Port Orleans Brewing Company

Some breweries begin with a homebrewing kit in a garage. Others start out big. Port Orleans Brewing Company belongs among the latter.

Within four months of the New Orleans-based brewery’s opening in 2017, Port Orleans was running with a 30-barrel system that produced beer for 110 taps. The company’s can line was set up and they were already distributing to local bars and restaurants. If you found yourself driving down Interstate 10 through New Orleans, you’d see billboards with Port Orleans’ logo and tagline, “Brewed Below Sea Level.” Pardon the nautical pun, but from the beginning Port Orleans was intent on making a splash in the brewery community.

Port Orleans certainly has a strong presence in New Orleans, with a spacious taproom and a restaurant, Avo Taco. The Latin-influenced menu includes a variety of specialty tacos, plus sophisticated bar foods (burgers, wings and quesadillas) and nearly a dozen varieties of guacamole.

In the taproom, you’ll find 16 taps with a regularly changing selection of seasonal and experimental beers, as well as Port Orleans’ flagships including Riverfront Lager, Vice Versa Hazy Juicy IPA, Riverfront Low Tide (a low-calorie lager), Bucktown Brown, Kennerbrau Kolsch, Sandbar Beach Ale, Vice Versa (a hazy IPA) and Dorada (a Mexican-style lager).