Thursday, September 9, 2010

Football Season is Here!!!! Let Us Rejoice!!!



I'm so excited right now! Tonite kicks off the NFL season with the defending champ New Orleans Saints taking on the geriatric led Minnesota Vikings. Poor Brett Favre. Completely ruined his legacy by being the ultimate flip flopper.

New Orleans right now is a total madhouse with the whole NFL parade thing being held downtown. Tickets for the game are virtually impossible to come by and being downtown for the game is going to be one total cluster.

The great thing about football games(and all sporting events really)is you don't actually have to be in the stadium or tailgating at the stadium to enjoy the game. Having some friends over, drinking some beer and cooking on the grill can be just as fun if not a better experience.



I plan on using the NFL season as an opportunity to have some cool events at my house that'll spread the love of craft beer. Here are some of the ideas that I have planned for this upcoming season:

1) Local vs Local: This can be tricky unless you beer trade as I do. The idea is simple though. You get local beers from your hometown and get someone to send you beers from the town in which your local team will be playing one week. For example:

Teams: New Orleans Saints vs Atlanta Falcons

Beers: New Orleans: NOLA Brewing, Abita, Bayou Teche
Atlanta: Sweetwater, Atlanta Brewing Company, Terrapin

You can do a blind tasting and square off and see who wins or just enjoy the beers.

2) Beer and food pairing: You can't have a football party without some food. Most of the time you're cooking on the grill or you got your slow cooker going anyways so you might as well pair some good craft beers with the food. And I'm not sure how you do it in your town but I've seen some amazing dishes being prepared by New Orleans tailgaters so you can do it up fancy or not. I'm still claiming that my Who Dat Roastbeef Poboys I created last year for the Superbowl helped New Orleans win the game. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Oh and paired with Abita Turbodog by the way.

3) Seasonal beer tasting: The fall is one of the best times for seasonal beers in my opinion. You have Octoberfests, pumpkin beers and all sorts of speciality brews being created by craft brewers for the fall. Fall, football and fall beer. It's perfect.

4) Locals only: You can make Sunday a locals only day. In most towns it's not that hard to do. I'm pretty sure every beer store in your area has access to some local beers. Support your local team by drinking only local brews.

5) Craft Beer Showdown: Pick a certain amount of craft beers and imports. Categorize them into 4 categories and creat your bracket. You can make this as elaborate as you want. Each person blind tastes a beer and votes on the beer they like best. Winner advances. Great opportunity to try tons of craft and import beers.

So there are some ideas I had for helping spread the love of craft beer this NFL season. If you want to know where you can get some great craft and import beers in New Orleans read below. If you have any cool ideas to share please comment! I'd love to hear them!

Beer Stores in New Orleans:

1) Steins Deli
2) Cork & Bottle
3) Martin Wine Cellar
4) Acquistapace's Grocery(on the Northshore)



Cheers!

The Beer Buddha

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

beer stores dont forget elio's wine uptown

The Beer Buddha said...

Scott,

I'll have to admit you have me intrigued by your Elio's statement. Elio's is usually not even relevant in beer store conversations unless you're 21 trying to score beer. So tell me why I should visit them? Have they gone through some major changes over the past couple years? Are they better or on par with the 4 stores I mentioned?

Cheers!

BB

Anonymous said...

yes they are stocking more craft beer these days they'er a lot better than 2 years ago i must say...one more thing can you do a review for me its a german beer "Veldensteiner Landbier" if you can't find any i'll spot you a few and keep up the good work

The Beer Buddha said...

Scott,

We got that one over at Cork & Bottle. I'll give it a try.

Cheers!

BB

PS And I'll check out Elio's again too!