bright golden straw color, with an appropriate cloudiness from the wheat. It doesn't taste very wheat-y, though that's fairly typical of American wheat ales, in my experience. It's light in body and the yeast made me think of a German ale, so I was pleased with my palate to read afterward in the tasting notes that the beer was originally a Kristall Weizen and it's brewed with a Kolsch yeast. There's a hop bitterness, but there's not a significant hop flavor profile. In contrast, the Alyssa IPA is pretty heavy on the hops. I dunno why it's called Alyssa. Wait, to the St. Arnold's tasting notes! (They are super detailed.) This beer is named after ELISSA, a ...

Where To Drink In New Orleans (Click to see a readable version.) All rights reserved by ianhoch

1) tried the Abita Christmas Ale on draft while having dinner at Mandina's and it was actually pretty good! I had fears of it being as horrible as Harpoon's Winter Warmer, but it was actually pretty dry and didn't have that malty sweetness that infiltrates a lot of their brews (most recently and disappointingly, the Abita Select Rye Pale Ale.) It had a decent spicy/bitterness going on. I liked it! 2) AM I SERIOUSLY WATCHING PEOPLE SPIT UP REGURGITATED CORN ON MY TELEVISION? Come ON, Calagione! Spitting and regurgitating- maybe later I'll head over to Bourbon Street to watch tourists puke and horses crap. Seriously? In case this piques your interest, this is the TV show I'm watching- Brew Masters . Also, if this piques your interest, gross. Not a good day to be a lady working at Dogfish Head, people.

We picked up the newest Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Brewers Reserve - an Oak Aged Ale. It's a blend of their Oak-aged Bigfoot Barleywine, their Celebration Ale, and the flagship Pale Ale. Then they dryhop the hell out of it! Clocking in at 9.2% ABV, I got a heavily hopped initial taste of the barleywine - a whopper of a boozy taste up front, but smooth rather than raw or hot. Strong hop aroma, courtesy of the dry hopping, and there is a pronounced spicy hop flavor, which battles the barleywine bully. As it warms, the woody vanilla flavors courtesy of the oak aging of the Bigfoot becomes more pronounced. I didn't get the citrus or floral hop notes that other reviewers describe, but once I was able to differentiate the hop spiciness and the boozy oak-y spiciness, I was able to match the hop aroma in the nose with the intense hoppiness of the taste. An interesting beer- it's hoppy as hell but somehow that was camouflaged by the woodsy tones and barleywine booziness so it...

Finally got off the couch today and headed over to the Avenue Pub for Firkin Friday: Parish Brewing Company's Canebrake cask with Hibiscus. Tasty! Would have enjoyed more than the one except I needed more Anchor '08 and '09. In the holiday spirit, I wanted to link to a fellow beer blogger's take on Thanksgiving beer pairing - it perfectly encapsulates my own thoughts on the craziness of Thanksgiving Day food and the accompanying boozing. Take it away, Beer Buddha! (Bake him away, toys!)

This being a holiday week, we have been able to justify more getting out and drinking beer than we usually do (and can) during the regular 5 day work week. Whoo! Last night, we went to the Avenue Pub's Pub Quiz, and came in 2nd! Which, sure, there were only like 8 teams, but still, we were pleased with our showing. We won a mix six pack of a beer I hadn't heard of before- St. Arnold's and 2 lovely belgian tulip glasses, which, shamefully enough, we'd been lacking in our beer glass collection. (We do have one of these , though!) We had a great time- it was just the two of us on our team, and we actually didn't know anyone else there except for Polly. But that was fine, sometimes it's just nice to relax. I drank a Unibroue Trois Pistoles, a Brooklyn EIPA, a 10-oz of Brooklyn Chocolate Stout, and then downstairs, the '08 (10 oz) and '09 (4 oz) He'Brew Jewbilation. Somehow this got me completely hammered. Well, I had a beer at home before headi...

Ok, so our "cellar" is our office, because New Orleans homes have no cellar, because we are like a foot above water level (if that.) We brought a lot of beers down from Salem, including a couple Trader Joe's holiday Vintage Ale. Trader Joe's gets its annual beer from Unibroue and they are usually dark Belgian style. We had 2 2008s and a 2006. I brought one of the 2008s to the Beer Advocate beer swap a few months ago, and we still have one cellaring in the office. Tonight, after a crap ass Monday, I thought it would be appropriate to crack open the 2006 vintage. It's good- while cold it pours dark, dark mahogany brown. About 1/4" or so of light tan foam. Smells like dried fruit, ginger, deep spices- kind of like fruitcake the way we make it at home (which is SO AWESOME.) It drinks easy, and it gets tastier as it warms to room temperature. I think it's aged beautifully- it is so smooth and quaffable. I have a memory of the 2006 vintage still being a ...

I just saw the lineup for the upcoming Sam Adams Winter Collection 12-pack: And I swooned gleefully! No, not because I am an ENORMOUS fan of Sam Adams or its winter collection. (though growing up in New England, I have a nostalgic affection for Old Fezziwig, most likely because of the AWESOME NAME.) But because the Cranberry Lambic is NO MORE. My attitude toward Sam Adams in general may be neutral (I wish it no specific harm, but I don't care too much for the beer- a couple special beers are OK though- I like that Latitude 48 IPA .) But I will dedicate an entire blog post to this news because indeed, I hated Cranberry Lambic THAT MUCH. It was NASTY. According to the Urban Dictionary : Cranberry flavored urine, served as an alcoholic beverage. Made by Samuel Adams. Comes in holiday pack. Seriously. Everyone hates this beer. It is like the Jar-Jar Binks of the beer world. At Beer Advocate , 876 beer drinkers/reviewers have given it a cumulative C+ (which I think is generous, but...

OK, I've only had a few beers today so my sass quotient is on the more mellow side. After the BrewHaHa yesterday, we stopped at Felipe's for post-beer burritos and then to Elio's for MOAR BEER. I was super excited that the Sierra Nevada Celebration and the Anchor Christmas Ale were both on the shelf. Sure, it's still shorts weather here, but I have loved both these seasonals for YEARS. I was sad when we were in San Francisco last year too early (in October) to enjoy the Christmas Ale at the Anchor Brewery. After an extensive look at the packaging the beers came in, I cleverly gleaned that Sierra Nevada has been brewing their Celebration Ale since 1981, which makes this year's version the 29th edition of the style. Celebration has consistently been much hoppier than other holiday seasonal beers, and this year is no exception. However, it contains more maltiness than Sierra Nevada's flagship Pale Ale. It pours a bright orange-y copper color, with good carb...

Feeling slightly less sassy (which happens after having spent the night before drinking beer and then much of the day doing likewise.) We spent the afternoon out in Mid-City for the BrewHaHa , as I drunkenly vowed I would do last night. It was a good time! Had a couple NOLA brews - Irish Channel Stout and Hopitoulous IPA - and the LA 31 Boucanee (a cherrywood smoked wheat beer) and a Rye Pale Ale from Abita, which was sadly weird - overly malty and sweet. Ah, well. The NOLA beers were awesome as usual, and I also enjoyed the Boucanee- it went very well with the very spicy sausage po'boy we got from the Crescent City Pie & Sausage stand there. They had several local vendors and artists there, as well as flea marketers and non-profit organizations who set up shop. I liked the fact that the organizers also structured it so that people could have samples of the beer, and not just pints. I kind of wish we'd gone with the sample option because some beers there were only avail...

I feel that it is entirely within the scope of this blog to mention that 1) my sassy entries last night were the result of many sassy beers having been drunk (natch) and 2) we are struggling out of the house right now to BrewHaHa. Will report back. Perhaps under the influence of beer and coffee. I'll be all riled up!

BrewHaHa, bitches! You going? I will be there on the roof (yeah, that's weird, right? No matter how venerated the ABANDONED BUILDING BELOW is) of 300 N Broad at Bienville, on the ROOF of the old Schwegmann's. There's gonna be beer, and coffee, (to make it seem like it's not just about the booze, I think- nice try) and food (because of deliciousness.) It's today, from 11am-4pm. I personally cannot think of a better way to spend the day than drinking local beer on the roof of some crazy New Orleans-nostalgic building. Now that I've made that joke twice, I fully expect to be thrown off said roof. I can only hope that I drink enough to make the ride a pleasant one.

Ok, so I actually do not want to bitch about beer, rather I come to praise it. Or something. I do not know my place. I will always cause a ruckus. I like beer. I drink a lot of it. I spend a lot of time drinking it and a lot of money as well. Money well spent, I say. I'm kind of like a stealth beer lover. My husband is a brewer, and I make many requests of him, but little inclination to assist or compete. I'm super fucking lazy like that. I actually have another blog already, NoraInNOLA.blogspot.com. But it's more my public blog, my family blog, my blog where I ruminate on any fucking thing that comes into my head. Well, without saying the word "fuck." This blog is about beer. A lady drinking beer in New Orleans. It will be awesome, because I am awesome and beer is awesome. To keep things on topic, I will report (and happily) that I spent tonight drinking some great beer at The Avenue Pub. The Avenue is finishing up their Belgian Beer Fest and I had:...