Biloxi Blonde beer returns to Mississippi’s Beau Rivage
The recovery along the Mississippi Gulf from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 continues to this day.
And the good folks at the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Miss., which is owned by MGM Resorts International, are celebrating the return of Biloxi Blonde beer.
The hotel-casino’s in-house brewery was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina.
Beau Rivage officials lobbied the state’s legislature for permission to open a microbrewery and were the first to operate in Mississippi. Copper brew kettles from Germany were installed at the Coast Brewing Co. at the hotel and customers watched the brewers making the award-winning Biloxi Blonde and six other beers.
But along with the brewing equipment, the recipe for Biloxi Blonde was lost to Katrina. The Beau Rivage was closed for a year after the hurricane.
Recently, the Beau Rivage collaborated with Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company in Hancock County to bring the beer back. The beer was unveiled this past week at the casino’s Coast Nightclub.
"This is a new interpretation of that beer," Beau Rivage spokeswoman Mary Cracchiolo-Spain told the Biloxi Sun Herald in a story that appeared in USA Today. "It’s so much more than a beer. It’s really a comeback moment."
