Nora McGunnigle

Cajun Fire Brewing's Jon and Adam having a beer at NOLA Brewing. The New Orleans International Beer Festival is on Saturday in Champion Square - congrats to Scott LeTourneau who won the ticket giveaway contest here on my blog. This week's Brewsday Tuesday profiles the Juke Joint NOLA Brewing beer tent at Hogs for the Cause next week, as well as the upcoming Brooklyn Brewing MASH beer-food-arts-culture collaboration extravaganza! I'll be running an interview with Brooklyn Brewing's in-house chef, Andrew Gerson next week. 

Picture from the event's FB page, used with permission Hey, everybody! Want the opportunity to try pretty much every beer in the New Orleans market? Check out the cigar and beer pairing? Cider garden? Cask beer garden? CORNHOLE?

Yesterday was the 2nd Annual New Orleans International Beer Festival at Champion Square. As a member of the press, I was able to attend for free with a media pass, and also had VIP tent access. Being able to come in an hour early is one of the biggest perks of the VIP pass. Because by the time 3:30 rolled around, it was so crowded that getting around was difficult, and figuring out who was in line for what you wanted as opposed to just hanging out was near impossible. I think they sold too many tickets for the event. However, it was pretty cool to behold, and made me think, "who ARE all of these people?" Were they craft beer fans, or fans of being able to drink as much as they could? So, I arrived at 1pm and got my media pass, and made the rounds. Got to see Josh and Jamie from Chafunkta, Buck, Ben, and Wild Bill from NOLA Brewing, Bryan from Covington, Karlos from Bayou Teche, Andrew from Parish as well as other beer enthusiasts I consider friends. There we...

OK, so the New Orleans International Beer Festival is this Saturday, March 9, from 2-6pm. Here's a few updates from Louisiana breweries as to what they'll be providing (folks that I didn't include in my last post .) Covington: Will be bringing a cask for the cask garden! Abita is bringing all their standards, including Abbey Ale, Spring IPA, Oyster Stout, and Strawberry Harvest Lager. They are contributing 2 casks to the cask garden: a cask conditioned version of Vanilla Double Dog and ZSB – Zach's Special Bitter. Bayou Teche (got this from the New Orleans International Beer Festival website ): LA31 Biere Noire, LA31 Biere Pale, LA31 Boucanee, LA31 Passionee, ACADIE, and their new seasonal, Saison D'Escrevisses. For more info on what beers will be available at the Festival, visit the Breweries page on the Festival's website. You can still buy tickets here . I'm pretty sure that Gambit and the Beer Buddha are giving tickets away, too. (NOTE, dead...

The New Orleans International Beer Festival is returning to Champions Square on March 9. It moved over here from the Northshore last year and has had a good turnout and reputation for engaging local breweries. It's sponsored by Abita, with participation of all local breweries like Tin Roof, NOLA Brewing, Parish Brewing, Bayou Teche, and Chafunkta. Yes, Chafunkta! This will be their debut appearance as a fully licensed and legally distributed beer - stop by their table and try their Voo Ka Ray IPA and Old 504 Porter, a coffee-infused vanilla robust porter. And congratulate them for their huge accomplishment! Andrew Godley with Parish Brewing says that he'll be bringing his trademark Canebrake wheat beer along with the first commercial batch of their new year round beer, Envie Pale Ale and a keg of 2012 Grand Reserve barleywine. Tin Roof is sponsoring the cornhole tournament (come out and cheer for New Orleans' own Beer Buddha team!) and will be bringing their fla...