A Winter Craft Beer Festival – Louisiana Style

I spent last weekend in Lake Charles, Louisiana, drinking beer with like-minded souls in the heart of Cajun country …It’s an exotic and strangely beautiful part of the country and home to an accomplished and extremely vital craft beer scene.

Fasten your seat belts everybody because amazing craft beer in now being born on the bayou…

I was invited down to attend the Louisiana Winter Beer Festival, a first-time event that was held on the grounds of the historic Calcasieu Marine National Bank building, an early 20th century edifice that has been beautifully restored. It was a very cool place to throw this debut event (but more on that later).

Lake Charles is an enormous and booming “small town” that’s growing incredibly fast. It’s located in southwest Louisiana, with Houston a two-hour drive to its west and New Orleans a three-hour drive southeast. The city itself sits on several bodies of water. In fact, Lake Charles has so many lakes and waterways that it seems you’re always near water no matter where you are.

It also has a large port that mostly services the region’s petro-chemical industry and rice trade (that’s right, they grow a lot of rice down here!) And there’s a huge gaming industry in the city that employs thousands of locals and attracts tourists from all over the county.

For a state known for rich culinary traditions and good times – the craft beer scene was relatively late to arrive in Louisiana. But it’s catching up big-time nowadays. There’s a multitude of new breweries now – and many of them were serving up their very best last Saturday when the Louisiana Winter Beer Festival made its debut in downtown Lake Charles.

Crowds were swarming the Bayou Teche Brewing tent…This Cajun-country brewery has been shaking things up in Louisiana for some time now and its fans are fanatical. Carlos Knott and his brother started the brewery in an old railway car back in 2009 and their mission has been to craft beers that complement the cuisine and lifestyle of Cajuns and Creoles. Their beers were awesome (especially their LA-31 Bière Pâle) and their label art equally brilliant.

Kirk Coco drove up from New Orleans – he’s the President and CEO of NOLA Brewing – and they’re the only production brewery that’s actually based in the city of New Orleans. He’s got this inscrutable smile and a quiet southern charm – he also brought along some serious beer. Bringer of Destruction is a massive 8.4% ABV West Coast-style IPA that they did with Stone and it was killer. He also brought Sauvage, a Brett Pale Ale that he referred to as a “gateway sour” and I’ve got to admit it was super-approachable. Just great beers!

Johnathan Knoll brought in his whole crew from Broken Wheel Brewery. They’re a relatively new production brewery based in Marksville, Louisiana, and their beers had people buzzing. They offered up a great Blonde Ale that quickly became my “go-to” and a spectacular rich and creamy Milk Stout that was unbelievable. This is a young brewery poised to do great things but they weren’t alone….

Abita also brought in some great beers – their Grapefruit IPA never fresher or better. And who knew that Louisiana had any kind of German heritage? The Covington Brewhouse understands this and that German influence defined many of the beers they served up.

All these breweries only hint at everything that’s happening down this way and the Louisiana Winter Beer Festival brought them all together expertly. And in doing so, they set a high standard for festival excellence. This was a festival done right – and their attention to detail and respect for the craft colored everything.

It was a perfect day in many ways – drinking craft beer in Cajun country – and there’s no way that I’m not coming back.