Do You Know What it Means, To Miss New Orleans?: Louisiana

Back in New Orleans this week.  You know, there are worse places in the world to consistently find yourself.  This time it's Crescent City Brewhouse in the French Quarter.

This might be the first brewpub I've found in the south.  Most of the breweries down here focus their efforts entirely on beer, and that's not a bad thing.  It does, however, make locating their beer a little harder when they lack a nice, handy central location.  Crescent City is much more of the typical brewpub like you would find in the rest of the country.

Overall, it's nice.  They have live jazz music, which is a nice touch to an atmosphere that tells you to sit back, relax and, yes, go ahead and have just one more beer.  The food is a little on the expensive side, but it's the French Quarter, so what do you want?  It's not exactly the place people go trolling for deals, is what I am saying.   And the beer, it's mostly good.  Most of the available selection is rather boring, but the one or two beers that hit the mark, do so remarkably well. 

Crescent City Pilsner:  Pretty good for the style, but nothing all that spectacular.  It has a grassy aroma.  Flavor is light and refreshing.  Lemony, grassy hops slowly build in the back of the palate for a nice bite at the end. 

Red Stallion:  Again, just an amber ale.  Nothing really special to talk about.  The aroma is very, very light; just a hint of malt there.  Toasted malty flavor dominates the flavor profile with floral hops following in the back.  Good, but nothing to rave about.  A good session beer for those who like a malty option.

Crescent City Wiess:  By this time I was starting to worry about the selection here at the brewery.  This was the third beer and I still wasn't hitting anything all that memorable.  This beer has a banana aroma followed with a spicy banana flavor. I picked up some slight herbal hops on the back, but it's mostly dominated by the fruity esters for a simple, strait forward beer.

Black Forest: And then, we hit gold.  The black forest has a wonderful chocolate, fruit aroma that made me think of black cherry and currants.  The flavor is much the same with chocolate, black cherry and currant with a sharp roasted barley flavor in the back. This one quickly became one of my favorite beers.

Special Brew (IPA). Crescent city has a rotating selection of beer and the selection during my visit was an IPA.  The aroma was very light, bordering on non-existent.  The flavor started off very sweet for an IPA with light malt and a pear fruit flavor.  Hops gradually build and build in the background till they fill the palate with grassy floral hops.  A little on on the malty side of the scale for an IPA, but I wouldn't turn it down.