Feature Beer Friday! - Gnarly Barley Radical RyePA

I hope you have all enjoyed the blind session beer tastings, but now it's time for a few known quantities... sort of. I recently got together with some beer blogger friends and recorded a beer review episode of Chuck P's Me And My Big Mouth podcast. None of the beer was reviewed blind, except for this first one.  Brenton brought it in a growler, so he was the only one that knew what he was drinking.  All he would tell us is that it was available locally.

So... by now you've seen the title and know that he brought us a growler of the Gnarly Barley Radical RyePA.  It's a 7% IPA with 75 IBU and a strong presence of rye malt. Gnarly Barley is one of the new Louisiana breweries, located just down I-12 in Hammond, LA. Their beers can be found in several bars around town, but nothing but draft as of yet.

On to the review... keep in mind that all of us but Brenton didn't know which beer we were drinking until after the comments/scores were compiled.

Reviewers: Eric Ducote (BR Beer Scene), Jay Ducote (Bite And Booze), Brenton Day (The Ale Runner), Chuck Pierce (Me And My Big Mouth), and Buddy Ethridge (Baton Rouge Adventures in Beer).

Serving: Poured from a 32 oz. growlito.

Appearance: I described it as a slightly hazy amber, Jay wrote that it was "copper like a shiny penny."

Aroma: Hoppy, but a little faint, I figured this was likely from the growler. Buddy picked up piney and earthy hop notes.

Taste: Hoppy, and far more powerful than the nose, the hops really come through strong on the palate. Jay wrote that it was "like rye sourdough bread" and Buddy picked up a light spice. Turns out Jay should have stuck with his first instinct!

Mouthfeel: A little bitter on the back end, we all thought it had a long lingering finish.

Overall: I thought it was a pretty good IPA, with a little work still to be done. We all scored it relatively high, Jay said "I dig it" and Chuck just wrote "very tasty" as far as the overall impressions. And that was before we knew we had a local brew on our hands.

Once Brenton revealed that this was the Radical RyePA I was thrilled. I can tell that they have been improving on their recipe from batch to batch and this is the best this beer has ever tasted. It's a great local addition to the scene.

Overall Rating: 72.6
My Rating: 71

Louisiana Craft Brewers Week Continues...

We are now getting into the real "meat" of Craft Brewers Week. I hope some of you made it out the last few nights to try the Gnarly Barley / Chafunkta collaboration or a few sour beers from Tin Roof, but if not, there is still plenty more craft beer week to go!

Tonight will be one of the biggest events, the Louisiana Craft Brewers Bash at The Irish House in New Orleans.  I'll be there for sure, and also hopefully will be making a stop at Avenue Pub to try some Parish stouts and I'm sure the plenty of other good stuff they'll have on tap. 

If you can't make it to New Orleans tonight, then I'd highly recommend an afternoon trip on Sunday to the "Make Pour Decisions" party at NOLA Brewing where they plan on rolling out 18 (yes, EIGHT-TEEN) beers for the event. If you can't make it to New Orleans at all, there will be a couple of chances to catch Abita's pumpkin and peach SOS in Baton Rouge.

Happy drinking!

Louisiana Craft Brewers Week Is Here!

So, it's here, one of the best beer weeks in the state, Louisiana Craft Brewers Week! I posted last week about a full lineup of events in the BR/Northshore/NOLA area, but here's the link to that again.

For tonight though, you have two opportunities to check out the Gnarly Barley / Chafunkta collaboration brew in Baton Rouge! The beer details have been announced, and it's an 8% Black IPA named "Black Tooth Grin." The beer will be tapped at the Chimes East at 5 PM, and at The Pelican House at 8 PM. These will be the only Baton Rouge events featuring the beer, and it's likely to move fast. 

Also, be sure to get your ticket for the Louisiana Brewers Bash at The Irish House in New Orleans this Wednesday.  Nine breweries from Louisiana will be featured with two special beers each. I'm really looking forward to this one.

(Yes, I know this is last year's logo... but I don't think a new one was put out?)

Gnarly Barley Launch Party! - May 9th at The Red White And Brew.

Hey, another local beer event on the radar, and the much anticipated launch of Gnarly Barley Brewing out of Hammond, Louisiana!  Those that read the BR Beer Scene regularly know that Gnarly Barley has been in the works for several years now, being officially established in 2011.  They have made appearances at Zapp's and WYES in recent years, as well as other festivals and events in New Orleans and on the north shore.  Zac and Cari have been working toward this goal for quite a while, so if you are free on May 9th, head over to The Red White And Brew in Hammond for Gnarly Barley's official release starting at 6 PM.  I don't know exactly which beers will be on tap, but I'd bet on some Korova Milk Porter, Radical Rye PA, Hoppopotamus IPA, and maybe some Catahoula Common?  They're all good, I promise!

Grapes & Grain - August 23rd - Benefiting The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

If anyone is looking to support a good cause AND drink some good beer, I have found the perfect event for you!  The Louisiana chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation will be holding the Grapes & Grain fundraiser featuring craft beer, wines, and food from some of the best area residents.  The event takes place on August 23rd at Benedict's Plantation in Mandeville. 

Tickets are $50 for General admission and $100 for VIP, and can be purchased here:  http://louisiana.cff.org/grapesandgrain

You can get updates by liking the page on Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Grapes-and-Grain/372013589512372?ref=hl

And here’s the Times Picayune article about it:  http://www.nola.com/community/st-tammany/index.ssf/2013/08/grapes_grain_fundraiser_to_ben.html

The craft beer list looks to be as follows:

Chafunkta

New Belgium

SweetWater

Bayou Teche

Tin Roof

Covington Brewhouse

Gnarly Barley

Main Grain

So not only do you get to support a great cause and try some craft beers, but you'll get a sneak peak at Gnarly Barley and Main Grain, two breweries in planning on the North Shore. Plus some other great local breweries and you can't really go wrong with New Belgium or SweetWater either.  Plus there will be wine and food, but that's not really what I blog about.

If you're looking for something to do on August 23rd, check it out!   

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

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!

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.