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Pitcher This: Laissez les bonnes bières roulez
If you're of the sort who's usually looking for any excuse to throw a party, it has probably not escaped you that Carnival is upon us, and Lent is looming.
And given that many celebrations in observance of the above involve alcohol, it's a safe bet that readers of this column planning to partake are looking for the proper brew.
Consider what follows a few beads from the beer-suggestion float.
• Is there a better way to celebrate Carnival and the approach of Mardi Gras than outside, on the street with other revelers? Who knows? Better yet, why bother trying anything else?
If you're headed for the coast, why not skip New Orleans and head for North America's original Carnival celebration, in Mobile. That city also was home to Alabama's original brewpub, The Port City Brewery opened not long after the state made brewing in restaurants legal in 1992. Sadly, Port City closed in 2001, but was followed in the same location in 2004 by the Cannon Brewpub, which lasted until 2006.
The good news is that Hurricane Brewing Co. has picked up the mantle, and is celebrating its first anniversary in the same location as its forbearers on Dauphin Street downtown. The brewery is in a massive, three-story historic structure, with a pub-style lounge on the first floor and sit-down dining upstairs.
Apart from the building, one other thing has remained the same through all three iterations: head brewer Todd Hicks.
Hicks says Hurricane's brews tend toward British-inspired ales. If you're there for Carnival it would only make sense to sample the seasonal Flying Debris Mardis Gras, described as an extra special bitter.
The menu is full of pub-style fare, from fish and chips (Southern-fried, of course,) to sausage plates to the regionally appropriate seafood and po' boys. For desert, perhaps step outside and catch a flying Moon Pie.
If you can't head south for a proper celebration, there is some Gulf Coast representation on local store shelves:
• The Abita Brewing Co. in Abita Springs, La., is just a stone's throw from the Mardi Gras ground zero that is New Orleans. They're one of the oldest craft breweries in the country, and claim to be the oldest in the Southeast, founded in 1986.
You'll find at least three Abita brews in local stores, including the company's original Amber, an Oktoberfest-style lager. It's fairly light-bodied, somewhat malty, and without much of the hops presence one might expect from a microbrewer. Abita's Purple Haze, a raspberry-flavored wheat beer, and Turbodog. Turbodog is a dark brown ale, nearly a porter, with lots of chocolaty, coffee-ish malt and just enough hops to offset that sweetness.
• Lazy Magnolia Brewing is in Kiln, off the Mississippi coast where there's just as much French Catholic history as in New Orleans and Mobile. The brewery's Southern Pecan Brown Ale is a sweet, malty treat. Available on tap locally, and now in bottles elsewhere in the state.
