May Madness

Cookies from 40 Arpent's ribbon cutting ceremony last week.

May Day! And that means that American Craft Beer Week is almost upon us. It is also Jazz Fest. And Savor American Craft Beer and Food Experience is happening in Washington DC. And a new brewery, Gnarly Barley, is opening. April was also pretty crazy with the Brew Dogs hitting town, Festival International happening in Lafayette, and a bunch of new restaurants opening and other restaurants expanding.

I have a new gig! I'm writing features for Eater New Orleans. Some of them are straight up food writing, but I've also started a new recurring feature called Beer Here! which covers restaurants' beer lists, etc. In a testament to the tail-eating snake that is online media today, Todd Price of NOLA.com/Times Picayune did an aggregate story on the work I'm doing on a primarily aggregate website. (Aggregate: pretty much where you round up cool stories and direct your audience to them - much like this blog is becoming for beer stuff). I love living in the future though. I've been doing some Jazz Fest interviews with musicians, too.

Brewfist beer selection from Pizza Domenica

American Craft Beer Week! I just submitted a feature and calendar of events to the Gambit, which should be published next week. I have also put up my annual online schedule of events, where I will be updating constantly, because let me tell you, brewers like to wait till the last minute to finalize stuff. This year was easier than last year, so I know they are getting better, so seriously, mad props for that. Still though, there's a lot of stuff that wasn't finalized, so keep an eye on the schedule here.

Brew Dogs! Man, that was a trip. From what I've heard, the production company was really pushing for the stereotypical "Nawlins" stuff, and to some extent that's in there, but there's some actually cool real New Orleans stuff happening too. I was able to hang at Ste. Marie (soon to be Meauxbar) during their filming of the food pairing segment, and Chef Kristin Essig served up some amazing food for Martin and James.

Brew Dogs and Derek addressing the unruly crowd.

Then, a few days later, they threw a party at NOLA Brewing to show off their crazy ass beer which included  filtered swamp water, mayhaw, and a plant/herb called the Rose of Jericho. It was, of course, brewed on an AIRBOAT!!!! on the bayou. We hung out during several takes of Derek Lintern (the NOLA Brewing representative) and James/Martin (the Brew Dogs) introducing the beer and then we finally got to taste the beer. I actually got interviewed on camera with James, but I have no idea if that will show up in the final edit because I was hideously drenched in all the sweat, yikes! Check out Laura McKnight's writeup of it for NOLA.com.

Jeremy "Beer Buddha" Labadie discussing his impression of the beer with Brew Dog Martin

Gnarly Barley! They are rolling out on May 9 in their neighborhood beer joint in Hammond, Red, White, and Brew. Sam Nelson did a great piece on the Zac and Cari Caramonta and their brewery coming up in a few short days. (Side note: are y'all keeping an eye on NOLA Defender and Sam's work? It's awesome.)

Bayoust at Festival International

Pimpin'! Besides all my stuff at Eater New Orleans, my two recent Gambit columns were my Shreveport report and the upcoming Larry Hartzog Twisted Beer Competition on the Northshore. Oh, and regarding my column on the La Bambelle-Bayou Teche collaboration Bayoust, I went to Festival International to try it, and it was delicious! I really liked it.

Dancing at the Soul Creole set at Festival International.

In conclusion: exclamation point!