Nora McGunnigle

A couple of local news crews were in the mix last night, here's a look at their story- I'm interviewed, exciting!

OK, so no updates lately because of the planning of the Beers Not Bullets fundraiser which oh by the way sold out and was totally awesome. So many excellent beers but now I must go to sleep for a day or 2, ok zzzzzzzz. Is it wrong to mention I've been too busy drinking beers and thinking about drinking beers to write about drinking beers? I dunno, but I will leave you with this pre-event article which is actually pretty effing awesome. Though not as awesome as the event, 'cause, how could it be AMIRITE??!?!?!?!?

Over the causeway and through the woods... Tom and I went to Mandeville to pick up some excellent beers being donated for the Beers Not Bullets fundraiser that's happening THIS FRIDAY ( Have you got your tickets yet??? ). Driving across the causeway always makes me feel so sleepy. Doubly so on the way back after having stopped at the Barley Oak Old World Draught House . The Barley Oak is a big supporter of the event, so I've been going back and forth with them via email about sponsorship stuff. I was very pleased to have the opportunity to go visit the place after all our communication! The location was beautiful and it was an ideal day to go. It's right on the edge of the lakeside so it was just blue sky and water as far as the eye could see. We ate and drank inside, but it was breezy enough to enjoy a beer out on the patio in the shade very comfortably. Tom said that it reminded him of an English pub- especially the wallpaper that covered about half of the interior ...

I had a couple really good beers this evening at da Avenue Pub. Very different but extremely delicious. First was the Rogue Brutal Bitter. Balanced but very flavorful, like an amped up ESB. I ended up getting a growler of it to take home. (hooray growlers!) An interesting beer to say the least. It's a cross between the hoppiness of an IPA and the smoothness of an ESB. Apparantly in recent releases it's been renamed "Brutal IPA" which I think is misleading, because as IPAs go, it's not brutal at all. "Brutal Bitter" sums up the style quite nicely, a bitter with some West Coast OOMPH. A delightful discovery! The other beer of note that I had was the Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus, a raspberry lambic from the very highly regarded Cantillon brewery in Belgium. These people make amazing beers, and I hope to drink more of them in the future. This particular beer is incredibly sophisticated, complex, and exploding with fruit notes and funk and amazing flav...

Many have asked what they can do to help. Here's the main thing: Buy a ticket and attend the fundraiser! Bring all your friends! Here's the link to the ticket website: http://beersnotbullets.eventbrite.com/ The other thing we really, really need is your help in acquiring rare and hard to find beers for the Beer Advocate/beergeek pouring table. This is how The BeerBuddha first imagined the event and we feel it's an important aspect, even though now we have all of Louisiana's breweries and distributors on board, as well as Lazy Mag in Mississippi, homebrewers, and several bars including the Avenue Pub, the Bulldog, and the Barley Oak. So please either comment here or email me at nora(dot)deirdre(at)gmail(dot)com with what you plan to bring and donate to the cause! Once I get that information from you, as a thank you, I will email you a discount code that will knock $10 off the price of admission. (of course, if you'd rather that money be used for Nathaniel's rec...

(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...

I SWEAR TO GOD, TOM IS MAKING ME LISTEN TO THAT DAMN SONG RIGHT NOW. I WILL KILL HIM. LATER. Anyway. It may come as a surprise that I don't actually sit around and analyze all my beers as I drink them all the time. For example, I had several very nice beers this evening (NOT at the WYES VIP beer thingie , can you believe they never got back to me about my press pass request???) And I drank 'em up without taking any mental notes. Here are the beverages I enjoyed: Brooklyn EIPA (which is always a good hot weather beer to start with), followed by an Aphrodisiaque from Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel, an absolutely yummy stout with vanilla, caramel, cocoa, coffee notes all roasty and smokey. (First on the list of beers here .) I finished at the Avenue with the Page 24 Biere De Printemps, (check it out here ) which was crazy excellent. It's a beer de garde from Brasserie Saint-Germain. Highly recommend. Drink any and all of these beers whenever you see them. DRINK THEM! I know I...