Feature Beer Friday! - Lazy Magnolia Lazy Saison

This review will mark our second review from the oldest brewery in Mississippi, Lazy Magnolia Brewing. Lazy Magnolia is a brewery out of Kiln, Mississippi, just a short drive down I-12/I-10 from here and an easy day trip. In fact, Mandi and I made the drive not too long ago and I wrote a post about our visits to Lazy Mag, Crooked Letter, and Mississippi Brewing.

The Lazy Saison is one of Lazy Magnolia's four current seasonals, available during the Spring. It's a Belgian-style saison with minimal bitterness and a robust 8.9% abv. You might be able to find it on tap, but you should definitely see some in bottles when the release rolls around.

And on to the review...

Reviewers: Eric Ducote (BR Beer Scene), Brenton Day (The Ale Runner), Chuck Pierce (Me And My Big Mouth), and Buddy Ethridge.

Serving: 12 oz. bottle.

Appearance: Deep golden and a little on the clear side for a saison.

Aroma: Funky with some bubble gum sweetness. Brenton thought it smelled a little boozy and Buddy thought it smelled a little spicy.

Taste: More bubble gum sweetness with some fantastic spice at the end.   

Mouthfeel: A rather unique finish, easy drinking despite the abv, but it disappeared a little after the first hit.

Overall: This isn't a bad beer at all, but it seemed more like a Belgian tripel to us than a saison.  With its strong abv, this could get really sneaky if you bring it out to a crawfish boil next spring, but I also think it would really pair well.

Overall Rating: 66.75
My Rating: 67

Beer Travels: Mississippi's Gulf Coast

Beer and traveling seem to go extremely well together, especially when you do a little research ahead of time and find some of the best beer destinations that happen to coincide with your actual destination!  From Baton Rouge there are plenty of reasonable beer vacations in range if you have a few days to travel, Houston is great, so is Austin or the Texas hill country.  St. Louis is a great time and an easy day's drive, and Asheville is beer city, USA, and also a day's drive away.  For something shorter though, out of Baton Rouge, consider the Mississippi gulf coast.  

You're not going to get the acclaim that some of the breweries in those other cities receive, but there is still plenty of good beer, and it's only a few hours away. I did this trip with Mandi not too long ago, and here's how it went...

There are three breweries currently operating on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Lazy Magnolia in Kiln, Mississippi Brewing Company in Gulfport, and Crooked Letter in Ocean Springs. As of this writing Lazy Magnolia offers three tours on Thursday and Friday evenings starting at 4, and 6 time slots on Saturdays starting at 11. Crooked Letter does tours on Tuesday evenings and Saturday afternoons, and Mississippi Brewing Company is a brewpub open every afternoon and evening.  This pretty much limits the trip to Saturdays unless you can call ahead and make private arrangements, which is certainly possible with a big enough group.

For us it seemed simple enough, leave Baton Rouge in time to get to Lazy Magnolia for their 11 AM tour, which wasn't difficult at all.  According to Google Maps it's almost two hours from BR to the brewery, but it's I-12, so use your own judgement.  We ended up leaving early and stopping in Slidell for breakfast before continuing on to Kiln, which as you'll find out on the tour, is the hometown of Brett Fav-ruh! The brewery is in an odd location, just across the street from NASA's airport, and before you get to the town of Kiln itself, so there's no real connection to anywhere, but hey, it's a brewery!

Unfortunately for Lazy Magnolia, when there were designing and building out their brewery, taprooms and tastings weren't legal in Mississippi.  There is a gift shop which doubles as the office and tour starting point in the rear of the brewery, and once 11 rolled around everyone had paid their $10 it was time to start.  We made our way to right outside the office and tasted a few beers as the guide told us all about the brewery and let us try some malts and smell some hops.  There was a stack of barrels aging away, which was very encouraging, as Lazy Magnolia's barrel-aged products are some of their best.  The rest of the tour was pretty standard... if you've been on one craft brewery tour then you've pretty much been on them all. There were 6 beers to taste along the way, an upcoming barrel aged sour was probably my favorite, followed by the Timber Beast, which I've always loved.

Once the tour was over it was back to the gift shop / office.  Each tour came with a complimentary pint glass, but for $1 you could upgrade to a logo tulip glass... so of course we did.  There were also plenty of t-shirts, stickers, etc., and some of Lazy Magnolia's mead for sale.  Now there was no beer for sale at the brewery, which is against the law in Mississippi, but apparently mead is considered a wine, and selling wine direct isn't illegal, so if you want a bottle of Mississippi brewed mead, there's your stop!

After that it was time to head to Crooked Letter in Ocean Springs, which is about 45 minutes from Lazy Magnolia.  The tour and everything took about an hour, so we figured we'd be able to make it to Crooked Letter in time for their 1:00 tour, and we made it there a little early, which gave us a chance to take a few pictures and enjoy a few beers before the tour started. If you leave Lazy Magnolia a little early, or if you hang out there long and aim for the 2:00 tour, there is also the option of taking Highway 90 and driving along the beach the entire way, which would probably be a pretty nice drive, but around 30 minutes longer than taking I-10.

Upon arriving at Crooked Letter you'll probably find it to be the antithesis of Lazy Magnolia, and I'm not trying to bash Lazy Magnolia. Crooked Letter is located in the middle of the town, on one of the main streets and you have to pass through the very charming downtown area to get there. They have a large front porch with tables, and then a tasting room with some gifts once you go through the doors.  Tasting is legal in Mississippi now, but they still aren't allowed to sell directly to the public. Fortunately sharing their parking lot is a little restaurant that serves growlers!  

Crooked Letter has expanded their repertoire a good bit since I saw them at WYES a few years ago, but their flagship is still the Mystery Romp Porter, and it's still a thing of beauty. They also had their Gipsy IPA, Crooked Heffy, Mariposa Pale Ale, and Stabello lager on tap.  I'd recommend getting the pint glass so you can enjoy full pours of all the beers, unless of course you're driving, then enjoy a responsible small taste of a few!  They are supposed to mark off your wristband for each pour, visitors are limited to 4 total per tasting session.

For all interested there was also a nice tour, in our case it was led by Paul Blacksmith, the co-owner and brewer at Crooked Letter.  Basically, it's his baby, and he treats the place as such.  Like I said before for Lazy Magnolia, just about all brewery tours are the same.  There's no magic trick, or man behind the curtain, it's brewhouses, fermenters, bright tanks, bottling lines, sometimes a canning line, maybe some barrels aging some beer?  The stuff stays the same, but the scale does change, and it can change a lot.  From Lazy Magnolia to Crooked Letter is a huge drop off in scale, but trust me, breweries can get even smaller. 

In the end, I highly recommend a stop at Crooked Letter, the town is beautiful, the people are nice, and the beer is awesome.  In addition to their flagships they also brew three beers for the nearby Beau Rivage casino, and all were on tap as well.

 

From there we made the quick drive back West to Mississippi Brewing Company in Gulfport. It's less than 30 minutes from Crooked Letter, and you can either hop back on I-10 or take 90 down the beach... we opted for the beach route and headed through Biloxi and by the casinos until we veered away from the beach and along the industrial canal until we found the "brewery" itself. And I use brewery in quotation marks not because it's debatable whether they brew their own beer, it's just that the feel of the place is far from a typical brewery.

For starters, it's really a brewpub, licensed for full on-premise sales and no distribution. Their location is pretty cool, sort of a beach-cabana theme with a massive deck right on the water of the rather large canal.  There is a seafood restaurant next door, but otherwise the area is dominated by shipbuilding and other marine industrial uses.  They have a small stage set up for live music, and plenty of room for cornhole and other games, making it a really fun atmosphere for some drinks. 

Unfortunately when we went it was a little dreary and on the cold side, so the place wasn't lively at all and pretty sparse.  The good news is that gave us plenty of time to talk to the owner of the place, and time to try all sorts of good beer.  They had an assortment of styles, but nothing too crazy... blonde, brown, amber, red, pale, ipa, and stout were all represented, and all were pretty damn good.  They also regularly feature guest taps, often from other Mississippi breweries, although they just had some Kona on tap while we were there.
  

All of their beer is brewed on site in a small system pretty similar to what Parish started on. They said that they regularly put on new beers and change up the recipes, so I'll be looking forward to trying something different on my next time through.  And hopefully the weather will be much better for hanging out on the deck!

From there it was back home, with our Mississippi Gulf Coast brewery tour completed. The original plan was to stay out that direction, but the non-smoking hotel room that we booked turned out to be a smoking room and a bottle of febreze.  Fuck that. Fortunately we weren't too far from home, and were able to make it back without any problem.

If I had to do this trip all over again from Baton Rouge, I'd definitely switch it up some, and probably make the first stop Old Rail in Mandeville when they open at 11, then Crooked Letter and Mississippi Brewing Company.  Or make Old Rail the dinner spot on the way home... either way there are plenty of options, and really the north shore could be an entirely different trip!

Be sure to always drive safe, cheers!

More Local Beer News! Southern Tier, Saint Arnold, NOLA...

Alright, as if American Craft Beer Week wasn't enough, here is even more local beer news:

Southern Tier officially releases in Louisiana today... just got this picture from Calandro's, looks like they also have some Parish Farmhouse IPA and Endeavour on the shelves, but the main point is all that Southern Tier.  Go get some!  The bar rollouts in Baton Rouge should be tonight at The Bulldog and tomorrow at The Cove. 

Also, today marks the official release of the Saint Arnold Bishop's Barrel #3.  Like the Bishop's Barrel #1 this is an imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels.  (All the Bishop's Barrel series are barrel aged, duh.)  Bishop's Barrel #1 was one of the best beers I've had from Saint Arnold, so I'm looking forward to this one as well.  It's only in bottles and only available at bars & restaurants, not retailers.  Look for it soon as the local places.  

More good news, NOLA Brewing is canning their Mechahopzilla Double IPA!  We knew this was coming, but it's still exciting to see the actual cans instead of just the artwork.  Look for this soon, don't know an exact release date.

Calandro's is also going to be running daily specials all week to celebrate American Craft Beer Week.  Today is featuring the locals and the neighbors, Saint Arnold, Lazy Magnolia, NOLA, Tin Roof, Abita, and Parish.  Other breweries will be discounting on other days, follow their Facebook page for more. 

That's it for now... I'm sure other things will be popping up soon.  Chance of dieting this week: zero. 

New Orleans Internation Beer Festival - March 9, 2013!

If you read my post about Chafunkta officially becoming a licensed brewery, then you might have caught a tidbit about their first event as a legal brewery being the upcoming New Orleans International Beer Festival!  It's going to be held in Champions Square, and rumor has it there will even be a Cornhole Tournament!  Good luck beating the Beer Buddha's team.  

Personally I can't speak for this event, as last year's inaugural event was on the same day as the Zapp's Beer Festival in Baton Rouge, but it appears that all the local guys will be involved.  The aforementioned Chafunkta, plus Parish, NOLA, Tin Roof, Bayou Teche, Covington and Abita all seem to be on list.  In addition, some regional breweries like Lazy Magnolia and Saint Arnold should definitely be on hand as well as some solid breweries like Stone, Green Flash, Goose Island, and Brooklyn.  

There also appears to be a NOLA Brewing Beer Garden devoted entirely to cask beers, and I can promise you that's the first place I'd go.  Breweries tend to do some more interesting one-off releases to feature on cask for festivals like this so it would be your best chance to try something really unique.  There will also be seminars on Cooking With Beer and Food Pairings... definitely worth checking out.  

If you're looking for something to do in a few weekends, this might be the spot for you!  

Feature Beer Friday! - Lazy Magnolia Timber Beast

And we're back with some more Feature Beer Friday!  On tap (er, in bottle) today is the Lazy Magnolia Timber Beast, their Rye IPA and their first "big beer" after the abv laws in Mississippi were amended to allow up to about 10% alcohol as opposed to the previous 6%.  unfortunately this one hasn't made its way to Baton Rouge just yet, but I have to imagine it won't be TOO long.  We get Lazy Magnolia's other beers, and it's as close as New Orleans, so if you're that way you might see some bottles, or even find it on tap.  

 

As mentioned, this beer is their Rye IPA, coming in at 9% abv!  This is quite a step up for Lazy Magnolia, and I'm glad they went with something like this as soon as the laws changed instead of easing into the world of higher abv beers.  Judging by the fact that we still can't find it on the shelves in Baton Rouge, there must be a market for the beer.  Now, on to the review...

 

Reviewers: Eric Ducote (BR Beer Scene), Jay Ducote (Bite And Booze), Jeremy Spikes  and James Lawson (Whiskeybomb.com), and Brenton Day (TheAleRunner.com)

Serving: 12 oz. standard bottle.

Appearance: "Hazy, deep gold, frothy white head." "Great lacing," was Brenton's comment.  This one received a 12 or 13 from everyone at the table, out of 15 possibly points.

Aroma: A good hop aroma of pine and grapefruit, but also some rye spice.  Jay also picked up some citrus and lemon zest in the hop profile, while Brenton described it as peppery.

Taste: Hops, lots of hops, and Jay found that the pine, or Douglas fir, hops came through more on the taste.  

Mouthfeel: Lingering bitter with a big finish, a lot to take in, but enjoyable.

Overall: Jeremy, our resident hop hater, described it as a "hop monster," but still found enough redeeming qualities to score it a 68... maybe we're converting him yet.  James described it as "not quite Christmas tree... but close."  In my opinion this is Lazy Magnolia's best beer yet, and one to definitely pick up when you get the chance!

Overall Rating: 74.2

My Rating: 77

Review: Lazy Magnolia Timber Beast

Alright, finally the long awaited higher abv beer from Mississippi's Lazy Magnolia (facebook - twitter) Brewery!  First off, I have to give many thanks to David Komendanchik for bringing me a bottle of this one from Mississippi.  It has hit a few bars in Louisiana, namely Avenue Pub and Barley Oak, but no bottles have made it this way as of yet.  I sure hope that changes soon because this is a real winner of a Rye IPA. 

The appearance is pretty much what you see to the right... a copper colored brew with a large lingering off-white head that just screams "drink me!!" but also, "wait and savor the aroma a bit first."  And the aroma doesn't let me down, with a hop assault of primarily piney hops and an underlying spiciness of the rye.  I'm digging this one so far, but the taste is a beer's bread and butter, not the appearance.  Or even really the aroma.

The taste on this one though, brilliant.  Rye spice with a strong, bold presence of west coast hops.  Not much caramel or malt or anything along those lines but if you want a good hoppy rye IPA, this is your bag.  

I still have hops lingering on my tongue... they don't want to leave and I don't want to kick them out.  Sometimes a beer can really leave a little too much bitterness on the tongue but this one finds the sweet spot... er... bitter spot?  

Anyway, I think that this is a real winner from the brewery next door, and a fantastic first go at a higher abv IPA.  I'm looking forward to this in bottles around here on a regular basis, because I could see it sitting in the beer fridge right next to the Parish Envie APA as two of my go-to brews.

Well done Lazy Magnolia, well done indeed.

WYES Private Beer Sampling Recap

Alright, after a few weeks of hype and impatience, the long awaited WYES Private Beer Sampling was finally upon us.  Mandi and I took off a bit early to grab a bite to eat at Avenue Pub, because no beer trip to New Orleans is ever complete without a trip to the pub, right?  They had Canebrake on tap so I had that and after a few other beers and some sandwiches it was off to the fairgrounds for the beer sampling.  I had read up a bit on some of the breweries that would be there and was excited for some of the Tin Roof Porter, Abita's barrel aged beers, and trying several of the homebrews from the New Orleans clubs.  Honestly there were so many local options that I didn't even need to get into all the various other beers.

The highlights:

Parish Canebrake through the hop Randall: delicious and obviously extra hoppy.

Tin Roof Coffee Porter:  The rumor mill says this could be the next seasonal and if this recipe works large scale then it'll be their best beer yet.

Abita Bourbon-Barrel Aged Doubledog: Aged in Buffalo Trace barrels, this is a strong improvement on the mediocre regular Doubledog.

Lazy Magnolia Southern Hops'pitality IPA: Good IPA that we should see more of.

Saint Arnold Endeavour DIPA: Fantastic double IPA, should be available locally.

Mudbug Brewery Cajun Stout: A low-abv stout with some cayenne, pretty good.

Mudbug Brewery King Cake Lager: This one had me worried but was actually quite delicious, really surprised me!

Brewstock Imperial Hazelnut Brown and Black IPA: Two brews from the local New Orleans homebrew store, both were fantastic.

Crescent City Homebrewers Strong Scotch Ale: A very good homebrew, in my opinion.

Mystic Krewe Of Brew: I tried most of their selections and really enjoyed the Rosemary Pale Ale, Hot Chocolate Porter, and the Imperial Vanilla Milk Stout. 

Disappointments:

Yeah, there were a few disappointments... it happens when you try so much beer.

Abita 18th Star Biere de Garde: Mediocre beer, which is a shame because usually their selects are pretty solid.

Bayou Teche Cafe' Brulot Biere Joi: Sorry guys, this just didn't work for me.

Tin Roof Zythos Hop Project: I think even they were let down by this one. 

Nothing really new from NOLA Brewing... they had a cask Hurricane Saison but I was hoping for something a little more from them at their local festival.

Rogue Voodoo Maple Bacon Ale: I had been wanting to try it but not wanting to buy a full bottle.  After tasting it I'm glad I didn't spend the money.

Regrets: 

Not drinking more from Crescent City Homebrewers, they had 5 or 6 beers and I only tried one... oops! 

Totally missing out on Cajun Fire Brewing, a "brewery in planning" in New Orleans.

I missed the New Orleans Rum Barrel Aged Abbey Ale from Abita... would have liked to give it a try.

That's the summary, and as you can see there were a lot more highlights than disappointments.  I didn't even get to some of the really good craft beers there like the Stone RIS, Brooklyn Sorachi Ace, or Schmaltz Human Blockhead.  There were just too many locals and homebrews to try everything as it was.  At the end Mandi and I were both thorougly satisfied with some great beers and a few we might never get to try again. And because I know pictures make every blog post better, here are some of the best ones:

Raise Your Pints succeeds in Mississippi!

Exciting news for our neighbors to the East, the Raise Your Pints organization (facebook - twitter) was finally successful in getting a bill passed to change the archaic beer laws in Mississippi!  Apparently it was signed by the governor today and will go into effect on July 1, 2012.  This bill raises their legal limit from 5% alcohol by weight to 8% alcohol by weight, which is roughly 10% alcohol by volume.  It also officially legalizes homebrewing in the state!

This means that breweries such as Yazoo that are currently in Mississippi but not Louisiana can distribute their bigger beers, and that Lazy Magnolia can start brewing stronger beers as well.  It's definitely a good thing for the state and for the beer industry to get rid of such a useless law.  Hopefully the next step will be to remove the limit altogether, but hey, one step at a time, right?

Well done, Raise Your Pints!

Reviews: Lexington Brewery Kentucky Ale & Bourbon Barrel Ale

Many thanks to Jeremy Wells of fairelescourses.net for bringing me a couple of beer back from his home state of Kentucky.  I'll be honest, when I think Kentucky beer I think first of Founder's Kentucky Breakfast Stout, but it turns out Founder's isn't even in Kentucky.  They are actually in Michigan, so where does that leave Kentucky?  Uh... honestly I didn't know.  Until Jeremy brought me a couple of beers from the Lexington Brewery (@kentuckyale) I don't think I could have named a single Kentucky brewery, and that's a shame. 

First up was the Kentucky Ale, which is labeled as an English Pale Ale, definitely not the style I was expecting from the official beer of the World Equestrian Games, but hey... that's what they wanted to brew!  

 

Poured from a 12 oz. bottle into an imperial pint glass, it's a pale amber color with a small white head. This one comes in a respectable 5.3% alcohol, which is probably right on for the style.

The aroma is definitely hoppy with a lot of sweet notes to it.  The taste has a stronger malt base, and not as much hops as were on the nose.  I was expecting a little more hops here, but that's alright, English Pale Ales are usually a little more mild than the American versions. 

Easy to drink, medium body, it's a decent beer but nothing crazy here. 

 

My Rating: B

BeerAdvocate: B-

 

Up next was the Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale, which I incorrectly assumed was a bourbon barrel aged version of their Kentucky Ale.  Nope, it's actually a different style altogether, an 8% alcohol American Strong Ale that was aged in bourbon barrels. Well okay then... they fooled me but I guess they are marketing to people in Kentucky who want to know they are drinking a local product.  Can't say I blame anyone for that.

For this one, I went with an imperial pint glass... the brew is a deep yellow color with a small white head. It really was lighter and less bubbly than expected from such a strong beer. 

The aroma is more like bourbon than beer to me. Strong alcohol notes with caramel and vanilla. There's a little bitter hop in there but not a crazy amount. The flavor is more of the same, strong bourbon flavors and not a lot of beer. It's obviously a beer because it's just not burning down the throat but it's hard to pick up specific beer characteristics.

It's a good beer if you like bourbon, which I do. Just be warned that the bourbon dominates, not compliments.  This is pretty similar to the Lazy Magnolia Southern Gentleman in that regard, as these are two of the more bourbon-heavy barrel-aged beers I've tried.

My Rating: B-

BeerAdvocate: B

Thanks again to Jeremy for bringing these down for me to try!  I can't say that either blew me away, but neither were disappointing either.  Cheers!

Lazy Magnolia Getting Crazy At The Londoner!

I know they aren't a Louisiana brewery, but I still consider Lazy Magnolia (@lazymagnolia) out of Kiln, Mississippi to be a regional brewery.  They've been in our market since their early days, and the Southern Pecan is widely considered to be one of the better nut brown ales out there.  One of the problems Lazy Magnolia faces, though, is that they are in Mississippi and Mississippi's laws regarding alcohol production/sales are pretty ruthless.  They aren't allowed any beer greater than 6% abv, so Lazy Magnolia's options are limited when it comes to brewing bolder and bigger beers.  One way to create new and interesting beers that they have been able to use, is aging and spicing processes on their existing favorites.

Not too long ago I met up with Jay and Al Manint over at The Londoner to do some work on our potential radio show, and to try some of these Lazy Magnolia varieties.  First up was a beer they call the "Southern Gentleman," which is a bourbon-barrel aged version of their Southern Pecan.

It was a deep amber color, not hazy, and aroma was very spicy and boozy... the bourbon aging really came through in this style.  The taste was even more bourbon heavy, easily one of the most bourbon-dominant examples of aging I've tried. The nutty pecan flavors are there as well but the bourbon vanilla and spice notes dominate the palate.

The mouthfeel is interesting because it tastes like a stronger beer than it actually is. The alcohol notes from the bourbon really fool you, but it's not a strong beer alcohol-wise at all. Overall, I'm glad I got the chance to try this, hopefully it's more than a one-time release.  It might be bourbon-dominant, but fortunately I like bourbon, and I'm fan of the Southern Pecan either way.

After a few of those they tapped a cask of chamomile infused Indian Summer, Lazy Magnolia's light wheat ale.  Unfortunately this was a cask that had been tapped the night before for a tasting, and casks aren't meant to hold carbonation for long.  As a result, we had a bit of a flat beer on our hands, but I could see the promise in the way the flavors combined.  I wish I had a better example to properly review, but I think this spiced beer had a lot of promise and I commend Lazy Magnolia for giving these a try.  I do hope both end up in a regular (or at least special release) rotation so I can try them again.