Dixie Brewery celebrates Mardi Gras, New Orleans heritage

For more than 106 years, the Dixie Brewery has stood tall, like a sentry on post watching over the progress and growth of the city with which she is so intricately linked – the great city of New Orleans. While the historic building was damaged during Hurricane Katrina and is now being lost in a bureaucratic tug of war, the beers of Dixie continue to flow nationwide. During that century of growth, Dixie has faced many battles and has always come out standing stronger and better. It plans to continue that tradition as it rebuilds.

“Lucky for us, with age comes wisdom,” said Dixie Beer Owner Joseph Bruno. “We have learned that character is cultivated in adversity, and brother, if you know anything about Dixie, you know we have character. If prohibition and two World Wars couldn’t knock us out, a hurricane named Katrina and a politically charged government land grab don’t stand a chance.”

Bruno and his wife, Kendra, were determined to continue to provide Dixie to its fans nationwide and needed something a little bigger than a FEMA trailer. From Wikipedia:

In 2005, the Dixie Brewery was severely damaged when Mid-City New Orleans flooded from the levee failure disaster during Hurricane Katrina. After the area was de-watered, the brewery complex was looted with much of the equipment stolen. Despite early claims that the brewery would be restored, it remains off line as of December 2010 and the future of the facilities is uncertain. The brand remains in business, brewed under contract by breweries elsewhere. The building sits in the footprint of the new Department of Veterans Affairs hospital under construction in New Orleans’ Mid-City neighborhood.

“Our good friends at Minhas Craft Brewery in Wisconsin were kind enough to take us in during our time of need,” Bruno said, where Dixie is monitored by its longtime New Orleans brewmaster Kevin Stuart. “While the recipe is a secret, we can say that the same soul and gris-gris is added to every bottle, giving Dixie beer lovers the same great taste generations have loved for more than a century.”

“There is no better time than Mardi Gras to recapture the spirit of New Orleans and there is no better way to do that than with an ice cold Dixie Lager, Blackened Voodoo or Dixie Jazz,” said Charles Stanley, national brand manager for Dixie.

This Fat Tuesday, Craft Brewing Business raises a pint to the perseverance of brave and bold craft brewers everywhere.