'Nawlins, the big easy, and a streetcar named detox.

So our travels brought us to New Orleans, in the beautiful south. A destination for the uninhibited tourist on a mission, the party centre of decadence and lack of restrain, of which the French quater prides itself upon. So amid all the fluro slushy cocktails of sugar and artificial flavour, (deliciously easy way to get a hens party drunk) the native and historic cocktails that spawned many poor imitators, what is the beer like? Well, when ones taste buds get tired of all the sugar and near frozen giant novelty 24oz millers (pfft in Australia, thats a breakfast serving,)  that bourbon street has to offer , there is an alternative. The
aptly named Beer Fest 1 and a Beer Fest 2 a little further down bourbon street are the apparent antidote to the sea of neon excess and copycat bars and clubs that dot bourbon street.

At first glance these identical bars are a mecca for the beer lover as well as the tourist trying something different. 40 beers on tap? Well this is gonna take awhile to drink through! In keeping with the proud tradition of street drinking, all beers are served in a take-away cup, for sir's convenience. There is a wide range of beers, Craft beers from across the US, british beers (speckled hen, and a few other mainstream british bitters) and the usual euro-lager (becks on tap? must be premium! hahahah) But I was more interested in the local popular Lousiana brewery, Abita, located outside of New Orleans. Their beers are easily available through the city in bars and shops. I managed to try the Andygator, a maibock style beer. Very malty sweet and smooth and at 8% the good times were indeed rolling. The only real downside to Beer fest is the price. For an Australian, being charged $10 for a cup of beer is nothing new or outrageous, but for many locals and tourists its not a cheap night out. I found the bar staff to be
lacking in knowledge, and couldnt even reccomend me something local, instead pushing me towards an overpriced stella artois. Luckly there was a local beer-hound occupying a corner of the bar. He reccomended I try and track down a few of the seasonal offerings from Abita, in particular the purple haze rasberry wheat beer. He also told us to pay a visit to the Crescent City brewhouse in the area the next morning to sample some local fare.

We woke up a little worse for wear, still buzzing on sugar. A bacon sandwich later and we were good to go. Crescent City brewhouse brews German style beers and does them with a great kitchen pumping out fantastic meals. Cant This place is a popular restaurant with the locals and tourists alike, ok prices and good local produce. I do enjoy when a brewpup manages to get pubgrub right, as it is a bastion of Australian drinking culture. So good food but are the beers on par? Well yes they certainly werent too bad. We went for the typical tasting tray to sample everything. The weiss beer was ok, satisfyingly cloudy colour with a nice smell of dry banana and clove. Little to no head and minimal lacing but still pleasant. Black forrest was their dark munich style dunkel lager, an improvement on the last beer. Rich and dark with a good malty palette and hints of coffee. Being a fan of a good pils I had to try their version. Aromas of dry hops yet a slightly sweet taste, still crisp but no real hop presence like the original. This would apeal to the drinkers of mainstream lager as its not too far from it.

I finally managed to track down the elusive Abita purple haze, in a cinema of all places. Totally worth the effort to seek it out. It was almost like a fruity lambic beer, the real rasberry pulp used gives of aromas of fresh berry combined with the tartness of the wheat beer base left me licking my lips in anticipation. The taste was not overly sweet thank god, but still pleasantly crisp and dry. A real winner and definately worth seeking out on a typical hot Louisiana day.

We spent memorial day in the hostel pool area, tossing around a football and drinking Budweiser ($10 a 12pack from the pharmacy, gotta love the USA! )  with some swiss guys. Next stop on our trip was every kids dream and every parents nightmare, Disney World, Orlando Florida. Could we find good beer and a party? Lets hope so!!