I'm fortunate to have a reason to be down to New Orleans a few times a year (this started a little over a year ago). Tried to rely on the guide and things the first few times I was down. Stein's, wow, @avenuepub, straight up best beer bar I've been to...saying a lot as I live a few blocks from HopCat. Anyways, anything that goes on around Mardi Gras? I've tried to do as much research as I can but doesn't seem like there is a lot out there other than what Polly is doing on the website.
I'm looking for some interesting craft beer options in New Orleans during Mardi Gras as well. Avenue Pub and Stein's Market & Deli are the two places I have on my list to go so far.
The only beer event I know of is me drinking Proprietor's Bourbon County during Greasing of the Poles. Got to kick off Friday right.
MG is a shit show. The city is packed and it's tough to get around. Locals have their MG routine pretty much down and usually stick to that. Craft beer and pretty much everything else takes a back seat until Ash Wednesday. It's just really not that practical to have an event during MG. Once you experience it, you'll understand it. Other than Avenue Pub, the Bulldogs have good draft and bottle selections. It goes downhill pretty quickly from there IMO. No retailer is better than Steins...if it's available in the city, Dan will have a bottle of it (unless he runs out, of course).
That is what I was trying to explain to you in the share thread. I'll be drinking craft at the parades, but trying to organize a beer related event is all but impossible for all the reasons CDCNAM mentioned.
Mardi Gras washes over the city like a tidal wave... Most people and business just go with the flow. ON the parade route many bars take off craft and convert to BMC cans. At the pub we take off most of our high ABV and fussy to pour beers and convert to lower ABV craft that its not a sin to pour in a plastic cup. We have two beer events during parades as you saw on our website ( New Belgium and a visit from Brian Strumke of stillwater) but I doubt you will see anything else in the city beer event wise during those 12 days. Lots of folks bring their own beer to the parade route so if you can hook up with like minded craft beer peeps you could do a parade route bottle share but most people like drinking lower ABV stuff during parades and you can't use actual glass on the parade route so that takes some of the fun out of a bottle share with really fine beer. Try spending a bit of time off the parade route( NOLA taproom or bulldog) or come to the pub during non parade hours to get the best beer experience. I always feel bad for beer geeks who come to Mardi gras and visit the Pub expecting whatthey read online about us. Every year I see at least one person walking through the bar with a bottles of some fancy Belgium sour though... So I guess some make the best of it
