Beer-nouncements of note

1) Tom and I were successful in checking a bag full of wonderful beers from CT. We had some time to kill between checking out of the hotel and when our flight left, so we went to Marshalls and got a small hard sided suitcase and three towels on sale, and then went to the Michael's craft store next door for bubble wrap, packing tape, and scissors. We bought 8 bombers of beer that we can't get in Louisiana:

* Dogfish Head Chateau Jiahu: BA Review
* Dogfish Head Red & White: BA Review
* Victory: V-Twelve: BA Review
* Avery Collaboration Not Litigation, batch 3 from 2009: BA Review
* Cisco Brewery's "Wood" Series Cherry Woods (MA): BA Review
* Berkshire Brewing Co Raspberry Barleywine/Strong Ale (MA): BA Review
* Long Trail Double IPA (VT): BA Review
* Allagash Tripel Reserve (ME): BA Review

Tried to get good beer geeky things because they are all for the upcoming beer benefit at NOLA Brewing for Nathaniel Zimet, the chef-owner of Boucherie that got shot last weekend. (Click here for information)

#2: NOLA Brewing has been approved for financing to start a beer canning line! This is awesome news... to quote their announcement:

Our canning line is still about six months out, giving you all plenty of opportunity to get excited about it! We’ll roll out with our Blonde Ale and then, as quickly as we can, begin canning our other beers. All of NOLA Brewing beers, the year rounds and the seasonals, will be available in cans.The year round brews, NOLA Blonde, NOLA Brown, Hopitoulas and 7th Street Wheat will be available in six-packs of 12oz cans and our seasonals will be available in four-packs of 16oz cans.

They list several EXCELLENT reasons for going with a canning line rather than a bottling line:

* Cans are more environmentally friendly than bottles. In New Orleans, you can’t recycle bottles but you can recycle cans. We’re a green brewery and we don’t want our bottles ending up in a landfill somewhere; since cans are environmentally friendly, we chose to go with them.
* Cans provide better packaging for the beer. Cans protect the beer against light oxidation and provide you with a better flavor than bottles.
* You can have cans on the street, you can’t have bottles. In New Orleans, especially during Mardi Gras, we like to drink our beer in the street and cans are just a better choice.

I'm very excited! Truly, this is a golden age in which we live.