Nora McGunnigle

This was a long time ago - things have changed a lot since this Easter Keg Hunt back in 2012 Well, if you're seeing this, you're either a subscriber or somehow found the new nolabeerblog.blogspot URL I'm closing the blog down, and the nolabeerblog.com address automatically forwards to my shiny new beer-food-booze-travel website at beerfoodtravels.com. It links to my stories published online and social media as well as showcases some exclusive content that I'll be writing from time to time. It's time to move forward to the next level in my professional development, still focusing on beer and New Orleans, but also telling other stories from other places. Please join me on the journey I'll be taking and writing about. Check out my website , and you can always email me .

That's right, it's Nuit Belge Week ! The big event itself is on Friday night, but there are great food and beer events featuring participating restaurants and out of town breweries happening all week. Here are the ones I know about: (And please do let me know if I've missed any)

I'm working on a new website that will be less beer-focused and more inclusive of my other work. Beer will be part of that, of course - but it's time to grow up, I guess. I'll post once that change is happening. Beer! Food! Cocktails! Culture! Travel! All the things! Here are a few snippets that I've had published as of late... Crisis Management: Breweries Persevere Through a Year of Natural Disasters What do you say to someone who’s lost everything? That was literally the first question I asked Rob Kent, head brewer at Bear Republic Brewing Company , who had just lost his home and all of his possessions to the wildfires that raged through Northern California in October. Broad Appeal: New Orleans’ most artisanal intersection The Broadmoor neighborhood of New Orleans was fought for and hard won in the months after flooding from Hurricane Katrina and the levee failures. A “green dot” designation suggested that the neighborhood be razed and turned into ...

Mark your calendars for Friday, March 9, at Generations Hall. My absolute favorite beer event (and one of my favorite events in New Orleans) is Nuit Belge, an evening focusing on pairing Belgian beer and high end food. 2018 is the third year the party has come to town, and it is delicious, delightful, and just the teeniest bit debauched. (I myself stumbled -literally- out of the Saint at 4am after Nuit Belge.) I call it Beer Nerd Prom, and the attendees have really leaned into that, getting super gussied up to drink fancy-ass beer, eat amazing food from some of the city's best restaurants, and suck down Murder Point oysters all night long. It is killer.

Short rib ravioli in a pho-like broth from The Stokehold paired with Port Orleans' Slackwater brown ale (See below for the details on this) Moving on from my umpteenth mid-life crisis, (which is still real but doesn't do much good to keep focusing on it) today is the winter solstice meaning that every day for the next 6 months will be longer and brighter. It's a comforting metaphor going into a new year. Tonight, there are two cool beer events happening:

An oldie but a goodie - one of my fave memes of all time I have a few assignments for various publications due the first week of January, and I'm slogging through the motions to get on top of them before Christmas week, when I'll be out of town.  Instead, all I can do is scroll through Twitter and despair. That's pretty much been my year. In the run up to the 2016 election, I was cautious and quiet about my liberal leanings, worried about my "brand" in a white male dominated industry in a conservative geographic area. Now, I'm not super loud and proud about it, but that's because I'm tired and afraid and feeling beat down about the political process and priorities of this government. 

So, in addition to beer, you may or may not know, I also write about food and booze here in New Orleans. I had a separate blog for this, once upon a time, which I haven't posted to for like 5 years. But these days, I'm trying to expand my brand so that it encompasses all the stuff I do - eating, drinking, travelling, writing. So this website will expand in focus as I plan to write about Things Other Than Beer. Like today's post about two Uptown brunch experiences I've enjoyed recently.

It's a whirlwind week for me - I just got back yesterday from attending both session of the Shelton Brothers Festival , held in Atlanta this year, and will be heading out to Nashville tomorrow for the Southern Brewers Conference . Here are some musings on both.

Image courtesy of Southern Brewers Conference/Rhizome Productions <looks at date of last post> <sighs> Sorry I've been slacking about keeping up here. But I have a pretty juicy subject to discuss today, so hopefully that will earn some points toward forgiveness.

I'm enjoying the concept of doing blog posts while avoiding both 1) work (of course) and 2) political shit on Twitter. Today, I wish to extoll upon the awesomeness of the Freret Beer Room. FBR's been open for about 6 months and it is killing it with both the food and the beer. I had a keg of Cuz I Said So beer sent there and today they did a charcuterie pairing with it and a salami piccante from Framani. I went over there to check it out: Obviously this was just a snack, so I ordered one of their specials, a tomato and burrata tartine, which was absolutely phenomenal. It's got the grilled bread that I've already fallen in love with (from the mussels dish), summer tomatoes, and burrata, which is like the cheese of the gods. I also had the meatballs (on their regular menu) which comes with polenta, and another special, blistered Padrón peppers. (I did not plan on having these but I was awfully happy it worked out that way.) Everything I've ha...

I guess giving up Gambit and Southern Brew News has given me a few extra minutes to post something here, which is good. Even though I don't get paid for updating my website, it's still all mine and an important part of communicating to the public.

This blog was my foray into the world of Louisiana craft beer. It's led to so many opportunities to write about beer and food - but after four years of writing professionally, it's time to move to the next level. Scrolling back through my entries over the last 4 years, you can see that... well, there aren't very many of them. I mostly express myself through my professional print and online work for local and national publications. Also, social media... usually Facebook . But also Twitter and Instagram . And Tumblr , where I post my latest work.

Had a lot of fun this week.

So this blog got a couple of shoutouts in the last week or so.  First off, I was notified that I made the list of 100 best beer blogs as compiled by Feedspot (an aggregation site). #99 baybee! 99, heh.

This week (Sept. 18-25) is the fourth Louisiana Craft Brewer Week. We've come a long way, with even more on the horizon. Go forth and celebrate.

I love writing about upcoming beer events. It's what I do! I help breweries/bars/restaurants get the word out and I help beer lovers find cool stuff to do. However, there are some logistical issues that I feel should be obvious to those who want me to write about stuff, but in practice, appear not to be. 1) It is in no way necessary to comp me for the event for me to cover it. Let's repeat that: IT IS IN NO WAY NECESSARY TO COMP ME FOR THE EVENT FOR ME TO COVER IT. If I get an offer, I may accept, but that's absolutely not why I write about events. Why DO I write about events? Well.... 2) ...first of all, the event should be interesting. Fifty cents off a pint plus some swag isn't super newsworthy. Is there a new or hard to find beer being served? Will the brewer be there? Is it a beer dinner? With the exception of ACBW or LaCBW, I don't do listings, I tell stories. For example, there was an interesting sounding event a while back, when the food and beer were ...

Part of NOLA Brewing taproom's awesome mural, created by Monica Kelly (photographed by moi.) So, occasionally there's something that occurs in the local beer world that I end up needing to cover from several different angles for several different publications. Louisiana Craft Brewer Week is one of those things. It takes place September 18-25 and since there's so much happening - events, beer releases, etc. - it's an opportunity to tell multiple stories on the same general subject. I need to be careful I'm not plagiarizing myself! The fact that one piece is for a publication geared for locals and one is geared for tourists is pretty helpful in that regard.

Beer and a shot at Tales I met a lot of new folks at Tales of the Cocktail last week and upon exchanging cards, I would hear, so I can keep up with your work on your blog, right? Well, yes... and no.

Removed the homebrew website ad, those people didn't have their shit together. I AM A PROFESSIONAL, PEOPLE! Also, I don't sell out unless it's worth my time. Carry on, then.

American Craft Beer Week - ACBW - 2016 officially kicks off on Monday May 16 and promises a delightful assortment of beer events across the New Orleans area. My annual report on ACBW in The Gambit (this is my 4th!) did not include a full list of events, which honestly is just as well, since the lead time on getting those for print is a lot longer than a lot of bars and breweries are comfortable with. I did, however, provide a list of my Top 5 picks (basically events that just sounded kind of cool and different) and all the food pairing events that I was able to find out about. I also wrote an overview about how the local brewing community views ACBW and Louisiana beer growth as a whole. And, of course, I have my annual big list of events on this here blog/website . I'm always happy to update and add stuff, so just let me know if I need to, and keep checking back for potential new stuff. So far, I think I'll be hitting the Tuesday night draft barrel aged beer even...