
Mardi Gras has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean New Orleans stops drinking. In fact New Orleans always to seems to be in a constant state of celebration from Mardi Gras to Jazz fest to hosting BCS bowl games to the Final Four this year.
After spending a week just outside the city we finally rolled our RV into the Big Easy and got to work on seeking out it’s beer spots. In typical TRP fashion we first sought out a good beer bar to watch a Kansas Basketball game and discovered Cooter Brown’s Tavern, Grill & Oyster Bar in uptown New Orleans.

$12/dozen oysters!
One of the more unique beers we sampled was the “Pour Me Somethin, Mistah!” collaboration between NOLA and Stone Brewing. This Imperial Porter was brewed with dried satsuma peel, a local variety of orange, that luckily did not add an overpowering fruit flavor. I liked it but as we learned with most draft beers down here you have to let it warm up because every place we went likes to serve their beers really COLD.
With a sampling of the local brews under way we wanted to dig deeper into the brewing scene and headed to NOLA brewing for it’s weekly Friday afternoon open house (2:00 – 3:00ish). Upon arriving we noticed a line out the door… Were we back in California, the land of waiting in line for beer? Nope, similar to Texas breweries in Louisiana are prohibited from selling beer on premise, so this line was for FREE beer. A concept Maria and I can fully embrace.
NOLA Brewing was founded in 2008 by Kirk Coco & Peter Caddoo (former Dixie Brewing brewmaster) with a goal of bringing a once proud brewing tradition back to New Orleans. They have four flagship beers, NOLA Blonde, NOLA Brown Ale, Hopitoulas, their IPA, and 7th Street Wheat, but are currently canning just two of them, the Blonde and the Brown.
After securing a Stout and Brown (both quite good, but Maria LOVED to brown) we gathered around an informal tour that was partially drowned out by the actual brewing process. You see, this event is literally just an opened garage door and open taps. So all the employees were still working away making beer while about 200 beer lovers wandered about.
We were able to talk to some members of the local home brewers group and learned that they actually all work together for one large brew that gets distributed out among the members. Everyone rotates their role, with the brew master choosing the recipe and they turn it into an all day brewfest. Everyone chips in financially and of course, since your in the south, they have plenty of food to keep the brew day going strong. They also told us of the festivities for St. Patrick’s Day. One may think the parades end with Mardi Gras, but in fact, they continue to go strong, with a practice day for the St. Patty’s Day parade two weeks prior. The fun thing about this parade? Instead of throwing beads, the floats throw cabbage, potatoes, onions, practically everything you need to cook yourself up a nice meal. We’re told people bring laundry baskets to catch the food! Let’s just hope they don’t chuck the food out of the floats the way they do those beads!!

The Bulldog

Crescent City Brewhouse

Crescent City Red Ale

Legally you can walk around all of New Orleans with an adult beverage... and no, it doesn't have to be in a paper bag!

Speaking of good ol' Southern cuisine! Brian's cousin's, John, Hopper & Jim, treated us to our very 1st crawfish boil!
Abita is probably the most well known brewery in Louisiana. They are actually located about 45 minutes north of New Orleans, across Lake Pontchartrain in Abita Springs. Unfortunately, we didn’t find the time to make it up there, as we had a can’t miss opportunity to visit Lazy Magnolia, Mississippi’s first brewery! We will leave that story for next week’s post, but for now, we will finish with some artsy photo’s Maria took while in the Big Easy. Even though we missed a few key spots, like most cities, we aren’t too worried, and especially know with this one… we will be back!!

Streetcars in New Orleans have been an integral part of the city's public transportation network since the first half of the 19th century. The longest of New Orleans' streetcar lines, the St. Charles Avenue Streetcar, is the oldest continuously operating street railway system in the world!

Mardi Gras floats remain on the street days after the celebration. Across the street is Jacques-Imo's Cafe, famous for their "Real Nawlin' Food. The Yelp reviews did NOT steer us wrong on this spot! It is all the way on the other side of town, or Uptown, as they call it. If you're on Canal Street near the French Quarter, take the St. Charles Street Car all the way to the end, walk down Carrollton Ave to Oak Street and take a left.

Statue of Jesus behind Saint Louis Cathedral on Royal Street, casting ominous shadows at night.

Beautiful tap handle fountain at The Bulldog in New Orleans. Don't worry folks, it's just pre-beer.

Famous Horse Heads in the French Quarter

Mona's Mediterranean Cafe on Frenchman

Ladder chairs for the Mardi Gras parades

Lundi Gras - pre-parade
Good photos! Love this “Let’s just hope they don’t chuck the food out of the floats the way they do those beads!! “