Saturday evening while unwinding with my family, my cell phone began playing some Zydeco from John Delafose (my ring tone). I answered, and was welcomed with a butt dial from Louis – live on stage in Dayton Ohio. I listened to he and his band perform Louisiana French music live, thru my iPhone for 10 minutes or so – perhaps the best 10 minutes of my weekend.
As I Monday-morning type this in my office, I know there are multiple 5 gallon fermentations going on around the corner from my desk– courtesy of Gar and the rest of the brewing team. All of these fermenters contain variations of the same stout recipe, just slight adaptations of hops, malt and yeast from a basic recipe we decided on months ago. Like all of our beers, the stout will be a Cajun/Creole interpretation of the international style. Watch out raw oysters and months with “R” in them – this stout is crafted to pair with both!
Hanging on the walls of our office and tasting room is more original art than a brewery our size would warrant. My son Coyo and my brother Byron keep bringing in more original art every week – we joke that we may have to open the Museum of Cajun and Creole Art (MOCCA) on the brewery grounds. And often Derek will bring by a large pot of his amazing pork jambalaya, braised with a six pack of our smoked wheat beer, Boucanee. And if Laurin cooks a chicken and sausage gumbo – well you’ll want more than one bowl.
Being surrounded by so much talent on the top of their games is a humbling, yet exciting proposition – we are all very lucky to be able to work together and draw from each other’s inspiration. Working at Bayou Teche Brewing is an artistic encounter for each of our five senses – come out for a tour and see, hear, taste for yourself – don’t wait for a butt dial from Louis.
We have shipped Cocodrie (our new Tripel IPA) to our distributors from New York to New Orleans (even New Iberia). You should be able to find it on tap and in 22 oz bottles. We are set to release a Biere de Miel (French Honey Ale) next month. Named Miel Sauvage – Cajun French for wild honey – the beer is brewed with ample amounts of honey from Bernard’s apiaries and then aged in whiskey barrels for 100 days. I hope we have enough left over to package – it seems that the folks at the brewery have to quality-control taste test that one several times a day.
Gar is tweaking a special ½ barrel of beer that you will only sample at the brewery – it should be ready by the end of the month. It is an extra dry-hopped version of our Cocodrie that will be called Hop-elousas – I’d get here soon after it’s tapped, there will be a lot of quality control testing on that one tool
Hope to see y’all in Arnaudville, or at an event around Louisiana soon.