NOLA Brewery Tour

New Orleans used to be one of the biggest beer brewing areas in the South. But over the past century or so a city which has made a name for itself due to alcohol fueled debauchery, has lost all of its taste for good beer. You certainly can't blame the city entirely as for most of the 20th century Americans equated beer to the watery American Standard Lagers put out by Budweiser, Miller, or Coors. In the 1970's new legislation allowed a beer revolution that allowed craft beers to pop up all over the country. That being said New Orleans didn't have a craft brewery until last year. Yes, Abita is brewed not too far away in Abita Springs, LA, but nothing was brewed in the city of New Orleans. In January 2009 NOLA Brewing Company opened their doors and by that March were shipping beers throughout New Orleans. At first they had two varieties: Brown and Blonde. Now they have added a pale ale (Hopitoulas), a seasonal ale (Hurricane Saison), and 7th Street Lemon Basil Wheat to their repertoire. And in the fall they will be rolling out their sixth offering Irish Channel Stout.

So the reason I am talking about NOLA Brewing Co. is that every Friday at 2 pm they offer a tour. Its not publicized anywhere, you just have to know about it or email the company (though I guess by reading this blog you know now). No reservations or a fee, just show up and take a tour. So we started off getting a glass and getting it filled with NOLA Blonde. As we were drinking that we walked around learning about the brewery and their equipment. Then they walked us to the other side of the brewery (which was really just a room) and got to try the Brown Ale, the Hopitoulas, and the 7th Street Wheat. While we were there the first bottle of NOLA beer was bottled. Because the machinery to mass produce bottled beer is so expensive, NOLA has specifically been sold as a draft beer. In mid-September NOLA is headed to the Great American Beer Festival, the premier beer competition in the country, so they needed to have some bottles to bring with them.

At this point the tour was more or less over, but they certainly weren't anxious to kick us out. Myself as well as a number of other beer enthusiasts stood around and talked about beer. At first our tour leader kept refilling our glasses, but at one point he had to go back to work and told us to walk around the building helping ourselves to whatever tap we wanted. Overall I had 3 pints, but some of the other people I was with (clearly the ones not driving) had 6 or 8. And the best part? Its all free. Because of something called the three-tiered system breweries (with the exception of brew pubs) are not allowed to sell beer directly to consumers. Basically it must go from the brewery to a distributor who sells to bars or liquor stores or wherever the end consumer chooses to buy beer. At one point the owner of the brewery came out and started talking with us. Just a bunch of beer people drinking and talking. Finally a bunch of the people I was on the tour with decided to head across town to the New Orleans rum distillery for their tour. I thought about going because we were all having a great time, but opted out knowing I couldn't spend a few more hours drinking and still drive home. So I bought a pint glass (how could I not at my first brewery tour?) and headed off into the sunset.

Oh and by the way NOLA Brewing Co. had a special cask of 7th Street Watermelon Wheat that they were tapping at Avenue Pub (they do this every few weeks) and all the people from the tour were headed over there for that.