Tin Roof Brewing Co.’s official LSU beer doesn’t have an exact launch date quite yet, but it has nailed down a style thanks to Tiger fans and Baton Rouge residents.
The Baton Rouge-based brewer announced today that its licensed LSU beer, Bayou Bengal, will be fashioned as a premium American lager. A blind tasting panel, made up of area residents and fans, helped make the choice. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the applicant pool for the panel was massive, Tin Roof says.
“The response was overwhelming, and we were only able to include 5 percent of the applicants to participate in the two panels,” says Rivers Hughey, Tin Roof’s director of marketing and special events, in a statement. “The good news is that we’re going to host a pre-release party at the tap room for everyone who applied to be on the panel, so they can be the first to taste Bayou Bengal.”
The lucky participants chosen attended the panel earlier this month and sampled eight different beers. After tallying up votes and sifting through the feedback, Tin Roof deemed the premium American lager as “the winner, by far,” with the brew earning such comments as “great, solid beer” and “consistent from first to last sip.”
“There were no less than five distinct Beer Judge Certification Program styles represented in the slate of eight,” says Tin Roof CEO Audra Gaiziunas in a statement. “We had a fantastic time, and those who attended provided outstanding and detailed feedback.”
LSU and Tin Roof revealed back in May that the craft beer maker had been tapped to pump out an official Bayou Bengal brew. Tin Roof had approached LSU with the idea several years ago, but university officials nixed it at the time. Several months ago, Tin Roof Brewing co-founder William McGehee reached back out to LSU to give the partnership another try.
The timeline for the beer is to produce it “as soon as possible,” the Tin Roof news release says. Company officials, though, hope it’ll be in tailgaters’ hands by the first LSU football game this fall.
