Bayou Teche Brewing Company

Saturday March 22, 2014 Room 208 Clarion Inn Lafayette,La 6:00 PM CST

Not much to write today. We started out at Keller’s Bakery where I picked up some whoopie pies, fruit pies and praline brownies. Hoping I can get some home and that they aren’t too stale. From there we used the Garmin to get us to Arnaudville and a tour of Bayou Teche Brewery. It is a fairly small operation so far as the size of the plant is concerned but the family has just joined a distribution group that will bring their beer to Upstate New York from which it will be distributed to Vermont and New Hampshire. That is good news since we loved several of their beers. In preparation they have ordered some new aging tanks and a larger bottling machine.

Stephanie Knott and her husband, Karlos, were alone when we arrived right at noon and so we had a chance to really talk to them about the brewery and the family members involved, the excitement of expanding with its nervousness, and the fact that they will be bringing the bottling of their 12 oz bottles home from Lazy Magnolia in Mississippi. Around 12:30 another couple showed up so Karlos returned to his mowing and Stephanie gave us a tour and explanation of the brewing process.

After that we adjourned to the tasting room. The two pictures of taps show the number of beers available. They are extremely generous in their samples—four oz glasses that do add up when you are tasting at least seven beers in a short time. We started with the biere that they developed with a brewery in France. The name is a combination of the rivers that flow behind them both—the Bayou Teche  here and the Youst in France so it is named Bayoust. It is delicious and we bought a bottle of it for home. I am fond of dark beers and so I tried both Biere Noir which is a beer based on an old German recipe for Schwartzbeer and is also quite good, as well as Loup Garou,which I loved but maybe more for its name than the taste. Loup Garou is a werewolf and parents used to threaten their children when they didn’t do as told with a visit from Loup Garou who would get them. Loup Garou would not cross a threshold over which were placed 13 stones—why? because Loup cannot count higher than 12! During Lent if one did not totally give up what they’d promised to give up, after nine violations, they would turn into a Loup Garou!!

There is also a lady with long fingers, the French name of which I cannot remember, but she could not easily be locked out when she wanted you because with her long fingers she could reach between the door and lock and open it.! Karlos said he once asked his Grandmother why adults scared their kids in such awful ways and she said—we had no TV!

My favorite beer of all, though and of which they only had a couple kegs left, was Miel Sauvage. Wild Honey—oh, Karlos laughed when I tasted it and almost fainted it was so good. Good, huh?  Oh, indeed. And dangerous, said Karlos—I guess!  Tried several others but I’d have to look them up. If you have any interest in more info they are on FB under  Bayou Teche Brewing Company.

The other couple turned out to be pretty interesting and we chatted with them for a long time, They have a house in Fl which they are trying to sell. They’d moved there from Washington State but really don’t like it—they find their neighbors very racist and quite incestuous among other things. So they’ve emptied out the house, put it on the market and bought a large , 40 ft RV, behind which they tow their car. They’ve been traveling since Jan 1 and basically live in it and travel. They said they will go back to Fl around May but will stay in the RV. Soon as they sell the house they will figure out what they want to do—buy another place somewhere or just keep traveling in the RV.  She’s a druid, he’s an atheist—funny.

While we were chatting Stephanie went off to give a large party a tour and Karlos went somewhere—so there we were in the tasting room, pouring drinks of our favs and chatting. Steph came in with that group,gave them sampler trays, asked if we were doing okay and went off to give another tour! When she returned we make some purchases—a bottle of Loup and Bayoust and a six pack of the Mardi Gras brew, Courir as well as a pint glass. Then we bid our new acquaintances Adieu and Bon Chance and off we went to Lafayette.

We wanted to go to Mulate’s in Breaux Bridge but couldn’t remember precisely where it is. Set the Garmin to find it and she took us west on I10, off at exit 104 and then told us to go on I 10 east. Forget it, We went to Logan’s and called it a day with a steak.

BTW, forgot to tell you about our ditzy but cute waitress at Shucks yesterday. I’ll spare you all her missteps serving and just tell you that she brought the bill while Bill was in the rest room. I glanced at it and saw it was in the amount of $18 and change. I didn’t think anything of it. Bill went to the bar and paid it and we left. Just outside the door he asked if I’d seen the bill and I said yes, why? Did you see the amount and then my eyes got big—yes, $18!  That’s not right—how did she get that?  Then we figured she charged us for the two etouffee at $7 each and two sweet teas at $2 each and the rest was tax. She hadn’t charged us for the oysters!!! $12 a plate!  $24. plus tax. Said we have to go back in and tell her—which we did, quietly—didn’t want to get her in trouble. She was so impressed that we didn’t just go on about our business. Bill told her I wanted to take off—she laughed and said, oh, she just wanted to jet on down the road? Sometimes Bill is such a jerk, but she knew that neither of us ever thought to do anything but come back and pay up. Wonder how often she does that?  Won’t keep that job long if she doesn’t pay better attention,

Well,have to get going. Wash day and organizing the car tomorrow and reading for on Monday we are off to Covington, where the couple we met today just came from, and Abita Springs Brewery where I’m going to pick up some saison—Strawberry lager!  Oh, yum!! Take care—was 77 today and humid. Was supposed to rain but it’s held off. Think it will come tonight though—looks kind of gray out there. Later, KandB