Hello NOLA! headed through the area for halloween weekend and probably a week or so after! any breweries i have to hit? or any brews i wouldn't be able to find up north?
Once you hit Bourbon St you'll have a hand grenade, and once you have one hand grenade you'll have seven hand grenades, and once you have seven hand grenades you'll want nothing to do with beer for a week so don't worry about it Just kidding, unless that's your plan. Only brewery I can think of in NOLA off the top of my head is Abita who really doesn't do anything impressive. Not sure if Cigar City distributes there but that's the first one I would look for personally. My experience in the heart of NOLA is that it's not really a craft-beer-centric area, per-se. Now if you want quantity and not quality, they do have a bar for that: Taken with my then pregnant wife who was thrilled to spend a week in NOLA with me in July a few years ago to attend a conference and visit my sister and not be able to drink, at all. Definitely get a hand grenade on Bourbon St though, and a fishbowl too, just for the experience. NOLA is a good time. If you like Bourbon and Oysters/seafood, the Bourbon House in the French Quarter lives up to it's name. Honestly there's a ton of good food there, they will put crawfish on everything and it's amazing. I have to mention the music scene too, there's a live jazz show happening at any given time within 100-150 feet of you in the French Quarter.
Get some oysters.... etoufee... a muffalleta...... po boys.... alll that stuff.... last time I was there the food nearly killed me
At least half the calories I've consumed there that didn't come from alcohol came from fried crawfish and/or catfish po-boy's. Amazing.
after 2 days of eating that stuff my gut was just begging me to stop... I couldn't take it... it was so good though but I had to stop!!
I lived in New Orleans for 5 years. The brewery that is worth going to is NOLA brewery (New Orleans Lagers & Ales). They've been around for around 7 years, and they've been expanding a lot lately. They have a phenomenal new tap room. They used to do FREE beer tours on 2pms on Fridays. And when I say Free, I mean that you had two hours to drink as much as you want for free. No gimmick. It was amazing. They still have tours on Fridays I believe but they aren't the same since they opened the tap room. Still very much worth a trip. They came out with sours this year they called the NOLA Funk Series. I had a few and they were delicious. They also have plenty of one-offs in the tap room that you can't buy in stores or find on tap anywhere else. There is a new brewery that opened up this year, called Second Line brewery, I think they began operations and open their doors to the public less than 6 months ago. There is also a relatively new spot called Courtyard brewery. Haven't been to either but I've heard good things. I'm going down in November, can't wait to try them. Without a doubt I highly recommend going to NOLA brewery, which is on Tchoupitoulas Street, you'll be glad you went. http://www.nolabrewing.com/ Also, Abita is over an hour away from the city. I'd skip it for sure. You can get there beer at pretty much any bar. As for bars that have good beer, the classics are Avenue Pub (the best for sure, also open 24/7!) and The bulldog (two locations, both excellent and have great outdoor seating). There are new ones since I left that I don't know much about, but here is a good list. http://nola.eater.com/maps/the-beer-heatmap-21-places-to-drink-good-beer Cheers
Here's a vote for Courtyard Brewing, good brews there. And I agree the NOLA taproom is very nice. Avenue Pub is by far the best craft beer bar. If you are looking to bring some bottles/cans home, stop at Steins Deli (beer room in the back) or Elios. My favorite two breweries in the state are Parish and Great Raft. No Cigar City distro here but we have plenty of Terrapin, Sweetwater, Southern Prohibition, lots of other southern breweries. The great thing about Steins is that you can buy singles of everything in stock, so you can bring back lots of beers to try without breaking the bank.
Echoing suggestions for Courtyard. It's a really chill place and it's pretty easy to get to. They do some great takes on classic styles and they also have other breweries on tap too. There's usually a food truck too. NOLA Brewing's tap room is pretty awesome. From my experiences, their beer is a lot more experimental (they feature ingredients like beets, basil and then there's that one that tastes like lemon lime gatorade...) Their IPAs are pretty decent but every time I've been there, they've only been available in cans If you're in the quarter, d.b.a. has a pretty decent tap selection and awesome whiskeys too. It's also right on frenchmen and there's a bunch of stuff to do there. I've only lived here for like a month and a half so I'm still figuring all this out too, but that's my 2 cents also check out this thread: http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/beer-guide-to-visiting-new-orleans.130294/ have fun!
go to Courtyard...their inhouse beers are great. the place itself is a cracker jack The brewer/owner is from san diego...he has a connection with Alpine and gets good stuff
@EgadBananas guide really helped me out when I visited N.O. a few times this year. Avenue, Courtyard, and NOLA are all must stops, but I was really impressed with Barcadia. I guess the nostalgia of playing Street Fighter II and sipping on a Petrus Oud Bruin really did it for me.
