Brewery Hop Down Tchoup

Ever not know what to do on a pretty, nice day? Well, what about brewery hopping? Personally, I think that brewery hopping or even just staying at one brewery is a perfect way to spend it. And lucky for my New Orleans sippers, there’s so many to chose from! There’s something relaxing about getting a beer and hanging out with friends outside (or inside if it’s colder and covid rules allow it). Today, I'm just going to talk about 3 of the breweries that we go to a lot, and then in a later post, I'll talk about some of the other ones.

If you drive down Tchoupitoulas from the interstate towards the Zoo, the first brewery you will come to is Urban South. Urban South is probably the biggest brewery in New Orleans, besides Dixie (soon to be Faubourg). It’s so much different than Dixie though since it’s craft beer. Urban South has so many beers to choose from, and they are constantly releasing new beers, which is so fun! Recently, every Thursday, they've been releasing a few new beers, and most of which are only around for a limited time. They've had holiday themed ones, such as King Cake sours for Mardi Gras or candy ones for Halloween, and totally random ones. One of the reasons I like Urban South so much is that they have a lot of sours, my favorite, and other types of light beers that I like. It's so fun to get a flight and try different ones. They even have seltzers, so if you like those over beer, Urban South may be the local brewery for you. I think they are the only local craft brewery with seltzers. They also sometimes have beer slushies too. I've had the pineapple one, and it was really good! Since they don't have a permanent food vendor, they get food trucks to come most of the time. Some times when I've been there, they've had Daddy Hot Bird (fried chicken) or crawfish, but they have other ones come too. Overall, Urban South is really fun! As far as seating goes, it definitely helps when they have their inside tables open, because the outside area isn't that big. The inside is pretty big though, and they have their cute little Paradise Park trailer inside too, which is fun for pics :) Urban South sells a lot of their beers in stores, as well as in their brewery. You can usually get the specialty ones in the brewery, and you can get the ones they constantly produce in a lot of grocery stores. Urban South is definitely growing, which is super exciting for them!

The next brewery you'll come to is Miel, which is actually slightly off Tchoup. I think Miel is the first brewery that I had ever been to, except the Budweiser brewery in St. Louis that I went to before I could even drink. Miel has changed a good bit in the past year in my opinion. I first went a little over a year ago on a Sunday afternoon before I went back to Baton Rouge. That day, it was really chill vibe. We had sat inside because it had started raining and ordered a flight to share. As you can imagine, on a rainy, Sunday afternoon, there weren't a lot of people there, but we still enjoyed it. At the time, I hadn't really started to like beer much yet. I had just liked the idea of going to the brewery. Well, almost a year and a pandemic later, when I actually liked some types of beer, I went again. I really enjoyed it this time. Their outside area was very nice and bigger than I remembered. They have a mural painted on one of the walls outside...perfect for an Instagram moment if you want one. On the day we went (a few Saturdays ago), they had crawfish. This time, there was way more people. So many that we had to wait a bit, and even ate our first batch of crawfish (that we split) outside the actual brewery. Don't worry, other people were doing it too. I even have a glamorous (not...peep the traffic cone) picture of this fine moment (below). We each got a beer too. I got a mango beer, and Austin got one of the lighter beers. Once we finally got a table, we got another round of crawfish, and we each got another beer--a lighter beer and a beer made with pickle juice. I know...pickle juice?! It was weird but actually good. Austin really liked it! It was such a nice day outside when we went, and their outside area made it that much better. Miel has started releasing more beers and cans them now, so you can take them home with you too! When they don't have crawfish, they have other food trucks, and on some mornings, they even have a local coffee vendor. So much variety and so fun!

Port Orleans is a little further down Tchoup. It's one of the first breweries that I went to in New Orleans, and personally, I think it's underrated because it's one of my favorites! Port Orleans has a Mexican place in it called AvoTaco, which is so good! I've only had a few things from there, but I really liked what I had. At first, I was thinking "craft beer and Mexican? I'm just not so sure about that," but turns out good beer and good Mexican work. So if you like both of those things, Port Orleans may be the starting point for your brewery hop! Port Orleans has a variety of beers, which I like because I can try a bunch of different ones. In the past few weeks, they started releasing a collab with Main Squeeze (a juice business) in single keg batches. They started with the Alive moxie, which was supposed to be more hydrating and good for hangovers. I got to try this one (what I'm drinking in the pic and why it's blue), and it was great!! It was somewhat weird since it tasted like the Alive juice, which has cayenne in it, but I really liked it. This past weekend, they released the Awaken moxie beer. I didn't get to try this one because I was in Shreveport. I was sad because I really wanted to try this one...it sounded amazing! I like this juice from Main Squeeze, so I'm sure I would've liked the beer version. They told me that they are going to release at least one more (hopefully soon), called the Vision Moxie. I'm really hoping to get to try that one! They have patio, indoor, and outside seating. On the side of the building, where the outside seating is, they have a mural that says "Cheers," which I love! It's so cute, and they have two swings on the side, which were fun to sit and drink beer in. Like the other two, Port Orleans also sells some of their beers in cans, so you can buy them and take them home.

So, if these sound even slightly good to you, check one (or all) of them out! Even if you don't like beer or don't drink, it's still fun because of the environment :) And good news about the three breweries that I just talked about is that they are all pretty close to each other! So go check them out and get some hops on Tchoup! And let me know which one is your favorite!

~Cheers 🥂~