At a time when Louisiana is in disrepair, Abita Beer is doing what it does best – brewing beer – to help raise money and awareness for the relief efforts.
On Friday, Abita Beer sponsored a “Capital City Pub Crawl” to unveil its newest beer, Abita Fleur-de-lis Restoration Ale.
The crawl, which has been a New Orleans tradition for the past eight years, was moved to Baton Rouge in the wake of the hurricanes.
David Blossman, president of Abita, said proceeds from the sale of the new ale will benefit the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation.
Blossman said that for every six-pack sold, one dollar will be donated. Abita is also selling pins with the fleur-de-lis on them as well as T-shirts and hats bearing the logo from the new beer and the slogan, “Rebuilding the Big Easy, one beer at a time.”
Blossman said the reason behind the sale of all of the T-shirts, pins, hats and beer is to make sure the rest of the country keeps the effort in Louisiana fresh on their minds.
“We want to bring awareness about the issue to the 30 states we distribute in,” Blossman said. “Locally, we know it’s going to be a long road. We don’t want people to forget.”
Blossman said one of the main reasons they decided to unveil the new ale in Baton Rouge is because it is becoming a bigger market for Abita.
Blossman said New Orleans was by far their biggest market, but now, Baton Rouge has picked up the slack.
He said he is not sure why people are drinking more. He said it could be because a lot of people are not working as much – and beer is a good drink in moderation – there are more people in Baton Rouge now or people are trying to help local businesses like Abita stay in business.
“Frankly, we’re hardly missing a beat right now,” Blossman said. “Demand is encouraging so far. We haven’t come close to filling the orders in the pipeline. We’ve been very busy trying to keep up.”
Frank McMains, owner of Red Star bar, said he has decided to stock the new Abita Restoration Ale.
Red Star was one of four bars – including SoGo Live, Happy’s Irish Pub and the Roux House – that participated in the crawl.
McMains said that Red Star ran out of the new ale as well as most of the other Abita products during the pub crawl.
McMains said in the future, he plans to stock about the same amount of Restoration Ale as Abita Amber.
“We’re happy to be serving …, happy to do our part. Especially if it involves beer,” McMains said.
In addition to the beer proceeds going to the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, Blossman said Abita has sold about $50,000 worth of merchandise – 70 percent to 80 percent of which is going to the foundation.
“It’s something we feel really good about doing,” Blossman said. “We also think we’ve done a good thing. By donating money … and by creating awareness.”
Contact Zachary Broussard at
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