Tap In! New Orleans' Craft Brewery Scene

Join me on my newest walking tour & experience NOLA like a local:

Tap In! New Orleans Craft Brewery Tour!

PRO TIP: If someone in your group isn't a fan of beer, don't fret! Almost every brewery has an alternative to serve them, depending on the alcohol permit- wine and cocktails (NOLA Brewing), creative frozen concoctions (boozey and n/a at Miel), crafted THC seltzers (Urban South) and other non-alcoholic options like Hop Tea. Many have great food pop-ups & activities too (check them out on Instagram for an accurate, up-to-date info/schedule).

I've also added map links in green to make your excursion easier if you are unfamiliar with New Orleans:

• Brieux Carre is just steps from the French Quarter and off of Frenchmen Street, but a world away from the tourists- this brewery is a local hang out for Marigny neighbors. You can sip their medal-winning, mostly European-style beers with real beer nerds &, as a tiny brewery, saddling up to the bar means you'll make a quick friend shoulder to shoulder (there is also an outdoor seating area and lounging room). This is the only brewery I've seen doing a European "mlíko" or milk pour- a Czech-style beer that is served with a glass filled almost entirely with dense, creamy foam, resembling a glass of milk and known for its sweet, dessert-like taste and a creamy texture.
  

• Parleaux Beer Lab is further down river, in Bywater, but close to excellent spots like Bacchanal Wine Bar, The Joint BBQ, Vaughn's, BJs for music and Bar Redux for variety shows and backyard shenanigans so take the Uber. Start your adventure at Parleaux, with its welcoming outdoor space and loyal beer following, grab a flight & you'll find something new to love, often made with fruit and herbs grown right on the premises.

Parleaux Beer Lab craft beer

Abita Beers on Tap

Ecology Beer Lab brewery

• Second Line Brewery is your mid-city brewery, steps from City Park. Food trucks, a beer garden & great brews, along with taproom exclusives, await you. I'm partial to the Saison Named Desire: "Brewed with orange zest and Moro Blood Orange, this refreshing saison packs some serious citrus flavor." Great staff make you feel welcome and are happy to answer questions and guide you. I've been to a few great events here so check out their social calendar.
  

• While you're in the area, traipse about 40 minutes down the Lafitte Greenway to Skeeta Hawk, another fine brewery to pop into, focused on Belgians, IPAs (lean to West Coast) and European Lagers (lean to Czech).

New Orleans craft brewing

New Orleans beer and pizza

Second Line NOLA brewery

• Care Forgot Beercraft (next to excellent beer bar Avenue Pub)

• Ecology Beer Creative

• Courtyard Brewery

Affectionately known as the Beermuda Triangle- these three Uptown breweries are in the Garden District and adjacent Central City neighborhoods, separated only by the St. Charles streetcar tracks. These are the breweries that qualify as "if you know, you know"- small and non-distributing breweries that don't get a lot of ink in the press, but have a loyal following. I definitely recommend making your own mini-tour between the three spots. If you're looking to relax and Instagram, Ecology has great graphic design and a lovely courtyard space, as well as great beer and the first afternoon I went in there I got a full tour from the owner of the tanks. Care Forgot is right on the St. Charles street car line & got me through Mardi Gras with beers named Hit In The Face With Beads. They work on whatever they fancy in the tanks & it seems the brewers love to play and have fun with it- you'll definitely get to try something new here. Courtyard Brewery feels like drinking in your friend's living room- great staff, chill vibes for a decade, check them out for day drinking their collabs, IPAs & badass branding/merch.

Harnessing the might of the Mississippi, New Orleans' craft brewery scene has also sprung up all along Tchoupitoulas Street in industrial corridor. On one 2 mile stretch, you can travel downriver from

• Urban South Brewery

• Abita's newest tap room

• Miel

• NOLA Brewing

• Port Orleans Brewing

This stretch was particularly susceptible to brewers looking for large warehouses that had gone out of use with changes in river traffic and freight lines. Still a bustling wharf area, a levee wall blocks the river view but you'll occasionally see the top of large vessel pass by on your walk between breweries.

• New Orleans' mainstay craft brewery, established 1986, people all over the world know Abita as one of the oldest craft breweries in the southeastern United States. They just opened a New Orleans tap room this year & it's a great opportunity t0 drink your favorites and try something new from them.

• A short walk can take you to Urban South, probably the next most popular and widely available craft beer in the city, with a great variety and great vibes, they've got everything from lagers and ales to sours, a Vietnamese coffee stout and popular THC Seltzers.

• Walk upriver a few blocks and you'll find Miel and NOLA Brewing, 1 block away from each other. Miel was named for the owner's parents' beekeeping hobby and is a cozy little brewery with great beer and creative frozen drinks. NOLA recently decided to step back from distributing to create a welcoming tap room and event space with a barrel room, stage for music and kitchen for hand-tossed pizza and Creole-Italian bites.

• Finish another 20 minute walk down towards Tipitina's famous music venue and you'll hit Port Orleans Brewing. Stouts, porters, ales, lagers, barley wines, IPAs, sours, saisons, kolsches... you have a good variety to pull a flight from and tasty tacos.