The Great American Beer Boom: Jay's Beer Journey

My brother (Jay Ducote of Bite And Booze) spent a lot of time in 2012 going to different breweries and events and talking about several issues in the craft beer world, especially the role of the wholesaler, or distributor.  During this journey he got the chance to interview beer industry giants like Greg Koch of Stone Brewing and Andrew Godley of Parish Brewing with the help of Tommy Talley from TommysTV.  Yeah, Jay's a lucky bastard. I'm not TOO jealous though, because I'm headed to NYC tomorrow morning and guess what, it's the final weekend of New York City Beer Week!  Enough about me... here's Jay's video, check it out:








If you ask me, one of the most poignant comments was from Andrew, when he said that he wanted to focus on producing beer, and he didn't want to focus on delivering the beer. It really makes you think about what role the distributors do play in the industry. 

The Truck, The Brewer, And The Blogger II

A couple of weeks ago I was invited by Jay Ducote of BiteAndBooze.com to attend his second dinner at the Tin Roof Brewery.  Called "The Truck The Brewer And The Blogger II" the event was promoted as "Louisiana Re-Imagined" and featured Jay's cooking talents, the Taco de Paco Food Truck, and the beers of the Tin Roof Brewing Company.  Mandi and I arrived a few minutes early to find Jay and the crew working hard on their dishes.  

Several friends from Brasseurs A La Maison were also attending the dinner so we picked out some seats with them and started on the first few beers.  The first appetizer to come out was the Red Beans and Smoked Sausage Spring Roll... now I'll admit I really get put off by the texture of red beans so I passed on this one, but Mandi and the others seemed to really enjoy it.  

Appetizer (er, hors do'oeuvres) number two was a fried Louisiana oyster served on a bed of wilted spinach with absinthe butter sauce.  Now this was more my speed as I really enjoy fried oysters.  The absinthe butter sauce really added a nice kick of flavor to the perfectly fried oyster.  Very well done dish, and since Mandi doesn't eat seafood, I enjoyed a pair!

Up next was the soup course, a cream of corn soup topped with crumbled bacon.  It was served piping hot along with a nice cool pitcher of Tin Roof Blonde, so once we had passed the beer around the table and all topped off it was time to try the soup.  And we were not disappointed, as both Mandi and I both thought it was the best dish yet.  Rich, hearty, and I loved the bit of flavor the bacon imparted while still leaving it as a corn soup.  Jay even said that he used the Tin Roof Blonde in making the soup... it didn't leave a major beer flavor, but I applaud the effort to get the beer involved in the dishes.

The first dinner course came courtesy of Taco de Paco, their herb roasted quail with an andouille risoto and a drizzle of gumbo sauce.  I really enjoyed the quail, and Mandi said that the risoto was quite nice as well.  A few people had undercooked quail, but mine was just about right and seasoned perfectly.  This course was paired with the Tin Roof Perfect Tin Amber Ale, a hoppier amber ale but it went well with the spices in the quail.

Our second dinner course was also a Taco de Paco creation. For this course we were brought out turtle meat over smothered potatoes and onions, with pickled shallots.  I hate being critical at these sort of events, but the turtle was extremely tough and really hard to eat.  Some people at the table enjoyed it a lot, but I only ate a few pieces and wasn't sad to see the rest go.  I guess not all dishes are a hit, but I do admire the gusto to serve a turtle dish. 

We were also treated to a sneak preview of the Tin Roof Voodoo Bengal Pale Ale cans with the turtle dish!  These guys should be in stores now, so if you're looking for a solid canned pale ale, drink local.

Finally, the dessert course!  And I was excited to try the rum-soaked banana cupcake with a bananas foster icing created by Christina Stevens.  This did not disappoint at all, leaving a lasting impression on all the diners.  The sauce was really killer, I could have eaten a cup of that along and been satisfied, but the cupcake was phenomenal as well.  Really a well done dessert, and a great compliment to the Tin Roof Parade Ground Coffee Porter, their latest seasonal and probably their best brew yet.  

All in all it was an enjoyable evening.  Not all dishes were hits, but I think the corn soup and cupcake dessert were two of the better food items I've eaten recently.  And the beers worked well to compliment the various courses, especially the coffee porter.

Be on the lookout for another one of these events before too long, and don't hesitate to check it out! The best way to stay up to date about the next one is to go to BiteAndBooze.com and sign up for Jay's e-mail list.

Parish Brewing - Round 2

Alright, back in November Andrew Godley, founder and owner of the upstart Parish Brewery, invited myself and a few friends to come taste his beer and offer up opinions.   On that first visit we were all very impressed overall with the quality of the beer and the dedication Andrew showed towards his project.  And by how tolerant his wife was with all the time it took to perfect his beer!  Despite that though, there was room to improve, and improve is exactly what Andrew did between our two tastings.

This second time around Jay, Eusebio, and I all returned along with our friend and beer geek Dustin Davis.  Instead of meeting Andrew at his house we met him at his new brewery, a rented piece of warehouse space he has been working on converting into a working nanobrewery.  The space was coming along nicely, and there were 4 beers kegged and waiting on us to taste, plus we got to check out his fancy new tap-handle, which is really a thing of beauty!  You can check out Jay's thoughts on the second visit here, and don't tell him, but I might steal a few pictures! (Mine came out like crap... damn iPhones...)

We started with a tasting of the Bierre Blanc, which is described as "Hybrid light beer, crisp, clean, refreshing, and perfect for a crawfish boil!" and I agree.  It has a great balance of hops in it, refreshing is a perfect adjective to use, and I could see this one being a hit in Louisiana, especially through our notoriously hot and long summers.  I believe Andrew is pretty well set on his recipe and I think this one will be a great mainstay of the lineup just as it is.  It's not going to blow away the beer geeks and hopheads looking for that next imperial super extra coffee mocha porter, but not every beer needs to be or even should be 'extreme' or pushing the envelope.  The world needs delicious sessionable lagers like this Bierre Blanc to keep it all in balance, and this is certainly a fine example of creating a lighter beer without sacrificing the 'beer' in the process.

Second in line was the new and improved Canebrake Ale, an American style wheat ale highlighted by Louisiana sugarcane!  I enjoyed this one the first time around, but we all agreed it needed a little more sugarcane flavor to it.  Andrew obliged us and this new batch was much heavier on the cane molasses.  It was certainly an improvement in my opinion, but Andrew I believe wasn't satisfied with the recipe quite yet.  I think he's really close to putting together a fantastic amber ale with just the right amount of sugarcane flavor balanced with the hops present in all of the Parish brews.  Believe me, we were just getting started on the hops.

Third of the four was the Parish Primo Pilsner, an amazingly clear and light colored beer that packed quite the punch behind it's innocent appearance.  What might be most amazing is the clarity in the pilsner despite the lack of filtering, but still that doesn't compare to the delicious aroma and taste of hops this beer provides.  I don't think I've ever been as shocked at the difference between how the beer looks (and how I expect it to taste as a result) and how it actually tastes.  This one really captures the noble hop essence of what a pilsner should be, a fantastic beer and another one that Andrew doesn't need to mess with it at all.

Fourth up was the Envie American Pale Ale (APA) and in my opinion, the best was saved for last.  This one is a darker amber color, with a delicious malty and hoppy aroma and the flavor to back it all up.  It really captures the perfect balance between caramel sweetness of the malts and the bitter citrus flavor of the hops.  Too often beers are way too heavy on either the malt of hop profile but the Envie APA is perfectly perched in the middle.  If I remember right (I had been drinking, you know) Andrew said that this recipe had won some homebrew competitions, and I think it could be winning some full scale brewing competitions before too long.  Another one that is good to roll out as it is, you can bet I'll be anticipating the day I can order one of these in the local bars.

All in all I think Parish Brewing has three beers that will be huge hits locally when they are rolled out.  I think the Canebrake could be a huge seller as it is, but Andrew is going to work on it a little more and I agree with him that of these four, it's the one that still needs some tweaking to satisfy the goal of the perfect beer.  One thing that stood out to me is that among the five of us there was no consensus on which beer was the best.  This tells me that Parish Brewing is definitely on the right track to putting out a superb lineup of beers and not just one great flagship beer and a bunch of middle of the road filler brews.  All of these four clocked in around 5% abv, making them great for sharing a pitcher or ordering a round of pints while watching sports.  I know there are some bigger beers in the works, including the IPA and Barleywine, so hopefully I'll be back at Parish sometime soon to taste those!

Great work Andrew!

You can also check out Parish Brewery on facebook to keep up to date with the progress!

Parish Brewing - Coming Soon!

File this one under:

Beer!

Tuesday evening Jay, Eusebio, and I headed down to Broussard, LA (just a little south of Lafayette) to meet Andrew Godley, the founder of Parish Brewing.  One of Jay's former teaching co-workers Ben met us there as well with his wife.  Andrew was kind enough to welcome us into his home to talk about his brewery project and let us taste several different types of his beer.  He even cooked for us, some delicious bacon-wrapped duck breasts, chicken-apple sausage, and stuffed mushrooms.  I love good food as much as the next guy, but I'm not going to focus on that, I'll leave it to Jay and Eusebio.

We started off with a variation of the Parish Bierre Blanc, an ultra-pale ale dry-hopped with west coast hops.  Andrew admitted that he wasn't too fond of this experiment, and we all agreed that it was the weakest of the brews we tried.  Super bitter and dry tasting, tasted a lot like grapefruit up front.  Crisp, and not far away from being a very refreshing ale, but this one needs more work.

Next we tried Andrew's pilsner, a superbly refreshing lagered brew that struck us all as what a true American pilsner should taste like.  For those unaware 'lagering' a beer involves fermentation at much colder temperatures, which takes significantly longer to produce than a more typical ale.  As much as we hate to say it, it was like a Budweiser if they didn't water it down for the masses.  Definitely enjoyed this one, but we were just getting warmed up.

After the pilsner we tried some of the Parish Oktoberfest.  Andrew tried a different method with this, creating an Oktoberfest ale instead of the normal Märzen style of lager.  Very much amber in color, with lots of rich malt flavors and well balanced with the hops.  This reminded me a good bit of the Heiner brau Märzen, which I've found to be their best beer.  I think that Parish Brewing will do quite well with this one as it is. 

Fourth on the list was the Parish specialty, the Canebrake ale, brewed with Louisiana sugarcane.  I love the idea of using local ingredients as much as possible, and this is a delicious example of doing just that.  I think Andrew is still perfecting the right amount of sugarcane (or raw molasses made from the sugarcane) to use in the brew, and in the sample we tried I think the beer could have used even more sweet flavor from the molasses.  I'm confident the perfectionist in him will find the right balance to really make this a spectacular favorite among local beer.  

Last we tried the Pumpkin Patch ale, which was definitely the highlight of the night.  I've tried many a pumpkin beer in my day and this is right up there with the best.  Similar to the Canebrake ale, Andrew used only fresh pumpkin to create the flavor of the beer, and it didn't miss.  Just the right amount of spice and sweet to go with the beer flavor.  What I like best about this and all of the Parish beers is that they are unmistakably beer.  They aren't trying to be something more or different, just good beer crafted to be the best they can be.  

 

 Again, thanks very much to Andrew and his wife for hosting us for the evening, the beer was delicious, and the food and company was top notch as well.  I look forward to seeing some Parish beer on tap sometime next year, and you all should look foward to it as well.  It'll be nice to have another solid local option for tasty brews!