Upcoming Beer Events! - Louisiana Brewers Bash, Brew At The Zoo, Beefstock, And More...

Hey everyone, time to start spreading the word about a few upcoming beer events in the area.  

September 22-28th - Louisiana Craft Brewers Week - All Over - It's that time of year again, I'll keep everyone up to date when specific events in Baton Rouge are announced, but I know of one in New Orleans for sure... 

September 24th - Louisiana Brewers Bash - The Irish House in New Orleans - Louisiana Craft Brewers Week is September 22-28, and this might be the only event that will feature 9 commercially producing Louisiana breweries.  For those keeping score at home, that's almost all of them, but unfortunately it appears that Great Raft won't be making the trip down. The event is being hosted by Jay Ducote of Bite And Booze.com, with food from Chef Matt Murphy of The Irish House.  I'll be at this event for sure, I'm excited to see what sort of special releases and casks our local breweries can come up with.

October 10th - Brew At The Zoo - BREC's Baton Rouge Zoo -  Another beer festival, this one at the Baton Rouge Zoo and yes, it will be featuring the local homebrew clubs. The commercial beer list is pretty typical, featuring a lot of local and regional beers plus the bigger craft beers available in the area, but the real standout should be the homebrew stations.  I know I'll be there serving up some beer with Brasseurs A La Maison, and I expect the other local clubs to be there as well.  

October 17th - Great Raft's 1-Year Anniversary Party - Great Raft Brewing Company - I'm unlikely to make it up there, but this should be a great time.  They have been working on several more limited release bombers and draft specialties, and for those who haven't been, the tap room is beautiful. The guys and gals up at Great Raft have been kicking ass, so if you ever find yourself up in Shreveport for this weekend or any other, check them out.

November 2nd - Beefstock - Tin Roof Brewing Company - Alright, so this one is more about the beef, but it is being held at Tin Roof, and everyone that attends gets some complimentary beer, plus the tap room is almost certainly going to be open by then. So, try plenty of beef, drink some beer, and catch some tunes. 

November 22nd - Grand Reserve Day - Parish Brewing Company - I don't know the details yet, but mark your calendars. Last year's event was a great time, and I'll likely be going again.

Iron Brewer - February 15th at Tin Roof Brewing!

Hey everyone, just wanted to let you all know about an awesome event coming up soon.  The Iron Brewer competition will be put on by Brasseurs A La Maison, at Tin Roof Brewing on Saturday February 15th.  The event will run from 2:00 until 5:00 and the cost of admission is simply canned good to benefit the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank!  I'll be there along with Team Cream Ale to take home the victory as decided by the general public.

Each team was randomly provided a different style of beer and, in the spirit of romance and Valentine’s weekend, instructed to incorporate ingredients with aphrodisiac properties.

The event is open to adults 21 and over. Entry fee is at least one non-perishable food item for the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank, but attendees are encouraged to bring more to help the organization reach its goal of 2,500 pounds. Festival goers will be allowed to vote on a People’s Choice Winner.

“Last year’s event was incredibly successful and our teams had a great time, so we decided to do it again,” stated club president, Blake Winchell. “We have a variety of styles like stout, farmhouse, blond/cream ale, English bitter and more. Word on the street is that teams are using ingredients like chocolate, strawberries, chili peppers, honey, different types of herbs and who knows what else. It should be another great event.”

Created in 2010, Brasseurs a la Maison is Baton Rouge’s largest home brewing club with over 260 members. The club meets the second Wednesday of each month to sample, discuss and learn about beer and brewing. For more information on the Iron Brewer event or the club, visit www.brbrewers.com.

Looking Back At WYES - Saturday International Beer Tasting

Man, what a weekend!  The Friday night Private Beer Sampling was phenomenal, but Saturday brought the extravaganza that was the WYES International Beer Tasting.  Just like Friday, the Saturday night event was moved in 2013 to Mardi Gras World along the river right after the convention center.  The location is awesome, Mandi and I were able to walk back to our hotel after the Friday night fun, sleep in, and then walk to lunch and a few beers at Barcadia before heading to Mardi Gras World early to help set up for the Brasseurs A La Maison homebrew club.  

Unlike Friday night, we had one of our beers on tap, so we were there as more than just beer drinkers.  Before too long we had the Tap-A-Canoe ready to go, but it was already past 4, so rather than head somewhere to drink we decided to start trying all of our club brews!  Usually at festivals like Zapp's or WYES I only get to try a small sample of our club's offerings.  This time I was determined to try them all, and it was a paltry 26 taps compared to the 40 we had at Zapp's.  

Of course beer tastings meant restroom breaks, and unfortunately the only set of restrooms was located at the entire opposite end from us... so that of course meant it was easy to grab a commercial beer on the way back.  Before I was even halfway through the canoe 6:00 had rolled around and the crowds started pouring in. 

Yeah, that's a lot of people!  And that was at the very beginning before the crowd got even bigger.  We were in the far corner above the HOMEBREWS sign, but I had to take the time to get this angle.  Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to do much tasting of other homebrew clubs, or commercial beers.  It's just too big of a festival and by the end of the night I had barely made it through our club's tap list.  

All in all though, a great time.  I don't regret missing out on the commercial brews but I do regret not trying more from the other homebrew clubs.  I guess there's always next year!  If I could make one recommendation, it's to be sure to go on Friday night for the commercial special releases and then on Saturday night for the homebrew selection. 

Looking Back At WYES - Friday Private Beer Sampling

Alright, I've had a few days to recover from a weekend of drinking in New Orleans at the two-day WYES Beer Tastings.  In case you didn't make it... here's what you missed at the Friday night Private Beer Tasting!

First off, the location this year for both events was at Mardi Gras World, in adjoining spaces.  This is phenomenal for people like me from out of town because I can get a hotel (went with the Hilton Convention Center location) and easily walk to both nights, plus be in range of everywhere else we want to go.  Last year the Friday night event was at the fairgrounds and the Saturday night event was at the UNO arena.  This location plus having the events at the same location is far superior.

That said, how about the venue itself?  For Friday night we were in a faux-plantation room complete with trees and illuminated night sky.  The beer tables were spread all along the perimeter and honestly the only complaint I could have about the space is that it was really dark.  Too dark to take good pictures of the scene as a whole, but I took some of the highlights!

A few weeks back I wrote about all the beer I wanted to try at the Friday night event and honestly, I didn't even get to them all.  There was just too much good stuff. 

My regrets were not getting to Abita at all... you all know I'm not the biggest Abita fan in the world, but they had the Strawator and a specialty cask on hand and I missed them both.  I also missed out on a couple of new offerings from Sam Adams.  I also missed most of what Cajun Fire had to offer... by the time I made their table it was just the Root Beer Ale left.  Damn. 

The Highlights!
Parish Single-Hop IPA series: Andrew had Pacifica, Calypso, and Chinook single-hop IPAs, and all were delicious while also education regarding the hop profiles.
Great Raft Ermahgerd Hops: Awesome double IPA from this Shreveport brewery in planning.
Gnarly Barley Porter Rican: Delicious as expected.
Mudbug Cajun Stout: Really a well done beer.
Tin Roof Rougarou Black Ale: I hope we see this more often from the local guys.
Covington Anonymous IPA: I hope we see this more often from the North Shore! 
The Homebrews: Brasseurs A La Maison, Brewstock, Mystic Krewe of Brew, and George's Beers all had some great stuff.  I didn't try every one, but I cam close.

The Misses.
Chafunkta Brewing FontaineBlue Berry Wheat IPA: I love these guys, but this just didn't do it for me.
Mudbug King Cake Lager: The beer itself was tasty, but I spent the next several still tasting the cinnamon sugar from the glass.  I think it would be a great addition to a regular pint but didn't work well in a festival setting.
Old Rail Cow Catcher Milk Chocolate Stout: I wasn't too impressed with this one... fortunately their Seven Sisters IPA was quite nice.
Main Grain / Bombastic Brewers Crawfish Beer: I don't think I'm alone in this one.  Yikes. I applaud the creativity, but sometimes it's a swing and a miss.  Fortunately Ron's other beer was a Rum Barrel Russian Imperial Cream Stout, and it was a home run.

The WINNERS!
Alright, as hard as it is to pick a winner, I came away more impressed with Crooked Letter Brewing out of Mississippi than anyone else.  Maybe it's because they were new to me, or maybe it's because they brought a couple of awesome beers.  Their Mystery Romp Coffee Chocolate Porter was phenomenal and probably my favorite beer of the night.  Their other offering, the Mariposa Pale Ale brewed with mango, jalapeno, and cilantro was also delicious.  Mystery Romp is the only one I went back to for seconds, so congrats to Crooked Letter for impressing me the most of anyone Friday night!

And now for some pictures...

Brasseurs A La Maison

 

Crooked Letter Brewing... in case you can't read the shirt!

Great Raft Brewing

George's Homebrewing

Brewstock Homebrews

Countdown to WYES!

First of all, congratulations to Kym Walsh of Baton Rouge for winning the ticket giveaway last week!  Kym won a pair of tickets to the WYES International Beer Tasting being held this Saturday, June 22nd. 

You can't go Saturday night?  Well have no fear, there is also the WYES Private Beer Sampling being held at Mardi Gras World (same location for both nights) on Friday, June 21st.  Yes, that's also exactly one year before I'm getting married, so I'll be looking to celebrate.  I went into detail a few weeks ago about some of the good beers to expect that Friday night, so today it's going to be about what I'm looking forward to the most on Saturday night. 

Here's the link for the full brochure for both nights... as you can see there are a LOT of top notch commercial beers available.  The good stuff like Anchor, Atlanta Brewing, Boston Beer, Brooklyn Brewery, Chimay, Duvel, Full Sail, Goose Island, Green Flash, Harpoon, Mendocino, Moylan's, New Belgium, North Coast, Ommegang, Rogue, Schmaltz, Sierra Nevada, Southern Tier, Stone, and Unibroue. That's already quite a lineup and I'm just getting warmed up.

There will also be the full lineup of local & regional breweries like Abita, Bayou Teche, Chafunkta, Covington, Crooked Letter, Lazy Magnolia, NOLA, Parish, Saint Arnold, Spoetzl, and Tin Roof.  Of those, only Crooked Letter out of Mississippi isn't available locally.  You can bet I'm going to try their stuff.  And don't be surprised if a few of these guys have something at the festival that you can't normally get. 

After this is where it starts to get REALLY interesting... because this is a not-for-profit organization and event, they can allow the "breweries in planning" to attend and serve their beer.  They'll be listed as the "Independents" in the brochure due to not having a distributor yet, but don't miss these breweries.  This will be the start of stuff that you probably haven't tried before.  40 Arpent out of Arabi will be there, as well as Bombastic Beers in Abita Spring, a project started by Ron of Main Grain Homebrew Supplies.  Cajun Fire out of New Orleans is going to be there for at least the second year in a row, as will BR Beer Scene favorite Gnarly Barley Brewing from Hammond and Mudbug Brewery from Thibodaux. From out of state there will be the Pensacola Bay Brewery (listed as an independent since they don't have a LA distributor) and the Middle Bay Brewery from Mobile, AL.  And lastly, Louisiana newcomer Tu Lu Lu Brewery from Cut Off, the only one that I've never tried before.  I'll definitely be sure to check them out.

Finally, in my opinion the best part of a festival like this is the homebrewers.  There will be 14 different homebrew groups represented, from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.  And yeah I'm biased because I'm a member of the Brasseurs A La Maison and my fiance' and I brewed a beer for the festival, but the homebrews are what you need to try.  Mostly because they tend to come 5-gallons at a time and when they are gone, they are gone.  Maybe never to be brewed again.  Find them, try them, talk to the people that brewed the beer... and most of all, enjoy!

With that... I can't wait.  Hope to see plenty of readers down in New Orleans this weekend!

WYES Private Beer Sampling Beer List!

Hey everyone, I was sent an advance copy of the WYES Private Beer Sampling beer list for Friday, June 21st... it's of course not finalized and subject to change, but I thought I'd share some of the beers that interest me the most.  One of the best things about the Friday Private Beer Sampling is that breweries bring out some one-off special release beers and often casks.  There are also select homebrews available, plus there will be food from Cabot Creamery, Sun Ray Grill and Zapp's Potato Chips!  All included with the ticket price. 

Also, be sure to check back next week as I'll be giving away a pair of tickets to the WYES International Beer Tasting on Saturday, June 22nd!  Giveaway details to come later.

So here are the beers that really caught my eye when looking over the list:

Abita Strawator - 8.0% - American Strong Lager - Sounds like an attempt to combine the Strawberry Harvest Lager with the Andygator?  I'm intrigued, for sure.

Abita Specialty Firkin - TBD - This is what I was talking about above... the breweries break out some special stuff for the Private Beer Sampling.

Boston Beer Company Stonybrook - 9.0% - American Wild Ale - Will try this for sure.

Sierra Nevada Hoptimum - 10.4% - Double IPA - So this isn't new or limited, but it's one of my favorite Double IPAs and I haven't had it yet in 2013, so that along has my mouth watering.

NOLA Special Cask - TBD - Just like the Abita above, this is one I will seek out, no matter what it is.  NOLA will also have some of their standard brews, including the Mechahopzilla and 7th Street Wheat.

40 Arpent Berliner Weiss - 4.0% - 40 Arpent is one of the several breweries in planning that will be represented, I'm looking forward to their take on a German sour style.

Cajun Fire Brewing - These guys are planning on bringing a Lemon Berry Ale, Hoppy Hour Double IPA, Acadiana Honey Ale, and Root Beer Ale.  I plan on trying all four.

Chafunkta Brewing FontaineBlue Berry Wheat IPA - 6.5% - Fruit Beer - A wheat IPA with Japanese and American hops plus fresh LA blueberries?  I'm excited to try this offering from Louisiana's newest craft brewery.

Gnarly Barley Porter Rican - 6.0% - Porter - I've heard a lot about this brew from Gnarly Barley, so I'm excited to try it... a Baltic Milk Porter infused with organic toasted coconut and aged on rum soaked oak chips. They had me at Gnarly.

Great Raft Ermahgerd Hops - 7.5% - Double IPA - Love the name from this Shreveport brewery in planning... they should be legal pretty soon.

Great Raft Reasonably Corrupt - 4.8% - Schwarzbier - Another one from Shreveport's brewery in planning, nothing wrong with a good schwarzbier!

Mudbug King Cake Ale - 4.0% - Spiced Ale - Yes, it lives up to the name.

Mudbug Cask Conditioned Chocolate Cajun Stout - 5.5% - American Stout - I like everything about that.  

Old Rail Cow Catcher Milk Chocolate Stout - 5.7% - Milk Stout - About time we see something from this brewpub in Mandeville!   

Old Rail Seven Sisters IPA - 7.0% - American IPA - More from this new brewpub in Mandeville.

Tu Lu Lu Kölsch - 5.0% - Kölsch - Nothing really exciting about a kölsch to me, but apparently there's a new brewery in planning, and THAT is exciting.

Crooked Letter Brewing - This new brewery from Ocean Springs, MS is expected to bring 5 beers to the party.  I'm expected to try them all.

Parish Calypso Single Hop IPA - 6.5% - American IPA - I want to try everything Parish makes.  Everything.

Parish Pacifica Single Hope IPA - 6.5% - American IPA - See above.

Tin Roof Rougarou Black Ale - 9.5% - Double Black IPA - I've been wanting to try this Tin Roof offering ever since I heard about it. 

Homebrewers - Honestly, the best thing about any festival that allows homebrewers is well... the homebrews.  There are a lot of beers above to try, but there will be several homebrews as well, including two from my club, the Brasseurs A La Maison.  Last year I wasn't able to try them all, and looking back at the list above, I probably won't this year either.  At least not if I want to remember them.

Upcoming Louisiana Beer Events!

Hey everyone, just a few dates to mark down for upcoming beer events in the area!

Saturday, March 9th - New Orleans International Beer Festival - I wrote some about this before, and it's been mentioned by Nora over at the Nora's Beer Blog that Covington was going to have a cask and Abita was going to have a couple... definitely hit up the cask beer tent if you go! 

Thursday, March 21st - Abita beer dinner at Ruffino's - I'm not the biggest Abita fan in the world, but $70 (not including tax and tip) for a beer dinner at Ruffino's is a pretty solid deal.  It's one of the better restaurants in Baton Rouge in my opinion. 

Saturday, April 6th - Zapp's International Beer Festival - This is one of the biggest beer events of the year for me... not only is it the hometown beer festival, but it's open to homebrew clubs and I'll be there with Brasseurs A La Maison serving up some that I brewed myself!  This event is only $30, but it's limited to the first 1,500 people to buy a ticket to keep crowds under control.  Get yours early, try the homebrew, and also there's a good chance some of the "breweries in planning" like Gnarly Barley will be there. 

Thursday, April 11th - Chafunkta Release Party at The Barley Oak - The word on Facebook is that this will be the official commercial release of Chafunkta Brewing Company at The Barley Oak in Mandeville.  I've been looking forward to this one for a while, and it'll be fantastic to have another Louisiana brewery putting out some good beer.  They will also be at the New Orleans International Beer Festival mentioned up above as their first official event.  Look for the Voo Ka Ray IPA and the Old 504 Porter as their initial offerings. 

If I left anything out or you want to contract me to promote a certain event, feel free to click on the contact tab above and shoot me an e-mail! 

WYES International Beer Tasting Recap

Alright, time to get into the nuts and bolts of the 29th Annual WYES International Beer Tasting!  Unlike the Private Beer Sampling the night before, I had a little commitment to this one as I was on site with the Brasseurs A La Maison and even serving up one of my own beers, another batch of Praline Dubbel.  We arrived a little after noon and got the canoe set up before heading to Avenue Pub for lunch and some pre-drinks.  Polly was even nice enough to loan us a few tap handles to fill out the entire canoe!  Thanks again!

Then it was back to the New Orleans Lakefront Area for the beer tasting!  We got back a little early and with the fancy wristbands for media/vendors I got a chance to try some of the local beers before the crowds hit up.  In addition to several "breweries in planning" around Louisiana there were homebrew clubs from all over the gulf south.  Awesome!  Once the crowds came in it was harder to check out all the brews, but here were some of the highlights!

Highlights:

Gnarly Barley Brewing: All four of their beers were quite tasty, so now I'm really looking forward to an expected Fall 2012 commercial release!

Chafunkta Brewing: Good beers, just like at the Zapp's Beerfest, and now that they are brewing on Parish Brewing's old system it's just a matter of time before this nanobrewery hits some taps around the Northshore.

Pensacola Bay Brewery: Hey, I was just there!  In fact, the same bartender from my trip to the brewery was serving up two of the ones that I liked the most, the IPA and Porter.  

40 Arpent Lafitte's Blacksmith Stout: Another brewery in planning, this one from Chalmette, had a mighty fine stout for everyone to try.

Parish Canebrake: When I see some, I drink some.  Every time.

Brasseurs A La Maison: Self-serving?  Yes, absolutely, but every time I try my fellow club members' beers I'm impressed and realize how much better of a homebrewer I can be myself.

Bicycle Brew Club: The newest homebrew club in Baton Rouge, they didn't have a lot of beer but they had some good ones and I was able to try most of them.

Hoppy Homebrewers of South Mississippi: They had some tasty beers and a really cool custom PVC rig to pour them all.  Picture below somewhere!

L.A. Lagers Homebrew Club: This club from Mobile, AL had a few really good beers, including a Bitches' Brew brewed by all the women of the club.

Disappointments: (Few and far between...)

40 Arpent Creole Red Beans & Rice Ale: This one missed the mark for me, but I'm not much of a red beans & rice fan to begin with.

Bud Light Lime A Rita: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, I'd drink a gallon of the Red Beans & Rice Ale before I'd touch this one.

Miller 64: Shit, now that jingle is stuck in my head.

Regrets:

I didn't have much intention of tasting any of the non-local commercial brews, but that doesn't mean there weren't some good ones.  I'd have given the Magic Hat Elder Betty a try if I had seen it around.

Too many homebrews, not enough time.  I didn't get back to the Crescent City Homebrewers for a second straight night, and also missed out on the Escambia Bay Homebrewers. 

Brewstock was back with some different beers than the previous night, and I missed out on them all. 

I also missed out on a second round with the Mystic Krewe of Brew, dammit!

All in all it was a great time... there is so much beer to go around that anyone could find themselves immersed for three hours and never trying the same beer twice.  I'm already looking forward to brewing a few beers for next year and trying as many as I can!  And of course, here are some more pictures from the day:

WYES International Beer Tasting - Tomorrow!

Tomorrow might be tonight by the time you read this, but the WYES International Beer Tasting will be June 2nd, at 6 PM at the New Orleans Lakefront Arena.  All of Louisiana's breweries plus several others from around the region will be represented, in addition to the homebrew clubs!  

WYES is a not-for-profit event, like the Zapp's Beerfest in Baton Rouge, so they are allowed to serve beers from area homebrewers as well and in-progress breweries like Chafunkta Brewing, Gnarly Barley Brewing, and the most recent addition, 40 Arpent Brewing.  I'm excited about trying all of those, in addition to serving up another couple of batched of my own homebrew with the Brasseurs A La Maison, Baton Rouge's largest homebrew club.  Hope to see you there!

Homebrews @ WYES International Beer Tasting!

Hello everyone! The WYES International Beer Tasting is coming up soon and I'm really excited to be a part of it with Brasseurs A La Maison.  We will be there in full force with the tap canoe showing off another round of impressive homebrews.  For those who were at the Zapp's Beer Festival you probably remember the tap canoe, and if you missed it, you don't have to wait a full year.  We will be out on Saturday June 2nd, but there is also a Private Beer Sampling on June 1st that will feature a homebrew or two.  Come on out to either date (or both!) and get your beer fix next weekend.

The Tap Canoe Returns At WYES International Beer Tasting!

For those who made it out to the Zapp's International Beerfest in mid April you might remember the Brasseurs A La Maison tap canoe which stole the show.  One of the fun things about Zapp's is that it's a not-for-profit event which allows homebrewers and up and coming breweries that aren't licensed yet to serve their beers in additional to all the commercial guys. 

WYES is coming up on June 2nd in New Orleans, and it's also a not-for-profit event, so homebrewers are welcome and that means that tap canoe is coming out.  If you can get down to New Orleans that night you won't regret it... here's the official information:

29th annual 

WYES International Beer Tasting

Saturday, June 2, 2012

6-9pm

Lakefront Arena

6801 Franklin Avenue  

New Orleans, LA 70122

504-486-5511 x200

$30-$45

In Advance:
$30 active military (new this year!)
$30 groups of 6 or more
$30 seniors 55+
$35 per person

$45 Day Of

email: events@wyes.org

website: http://www.wyes.org/beer/

ticket info.: http://www.wyes.org/beer/tickets/

facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/WyesBeer

JOIN WYES, YOUR LOCAL PUBLIC BROADCASTING STATION, ALONG WITH LOCAL AND NATIONAL BEER DISTRIBUTORS FOR TWO DAYS OF BEER TASTING – AND WELL…JUST FOR A REAL GOOD TIME!

On Saturday, June 2 from 6-9pm at the Lakefront Arena don’t miss the 29th annual WYES INT’L BEER TASTING! Guests will enjoy a quarter-mile of beer by sampling regional craft beers, ales and lagers. Be sure not to miss out on our beer seminars (short & sweet, but right to the point and informative).

I'll have another version of praline dubbel there, so I hope to see a lot of friendly beer loving faces!

 

Zapp's Beer Fest 2012 - The Tap Canoe

Zapp's has come and gone, and what a fantastic time it was!  I tried the beers from up and coming breweries Chafunkta and Gnarly Barley and was very impressed.  Tin Roof had a couple of test batches out and I enjoyed the red ale but was unable to try their coffee porter.  NOLA was there and I never even made it to their tent.  Man, it was a busy day but helping pour beers for the Brasseurs A La Maison made it fly by.  Here are a few pictures for everyone, and be sure to come out next year, you will not regret it!  For even more pictures, just go back and click on the Brasseurs A La Maison website.

The tap canoe that we put together was probably the biggest hit of the festival, but even with all the taps numbered, the homebrew sign, and the two big signs listing all the beers, the tap handles still confused some (probably drunk) festival goers.  At least once I was asked to pour someone a Dos Equis, and I had to explain that it wasn't Dos Equis beer, just a tap handle!  And I definitely recall pouring someone a "Blue Moon" that shocked them when it didn't taste at all like the Blue Moon they were used to.  Oops!  That said, the set up could not have gone better, and the weather was outstanding.  I'm already looking forward to next year, we might even need a bigger boat.  

Two More Reasons To Come To Zapp's!

As if you needed any more reasons... I mean, I'll be there with Brasseurs A La Maison serving up some tasty homebrew.  We have over 30 beers planned and I have a feeling most will be of the highest quality.  All but mine, most likely.  Tin Roof Brewing will be there from just down the road, if you haven't tried their Blonde Ale yet (the never realized LSU beer) then you need to, it's a really good example of the style.  Plus all sorts of imports and other beer from the region will be present like Lazy Magnolia and Saint Arnold.

Here are two more reasons to show up and try some beer... Chafunkta Brewing (twitter) and Gnarly Barley Brewing (twitter - facebook) will both be there showing off some of their brews!  If you haven't heard of these guys, don't feel too bad.  Chafunkta Brewing was formerly known as Pelican Brewing but changed their name to avoid any confusion with the Pelican Pub & Brewery in Oregon.  Even though the possibility of both brands colliding anywhere outside of maybe GABF was slim anytime soon, it's probably not a bad move.  

 

 

Gnarly Barley Brewing is located in Ponchatoula and their site talks about their Korova Coffee Porter and Lazy IPA so I'd bet we'll see those two beers at Zapp's. 

So, can't complain about any of this... more new beers to try in two weeks!  Here's hoping the weather is nice and the beer never runs out.  Buy your tickets ahead of time if possible, they might run out.

Zapp's International Beer Festival 2012!

Hey everyone, just a heads up that the date is soon approaching for the 2012 Zapp's International Beer Festival!  It'll be on Saturday, March 24th starting at 3:30 PM.  Tickets are limited to 1,500 total (and trust me, this is a good thing, the crowds might be unbearable otherwise) so reserve a spot soon.  It'll be at the Rural Life Museum (on Essen by I-10) like always, but the best reason to show up this year?  I'll be there serving up some homebrew with the Brasseurs A La Maison.  We expect to have around 30 beers on tap as a club and I can promise you that the homebrews are usually the most interesting beers at these festivals, and the first to go.  

So get there early, find the Brasseurs A La Maison tent, and try some home brews!  Then check out all the rest.

Cheers!

Beer Places: The Cove - Baton Rouge, LA

Alright, time to finally feature one of the best places in Baton Rouge to get a bottle of beer, The Cove on Corporate Blvd.  It's a rather nondescript place on the outside, tucked into the corner of a shopping center near Jason's Deli and Albasha, but the high-ceiling interior really gives it an interesting atmosphere.  there's a new scotch & cigar bar on the immediate right-hand side after walking in that I haven't had a chance to check out but I have a scotch tasting coming my way!  Maybe I'll take a break from writing about beer to give that a proper review in the future.

Two Epic beers from New Zealand.

 Carrying on, the hallway opens up into the main bar space, with a long bar backed by all sorts of whiskeys, other liquors, and lots and lots of bottles of beer.  Seriously, a LOT of beer, mostly imported because it's just a lot easier to get different imports than it is to get various domestic microbrews.  There isn't anything on tap so it's bottle only and some can get quite expensive.  Even for me the beer list can be intimidating at times, but it's usually not hard to pick out something I've never had for a reasonable price.  

A MOA beer from New Zealand at The Cove.

One of the main reasons I end up at The Cove is that the homebrew club I'm a member of, Brasseurs A La Maison, holds the monthly meetings there.  They are always accompanied by a tasting of a specific style and we almost always do a little pre and/or post-drinking at the bar.  Nothing wrong with that, right? 

An Epic / Dogfish Head Portamarillo, along with a Nogne O collaboration DIPA.

A Troubadour Obscura from Belgium

All this leads up to, of course, that if you're really looking for some crazy imported beer, The Cove is the place to go in Baton Rouge.