Now with October, and Oktoberfest, coming to an end, this beer dinner is now taking place this saturday, October 25th!

Before dinner begins, there will be a “cocktail hour” featuring beer from the soon to open NOLA Brewing Company. If that wasn’t enough of a perk aside from the delicious menu, rare (to New Orleans) beers will be given away as door prizes… like Deschutes Black Butte Porter, one of the best Porters I’ve ever had).

The full menu for the $75 (all-inclusive) beer dinner, as well as reservation information can be found after the jump…

Grilled Sausages and Pickled Produce with an “Everything” Pretzel and Truffle Mustard served with Brasserie Dupont’s Foret — Tourpes-Leuze, Belgium

Grilled Shrimp and Fried Mushroom Salad with Roasted Pistachio Vinaigrette served with Brasserie Lefebvre’s Blanche De Bruxelle — Rebecq-Quenast, Belgium

Beef Cheeks Braised in Beer, Wine, and Beets Served with Peppers, Squash, Mushrooms and Corn Grits served with Deschutes’s Black Butte Porter — Bend, Oregon

Fig, Pecan and Blue Cheese Galette served with Urthel’s Samaranth 12 Quadrium Ale — Ruiselede, Belgium

Please join Stein’s Market and Deli and International Wine and Spirits as they co-host a 50-person beer dinner prepared by one of this city’s most treasured local chefs - Greg Sonnier.

When: Saturday, October 25, 7:00PM
Where: The Uptowner, 438 Henry Clay Ave., New Orleans, LA
Price: $75 per person (tax and tip included).

Please Contact Dan or Andre at Stein’s Market and Deli, (504) 527-0771 for reservations. Payment information is required at the time of reservation. Cancellations will only be accepted 48 hours in advance!!!!

On Wednesday, September 17th, fans of wine, beer and cheese met at Cork and Bottle to settle an argument: Which pairs better with cheese? Wine or beer? Conventional thinking would say that wine of course would be the winner.. There’s food and wine magazines, entire tomes written on the pairing, and shops dedicated to just the two products. But if you think about it, wine and cheese are often a catastrophe! While wine and cheese can get along from time to time, they don’t really go well together. Wine has enough acid as to block delicate flavors in cheese, and cheese has enough fat to block delicate flavors in wine. A bad or cheap wine can be helped out by cheese for this very reason; it blunts taste.

So how does beer work any better? The trifecta of low acidity, wider flavor gamut, and carbonation make it the perfect pairing for anything high in fat and delicate in flavor. To me, it’s the carbonation that makes beer win everytime… while your taste buds get bogged down by the fats in cheese, the bubbles in beer can break that up, while wine simply floats on top, and nukes any available taste bud left. This isn’t to say that there’s no such thing as a good wine and cheese pairing, nor is every beer and cheese pairing an outright winner. But to me, most of the time, the body and flavor of beer just works better with cheese.

Surprisingly, wine guy Jon Smith of Cork and Bottle (host of the event) started his introduction with this very concession and if that wasn’t enough, Richard Sutton of St. James Cheese further backed up beer’s often superiority in this pairing. At this point I realized that the tasting was going to be less of a showdown, and more of an eye opener. Everyone knows about the wine and cheese pairing, but how many people would wise up to good beer by the end of the night?

Six cheeses were chosen by cheese expert and St. James Cheese owner, Richard Sutton (left). Team Beer consisted of Dan Stein (middle), owner of Stein’s Market and Deli and Derek Lintern, Treasurer of Crescent City Homebrewers. Team Wine consisted of Jon Smith (right) and his crew over at Cork and Bottle; arguably the best Wine store in town.

Selles Sur Cher Fresh Jacquin
Beer: Moinette Blonde Ale, Brasserie Dupont
Wine: 2006 Philipe Portier Quincy
Result: We started off with a tie on this one. In my opinion, the lightly sweet, fruity and spicy flavors of the Moinette added a new dimension to this goats milk cheese.

Brillat Savarin Affine Fromagerie Delin
Beer: Orval Trappist Ale, Brasserie d’Orval
Wine: Adami Prosecco
Result: Beer’s first win! Both teams were thinking the same thing for this incredibly buttery, creamy and salty cheese; bubbles. However, it was the high carbonation, light tartness and dry finish of Orval that went best with this cheese, which was more like butter.

Livarot Coupe Graindorge
Beer: Castelain Biere De Garde, Brasserie Castelain à Bénifontaine
Wine: 2007 Sineann Gewurztraminer, Oak Ridge Vineyard
Result: Another beer win! A wonderfully stinky cheese, who’s funkiness worked well with the earthiness, light mustiness, and smooth medium body of the Castelain. Dan actually preferred the wine pairing on this one.

Reserve Gruyere Cave Aged Selection Gourmino
Beer: Troegenator Double Bock, Troegs Brewing Company
Wine: 2007 Pierre Boniface Apremont, Savoie
Result: After what seemed like beer was on a roll came another tie. I do remember cheese expert Richard Sutton commenting on how great the Troegenator was with this cheese, remarking its almost port like finish.

Coolea Neal’s Yard Dairy
Beer: Red Rocket Ale, Bear Republic Brewing
Wine: 2006 Domaine Diochon Moulin-a-Vent
Result: An resounding win for wine. This was actually a pretty shocking result for both teams involved. The pairing of Gouda with an IPA or Red Ale is classic, and even Jon’s tasting notes for the cheese conceded that this was “a cheese built for beer.” So why’d wine win on this one? Two reasons .. the Bordeaux chosen was a fantastic pairing (though I preferred the beer still), but more importantly, heavily hoppy beers are some of the hardest beers to get into. People know Bordeaux, but this was the first time that most of the people at the tasting were having a hoppy beer. Two great pairings with one having the advantage of familiarity, and the other having the disadvantage of shock.

Oregonzola Rogue Creamery
Beer: Old Foghorn, Anchor Brewing
Wine: 2006 Morgan Pinot Noir, Twelve Clones
Result: With much diplomacy, the final pairing was another tie. I was pretty surprised how many people liked the Old Foghorn pairing. Barleywines are also a little difficult to get into because of the complex flavors and high alcohol content (though still less than most wines). Blue Cheeses like this one are often too intense to be paired with wine, and I think if this wasn’t most people’s first tasting of a Barleywine, it’d have won. The Pinot Noir pairing was actually very good, with a great fruit presence to go with the blue.

So the final tally is 3 ties, 2 beer wins and 1 wine win. Honestly, I never expected beer to win on this one, especially as people piled into the room and it was evident that they were mostly wine people.

Again, the point of this tasting was less of a showdown and more as an eye opener. At the end of the night, a lot of people had their eyes opened about good beer, and as people filed out of the tasting room and into the store, they grabbed bottles of beers, checked out and went home.

Bloggers Note: Due to the nature of copious ammounts of beer and wine, I cannot guarantee the validity of anything said in this blog post…

Aperitif
Dupont Cidre with Assorted Cheeses

First Course
“Fire & Ice” Dueling Oysters: Chilled with Hawaiian Red Sea Salt & Cantaloupe Caviar vs. Fire Roasted with Beurre de Biere paired with Gavroche French Red Ale (France)

Second Course
Kapuziner Brined Duck Breast with Pontchatoula Strawberry Marmalade, Hydroponic Watercress and Weisse Syrup paired with Kapuziner Weissbier Schwarz (Germany)

Third Course
Pork and Plantain Egg Rolls with a Fondue of Guldenberg, Vermont cheddar and Smoked Bacon paired with De Ranke Guldenberg Belgian Abbey Ale (Belgium)

Fourth Course
BBQ Brisket slow braised in a Paradox Glace with Fully Loaded Tater Tots and Buttered Carrot Paint paired with Paradox Stout Batch 9 Ardeg 1991 Cask (Scotland)

Fifth Course
Beer and Nuts “Float”: Milk Chocolate Ice Cream, Salted Peanuts and Trappist “Float” paired with Achel Trappist Blond Beer (Belgium)

NOLA Brewing
I was looking forward to trying the brews from NOLA Brewing because it was the first public tasting of an entirely new and local brewery. The Brown and the Blonde were both very good, and I’m impressed I liked the Blonde at all since I usually don’t care for that style. Often times “Blonde” is just another name for a Golden or a limp ale that may as well be generic lager, so I’m glad their Blonde isn’t gutless. But like I said, that style’s not really my thing so I spent most of my time focusing on the Brown. It was different than I expected, it had a lighter, sharper, more effervescent mouthfeel to it than say a Brooklyn Brown Ale. I was also happy that unlike many Brown Ales out there, they didn’t decide to throw in nut flavorings or make it anything other than a Brown. So yeah, a nice, solid, surprisingly refreshing American Brown… well done guys! Of course I’ll have to reserve final judgement until this stuff is kegged and bottled.

I also learned a bit about some future beers they’re working on. A Watermelon beer is possibly in the works, which would be great and wouldn’t come into conflict with Abita’s berry beer offerings .. though I’d love to see someone local make a Blueberry beer. The Watermelon was actually at the fest being distributed by Crescent City Homebrewers; NOLA’s Brewmaster, Peter Caddoo, brewed it in that organization. But what really has me excited, and flat out impressed for such a new venture is a possible ISPA. When co-founder Kirk Coco first uttered that term, I was already several beers in and initially thought he said I2PA or IIPA, common terms for Imperial IPA. But no, he meant ISPA, an India Sweet Potato Ale. It’ll be an IPA, but instead of using malt for the sugar source, the yeast will much on sweet potato! This is a really cool idea on two levels: 1) If they pull this off and it’s good, it’ll firmly establish their craft-brewing street cred. 2) There are dozens of breweries that use pumpkin and even a couple that use sweet potato for flavoring, but to use it in place of malt is just inspired. Going crazy with the IPA style is a hallmark of American craft breweries, and for NOLA’s entry into that style to be something like ISPA is very very cool.

So congrats Kirk and Peter, this was a great first outing for this city’s newest and only brewery, can’t wait till this stuff is in bars and on store shelves.

Redstick Brewmastaers
My flat-out favorite homebrewers of the night were these guys. In order of preference, the 568 Saison was my favorite beer of the night, shortly followed by April’s Grand Cru, Saison II, Triple D Robust Porter and Corriander Ale. These are such wonderful brews that I wish they’d team up with someone and bring these to market.

Mystic Krewe of Brew
The very first beer I tried at the Tasting was Mystic’s Coconut Porter, which was already a hot item just minutes into night. This was a fantastic beer, not something I’d want all the time, but an excellent showcase of what can be done with the Porter style beyond coffee, chocolate and hazelnut flavors and adjuncts. My buddy Steve remarked that it was like drinking a Pina Colada and a Guiness all at once, and while I don’t completely agree with that, that’s certainly the direction the brew was going in. The Sweet Unemployment Stout and Chocolate City Stout were, just like last year, very solid stout offerings that I wish were bottled; especially the former… sweet stouts are hard to come by. I was also pleasantly surprised by the Tax Rebate Pale Ale which I think may have been my favorite pale ale of the night.

Home Brewers Underground
These guys, along with Escambia Bay and McGuires were all related, but I only made it to the HBU table. Their Possum Killer Porter was pretty good, but the Barleywine they had was so damn good. I talked to one of the members there about cameras for a while (I guess that’s what happens when you have several pounds of camera strapped around your neck) and he returned the favor by hooking me up with a full cup of the 9.5% Barleywine … twice. It was sad to see not many people at this table, because they had some great brews, and the Barleywine definitely made it into my top tier of the night. HBU also had a great motto: “Comitted to the responsible art of Zymurgy. We encourage you to ‘Go Brew Yourself’”

Heiner Brau
Wow, when I suggested that HB bring the beers they make for Luke this year, I didn’t think that was already in their plan. Sadly, they ran out of this pretty quickly, but they did have their Maerzen on tap which was wonderful. I wish this was more readily available in the fall for Oktoberfest!

Lazy Magnolia
I’m really glad they decided to just focus on the Southern Pecan and to bring large quantities of it. When I was making my final pass of the evening, they were still pouring. I was glad to hear that they’re working on getting the beer into the New Orleans market, whenever that may be.

Crescent City Homebrewers
Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to their area until the end of the evening and all I really had time for was the Watermelon Wheat. Good thing for me, this was a fantastic beer!

Regrets
Sadly, I didn’t have time to make it to Hurricane Brewing, Escambia Bay, McGuires, Montgomery Brewing, LA Lagers, or Perdido Vineyards. I saw, too late, that Perdido brought a Satsuma Cider and a Satsuma Wheat, doh!

All in all this was a great WYES Beer Tasting, with a larger turnout both in terms of vendors and drinkers, and was defined by the craft and sprit of homebrewers and microbrewers.

The WYES event is kinda weird for a few reasons. I’m pretty sure that it’s the only beer “tasting” rather than beer fest. Never quite understood the title .. perhaps they’re just trying to class up beer by making it seem like a wine tasting? It’s also the only beer event I’ve ever been to, or heard of, where the majority of the beer present is provided by the local distributor rather than the brewery. Sure, everything that’s available for sale in the city will be there. However, it means there’s a major dearth of American craft and micro brews, mirroring store shelves in nola. So at the distributor booths, often the people hocking the beer don’t know much about good beer. When I ask “Can you tell me about this beer?” I want to hear more than “Well..uhh.. it’s a wheat beer .. from Belgium…” Thanks, I can read the bottle too, guy. But I’m not bitter, because the fest makes up for itself in a wide array of homebrewers. We don’t get eclectic beers from America’s most creative breweries, but we do get even crazier beers from locals, and as everyone knows, great inventions come out of people fiddling around in the garage or kitchen.

So with the silver anniversary of New Orleans’ only official beer fest (cause really, isn’t everyday a beer fest in this city?), I thought I’d prattle on a bit about what I’m looking forward to…

New Orleans Lager and Ale Brewing Company
I’m gunna be honest here.. I hate Dixie Lager. Even then, I still miss Dixie being brewed in New Orleans as it was the last brewery in Orleans Parish after the heyday of the early 1900s, even surviving the BudMillerCoors onslaught of the 60s and 70s. So it gives me great pride that there’s about to be a new brewery in Orleans called NOLA Brewing. The WYES will be the first public showcasing of their brews; at the very least, expect their launch beers, a Blonde and a Brown to be there.

Redstick Brewmasters [Updated!]
Just got the list of Redstick’s brews for the fest, and I’m really glad to see not one, but two Saisons (my favorite summer style) on the list. Triple D Robust Porter (the words triple and porter should always go together), Imperial Kolsch, Miraculously Maltless Amber, Saison II, Naked Lady ESB, Some Guy’s Recipe Pale Ale, Real Men Don’t Wear Plaid Scottish Ale (I don’t like scottish ales, but what a great name), Red Ale, JZ’s Chocolate Hazelnut Porter (sign me up), Bedbug Coriander Ale (a favorite from last year), April’s Home Grand Cru, and 568 Saison.

Mystic Krewe of Brew
In the three previous years I’ve gone to this event, Mystic’s homebrews have always been among my favorite. They were kind enough to get back to me with a list of brews they’ll be bringing this year: Evil Swamp Bug (ESB), Sweet Unemployment Stout (my favorite from last year), “I”ll be Bock”, Joey’s Brown Ale, Ya’ Momma’s Mocha Porter, Hefeweizen, Dot.Head India Pale Ale, Chocolate City Stout, Popeye’s Pale Ale, Coconut Porter (this sounds potentially awesome), Amateur Night Ale, Recession Rye Pale Ale, Tax Rebate Pale Ale. I’m really glad that they listed the Recession and Tax Rebate beers right after each other.

Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company
I really wish these guys distributed here. But seeing as how they’re in Kiln, which is closer than Baton Rouge, making a quick jaunt over the border to pickup a case is no problem at all. I hope they got the message last year that their Southern Pecan beer is wonderful and that they need to bring more, much more, of it this year. I’m unsure of what else they’ll bring in; last year they only brought in the Southern Pecan and their Indian Summer out of their ten beer portfolio.

Hurricane Brewing
A hot new brewpub in Mobile whose offerings include Storm Surge Stout, India Pale Ale, Amber Ale, and Golden Lager. If they bring their seasonal, expect a Tropical Wheat Advisory to show up as well. Their wheat is interesting because while it’s their summer offering, the style itself changes through different kinds of wheat beers!

Escambia Bay Homebrewers [Update]
Floridian homebrewers who’ll be bringing Belgian Black Ale, Pale Ale, Red Ale, Mango Wheat, Toasted Amber and Citrus Wheat among others. Next time I’m in Destin, I’ll have to knock on their doors and demand tasty beer!

Heiner Brau / Zea Rotisserie & Grill
Back in the day, these would have been two seperate entries. But ever since Katrina, Zea’s beers have been contract brewed by Heiner Brau; at least the original Patrick O’Neil recipes are still used. It’ll also be nice to try some of Heiner’s other beers. The Kolsh is distrubted pretty widely, but the seasonal beers are rare indeed. Hopefully they’ll bring more than just HB Kolsh and Zea beers .. the beers they make for Lüke Restaurant would be a start!

McGuire’s Irish Pub
Every now and then, on Labor Day weekend, I get dragged to Destin. Now to many, Destin is a wonderful get away spot, it’s got beaches and sunlight and the ocean! Yeah well I hate all that stuff, but I like my friends and I like drinking with my friends. So while they and the rest of the city are sucking down can after can of BudMillerCoors, I’m glad whenever I can convince people, or sneak away myself, to McGuire’s. Their Wild Irish Raspberry Wheat, Porter and Stout are all great.

Montgomery Brewing Company
A brewpub in Montgomery whose offerings include Montgomery Blonde, Riverboat Red, Goat Hill Pale Ale, Wipe Out Stout, and Old World Porter.

Crescent City Homebrewers
While isn’t among my favorite group at this beer fest, they do have a few hits in their lineup, and I give them credit for a large portfolio of beers and bringing plenty of them! I seem to remember Crescent City being the last group to run out of beer last year.

Other Stuff I’m Looking Forward To
My Goat is on Fire All Grainers (I don’t know who this is, but what a great name)
Perdido Vineyards Farm Cider and Ale (Wine maker from Perdido, AL)
Home Brewers Underground
Lagers Homebrew Club

When you combine a weekend with a beer related event, you’re already looking at a winning couple days, but when there’s TWO beer events going on, then it’s just a sign that god loves you and wants you to get drunk … and try some new beers.

Abita kicks off this weekend with another one of their Pub Crawls, this time in honor of Abita Wheat - the current seasonal beer. The Wheat is definitely the most quaffable of Abita’s brews, so the Wheat pub crawl is always my favorite, you can just pound through a dozen of them without even realizing you’ve been drinking at 4 bars for the last 6 hours.

As if that wasn’t good enough, the Whole Foods on Veterans is having their Summer Beer Tasting this weekend! Throughout the store there will be beer and food pairings, live music, give-aways, but most importantly FREE BEER!! Check it out on Saturday from Noon to 3pm

Check out the Abita Wheat Pub Crawl bar list after the jump…

Generations Hall
310 Andrew Higgins Dr
6pm-8pm (registration)

Dino’s Bar & Grill
1128 Tchoupitoulas St
8pm-9pm

Rusty Nail
1100 Constance St.
9pm-10pm

Ugly Dog Saloon
401 Andrew Higgins Dr.
10pm-11pm

Generations Hall
310 Andrew Higgins Dr
11:30pm-Till

 
The Abita Select Four Grain Dinner that I just posted about looks great, but I think this other Beer Dinner looks EVEN better. Dan Stein (Beer Geek and owner of Stein’s Deli), in association with Derek Lintern of Crescent City Homebrewers, Aaron Burgu (owner and chef of Patois), Kelly Picket and the staff of Stein’s Deli have created a dinner pairing some of the best beers you can buy in New Orleans with some of the best food you can eat in New Orleans.

The Dinner will take place on April 8th at Patois and will mark the 75th Anniversary of the End of Prohibition. The coolest thing about this dinner, is that not only will it be your standard beer and food pairing, but it will be incredibly educational AND the food will be cooked in beer, and made with beer ingredients. Things like hops, malt and unhopped wort will make their way into the recipe! Adventurous indeed. Check out the menu and pairings for the $90 (all-inclusive) Dinner after the jump…

Apértif
Jenlain Ambrée

Salad
Salad of Mixed Greens tossed in a Citrus and Hops Vinaigrette with Coriander Crusted Goat Cheese
Hitachino Nest White Ale

Appetizer
Mussels Steamed in La Fin Du Monde with Pomme Frites and Pepper Aioli
Unibroue La Fin Du Monde

Fish
Malted Barley crusted Trout in a Barleywine-Reduction Sauce with Local Strawberries
Anchor Old Foghorn

Meat
Carbonade Flamande with Local Baby Root Vegetables
Chimay Première (Red)

Dessert
Pink Lady Apple roasted in Unibroue Éphémère with French Triple Crème Cheese
Nut Brown Ice Cream with Eel River Ravens Eye Imperial Stout and Chocolate Sauce
Brown Butter Financier with Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar

Cheese
Epoisses with Tripel Karmeliet
St. Agur with J. W. Lees Harvest Ale (2007)
Ossau Iraty with Tröegs Nugget Nectar

The only thing better than Beer, is a Beer Dinner. You get the best of both worlds, delicious beer with food paired around the beer to complement it (or is it the other way around?).

Abita continues their popular Abita Select Dinner Series on April 3rd at Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse in New Orleans. The Select Dinner Series usually consists of an Abita being paired with a few courses, but more importanly, their latest Select brew is often paired with the main course. This time around Abita’s new Four Grain is being paired with an 8oz Rib Eye. I don’t have much information on the Abita Four Grain at the moment, obviously one of the grains will be barley .. I wonder what the other 3 could be? Is it just 4 different kinds of malt? Will they use the trendy new beer ingredient Sorghum? I’ll let you know as soon as I find out!

Everything looks great, including a Dessert paired with Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager which looks fantastic! Anywho, the menu for the $75 all-inclusive Dinner is after the jump.

Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse
716 Iberville St
New Orleans, LA
(504) 521-8310 for reservations

$75 all inclusive (dinner, beer, tax & gratuity)
Beer Tales: 6:30pm
Seating: 7pm

Passed Hors D’oeuvres
Louisiana Shrimp Beignets
served with chipotle dipping sauce

Gulf Seafood Tartlets
topped with tarragon crème fraîche and Cajun caviar
Served with Amber

1st Course
Exotic Gumbo
served in French bread
Served with Restoration Pale Ale

2nd Course
Louisiana Soft Shell Crab
served with jumbo lump crabmeat, peppery arugula and Creole mustard bacon vinaigrette
Served with Purple Haze

3rd Course
BBQ Rib-Eye
8oz rib-eye filet served with Abita BBQ shrimp and Yukon gold potato purée
Served with Select Four Grain

Dessert
White Chocolate Mousse Crêpe Cake
topped with orange glazed Ponchatoula Strawberries
Served with Strawberry Harvest Lager

If you’re like me, then every few weeks you wonder how long it’s been since you wrestled up a crew of friends and made the trek up to the Northshore to go on an Abita Brewery tour.

It was several months ago when this thought crossed my mind, and I got a group together and was all ready to go. I went to the Abita site and checked the Visit link for directions and then I saw it: a short message saying that tours were canceled while they renovated the brewery .. and there was no estimated time of completion.

Weeks and months passed with no change to this short and to the point note on their site… the year on the calendar ticked up a number .. Mardi Gras came and went … and still nothing. I was just about to give up hope, after all it had been nearly six months since the tours ended with nary an update when I decided to give the brewery a call to see what was up. My timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Without anymore storytelling, here’s the pertinent info:

Abita Brewery Tour Times

Wednesday - Friday @ 2pm
Saturdays @ 11am, 12pm and 1pm

I’m pretty impressed that they’ve added some weekday tours and added an extra timeslot to their Saturday tour.. it’s obvious that Abita keeps getting bigger and they keep adopting the practices of other regional craft breweries.

Welcome back Abita Tours, the only brewery tours in the area that actually serve beer on the premises.

If you need a beer made en masse in the New Orleans area, but you don’t feel like building a brewery, then Covington’s Heiner Brau has become the brewery to turn to. Sure, they make their own tasty beers (well except the Kolsh, but that’s just because I don’t like Kolsh), but they also do contact brewing for Zea, Big Easy/Tiger Town Beer, Dixie for a while, and various house beers for various local restaurants.

As a business, they’re the most diverse and interesting brewery in the New Orleans area and yet, they’ve never really offered tours since they started up a little over two years ago. Well that’s finally changed, as Heiner Brau now offers tours every Saturday at 10, 10:45 and 11:30am.

You get to tour the brewery, learn about their beer types, learn about the brewing process and the final packaging and distribution process. Sounds great, but there’s something pretty important missing from that list. For some reason, they’re not allowed to serve beer on the premises. So despite getting to learn all about their beers through words and pictures and intricate hand gestures, you don’t actually get to taste any of their beers.

One of the highlights, if not THE highlight of the Abita brewery tour is being able to taste their beers, right out a keg, made probably the day before and filled just a few feet away. It’s freshness you can’t get anywhere else … In fact, I swear I had a Purple Haze at the brewery once and saw raspberry pulp (or was it the seeds) in my cup! I’m glad Heiner Brau is finally offering tours. They have a great operation, an incredibly knowledgeable and talented Brewmaster, and are in a cool building in downtown Covington .. but I hope, for the sake of brewery tour goers everywhere, that they offer tastings just like Abita and every other brewery in the country (world?).