It’s day three of our NOLA brewery tour! Like most mornings on a beerventure, we try and start with a fun attraction before we break into a brewery (and other alcohol) stride. This morning we headed to Sidell, LA to hit a swamp tour! If you didn’t rent a car, that’s OK because several swamp tours will pick you up at your hotel (for a nominal fee of course).
Honey Island Swamp Tour
One of the more interesting parts of Louisiana are the swamps, so be sure to budget time for a tour! The Honey Island Swamp Tour is a two hour, professionally guided tour that includes a wellspring of history, a boat trip through the most peculiar real estate market and a few animal encounters. Two of the highlights on the tour were learning about swamp “Camps” and the alligator feeding. We would go into detail, but we don’t want to ruin your future experience.
Beer, Beer, Cider, Beer
After your morning trip through the swamp, hop back onto the beer wagon and feel free to splash some crisp cider into the mix. Festivities today included flights at Second Line Brewing, Oak St Brewery, Kingfish Cider, followed by pints from Zony Mash Beer Project.
Funeral parades in NOLA are a common occurrence. These parades are split into a main (or first line), and a second line. The first line is usually immediate friends and family of the deceased. The first line is followed by a whole band of musicians and dancing towns folk in formal attire accompanying the departed and their family; making up the second line. Second Line Brewing, like the parades they are named after, are uniquely NOLA.
While at Second Line we had a few delicious beers like their “Yeah U Ripe” sour, and the Vacation Juice IPA. The winner of the flight however was their Hot Chocolate Stout. The milk stout was filled to the brim with cocoa, coffee, cinnamon, vanilla flavors. How was it Hot Chocolate exactly? Well it’s a dash of chili pepper to warm things up.
After our flight and a lunch at Second Line, we Uber’ed over to Oak St Brewery for another flight and a game of chess. Our flight of four had two really standout brews; the Mas Sabor and the Mochachu Coffee. Mas Sabor may be “just a lager” but the super clean brew on a hot day really hit the spot. Mochachu Coffee Imperial Stout is their take on a cold brew coffee stout. At only 8.5%, it comes in a little light for an Imperial but we can’t really complain after a few days of beers and NOLA sun. Also, I beat Melissa in chess if anyone was wondering.
If you’re looking for that change of pace, Kingfish Cider should be a stop on your NOLA trip. This small cidery only has a handful of ciders but they are refreshing. The Huey Perry and the Uncle Earl are the two that you should have on your flight of four. If you plan accordingly, Kingfish will not be much of a detour on your day of beerventuring.
Our last brewery of the day, and one of the heavy weight breweries of NOLA was Zony Mash Beer Project. The brewery is a massive industrial space complete with a gravel beer garden, game room and full jam-band stage in the brewhouse.
None of the four brews we tried at Zony Mash scored under a 3.75 on Untappd. The Strawberry Lemonade Sour is a creamy lactose brew wish a hearty lemonade flavor and notes of strawberries. The King of Carrot Flowers was the most unique beer of the day. The brew is full of tangerine, mango, lactose and of course, carrots!
I was a huge fan of the “I Love… Even You”, but Melissa’s top choice is the Black & Blue. Black & Blue is a black currant and blueberry gose that as extremely tart with lots of currant flavor. “The I Love… Even You” is a gin botanical beet and tangerine sour. Even if you can’t get your hands on any of these Zony Mash brews, there is no shortage of interesting taps guaranteed to please.
A Spinning Nightcap
Nightcaps are drinks shortly before bedtime, usually something small and alcoholic. On our way back to the hotel we decided to stop at the famous Carousel Bar & Lounge. Quite literally we had a spinning nightcap. The patrons and their drinks rotate around the bartenders in the middle, albeit slowly. Sure it is kind of a gimmick, but after the breweries close up for the night you can still get one more round (and a round, and a round) that may make you feel a bit more tipsy than usual. Can you imagine if a bar went full carousel speed?
