Don't Drink and Drive, Bike and Brew!

So its been a while since our last blog post. I hope everybody is enjoying their summer so far. We finally got the chance to spend some time with the homebrew club on a weekend bike ride. Check out the St. Tammany Trail to see all of the areas you can ride. It was a great time getting to meet other fellow homebrewers, and drink some beer in the process.

So the group met in downtown Mandeville on a Saturday morning. Half of the people brought bikes, and the other half of us rented bikes from the Shiver Shack, a great place to get everything from bicycles to snowballs. There was one tandem bike for rent there. Can you imagine riding one of these things!

Kermit makes it look so easy!

Thankfully, we all had separate bikes, and began the ten mile ride to Abita Brewing Company. Everyone there had been on the tour before, so it was nice to enjoy their beers on tap again. From Abita, we made our way back towards Mandeville, stopping at Chafunkta Brewing Co. We got a private tour from the owner, and got to grill him with questions about opening up his own brewery. He still has a full time job, and brews part time on nights and weekends. A huge time commitment!

It was also interesting to learn that the brewing equipment used at Chafunkta was handed down from Parish Brewing. The owner at Chafunkta has plans to upgrade his brewery to brew at a larger capacity, and pass down the old brewing equipment to the next up-and-coming brewery in Louisiana. Then it will be considered "third generation" brewing equipment for start-up breweries in the state. The tour of Chafunkta was great, because we got to spend time with a professional brewer and hear his story of starting up a brewery (Something that you know Sam and I are passionate about).

Finally, we finished with beer and lunch at Old Rail brewpub, recently named one of the top new bars in the New Orleans area! [Insert article from old rail FB] We were lucky enough to meet the head brewer at Old Rail, who gave us a tour of their brewery. The layout of the restaurant is interesting, because the brewery is visible from anywhere in the building. Old Rail recently received a silver medal in the US Open of Beer for their Extra Special Bitter (ESB) called Echo Sierra Bravo.

We had a great time riding bikes with fellow homebrewers, and meeting some professional brewers in the area. It's great to see the craft beer industry growing in south Louisiana. Remember to keep drinking local, support local craft brewers.

As for C'est Bon Biere, we have the Belgian Missile Crisis bottled (let me know if you would like to try some), and brewing our award winning milk stout Guilty Pleasure within the coming weeks. That will be ready by the end of summer, when the weather starts getting cooler. Thanks for reading, and keeping up with us here at C'est Bon Biere. Who knows, maybe someday we will inherit the same brewing equipment used by Parish Brewing, Chafunkta Brewing, and whoever else is lucky enough to begin their own brewery.