It’s our last full day in New Orleans! With our flight leaving at 7, we have time to visit a few more breweries, as well as a museum. On all of our beerventures, we always find the time to visit attractions of historical or cultural significance. And you don’t get much more historically significant than The National WWII Museum.
The National WWII Museum
The National WWII Museum features several massive exhibits and thousands of artifacts from the Second World War, including weapons, uniforms, and vehicles. The impressively curated collection also includes hundreds of firsthand accounts detailing Hitlers rise to power all the way through the cataclysmic effectiveness of atomic weapons.
The museum’s collections are segmented logically by the war theatre, as well as a few home front and political exhibits. One of the most unique aspects of this museum is that their impressive attention to detail doesn’t start and end with random exhibits, but the development of a fluid and captivating story throughout your entire visit.
The most impressive displays in our opinion were part of the Road to Berlin exhibit. The European Theatre featured incredible footage with unique accounts from civilians, infantry and global leaders. Like most museums, the artifacts from D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge and the inevitable fall of Berlin are also impressive. Unlike most museums, this exhibit also includes remarkable insights into the technical and logistical aspects of the war. As an auditor whose life is nearly 100% software driven, the manual efforts required to support the war is an incredible feat of human ingenuity. It’s something we’ve never quite seen represented in war museum before.
We visited the museum right when they opened their doors, and the place was already packed! Like every non-beer related activity, be sure to buy your tickets in advance!
Parleaux Beer Lab
Easily one of the best breweries of the trip is in a quiet corner of Bywater residential district. The brewery is tucked away from the normal hustle and bustle of NOLA, which is a great change of pace. The hidden brewery offers a modest size tap room, but you will be spending the entire trip at the chill’est beer garden with plenty of space and shade.
Our favorite beers from Parleaux Beer Lab are the Green with Envy IPA and Strange Memories on this Nervous Night Sour. Can you guess which of us voted for the IPA, and who voted the sour? Green with Envy is the southern take on a NEIPA, and I think they did the style justice. It was the best NEIPA we had during our trip down to Louisiana.
If you’re looking for something a bit more adventurous, Strange Memories on this Nervous Night may be for you. The sour ale with plums, lemon and sea salt was remarkably plummy. Not too sour, not to face puckering but a perfect blend of plum with hints of lemon and sea salt.
The Joint
Over the course of the past few days, we chatted with several locals. Normally, every local has their own unique “must visit” bar, brewery, or restaurant. In NOLA however, more than a few of locals told us to visit The Joint. The Joint BBQ is two blocks down the road from Parleaux and is your must hit LA BBQ. Call in and order your food early to guarantee that you will not miss out of their expansive daily menu which disappears rapidly. We took ours to go and enjoyed a generous helping of ribs, brisket, slaw, potato salad, mac n cheese and corn bread while sipping on the best that Parleaux has to offer.
Faubourg Brewing Co.
Abita isn’t the only heavy weight brewery in that part of Louisana. Faubourg Brewing Co. boasts surviving two World Wars, and they completely rebuilt the brewery after the 2005 Hurricane Katrina. Their 100 bbl system serves up lots of high caliber brews like their Bayou King Belgian and the Blackened Voodoo.
The history of Faubourg and the size of the system is complimented by their massive tap room and what can only be described as a fair ground out front. From the patio out side of the taproom to the stage, their grounds have plenty of seating and space for your next gathering.
We’re back into the lager swing, so the Blackened Voodoo was our beer of choice. The 30-year-old German dark lager recipe is wonderfully malty, sweet and light. We’re happy to see the dark lagers making a comeback in the beer scene, but Faubourg would probably argue that this lager never left.
The Courtyard Brewery
Time is running short, and we have one brewery left! The appropriately named Courtyard Brewery, was the last stop on our whirlwind NOLA beerventure. Walk past the small, covered courtyard with seating and head into the taproom for some big flavors.
Our two favorite pours from Courtyard were the 1880s London and the Coconut Hibiscus Sourbae. The 6% 1880s London is an English style porter with a minor coffee flavor and sweetened with raw sugar. Coconut Hibiscus Sourbae also hit the spot. It was big on the coconut, mildly tart, and just a hint of hibiscus notes.
And that is NOLA, pretty much one year later. If you make it down to NOLA, we hear that there is one new brewery up and running with another soon to open! Be sure to let us know how the newbies are below or on Instagram.
