In two weeks there’s several beer pairing dinners happening in Las Vegas featuring local breweries Tenaya Creek and CraftHaus!

First up, CraftHaus is partnering up with Crossroads at House of Blues for a 3-course dinner featuring 5 beers on the Tuesday the 23rd. Tickets are $65 and can be found here.

Then on Thursday the 25th, Tenaya Creek is hosting a 5-course dinner at Tapas by Stratta in Tivoli Village. Cost is $45 and reservations can be made by contacting Tapas by Stratta beverage manager Peter Vitolo at (702) 494-7202 or peter@alexstrattagroup.com

Finally on Friday the 26th, CraftHaus is once again returning to Mandalay Bay, this time at Rx Boiler Room, for a 4-course dinner, featuring the restaurant and CraftHaus’ collaboration beer, Gone With the Wit, featuring a blend of locally sourced flowers, herbs and botanicals from Desert Bloom Eco Farm infused into the beer. Tickets are $60 and can be made by emailing info@rxboilerroom.com or calling 702-632-9900.

Contrary to what may be suggested, I do enjoy wine. Typically just the red varieties though. While I am clearly a bit biased, I’ve always believed that beer can pair better with food than wine. That belief mostly stems from my limited knowledge of wine compared to the amount of time that I’ve spent studying beer. Nevertheless, I was very excited to not only attend a wine pairing dinner, but a wine and beer pairing dinner. This allows for a great opportunity to compare differences in how both wine and beer can pair with food.

Last week miX Restaurant, located at the the top of the Mandalay Bay hotel, hosted a dinner with both Firestone Walker Brewing Company and Herman Story Wines. Russell From, owner and winemaker for Herman Story, was present. Russell, along with Mandalay Bay’s Director of Wine, Harley Carbery, represented Team Wine. Team Beer was represented by Matt Brynildson, brewmaster for Firestone Walker, and Mandalay Bay’s Director of Food and Beverage, Sarah Johnson. (more…)

Madame Rose is a bitch. You wouldn’t know it from meeting her; she’s actually very friendly and personable. But to those who have to work with her: Madame Rose is a bitch. I met Madame Rose last week, while attending a Goose Island beer pairing dinner at Todd English. The darkly lit restaurant featured several of Goose Island’s barrel aged beers, and a very unique and diverse food menu.

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Sarah Johnson, Certified Cicerone and director of food and beverage for Mandalay Bay, is hosting quite a few awesome beer events in May.

Most notable of these events, is a beer vs wine dinner, featuring Matt Brynildson of Firestone Walker and Russell P. from Herman Story Wines. More details and tickets for the event can be found here.

Additionally, Mandalay Bay will have several events happening during American Craft Beer Week (5/12-5/18):

Craft Beer Beach Party @ Mandalay Beach Sun Villas
Monday 5/12, 5pm-7pm
$60 per person, all inclusive
Join Mandalay Bay’s Beer Team in a celebration of American Craft Beer Week, and learn how to throw the best pool party in your neighborhood!
Enjoy four different dishes prepared by Mandalay Bay Beach Chefs and taste some of the best craft beer America has to offer in the glamorous VIP setting of Mandalay Beach Sun Villas. Buy tickets here.

Drink Beer, Get Smart! @ eyecandy Lounge
Wednesday 5/14, 6-7:30pm
$50 per person, all inclusive
Join Mandalay Bay’s Beer Team in a celebration of American Craft Beer Week, and learn a little something too! Sample 7 different American craft beer styles and get the chance to win awesome prizes – including the beloved and limited Goose Island Bourbon County Stout! Buy tickets here.

Celebrate American Craft Beer Week with Happy Hour @ Fleur Lounge
$28 includes your choice of two flights (food and beer!) designed for American Craft Beer Week. Excludes tax and gratuity. Available Monday 5/12 through Sunday 5/18, from 5pm-8pm each day.
IPA FLIGHT
kushi oysters – yuzu shaved ice with Firestone Walker Easy Jack Session IPA
grilled octopus – patatas bravas, spanish pepper aioli with Lagunitas IPA
spicy thai chicken wings – crispy garlic, lime with Ballast Point Sculpin IPA
PORTER FLIGHT
black angus sliders – caramelized onions, bacon, campari tomato with Sierra Nevada Porter
bbq pork ribs st louis pork ribs – chinese bbq sauce, sesame with Deschutes Black Butte Porter
brownie lollipop – milk chocolate mousse, dark chocolate ganache, cocoa nibbs with Anchor Porter

“Oh, sweet friends! hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than hazel nuts, mixed with pounded ship biscuit, and salted pork cut up into little flakes; the whole enriched with butter, plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt.”
—Ishmael; Moby Dick

Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione, being the literary nerd that he is, worked with a Delaware clam harvester to recreate the clam chowder found in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. Calagione took some liberties with the recipe, and assumed that Melville left out IPA when writing up the recipe. Thus, Dogfish Head’s Hard Tack Chowder was born; made with 60 Minute IPA! I procured a can of said chowder (“chowdah” for those of you in the northeast) and went to work following the simple directions on label.

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You would have to be living under a rock to not see the impact that ciders are making on the beverage industry. Angry Orchard from Sam Adams is currently dominating the market with both Anheuser Busch and MillerCoors adding additional cider brands to their already existing labels. Sadly, these ciders do not do the style justice. That’s what we have Tieton Cider Works for.

I’ve had a few of Tieton’s ciders, and while I found them all to be very enjoyable, and extremely food friendly, I am immensely drawn to one particular cider of theirs.

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Yesterday, in partnership with The Great Vegas Festival of Beer, Joseph James Brewing Company held a special event at the brewery to celebrate the upcoming festival and the partnership of Nevada Craft Brewer’s Association.

Firstly, Joseph James debuted a beer brewed as the festival’s official beer: Sweet ‘N Funky Desert Junkie. The beer is an easy drinking 5% alcohol blonde ale brewed with local desert honey and Saaz hops. In my tasting of the beer, I found it to be extremely refreshing, with a sweet and floral finish. Saaz hops are a favorite of mine in a style like this because they contribute a sort of herbally, spice character that provides some earthiness to a beer. (more…)

The wife got me a subscription to Mantry for Christmas. If you are too lazy to click that link, Mantry can be best summed up as a food snob of the month club geared towards men. In addition to receiving a pound of bacon, gourmet fried pork skins, bacon toffee chocolate, and a few other things, I also received a bottle of Bloody Mary concentrate. The thing is, I’m not really a fan of Bloody Marys. I don’t like tomato juice, and I don’t get the point of vodka (seriously, what’s the point? It doesn’t taste like anything!). So, I went ahead and did the only thing that I know how to do: I mixed it in beer. (more…)

2013 was a great year for us and we want to thank you all for continuing to read and share our articles, tagging your photos #hookedonhops, and saying hello to us when we are out at a bar or festival. We appreciate all of it, and we are excited for what’s to come in 2014!

In the meantime, I have compiled the articles and topics that were the most popular over the past year. Enjoy! (more…)

We have created new Emily and Melissa Drink Beer videos! First up, Full Sail Brewing Company’s 2012 Old Boardhead Barleywine Ale.

For additional backstory behind these videos, read below

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