Thank You, Abita!

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to take a trip with some friends to the Northshore for a brewery tour of Abita Brewery.  This trip was set up by Vice President of Sales Leo Basile and conducted by Abita owner David Blossman.  Let me just say we had an amazing trip!

I walked away from the tour with a new found respect for the brewery. Everyone that works at the brewery puts a lot of love and passion into the beer they are making and selling.  When your owner is as passionate about the beer making process as David Blossman is it's bound to trickle down to all employees.

Now let me be honest there is no denying that we were "beer'd and dined" by Abita.  They sent a limo bus(that was stocked with beer!) to pick us up and we had an amazing lunch at the Abita Brewpub after the tour.  And of course not everyone get's the tour we got.  But this should in no way take away from the fact that Abita as a company loves what they do and they do it well.

A lot of us local Louisiana beer nerds like to criticize Abita for making "mediocre" beer.  What we should remember though is what we may think is "mediocre" is not to the guy that wants to stop drinking Budweiser and wants to start supporting his local brewery.  Abita has been initiating craft beer drinkers since 1986.  There is no question of Abita's importance in the growing Louisiana beer scene.  They are currently distributed in 44 states and are ranked the 14th largest craft brewery in the country.  We should proud of this.

Now, I'm not saying that when Abita makes a beer that we aren't happy with we shouldn't express our opinions.  Just like we do with our favorite football team we will always express our opinion when we think they could have done a better job.  Drew Brees throws interceptions.  The Saints lose.  LSU loses  Tulane always loses.  But Louisiana always supports their home teams and Abita is definitely one of them.

Thanks again to Leo Basile, David Blossman and the rest of the Abita staff that showed us such an amazing time!  And just for The Ale Runner I'm gonna go drink my Abita Lemon Wheat now!

Cheers!

The Beer Buddha