Toast Tuesday: Ginger Beer

I’m going slightly off book this week in our Year of Drinking Adventurously.  I did not even crack the book, but will be revisiting this topic in the next few weeks.

I just got back from an awesome eat-a-thon trip to New Orleans. One of the members of our party, had never been with us on of our eating trips.  The uninitiated are always horrified and delighted with the amount we consume and the places we go.  Truly a gastronomic delight.

 

On our way down to Nola, we stopped for a tasting at Lazy Magnolia Brewing in Kiln, Mississippi.  There are only two reasons why you would have ever heard of Kiln.
1.  Home of Brett Favre.
2.  Lazy Magnolia Brewing.
There is nothing else in this town.  When we missed one tour and the girl told us we had to wait an hour, I asked what else was in town for us to do.  She told us to go to the animal shelter and adopt a pet.

So, we hung out and played corn hole until we got to do the tour and tasting.  Mississippi has some messed up, ridiculous laws that say unless you see the production facility, you cannot do a tasting.  WTF?!  Once we finally got to do our tasting, we were not disappointed.  We got 6 generous tastings of beer and a tiny tasty of mead.  We shared and swapped samples, so we really got to try anything and everything we wanted.

Last week was sweet potato beer, and I was certain I had found one, but have no idea where it ended up.  Sure enough, as soon as I saw the label for Jefferson Stout, I knew I had gotten it.  Now to dig in the fridge to find it.  (how embarrassing)  It was a lovely stout, but I don’t think the sweet potato adds anything noticeable.  Mississippi grows a lot of them, so I can only guess the goal of using sweet potatoes was to use local products. 

Moving on down the road, to New Orleans.  We usually have lunch at Cochon Butcher just before we leave town so we can stock up on awesome charcuterie.  It was here I  attempted to make up another missed week of drinking and had Nola Tart of Steel.  According to the beer board, it is a Berliner Weisse, but now reading Nola Brewing’s website, I’m not convinced.  I’m still calling that week unfinished.

Now, onto ginger beer.  As I have started doing when I am in a different city, and certainly state that has liquor laws like Louisiana, I had to hit a few stores to check out the offerings.  I grabbed a couple different ginger beverages just for this week’s adventure.  I only cracked one open in time for the write-up.  I tried Hitachino Nest.

The back of the label says they use real ginger root in the brewing process for some spice and balance with the sweet malt.  None of the ginger came through for me.  While this beer is good, it’s not one I will get again.  Slight hint of hops, with lots of malt and maybe some molasses.

Let’s see how Meg did with this week’s challenge.  We are on the home stretch in our adventure.  I’ll have to figure out what to do with the new year.  I’ve enjoyed having this weekly challenge to keep me on task.  There have certainly been weeks I did not want to write, and weeks my writing showed that, but overall, this has been great fun.

Have a Toasty Tuesday and a wonderful week y’all!