Bayou Teche LA 31 Bière Pâle

Recently Yvo attended a Louisiana Tourism Board event, at which… well, I’ll just let her tell you about it:

Yvo says: Held in the Hearst Building on the 34th floor with a great view overlooking the city – the room we were in had floor-to-ceiling windows – it happened to take place in the middle of a thunderstorm. That was fun – each bright pop of light had me jumping. Unfortunately, as I arrived – in the middle of a very funny speech – I reached into my bag, took out my camera, flipped it on and found this great message awaiting me: “NO MEMORY CARD” – AHHH, you flippin’ idiot! How could you forget to put the card back in after dumping the photos (yes I use a card reader, it’s faster)?! I tried to use my phone to take pictures, but they didn’t come out.

Briefly: I ate and drank a lot of yummy food I wish I could show you. Louisiana is back in business, both the seafood industry and the tourism, so I hope you’ll visit – I am due for a return – but the best information I learned all night? Culinary Trails. Louisiana has a website dedicated to culinary trails, basically a ‘road map’ of places you should try, based on region or food. Check it out: http://louisianaculinarytrails.com/ and definitely let me know what you think!!!

Oh, and no event is complete without a goodie bag. Mine was so heavy, I was practically dragging it home… in the rain… haha, thank goodness it was in a nifty cloth bag! Stuffed with items from each region in LA – hot sauces, seasoning mixes, cooking utensils, literature… and, well, back to Dave for that.

One of the items in her swag bag? This beer, LA 31 Bière Pâle, a pale ale brewed by Bayou Teche, a startup brewery in Louisiana with a little experience and a lot of potential. They’ve been brewing for less than two years, and their bottles are contract-brewed in Mississippi, not unusual for a startup with no room or capital for their own bottling operations.

I’ll be honest. A new brewer from Louisiana — hardly a beer mecca — doesn’t scream “worthwhile” to me, but of course, the occasional good Louisiana beer aside from Abita makes it to New York, and typically quite under the radar. It doesn’t help matters that the label is adorned with the phrase “Beer Drinkers Paradise”, but I’ll let that slide as heartfelt marketing.

Besides this most standard of American beer styles, Bayou Teche brews a stout, a smoked beer, and a wheat beer — instead of catering to the “extreme” beer people littering the landscape, this outfit seems to be interested in basic styles to start, before wading into territory populated by every nanobrewery with an idea, if not the ability to execute.

I admit that I had muted hopes prior to opening the Bière Pâle — I get the Creole, French-influenced name, it just looks a little gimmicky to this jaded American beer drinker. But who knows? Every great brewer (and, yes, every terrible one) had to start somewhere.

After a bit more effort than I expected, the cap was removed with a satisfying hiss, and out poured a clear golden amber beer, absolutely normal for the style, capped by a thin cream-colored head that dissipated rather quickly to a patchy skim. I moved on to the first big test and took a deep whiff. To my surprise and modest delight, it comes across as a solid, well-crafted American Pale Ale. Besides a fruity maltiness (pear, a little peachiness, fairly standard pale-malt aromas), a pleasant grassy hoppiness makes its presence known as well, and the brewing process doesn’t seem to have produced any noticeable flaws. We’re off to a good start!

This perception continued unabated as I took my first sips. There’s a graininess, like cereal, initially from the malt backbone, but that base is sturdy enough to carry a palate-coating bitterness, grassy and herbal, all around my mouth. The Bière Pâle is clean, it’s properly carbonated, and it screams “benchmark pale ale”.

As it warms, I notice a more perfumy, nose-filling hoppy flavor in addition, and the maltiness gets a bit fruitier, but it never becomes unpleasant. This rates as a great example of everything the Pale Ale style tries to represent — hop-forward, a maltiness that doesn’t just fade into the background, and a decidedly different perception of bitterness than its big brother, the India Pale Ale. In fact, I’m a little mad I didn’t go to this event and pick up some of this beer for myself!

Now for the downside: it’s unlikely Bayou Teche is in the process of securing distribution to New York. I could see it happening in the near future, as this is a big market and they have their offsite bottling operation working (and presumably, could add capacity if needed). American Pale Ales are easy to find at any place that sells beer — look no further than Sierra Nevada, for instance. I don’t want to say this is an interchangeable beer, but… well, there are a lot of breweries that have a pale ale as their flagship or at least as a year-round beer that you can try while waiting for the Bière Pâle to show. The Sierra Nevada version, Victory’s new Headwaters Pale Ale, and Southern Tier Pale Ale all represent examples of the style that should be easy to find in the city at reasonable prices, with the same approach to balance as the Bière Pâle. They’re great choices for evenings when you want to relax with a beer or two while watching the game.

But if you’re in Louisiana or that area, it’s worth the investment of your time to kick back with Bayou Teche.

Please note that while I received this beer free of charge, I received no monetary compensation for this review, nor was I obliged in any way to post about the beer, positively or otherwise. This is my own opinion and I feel it was unbiased; you are free to take from this what you will.