Beer Olympics and Crawfish

by Fred Eckhardt
I received a late night call from my friend, Peter Cadoo, in New Orleans, and with it an invitation to join a celebration. Cadoo is a member in good standing in the New Orleans Crescent City Homebrewers. He was vague regarding my duties in this assignment. "You don't have to do anything, just come down and drink beer and eat crawfish!" he said.

Sounded good to me, so I circled the dates on my calendar. Free beer, I thought.

It was John Dannenauer who picked me up at the New Orleans airport. Of course, he immediately offered me a beer to drink on the way to his house. In some states you can drink while the driver drives. I was off to a good start on what turned out to be a rather crazy weekend.

Naturally, at his place, we had to drink some homebrew before going out do drink beer in the French Quarter at the Crescent City Brewhouse (527 Decatur St., 504-522-0571), a lovely old location in that part of town, with a beautiful copper brew house presided over by brewmaster and manager Wolfram Koehler. The beers were excellent: a Pilsner, with good character from German Hersbrucker Kloster hops; a red beer, Red Stallion; a dark Black Forest, my favorite; and a Wheat Bock Lager.

We ended up dining at a place called Frankie & Johnny's, a you-can't-get-there-from-anywhere kind of place, located somewhere in New Orleans, at a carefully guarded secret location known only to a few hardy, exploratory, souls and not open to tourists unless transported there blindfolded. The decor was Old Tavern: wood paneled, old hardwood floors, with only sawdust missing to transport one back to the last century. The food was worth being blindfolded for. The beer selection was minimal, but the Dixie Blackened Voodoo proved just right.

(You remember the Voodoo. That's the beer that almost precipitated a war between Texas and Louisiana when the former banned it as "evil" and the latter retaliated by banning Lone Star.)

The many
gallons
of beer
were for
drinking, not
judging,
as is usually
the case
with homebrew
gatherings

By now Peter Cadoo (a planner of this event) and Gary Savelle (former Crescent City club president and forthcoming Beer Olympic Games commissioner) had joined us. We shared a stuffed artichoke appetizer and an oversized mufelatta sandwich. This last proved to be quite delicious, endemic and indigenous to the area. It consists of a slice of bread, with an olive spread, provolone ham, topped with cheese, and another slice of bread. Never mind the Jazz Festival, the mufelatta alone is worthy of a special trip to New Orleans.

For dinner I had the special: a bell pepper stuffed with crab and shrimp meat, with a potato pancake. Delicious and filling.

It turned out that the reason I had come to New Orleans was to travel with the area homebrew clubs to Jennings (in the upper northwest area of Louisiana) for Beer Olympics or, more correctly, Brewer Olympics. After a breakfast of rolls and Irish coffee, we set forth by bus.

The Beer (Brewer) Olympics was indeed the main item, but the most important thing on the program other than homebrew drinking was the Crawfish Feed, to which we will digress later. The many gallons of beer were for drinking, not judging, as is usually the case with homebrew gatherings.

The festival, now in its fourth year, has been held in Jennings, at the Gas and Oil Park (famous as the first oil well outside Pennsylvania built by the same person who built that first well in Pennsylvania) since its beginning in 1992. Jennings is just about half way between Houston and New Orleans, neutral ground for the festival participants. It should be noted here that the park is a "nonalcohol use park," but the mayor has always made an exception for this group.

Greg Marcantel, the mayor of Jennings, talks like a stand-up comedian, but he is coincidentally running for lieutenant governor of Louisiana. He welcomed us all, nominated all non-Louisianians to be honorary citizens, and further offered absentee ballots to all and sundry of such. In return he was given a festival T-shirt (which, he noted, was something he'd have to wear with care in his constituency, beer not being their most favored Biblical libation).

The day proved to be perfect, the best day they'd ever had for the event, in that there was a light breeze and sunshine as opposed to the heat and mugginess of normal weather at this time of the year. The 175 participants had a great time, although we did run out of beer for a while in the afternoon.

The Beer Brewer's Olympics

Six clubs fielded teams and competed for a traveling cup, which had been won by the Houston Foam Rangers in 1992, and for two years by the Crescent City Homebrewers in 1993-4. The five "Olympic" events are summarized below.

Keg Toss

Teams of three men and one woman; the men toss a half-barrel keg and the women a quarter-barrel keg. Each person was allowed two throws. Won by Crescent City.

Beer Chugging

Teams of four men and one woman, with each person drinking a 16-ounce pint and signaling finish by turning the mug upside down, at which time the next person starts his/her mug of beer. Houston was first here at 0:34.5 seconds.

Grain Grinding

This was a setup with a table-mounted Corona grain mill. Each contestant grinds 1.5 pounds of malt. Teams of four (male or female) with each member drinking a single beer. Crescent City in 3:25.66.

Bottle Filling and Capping

Teams of four here. Each contestant is required to run to the table, fill and cap six bottles, and return to tag the next team member. A timed event won by the Mystic Krew of Brew from Mandeville, LA, in 3:40.66.

Izzy Dizzy Stick Game

The final event was the one most appreciated by the spectators. Teams of five (four men, one woman) competed. Each team member runs 30 yards to a baseball bat and places one end of the bat against his/her forehead, the other to the ground. They circle the bat 10 times, maintaining contact, head to bat. A monitor counts the spins, and as each contestant completes the requirement, they have to find their way back to tag the next team member.

Needless to say, this resulted in a great number of humorous episodes as runners fell all over themselves in their efforts to return to the starting position. Won by Houston in 3:30.62.

Team Standings 1. Houston Foam Rangers. 2. New Orleans Crescent City Homebrewers. 3. Thibodaux, LA

The Great Crawfish Feed

In the midst of the above described events, everyone took time out to partake of a world class crawfish feed. One hundred seventy five of us ate 1,300 pounds of giant rice-paddy-bred crawfish. I saw folks go back to the trough several times and an 8-year-old boy haul off at least 3 pounds by himself.

The most interesting event at these "Olympics" was the closing ceremony, which consisted of people throwing cream pies (chocolate pudding, whipped cream, and chocolate syrup) at their six club presidents.

I've always known that leadership is nature's way of weeding morons from the work force but this was counter-productive. Cream pies are for beer and cream pie tastings; everyone knows that.

This column originally appeared in All About Beer magazine in September 1995.

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