American Craft Beer Week showcases improved local beer offerings

In 2009, Abita was well-established, Covington's Heinbrau Brewery was making a name for itself, and the first two beers by NOLA Brewing Co. were introduced that March. Since then, Tin Roof brewery in Baton Rouge, Parish Brewing in Lafayette and Bayou Teche Biere in Arnaudville have added their names to the local beer market.

"Three years ago, there was very little interest from the state's distributors in carrying the products from the 'strange cats' who crafted small batches of beer, " said Karlos Knott of Bayou Teche Biere, which debuted its LA-31 "biere pale" in February 2010. "Now these distributors, who handle beers brewed by breweries large enough to run Super Bowl ads, are excited to promote and distribute our humble offerings."

Abita, for 25 years Louisiana's favorite alternative to mass market lagers, recently has seen more local drinkers opt for hoppier, more assertively flavored beers, such as its Jockamo IPA or Restoration Pale Ale. The north shore brewery also has experimented with stronger and bigger-flavored beers, such as Andygator or Abbey Ale, in 22-ounce "bomber"-style bottles.

"Everyone at Abita joined the team because they truly love great beer, and most were avid home brewers, " President David Blossman said. "We like to innovate, try out new ideas, new flavors and keep things interesting for our customers and for ourselves."

This year, for the first time, a limited amount of Abita beer was available at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival presented by Shell.

Three years ago, it was difficult to find well-regarded craft beers from other parts of the country in New Orleans. Now another label seems to enter the market every few weeks.

"With the addition of Stone Brewing, Moylan's, St. Arnold and others, we are slowly becoming a craft beer haven in the Gulf South, " said Jeremy Labadie, who runs a beer consulting business called 504 Craft and writes the blog www.thebeerbuddha.com.

Aaron Hyde of the homebrewing supply shop Brewstock, however, notes that New Orleans' beer culture still doesn't match that of other regions.

"New Orleans has a long way to go before it's a beer town, " Hyde said, "but the influx of young people post-Katrina from other parts of the country where beer culture is much stronger helped push things forward."

Polly Watts, owner of the Avenue Pub, notes that, overall, local drinkers still tend to shy away from the brash, hoppy beers that are popular in other states.

World Baseball Classic – 2006 - 2012 Superbowl Commercials - 2012 ...

So this World Baseball Classic thing, has anyone else not heard of this?

Anyway, it sounds like this… baseball world thing is kind of exactly what the World Series is supposed to be, right? Doesn’t it? At least football doesn’t claim to have any sort of world domination championship: it’s just the Super Bowl. It’s a bowl, and it’s super.

Baseball? Yeah, we got the WORLD SERIES! We have the best teams in the WORLD play a championship game… and then we have something called a World Baseball Classic, too.

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