Top of the Hops Beer Festival in Lafayette

As I so eloquently quipped back in 2002 or 2003, "Si, me gusta cerveza."  Roughly translated, this Spanish phrase means "Yes, I like beer."  Those words hold true today.  I know that you, the loyal Bite and Booze readers, are highly surprised by this.  I don't mean to alarm you.  My apologies.  But, I do like beer.  In fact, over the past weekend, I managed to make my way to Lafayette with Jeremy, Eric, and Mandy for the Top of the Hops Beer Festival at the Cajun Dome.  With a couple tickets secured by King Cake Baby courtesy of Rouse's Supermarket, and a few more from sweet-talking the ticket folks (we were supposed to have 4 all along!), we were in.  Beer drinking commenced.  Life was good.

Top of the Hops in Lafayette had over 160 different beers to choose from.  While they weren't all new to me, I was pleasantly surprised at the variety, selection, and rareness of some of the brews.  Louisiana's own beer also poured from the taps of Parish, Bayou Teche, NOLA, Heiner Brau/Covington and Abita.  

The highlight of the afternoon for me came from Andrew Godley and the Parish Brewing Company.  His Black IPA blew me away, but even better was his amber beer that he ran through extra hops before pouring. Andrew, an engineer by trade, created a homemade system with which he used CO2 to force the beer through extra hops after leaving the keg and before entering your glass.  Those fresh hops left a taste with the Parish Amber that flowed through them and settled on my palate like cold iced tea on a hot Louisiana summer day.  Beer Heaven, I found you.  Si, me gusta cerveza.