Beering on Frenchmen St.

I like to think of myself as a Texas/Louisiana beer blogger, that travels a bit. And finally I'm getting some beering going in New Orleans.

The other day, I had some downtime and was able to hit 13 and dba for lunch/drinks and post lunch drinks. A very nice gentleman from NOLA turned me on to a few good spots for drinks and food back when they were just starting up. I think it was late 2008. Glad to see they've added another brand. Then we do a nice little tour of Old New Orleans' Rum distillery. ALL ON FRENCHMEN Street. I know folk like to say Bourbon St. or even Canal St. is where it's at. But unless you want watered down hurricanes or purchase a black college throwback jersey, I say give that one a rest and hit up Frenchmen. Hell, I may even buy me a "Who Dat" shirt, NOT!

State: Starving for beer and food, hanging out at 13

So they have this dive on Frenchmen called 13. Their website bills itself as a great place for vegetarians and health conscious folk, who I guess like their liquor hard and their women harder. Turns out at 1PM there weren't many people there, just some bohemian looking folk, complete with white people with long dreadlocks. Right on. Some old timey music playing and about 5 taps.

NOLA Blonde http://www.nolabrewing.com/

Finally I can get some damn NOLA beer. The beer pours a nice amber color with a decent amount of poofy white head. The nose is a touch malty, but not much there. The first few sips I'm kinda taken aback by how toasty and chewy this beer is. With the compliment of caramel malt and grassy hops, there aint nothing blonde about this beer. I had half a mind to ask the bartender if they want to check the taps, as they may have this switched up with somebody's amber beer. It's better than Abita Amber, which is saying something, but not what I would say is a blonde. High 3 Star.

I order another NOLA to eat with my Philly roast beef and tator tots, and chat up the locals about the NFL screwing over the New Orleans small businesses over the use of "Who Dat". I figured that you can't trademark bad grammar, but shows what I know. I also learn that the NFL is officially a non-profit organization. Damn shame.

Time Out:

Beer Log: right now

State: Still feeling the Sierra Nevada bock, but ready for another beer

Goliath Tripel Belgian Ale from Brasserie des Geants

Got this beer in the mail today from the Beer of the Month Rare Beer club. Nice Christmas present eh? Nose is sugar and sour, like candy, coming off of a hazy old gold color with sticky white foamy head, no homo. In my snifter I get a healthy amount of carbonation indicative of its bottle conditioning. The beer is kinda sweet, moderate sourness, and a funky hop aftertaste. There used to be a time when a Trippel was my favorite style, but I've been looking more for Belgian blonds, both the women and the beer. Beer is dry, a touch chalky, yet goes down pretty easy. No hint of that 9% ABV. Low 3 Stars. Must be the aging.

Time In:

So 13 reminds of the type of bar that one could consider a great secret of New Orleans. Doubtful you'll see many tourist find this spot at any time, pretty much all of Frenchmen is like that. The place is grimy as hell, looks like someone chewed up Washington Ave (Houston), and spit it back out 20 years later. But I can dig it. Just make sure the door is locked.

I walk on over to DBA as I know they have NOLA's new IPA, but they are closed. Damn shame. I don't think I'll EVER get into this bar. Everytime I go to New Orleans, something gets in the way to keep me from entering this bar.

Afterwards, I hop in the car, go north a mile or two, and make my way into Old New Orleans Rum distillery. The place kinda reminded me of Sister Creek Vineyard in the Texas Hill Country. You walk in and it looks rather warehousey, but had a very cozy tasting room. And tasting we did. They had a great sweet tea spiked with the ONO Cajun Spice. Probably the best Iced Tea I've ever had. They also had some sort of cranberry drink with their crystal rum. The tour was very informative, with a lot of nuances to distilling I never knew. And these dudes are experimenting like crazy. They are putting all kinds of fruit/flavoring rum combos in one of there rooms, that it looked like a high school science lab. Pretty disgusting looking, but it after couple drinks, and a whiff of their 180 proof stuff, it seemed pretty cool. There were some beer enthusiasts there as well and we talked Houston beer. They actually let us sample their coconut rum and their ginger rum. I think they put a little cocaine in there. Very nicely done.

Afterward we grabbed some beers at Rouses up in Covington and spent the night sipping rum with Trinidadians and downing Abita Mardi Bock, and an EXCELLENT Indian Summer Ale from Lazy Magnolia. I can't believe Lazy Mag put out one this awesome, and I didn't get any when I lived in Mississippi. We only live once. Holla.

Congrats Saints

I'm out here in suburban New Orleans getting ready for another trip to get that oil, and I'm very happy for the long-suffering Saints fans. Driving around the city, listening to folks calling in the radio shows with unmitigated joy and crying almost had me choking up a little bit. Well done whoopin up on Brett Favre. They very well may run out of Abita tonight.

A couple of beers before Monday

Well, we have some of these supposedly historic recipe beers. Not sure where the wife picked these up, but I do know that historic recipes are historic for a reason. But it's always interesting to see what the boys at MDII.

Tejas
This pours caramel color with a quickly fading tan head. The nose is a light malt. The bottles says this beer has caramel malts, black malts, and so forth. I get a touch of caramel but a sourness and cardboard. Maybe just a function of how longs it's been sitting wherever it was. Otherwise, it crisp yet pretty watery. Low 2 Star. Funny. The recipe on the bottle made it sound like Sam Adams Boston Lager, and the taste is like Michelob Light. Damn shame. And beer advocate has it as a bock.

Dogfish Head Fort
Well let me get that taste out of my mouth with some good old Dogfish head. This beer looks kinda reddish while in the bottle, and it is now a reddish as you would think. The smell is raspberry'd up and the taste is the same. Only pure raspberry juice has more sweetness and bitterness. I think they messed around a let some stems into the mash. Oh it's real. It comes off medium to full bodied out of my champagne flute. Also you can sense the plum taste of alcohol. Not taste, just sense. The raspberry just totally overpowers the Warrior hops. Maybe cuts the sweetness enough so it's not too cloying and syrupy. 4 Stars for the men using a ton of raspberries in their beer.

Perfect beer to give to a special lady in your life. And at 18% Alcohol content you can get her fired up for a long night. Need to make sure the wife finish the bomber. Oh it's real. Also probably a killer dessert drink.

Philadelphia's getting Nut Browned...

Sitting here watching some Backyardigans. Was supposed to be at Yardhouse and then a house party, but the baby is sick. No big deal. At least after this I can watch the Iggles-Cowgirls game.

Beer Log: Right now
State: Slight headache, just polished off 4 slices of stuffed crust pizza

Warm Welcome Nut Browned Ale
Clear and golden colored. Nose is a touch malty sweet and veggie like. The taste is a touch malty sweet and veggie like. Crisp with a sweet brown sugar after taste. Goes down kinda easy. A touch of sourness as it warms up, like a lemon thing. I'll take it for an english style brown ale. Not much in the way of nuts. Just a pinch of hops in the aftertaste. Nice. 3 Stars for the gentlemen at Ridgeway.

Well, we're over hear hoping Philly beats the Boys.

Beer Log: And a half hour later
State: Headache, need more beer.

Well Dallas is about to go up 21-7 and this will really suck. We're still high on the Texans showing up and getting 'er done against Nengland. So to help channel some energy to the Eagles...

Mad Anthony APA from Erie Brewing in Erie, Pennsylvania
Ok this is really eerie. As soon as I pour the beer Romo throws two incomplete passes and now Dallas will have to kick the field goal. Clear with tinged gold and big head. Nose is kinda hoppy and malty, but not much. The beer has a strong citrus hop without much malt to balance. Also, it seemed a little watery. Second draught gets rid of the wateriness, but doesn't help with the malt.

Mike Vick just turned the ball over while I was reading up on this beer on Erie's website. Should have known something was going to happen when this beer claimed a balance of hops and malt. Now Dallas is first and goal. Dammit all.

Some updates

Just came back from Hearsay in downtown Houston. Historic building, awesome food, and a few St. Arnolds on tap. Loving it.

Also, we've been doing some serious beer drinking with the stuff we brought back from Maryland. Amazingly enough, many of those beers are from New York. Also, will be working hard right now, so I hope to sneak in some reviews over the weekend. Holla.

Beer Brotha Sports Review: End of Year

Right now I'm drinking the Shiner Frost, a dortmunder export. Not bad, but a basic Dortmunder.


Beer Log: Right now


State: Chilling out watching Kai-lan, wishing I could watch the Independence bowl, but the baby has the TV controller.

Harpoon Winter Warmer
Well, the wife already poured out the rest of hers in my glass, claiming I can afford the extra calories and she doesn't want to waste her WW points on bad beer. Nose is heavy on pineapple, cinnamon, malt, and ginger. Dark copper color and clear. For about 1.7 seconds, you get a nice cinnamon spicy beer, then a get a RUSH of ginger, ginger, and more ginger. Followed up by smoked malt without the pork, some cinnamon, and red clay dirt. If there's anything I can't stand, it's smoked malt. 1 Star. I'll still finish it, and will see if it changes while I bitch about the sports of 2009.

So I'm here thinking of the year in sports. I didn't tailgate all but twice, which is terrible. I'm actually going to use Saint Arnold's tailgate as a backup for next years Texans games. Our year was decorated with f7ck. We probably have the most high powered offense but our coach makes them turn off the gas after one half of football and scoring big points. Kubiak needs to just open up some arteries next year and just let our team keep scoring. Don't let these teams come back on us. Screw respect. I want us to just score touchdowns going into Tuesday morning if we have to. Hopefully everything falls into place and we make the playoffs after the minstrel show we put on this season.

The Dynamo had a good run but we did not win any trophies this year, and thus will not be in the Concacaf this year. I'm still jealous that Seattle has so much fan support. Well Houston has the Lesbian Mayor (damn that's hot) and she's up for the Dynamo getting the new stadium. We just need to yokels that live out in the county to pony up their $10 million and we're in there.

Looks like Tiger Woods had the worst year of all. Didn't win a major, and lost pretty much all respect in the non golfing community. But at least I'll make money off of this. The major sponsoring companies of Nappy Woods are down a good $12 Billion in stock value. Sounds like a few major companies, with great products, that are not in financial trouble, and are yet UNDERVALUED. I can't wait until Monday to snatch up some of that stock. Hellz yeah.

Otherwise, a fun yet sad year in the Don Taylor Sports Association. Right now I'm up in the Superbowl in our fantasy league. Sadly the commish set it up to where we have an aggregate score for the last two weeks. Why anyone would have any fantasy games on the last week of the season, knowing full well the playoff teams are going to be throwing games to prep for the playoffs. Oh well. Holla.

Monster Ale: Brooklyn

You can't call your beer Monster anything unless it brings the serious pain. High malt, high hops, high carbo, and/or high alcohol. I have my suspicions about whether The Gentleman Brewer, the Connoisseur's Connoisseur, the classiest man in American brewing Garrett Oliver has it in him for a Monster beer. It's right up my alley, but the man has a recipe for Two Salmons with Creme Fraiche and Caviar on the Brooklyn Brewing website. Most beer drinkers can't even spell cavviaar.

Beer Log: Right now

State: Trying to clean up a little bit, but really just watching the Sugar Bowl

Brooklyn Monster Ale: Barleywine style ale

Well Florida is blowing out Cincinnati like Monica Lewinsky, so I'm watching one of these 30 for 30s I have on DVR. Just pouring this BMA into my Hennessy goblet as is my thing to do with barleywines. Very low white head with a cinnamon sugar cookie nose. Maybe some alcohol-related aromatics as well. Copper color. Very hoppy at first, then malty, raisiney and plum character emerges from the beer. I did say the word "wow". Just lots of raisin and plum, the beer has surprisingly higher carbo than I thought. Aftertaste is a piney hop. The beer is a touch dry, and has something of a bottle conditioned character to the mouthfeel (dry, a touch of chalk, higher carbo). Excellent American barleywine. The carbonation does it's job well to cut the malt down away from cloying to drinkable. I'll say it qualifies as a monster. 4 stars.