What started as a fairly small event 10 years ago has now grown into a huge seasonal drinking event. Every season, Abita has a special beer and they celebrate it by selling it for a buck across a few bars on a very drunken night.

It’s no surprise that after 10 years, the brewer, who now sells nearly 3 million gallons of beer each year, has a huge following in its local market. This is the first Abita Pubcrawl I can remember that doesn’t celebrate a seasonal beer (although the Christmas ale is the current brew). Instead, they’re celebrating 10 years of crawling around, 4 times a year.

These pub crawls get more and more crowded each season, but one thing hasn’t changed: tasty beer for a buck, from just after work till the beer runs out.

The first 500 people get a t-shirt. Checkout the full list of bars after the jump…

Start the party at…
7 on Fulton - 5:30pm-8pm (registration)
700 Fulton St

Then make your way to…
Lucy’s - 8pm to 10pm
701 Tchoupitoulas St.
- AND -
Vic’s Kangaroo Cafe - 8pm-10pm
636 Tchoupitoulas St

The true Abita drinkers will finish the party at…
Grand Isle - 10pm-til
575 Convention Center Blvd
- AND -
Ernst Cafe - 10pm-til
600 S Peters St.

As Ike prepares to sprinkle and breeze on us all weekend, you can at least count on a couple of constants; Fall is approaching and with it, the Abita Fall Fest Pub Crawl. For the third time in as many years, the Fall Fest Pub Crawl takes place along the Tulane/Loyola bar route. While these certainly aren’t my favorite bars in town, Fall Fest is an enjoyable, easy to get into beer, and the Pub Crawl helps to introduce good beer to people at a young(er) age.

If you like Abita Amber, you’ll dig Fall Fest… same deal as last time, $1 per beer at each stop. Full bar list after the jump…

The Boot
1039 Broadway St.
6pm-8pm (registration)

The Palms
7130 Freret St.
8pm-9pm

Phillips
733 Cherokee St.
9pm-10pm

Rocco’s (old Brunos)
7601 Maple St.
10pm-11pm

Pat Fannie’s
7537 Maple St.
10:00pm-11:00pm

Bruno’s Tavern
7538 Maple St.
11:00pm-Till

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

Just a quick reminder that tonight is the Abita Red Ale Pub Crawl over in the Bywater.

Markey’s Bar / 640 Louisa St / 6pm-8pm (Registration)

Bud Rips / 900 Piety St / 8pm-9pm

Mimi’s in the Marigny / 2601 Royal St / 9pm-Till

Here’s constructed a Google Map with the bars which you can check out here.

I’m pretty interested in checking out Bud Rips. My buddy Cameron has this book called Obituary Cocktail by Kerri McCaffety about various great bars in the city. Here’s a quote from the book about Bud Rips, that Cameron was gracious enough to type out for me:

And at the intersection of Piety and Burgundy is Bud Rip’s bar, the Preservation Hall of New Orleans drinking culture. A cavernous corner storehouse with no sign outside contains one of the Ninth Ward’s hidden treasures. Unchanged for over a century, the interior is covered by the pressed tin of another time and whiskey and conversation flows generation after generation.

When he bought the bar his wife calls “a non-proft organization” in 1960, the rule was men only. Bud didn’t want couples arguing in his bar.

As always, the first 300 people to show up and register will get a free tshirt that you’ll eventually lose through your drunken stupor later in the night.

Oh and Kerri McCaffety has an Obituary Cocktail website, dedicated to the great bars of New Orleans. She even puts on meetups so that people can get together and check out these places.

Finally! An Abita pub crawl that wont be a rehash of one they had at the same time a year ago! Abita, for the first time in many many seasons, shakes things up with a new crawl location: The Bywater.

Markey’s Bar / 640 Louisa St / 6pm-8pm (Registration)
Bud Rips / 900 Piety St / 8pm-9pm
Mimi’s in the Marigny / 2601 Royal St / 9pm-Till

This is the first Abita Pub Crawl that I’ve been looking forward to since the Marigny crawl of ‘06. Strange bars in a strange part of town with a style beer that most people dislike. Given the distance from colleges and downtown offices, hopefully this one wont be as overcrowded as previous affairs.