The Beer Buddha's Beer Geeks Guide To Mardi Gras 2025 Edition

So years ago, I used to write a "Beer Geek's Guide to Mardi Gras" for mostly tourists coming in town for Mardi Gras. The last one I wrote was in January 2013. I figured it would be fun to write another one.

The craft beer landscape has changed so dramatically almost half of the places I used to recommend aren't around anymore. And honestly, my drinking habits(style of beers I prefer, places I enjoy drinking) have changed as well, so let's see what we can come up with.

Note: MANY of these places are NOT on the parade route but might be near it. Others, I am just recommending for tourists who might want to veer off the parade route a little. If you think I am missing something let me know! It's been awhile and I may not have been there!

THE FRENCH QUARTER

1) Rouses 701 Royal St, New Orleans, LA 70116- Small grocery store with decent selection of craft and domestic beer. REMEMBER: You CAN walk around the streets with beer but it needs to be either in a can or a plastic cup.

2) Mollys At The Market 1107 Decatur St, New Orleans, LA 70116- Awesome dive bar located on Decatur St. Pop in for some beer or their frozen Irish coffee.

3) Crescent City Brewhouse 527 Decatur St, New Orleans, LA 70130- Honestly, I would be remiss for not mentioning this place. Most beer geeks might disagree with this addition but CCB has been pumping out classic beer styles for decades.

CBD/Warehouse District

1) Rouses 701 Baronne St, New Orleans, LA 70113 - Great beer selection and you can even pick up a muffaletta to go wiht your beer. The store is located close to Harmony Circle(formerly Lee Circle) and is a great place to pick up a quick sixer or case of your favorite brew.

2) Cochon Butcher 930 Tchoupitoulas St, New Orleans, LA 70130 - Amazing food and nice beer selection. This place is a must go! Everything on their menu is solid but I would recommend the Cubano.

FRENCHMAN STREET

1) dba New Orleans 618 Frenchmen St, New Orleans, LA 70116- Good beer selection and amazing live music.

2) Brieux Carre Brewing 2115 Decatur St, New Orleans, LA 70116 - Arguably one of the best breweries in the city. They are crushing the lager game over here and are located right off Frenchman Street on Decatur.

3) The Rambler 507 Frenchmen St, New Orleans, LA 70116 - Nice casual bar in Frenchman with a great local, craft beer selection.

UPTOWN

To make this easy I will be calling everything from I-10 up to the Riverbend "uptown".

1) Avenue Pub 1732 St Charles Ave, New Orleans, LA 70130- No longer owned by Polly Watts but it is still an amazing place to grab a craft beer and it sits right on the parade route.

2) Steins Deli 2207 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70130 - Amazing Jewish deli located at Magazine and Jackson. Not too far of a walk to the parade route. Grab a sandwich and some beer to go. Dan Stein is the Godfather of craft beer in New Orleans.

3) Fat Harry's 4330 St Charles Ave, New Orleans, LA 70115- For some reason I never mentioned this place in past posts and that was dumb on my part. Fat Harry's is a New Orleans instituion and serves a great variety of craft and domestic beers and like Avenue Pub it sits right on the parade route.

4) Care Forgot Brewing 1728 St Charles Ave, New Orleans, LA 70130- The newest brewery in New Orleans is nestled right next to Avenue Pub on the parade route. These guys are brewing up great local beer. Go support them when you're in town.

5) Breaux Mart 3233 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70115- This small locally owned grocery store also located on Magazine St has a nice diverse selection of craft and imports. They do a fantastic job supporting the local craft beer scene.

7) Cooter Browns 509 S Carrollton Ave, New Orleans, LA 70118- A legend in New Orleans. Nice beer selection on tap and huge bottle selection. I would highly recommend the cheese fries, Radiator's Special and the NOLA Philly.

8) The Bulldog 3236 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70115- Large selection of beers on tap and decent bottle selection. Nice outdoor patio which can be irrelevant in cold weather. Check out the outside fountain made from taps handles.

9) Le Bon Temps Roule 4801 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70115- This place is a great neighborhood dive bar. A must check out for sure. The Soul Rebels used to have a Thursday night residency. I think they still might. Get over there.

10) Midway Pizza 4725 Freret St, New Orleans, LA 70115- I really dig this place. They have a great beer selection and I really enjoy the pizza here. It's not quite deep dish but similar and good.

11) Ms. Maes- 4336 Magazine St, New Orleans, LA 70115 - One of the best dive bars in the city and at the corner of Magazine and Napoleon it sits on the parade route for one of the biggest parades Bacchus. Perfect mix of craft beer, domestic and liquor. Bring cash.

12) Courtyard Brewing 1160 Camp St, New Orleans, LA 70130 - Courtyard is a brewery meets divebar with incredible beers brewed onsite. I've never had a bad beer here. From localbeer classics like Dark Milds to hoppier options like Say Something IPA. OR you could go big and get a Wheatwine. Grab a burger from Burger Nerds while you are there too!

13) Ecology Brewing 1401 Baronne St, New Orleans, LA 70113- Ecology is brewing up classic styles such as Belgian Tripels, Scotch Ales and Czech Style Pilsners but they have a wide range of styles available. Grab a 4 pack of that Radio Lager when headed to the parade route.

14) Urban South Brewing 1645 Tchoupitoulas St, New Orleans, LA 70130- Quite possible one of the largest craft beer producers in the state, Urban South is a brewery that has a beer style for everyone and every occassion. From light beers with Paradise Park, hoppy offerings like Grapefruit Holy Roller, and even the cali sober THC beverage Driftee.

15) Elios Wine Warehouse- 6205 S Miro St, New Orleans, LA 70125- Awlays a favorite place of mine to buy beer. Been buying here since my college days at Tulane. Amazing selection of craft and domestic beers.

MID-CITY

If you're in Midcity it's most likely because a local dragged you to see Endymion. If you find yourself out there here is where you go!

2) The Bulldog Midcity 5135 Canal Blvd, New Orleans, LA 70124- See The Bulldog Uptown. The difference is there is a lot more space at this location.

3) Skeeta Hawk Brewing- 455 N Dorgenois St, New Orleans, LA 70119 - A more recent addition to the New Orleans craft beer scene, Skeeta Hawk opened in 2022. Located on the Greenway, they are a veteran run brewery that is making delicious beers!

4) Bayou Beer Garden 326 N Norman C Francis Parkway, New Orleans, LA 70119- Located in a unassuming double this bar looks like your neighbor is just throwing a party. Great beer selection with nice food options. The Disco Fries were always a favorite and appear to be still on the menu!

5) Finn McCool's 3701 Banks St, New Orleans, LA 70119 - This Mid City favorite is a must visit when in town. One of the best Irish pubs we have in town. Make sure you get the Scotch Egg.

Appreciate y'all reading. Yes, I understand there are a lot of places I didn't list, especially breweries. I didn't leave any off because I don't like them I just didn't want to list ALL the breweries. If you are looking for a list of all the breweries in New Orleans look in the tabs at the top of my page! Cheer!

Support Local Beer: Deadbeat Brewing

Back in October, the wife and I took a trip over to Hammond and of course I made a point to find a brewery. We headed over to Deadbeat Brewing and met the owners, Danny, Luke, and Brad. I had tried their stuff previously at a beer fest so was eager to try their beer again as they had just opened the brewery in June of this year.

Danny, Luke and Brad met while attending Southeastern and used to homebrew in Danny's garage before making the leap to brewing as a business. The brewery is a 7 barrel brewhouse nestled on a lake on the property of Blackened Brew restaurant which is where the old Catfish Charlie's was located. Their first year expectation is to brew 300 barrels with very limited self distribution.

Their name, Deadbeat Brewing comes from their time participating in homebrew festivals. They wanted a name which was a play on words that included music, skeletons, and voodoo dolls and Dead and Beat fit. Their logo is a reflection of that, with the voodoo doll playing the drum. They call the voodoo doll Stitch and even have a beer named Super Stitch Wit and use drum sticks as tap handles.

I had the Karate Class Dropout which is a West Coast IPA and Vacation Camo which is a Helles. Both were awesome. Next time you are in Hammond make it a point to stop at DeadBeat Brewing! These guys are doing good things!

14258 W Club Deluxe Rd. Hammond, La 70403

Monday-Closed

Tuesday-Closed

Wednesday 4-8pm

Thursday 4–8 PM

Friday 12–9 PM

Saturday 12–9 PM

Sunday 12–5 PM

The 6 Pack: BJCP with Sal Mortillaro

Ever curious about the Beer Judge Certification Program?

Meet Sal Mortillaro, a renowned Louisiana-based BJCP judge, who ansered some questions I had for The 6 Pack to shed light on the program. As the BJCP Southern Representative and one of only 19 Grand Master 2 Judges worldwide, Sal is a wealth of beer knowledge. Notably, he was the first Louisiana judge to achieve Master and Grand Master ranks.

1) Tell me a little about the BJCP? What made you do that vs Cicerone?

The BJCP is the Beer Judge Certification Program. It is a world-wide organization which has been around since 1985 and since then has certified over 15,000 judges since its inception. It is considered the “gold standard” of both home brewing and commercial / professional competitions and its “Style Guidelines” and judges are regularly used in those competitions. The BJCP’s mission is to encourage knowledge about the world’s diverse beer, mead, and cider styles. To promote beer, mead, and cider tasting, evolution, and communication skills. To Develop standardized tools, methods, and process for structured evaluation, ranking and feedback of beer, mead, and cider.

I started my journey with the BJCP in 2011 because of the “Beer School” Carol Rice of the Crescent City Homebrewers of New Orleans put on. I attended Carol’s classes, which essentially got you prepared to take the BJCP exam, and went from there. Being a home brewer, the classes delve very deep into brewing technique and brewing science, which is something the Cicerone program only recently began doing and only at the more advanced levels. Also, the Cicerone program wasn’t as popular during this time.

2) Whats the most memorable beer you've judged?

One of the most incredible beers that I’ve ever judged was a homebrewed beer for the 2021 NOLA on Tap competition where the bottle had a literal scorpion in it (yes, the bug, not the pepper). That was pretty interesting to say the least and it was a pretty decent beer.

3) You're invited to a crawfish boil. What beer are you bringing?

Personally, I’m bringing an easy, clean drinking lager that has a touch of malt, like a Munich Helles, to balance out the spice from the crawfish. Or if I’m feeling adventurous, I’ll bring something much more hop forward, like a German Pilsner or an IPA, to increase the perceived spice from the crawfish.

4) What's your favorite beer style? Least favorite beer style?

My absolute favorite beer style is English Barleywine; they are so complex, deep, and tasty when done right. My least favorite beer style is a little harder to answer as I enjoy all beer styles for what they are. However, I’m over hazy IPA’s as a whole, unless they are super interesting.

5) What is your guilty pleasure beer?

My guilty pleasure beer is Sam Adam’s Utopias; I pick up a bottle whenever I have the chance.

6) What is your current favorite beer from a local brewery in Louisiana?

My current favorite beer is Radio Lager from Ecology Beer Creative in New Orleans; it’s extremely clean and crisp, and easy drinker, and just a really great example of the Helles style.

Throwback photo at Whole Foods when we did a Local's Recommendation thing.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed reading this please stay tuned for more of The 6 Pack.