Listen up, beer lovers! The craft beer scene in New Orleans has taken another thunderous leap forward: NOLA Brewing’s taproom is now open for business. Fresh beer is the best beer when it comes to mainstays like NOLA Blonde and Hopitoulas, so a certain mental recalibration might occur when you pull up a barstool 90 feet from where these brews are born. If you think you know the extent of NOLA’s portfolio, think again.
The taproom offers enough brewery- exclusive beers and one-off experiments to satisfy the high-caliber beer geeks, as well as the causal barflies. On my first visit I discovered a wall of the usual suspects, like NOLA Brown and 7th Street Wheat. But as my eye tracked across the lineup of tap handles, I was pleased to spot a rum barrel-aged IPA, as well as a rum barrel- aged saison that I had never seen before. I’m a big fan of dark beers, so I buried my nose in a Rumple Stoutskin, which was a version of Irish Channel Stout that had rested for three months in repurposed rum barrels. I’ll be damned if the peach- infused NOLA Blonde didn’t surprise me with its subtlety and balance; and the Girl Stout Cookie, a mint and cacao nib Irish Channel Stout, was a minty, aromatic dessert beer that closed out my session on a high note.
The craft beer scene at large is invigorated when talented brewers like those at NOLA can push their creative horizons in an open forum like the taproom. This direct-to-drinker pipeline allows brewers Mike “Indy” Grap, Derek Lintern and (Brewmaster) Peter Caddoo to perfect a recipe and roll a barrel across the warehouse to the draft lines at the taproom. While this outlet allows NOLA to engage their most loyal customers, it also challenges them to perpetually bring their A game.
It’s a sad fact of beer and business that some smaller breweries are more interested in getting big than they are at kicking ass. But while production has increased exponentially at NOLA since they opened in 2008, the middle ground has never been their goal, nor has it been their course. The brew crew on Tchoupitoulas is overflowing with creative endeavors to express in liquid form: when the Louisiana Craft Beer Week hit the calendar back in mid-September, NOLA’s brewers filled all 16 taproom lines with innovative one-offs like a Funky Monkey blood orange saison, a Breakfast Brown with maple syrup and cinnamon, and a watermelon basil wheat beer.
Yet getting the beer flowing at the taproom was more of an obstacle than you might imagine. Construction began on the taproom when brewery founder Kirk Coco found “a nice, strong silver lining” to the damage incurred by Hurricane Isaac in 2012. The storm wrecked the brewery’s office space and for a time, all of the post-hurricane administrative paperwork was processed on a single desk set up in the middle of the brewery. When the insurance payment came through, the offices were repaired and Coco used the momentum to build out the taproom space.
The taproom then sat empty for close to a year while NOLA tackled the intricate permitting process involved in alcohol production and sales. Thankfully, a mountain of paperwork and logistical obstacles could not overcome Coco’s will to get the doors open. The reward for his efforts is a venue in which the public can now experience the NOLA brewery on a more intimate level. “The taproom gives people a good reason to visit the brewery and experience the beers that we make,” Coco says; “it’s one of the only places where you can enjoy all of our beers in one location.” Because of its affiliation with the brewery, the taproom is limited to selling only the beers that NOLA brews. Coco wishes to be perfectly clear in this regard: “We can’t sell you an Irish whiskey to go with your beer. We can’t sell you wine. This place is intended to be a celebration of the beers we make here.” He goes on to add, “The beauty of the place is that half the time, the employees are in the taproom too. You can speak directly to the people who make our beer; and it’s a great opportunity to learn about what we do at the brewery.”
For more information on NOLA Brewing’s taproom and tours, check out nolabrewing.com
