The Baton Rouge Zoo’s Brew at the Zoo is set to take place Friday night. While tickets have sold out for the event, those who are going will no doubt enjoy the hundreds of beers on display. Sure, the event will have your go-to local beers like Tin Roof’s Parade Ground Coffee Porter, Bayou Teche’s Acadie and Parish’s Canebrake. At the same time, patrons can enjoy their fair share of local homebrews. 225 Dine spoke with a couple homebrewers to find out about the unique beers they’ve been working on.
Jason Lawler is the secretary for the local homebrew club Redstick Brewmasters, which has around 50 active members and formed in 1988, making it the oldest homebrew club in the state.
“[Brew at the Zoo] allows us to go out and meet with the public,” he says. “It gives us the chance to let them try what we do and get some people interested in the club.”
For this Friday’s festivities, Lawler will bring a “StrawBeary Lemon Tart” (strawberry-hibiscus Berliner Weisse) and “Golden Lion Stout.” Other club members will bring a pecan pie porter, a chocolate milk stout and a Nutella porter. Overall, Redstick Brewmasters will provide around 18 beers at Brew at the Zoo.
Blake Winchell of Brasseurs a la Maison, a local homebrew club that started in 2010, says the club members will provide more than 30 beers.
“As I’m looking through the list, we have very few ‘normal’ beers,” he says, laughing.
Some of the beers from Brasseurs a la Maison include an oatmeal cinnamon stout, Mexican chocolate stout and a couple pumpkin beers.
Winchell got back into brewing around 2009 and started the club with his neighbor at the time. He’s always been interested in beer and the brewing process. It doesn’t hurt that he loves to cook, too.
“[Cooking] brings out my trying to experiment with the beers,” he says. “Homebrewing does not replace me trying and buying new beers. This is a way I can spend a Saturday or Sunday, making a product that I and other people enjoy.”
For Lawler, his interest in homebrewing lies in the ability to create something new. He started brewing in 2007.
“You can make it as simple or as complicated as you want,” he says. “You can always brew something different. If it’s winter and you want something heavy and stout, you can craft it from scratch.”
Keith Primeaux is the owner of LA Homebrew. He says his store is the only full-service homebrew shop in town and supplies around 90% of the ingredients for local homebrewers. On his menu this weekend is nine beers, including a chocolate peanut butter porter, American wild sour aged six months with oak staves, and an American wheat ale infused with blackberry honey.
For more information on Brew at the Zoo and to find out what beers will be at the event, click here.
