Beer 73: Dixie Blackened Voodoo Lager or Everyone Gets Beads

Picasso wondering, "Why me?"

Tonight me and the Army of Dachshunds are celebrating Mardi Gras with beads and beer!  I’m drinking a Dixie Blackened Voodoo lager.  The dachshunds got beads!  Oh the things they did for those beads.  

Flash's come hither look

It's always the cute little one 
you have to watch out for...

The Dixie lager poured a deep amber hue in my glass.  It had a small head that slowly left a thin layer of light tan lacing.  Dixie Brewing Company started back in 1907 in New Orleans.  After Hurricane Katrina decimated it, several attempts were made at restoring it but it appears they failed.  Check out some of the photos I found of the abandoned facility.

Sidebar:  I love the website www.abandonedusa.com.  Such interesting stories and haunting photos.

Photos via Kris Arnold

Photo via Kris Arnold

More details on the story are hard to come by but for awhile it was brewed by Heiner Brau in Covington (LA) and now I think it’s coming out of Huber Brewery in Wisconsin.  Despite the original Dixie brewery building falling into total disrepair, it does appear that a VA hospital will be built on the site and, if the internet is to be trusted, will use the façade of the old building in the new design.

I’ve never been to New Orleans but I still feel an overwhelming sadness when I read stories about the devastation from Hurricane Katrina.  It’s a city I hope to visit one day soon and it is a city that I hope will rise again.

I realize the pendulum of emotion on this post has swung wildly from one extreme to the other.  Apologies for that…I for one did not see that coming.

Back to the beer.  It is a schwarzbier -- German for black beer.  Typically they aren’t overly roasted but get their bitterness from hops.  This one smelled of malt and maybe brown sugar.  It drank very smooth and finished with a hopped flavor.  I swear I tasted rich chocolaty flavor, which reminded me of roasted flavors associated with porters and stouts.  That shouldn’t be the case based on the definition of schwarzbier that I found.  Odd.  Reading some reviews online, many people don’t think Dixie Blacked Voodoo tastes like it did when brewed in New Orleans.  I don’t have a point of reference so I can’t judge that aspect of the beer.

Is it good?  Sure.  Would I drink more of it?  Yes.  Is it the best beer I’ve had?  No.

I promise to be more upbeat tomorrow.