Third Coast Cuisine

Starting Friday June 11th the Mobile Bay Area will be hosting Alabama Beer Week - a weekend celebration that would thrill Friar Tuck.  After all it was the mythical warrior monk who stated, "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

The first night kicks off with  arguably Mobile's top chef Chakli Diggs hosting a a beer dinner at his popular downtown eatery, NoJa.  Diggs combines culinary tradition and molecular gastronomy for a style that is unique along the Third Coast which makes him the prefect chef to pair five courses with five of Colorado's top brews from Great Divide Brewing Company and Tommyknocker Colorado Mountain Brewery.  The beer dinner is at 6:30 PM.  If you can't make that, Jim Schwab of Tommynkocker will be hosting a "night of beer" at Hopjacks on Dauphin St.

On Saturday the 12th Free the Hops and the South Alabama Film Festival partner to occupy the Fiver Rivers Delta Center for a special one-time showing of the new documentary Beer Wars.  The film takes the viewer behind the scenes of the battle between Big Beer and small artisan beer makers for the hearts of American beer lovers.  The film will be followed by tasting that includes Back Forty Naked Pig American Pale Ale, Back Forty Stop Honey Brown Ale (featuring honey from a local apiary) and Tommyknocker Hop Strike Black-Rye IPA (a recently released limited addition in honor of the state of Alabama's first year anniversary since the passage of the Gourmet Beer Bill which was spearheaded by Free the Hops).  Tickets for this event are $25 and can be purchased online at TicketLeap.

I doubt I can make the beer dinner but you just may see me sampling suds at Hopjack and most assuredly at Five Rivers on Saturday night.  You must be 21 years of age for all events.

I'll leave you with another Tuckism, "This is grain, which any fool can eat, but for which the Lord intended a more divine means of consumption... Beer!"