Chili’s companion - Soaking Up The Suds

The morning I wrote this column I woke up with my nose feeling like it went and played in the snow all night while I slept. It was about that time I decided it was a good day for chili.

With any great bowl of fiery steamy goodness, you need a great beer.  I didn’t want anything too dark or bitter, which is my normal modus operandi. Drinkability was my main goal. I needed a beer that would let the chili do most of the speaking, a beer that wouldn’t overpower it. I didn’t want anything too complex or standoffish. I needed a team player for this gig. With that in mind, I went with an old standby: Abita’s Purple Haze.

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I’ve long been intrigued by the growler option at Oliver’s Beverage in Albany, and so I got a friend a growler for Christmas. For those who don’t know, a growler is a half-gallon glass jug that can be filled with fresh draft beer, and taken with you. In any case, the growler I got for my friend was pretty much the coolest thing ever, and I decided that I would have to get a growler of my own. So this weekend I returned to Oliver’s and got a growler full of Abita Christmas Ale. Read more

Note:  Get your own Abita growler in the shop section.

Energy Drink

There's nothing greener than turning your refuse into fuel. Since April, the Abita Brewing Company has done exactly that with the installation of a low-rate anaerobic digester that ferments the brewery's industrial wastewater, converting it to reusable methane. In time, Abita President David Blossman estimates, the treatment facility should reduce the company's natural-gas purchases by as much as 30 percent. "Right now an MMBTU (1 million British Thermal Units, or close to 1,000 cubic feet of gas) is around $9. It used to be $2.50," he says. "That's about $46,000 per year (in savings)." Read more

Root beer: The revival of an all-American

Root beer is back. Thanks to old favorites, the wider availability of regional brands and a raft of novel brews, the fizzy brown soda is making a comeback. For 'sasparilly' fans, it's a golden time to be alive and sipping.  The revival might have been spearheaded by craft brewers such as Abita, Gordon Biersch and Goose Island, which have taken to including root beer in their rosters.  Read more

Abita Brewing takes steps to be environmentally sound

The Abita Brewing Company, in Abita Springs, takes environmental responsibility seriously. Even though the company is known more for its amber-colored beer, Abita Brewing has triumphed in the area of going “green” as well. Preserving the environment through conservation and protection of resources is a corporate goal which it meets through energy efficiency and social responsibility....read more at the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality website. 

"Abita's Jockamo IPA isn't well-known, but worth meeting. First, Jockomo pours very smooth, but light on the carbonation. The color is a copper/orange and the head is minimal after a few moments. The same goes for the lacing as this IPA doesn’t really keep much head around throughout the beer.

Aroma-wise, Jockamo is more sweet than one would expect from a pale ale. There are hints of honey among the hops aroma and there were even slight smells of pine coming on at first.

But it is the taste where Jockamo made it for me. Personally, I like a bitter pale ale, but it can be overbearing sometimes. So, when someone comes up with an interesting take on a pale ale, I usually ride the wave and try to enjoy it. That was easy with Jockamo."  Read more in the Independent Mail.