Chafunkta Brewing is Officially Legal!

Good news for Louisiana Beer, Chafunkta Brewing over in Mandeville is officially licensed and legal!  Chafunkta (formerly known as Pelican Brewing before changing their name to avoid any potential confusion with the Pelican Brewpub in Oregon) has been working toward this day for over a year and a half, including around 11 months worth of licensing process, so I know it's a huge success for founders Josh & Jamie Erickson.  

They have been serving their beer at festivals all over the state, like Zapp's in Baton Rouge and WYES in New Orleans but only at the not-for-profit festivals that allow breweries in planning and homebrewers to show off their work.  This important piece of paper will finally allow Chafunkta to start brewing beer commercially so before too long we should start seeing it on tap in bars, most likely confined to the Mandeville area first, but as they grow, who knows?

As those of you who have made it to the aforementioned festivals know, Cahfunkta is leading with their two flagship brews, the Voo Ka Ray Imperial IPA, and the Old 504 Robust Porter.  The Voo Ka Ray is expected to come in around 7.5% and be a very well balanced IIPA with a lot of late-hopping rather than full boil bittering hops.  The Old 504 is a coffee and vanilla inspired porter that should be around 6%.  I've tried both over the years and they will be fantastic additions to the local lineup.  And I have no doubt that Josh and Jamie have a full list of brews in the works as well.    

Their first official event as a commercial brewery will be the New Orleans International Beer Festival on March 9th, and Josh told me that they expect the initial commercial bar roll out to be during the first week of April.  When I know the exact dates and locations I'll pass them on, but you can bet I'll be there if I can.

That's all for now, huge congrats to Josh and Jamie and everyone else at Chafunkta Brewing, I'm looking forward to drinking some soon!