American Craft Beer Week: May 13-19

Over the last few years, American Craft Beer Week has become one of my favorite weeks of the year.  This year, it is even more important as Louisiana boasts one of the most rapidly advancing craft beer scenes in the country.  Just check out all the official craft beer events going on here: http://www.craftbeer.com/news-and-events/calendar.

Eric Ducote with BR Beer Scene laid out all the Baton Rouge craft beer events this week on his blog.

Calandro's Supermarket on Perkins is doing daily craft beer specials.  Keep up on their Facebook Page.

For those in New Orleans, make sure to check out The Beer Buddha for his picks this week.

Louisiana currently has seven operational commercial breweries with quite a few more on the way.  The operational breweries are:

Abita, Abita Springs
Bayou Teche, Arnaudville
Chafunkta, Mandeville
Covington, Covington
NOLA, New Orleans
Parish, Broussard
Tin Roof, Baton Rouge

So if you see any of them on tap or in stores this week, make EXTRA sure to support your local breweries.

Additionally, Louisiana has several other breweries in the planning process such as Great Raft, Gnarly Barley, Courtyard, Mudbug, and Cajun Fire.  So prepare to enjoy even more local craft beer soon as the Great American Beer Boom continues to explode in Louisiana!

The Great American Beer Boom: Jay's Beer Journey

Back in October, many of you will remember that I set out on a craft beer adventure to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver and then on to check out some breweries in San Diego.  What might have slipped through the cracks is that I made a stop in Louisiana as well, and that my buddy Tommy Talley of tommysTV came along with me on the journey... with a camera.  Here's a story that tells what I found out about the relationship between craft brewers and their wholesalers:

Greg Koch of the Stone Brewing Co. poses with a beer and Jay Ducote