If you’ve been following us on Twitter, you’ve probably heard me say quite a few times, “perfect beer for summer!” I’m starting to lose track of all these summer beers I’m recommending, so I thought I’d try and compile them all for you here. Feel free to chime in with your favorite summer beers.

New Belgium Tart Lychee – Definitely one of my new favorite beers. I fully admit that I don’t exactly know what lychee tastes like, but the fruitiness in this beer reminds me of cranberry, grape, and a little bit of pear. The sweet fruitiness in the beer gives a little bit of a crisp, tart edge upfront, making it taste a little like a flavored lemonade. Just the right amount of cinnamon is added as well giving a lightly spicy finish. Surprisingly, this is 8.5% alcohol, but the dry body and slightly sweet, slightly sour taste hides it well.

Maui Brewing Sobrehumano Palena ‘ole – This is a collaboration beer made with Jolly Pumpkin. The current version that is available is Maui’s version. This is a red ale made with liliko’i (some Hawaiian fruit) and cherries. The fruit gives this beer a nice tart flavor, but not as tart as New Belgium’s Tart Lychee. Again the light, crisp body and subtle fruitiness make this a very refreshing beer.

Stone Smoked Porter W/ Chipotle Peppers/Vanilla Bean – Stone has just released these two variations of their popular Smoked Porter. One is similar to an ice cream beer float, the other is similar to a Mexican molé sauce. However, hese smokey, delicious bastards are not available in Nevada. If you’ve ever had one of these at a beer festival, then you know that it is worth the trip to Southern California.

New Belgium Shift – This is basically the perfect “anytime” beer. It’s in a can, so you can safely take it anywhere. Perfect replacement for a cheap, light lager. This is a dry, crisp lager with a nice cracker like malt character and it is firmly hopped for a nice bitter edge. The light body and alcohol content makes this ideal for drinking outside when it’s over 100 degrees.

Uinta Baba Black Lager – All the benefits of a lager: light body, dry, and crisp; with all the benefits of a dark beer: roasty, malt flavor and goes great with the dark, charred bits of barbecued food.

One more, because I can never have enough favorite beers:

Stone Levitation – This is a low alcohol, session ale. The 4.4% alcohol content is similar to a Coors Light, but the difference being that this beer has a healthy dose of hops and colorful malt bill, giving this beer the same refreshing, light body of a light lager, but with a surprisingly complex flavor.

*All photos came from the respective breweries’ websites.

With Father’s Day coming up, I feel it is my civic duty to educate any people who may be buying gifts for their hop loving dads. As a father myself, trust me when I say that your father does not want a tie, or slippers for Father’s Day. As Hank Hill would say, they may want “beer, and beer related accessories!”. Read on for some great local ideas for the male parental unit that you love!

Tenaya Creek

General Manager Karl Herrera of Tenaya Creek Brewery has devised a fantastic gift for fans of great, local craft brews. For just $45, you will receive a wax sealed, brewer autographed growler full of their delicious Old Jackalope Barleywine, which is perfect for aging (and ages beautifully), as well 22oz bombers of both their Calico Brown Ale and Hop Ride IPA. With three distinct, delicious beverages…how could you go wrong?

For more info visit: Tenaya Creek Father’s Day Package

Aces and Ales
Website

As of yet, Aces and Ales is not doing anything fancy for Father’s Day…however, how about surprising dad with a 07.07.07 Vertical Epic from Stone, or perhaps a bottle of 14th Anniversary Firestone Walker? With an extensive list of hard to fine and aged bottles, Aces and Ales is a great choice if you want to pick up something unique. Or, why not treat your pops to some great tap beer and food on his special day? Either way, it is sure to put a smile on even the pickiest beer-lover’s face.

Khoury’s Fine Wine and Spirits
Website

What can I say about Khoury’s? Imagine a place when you can get a great craft beer on tap, and then shop for beer while enjoying it! Khoury’s is truly a beer geek’s dream come true! Head on in, grab a glass, and then take a gander through their extensive selection of beer, whiskey, wine, and even glassware. Khoury’s would be the perfect place to pick up your father’s favorite beer, pack it with a glass featuring his favorite birthday, and perhaps get him his favorite whiskey to boot. Oh, and did I mention that you can do all of this while enjoying a drink yourself?

Whole Foods on Las Vegas Blvd

Whole Foods on Las Vegas Blvd. rivals any destination in town for their great selection of fermented craft goodness. Pick up a gift card for your dad, and let him go to town! You can also speak with their Beer Specialist, Chris Brown, and let him help you pick out a beer that will go straight to your old man’s heart. I would love to recommend every Whole Foods in town, but the one at Town Square just plain leaves the rest of them it he dust.

Do you have any great beer related gift ideas of your own? We’d love to hear them! Please feel free to share the love in the comments field below, or send us an e-mail.

Despite being released in December, Tweason’ale is finally available in Las Vegas. I found some at the Whole Foods on Las Vegas Boulevard, but I’m sure it is likely available anywhere else that sells Dogfish Head’s beers.

Tweason’ale is Dogfish Head’s first attempt at making a gluten free beer. As they put it, they wanted to “make it with gusto.” They used sorghum, as most gluten free beers do (except for Joseph James’ Foxtail, which is one of few gluten free beers that do not use sorghum) as the base of the beer. To try and some more flavor to the beer, they also added buckwheat honey, which typically has bit of a malty, earthy taste in comparison to most other honeys. And since it is Dogfish Head we are talking about here, they also added strawberries for good measure.

The result is a beer that almost has more in common, flavor-wise, to wine than it does to beer. The sorghum is barely, if at all, present. The body is very dry and crisp, similar to a lager or white wine. There isn’t any obvious strawberry flavors, however there is a hint of acidity from the berries, which also makes this beer taste more similar to white wine in that regard. The aftertaste leaves some honey sweetness to make the finish not quite as acidic as most wines tend to be.

All in all a very refreshing beer, but probably not for most beer drinkers. If you are a fan of Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch or Chateau Jiahu, then you are likely to enjoy this beer as well. Definitely worth trying nonetheless, especially now that Spring seems to be in full effect.

I am pleased to announce that we have now created a space for ourselves on Facebook here.

Much like this site and our twitter account, our Facebook page is not just meant for us, but for all of you as well. Just like the sidebar on this site (desktop version only), and just like our twitter feed, if you post a craft beer picture on Instagram, and tag it #hookedonhops, it will be posted to a special #hookedonhops Facebook gallery for us all to comment on and enjoy together.

We know that not all of our followers use Twitter, so hopefully this allows will allow us to be more involved with all of you who have been following the site. Please, tell your friends to “Like” us and feel free to use our wall as a way to share your beer with the rest of us.

Enjoy

Stone returns to Aces & Ales this year for Stone Domination on May 18th-20th. CEO and co-founder Greg Koch will be in attendance on the 18th for a meet and greet.
$15 gets you a 9oz Stone-etched tasting glass with your first fill included. Tasters are $4 each after that. Or you can get 12oz pours of all beers for $7 if you’d rather do without the commemorative glass.

Aces and Ales released the tap list for this event at the Great Vegas Festival of Beer. I’ve included it below for reference. You don’t want to miss this!

– Bruery/Elysian/Stone La Citrueille Cèleste de Citracado
– Jason Fields and Kevin Sheppard/Troegs/Stone Cherry Chocolate Stout
– Bottleworks 13th Anniversary Ale by Stone Brewing Co
– Stone 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout Aged in Bourbon Barrels
– Stone 14th Anniversary Emperial IPA
– Stone 15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA
– Arrogant Bastard Ale
– Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale
– 2011 Double Bastard Ale
– Cali-Belgique IPA
– 2010 Stone Imperial Russian Stout
– 2008 Stone Imperial Russian Stout Aged in Bourbon Barrels
– 2011 Stone BELGO Anise Imperial Russian Stout
– Stone IPA
– Stone LeVariation Ale
– Stone Levitation Ale
– Stone Mix Tape – GK & LU’s Blend Vol. 1
– 2010 Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine
– 2011 Stone Old Guardian BELGO Barley Wine
– Stone Pale Ale
– Punishment
– Stone Ruination Double Dry Hopped with Amarillo Hops
– Stone Smoked Porter
– Stone Smoked Porter with Chipotle Peppers
– Stone Smoked Porter with Vanilla Bean
– Double Dry Hopped Stone Sublimely Self Righteous Ale

April 21, 2012 marked the second annual Great Las Vegas Festival of Beer, held once again at Tivoli Village.  Last year’s festival was a bit underwhelming.  There was little room, and a strong lack of organization.  I’m pleased to say that this year, they seemed to alleviate both of those issues.  The space given to the event was three times larger, and the overall professionalism of the event was greatly improved. While I could do without loud bands playing throughout the event, I’m sure that many people enjoy the live music atmosphere.  Now…on to the beer!

My wife and I decided to be fancy and go with the VIP tickets this year.  This allowed us to enter an hour early, and to enter a “Brewer’s Lounge” with food and special beers.  The special beers were simply bottled Ommegang beers, which are available at most liquor stores, and Tailwagger Wheat, and Rebel Red from local Big Dog’s Brewery.  While these are all solid beers, there is nothing really special about them.  With that being said, the VIP tickets were worth the extra $10 for the early entry.  By the time Tivoli Village started filling up, we had already made one lap around the area.

I was very happy to find some nice surprises amongst the beer selections this year.  Noble Ale Works was in attendance, sampling their IPA, Pale Ale, and phenomenal Alpha Red.  Hopefully we will see these on Las Vegas shelves sooner than later!   (UPDATE: Khourey’s Fine Wine is currently carrying Noble Ale Works) Dogfish Head were pouring both their refreshing Aprihop, as well as their coveted 120 Minute IPA in the “Hop Tent.”   Stevens Point and Three Monkeys, both new to the Vegas market, were also in attendance.  I quite enjoyed the Brown Barrel Ale from the latter, and their Tres Vasqueros Amber Ale is about as fine of an amber ale as you will find!  I was only able to try the Cascade Pale Ale by Stevens Point, but it was a nice, if unspectacular pale ale.  Other breweries in attendance, included Wasatch, Squatters, Crispin Ciders, Unibroue, Green Flash, New Belgium, Left Coast, Uinta, Firestone Walker and Ballast Point.

Not to be outdone, Las Vegas’ locals had a fantastic showing of their own!  On hand were breweries, Tenaya Creek, Joseph James, Big Dog’s, and local craft beer bar Aces and Ales.  Aces and Ales were pouring two fantastic Rogue selections in XS Imperial IPA and Brutal IPA.  Tenaya Creek had a fine selection of their own local brews, including Calico Brown and their Hop Ride IPA, which made it to the Elite 8 in the National IPA Championships!  Thankfully, if you missed out on either of these brews, you can always visit the brewery year round!    Big Dog’s really managed to surprise me with their Alpha Dog double red imperial ale.  Big Dog’s has always been hit or miss for me, but this hoppy concoction won me over at first sip!  Last, but not least, is Joseph James.  Joseph James had their stellar Hop Box and Tahoe Blue on hand, but what really blew me away was their “experimental” crafts.  The first beer they unveiled was a Cherry Pie Blonde Ale.  In my opinion, this was a splendidly refreshing beer with nice subtle notes of cherries.  The second new brew that they unleashed, was appropriatley  titled Baby J’s German Chocolate Cake Stout.  All in all, this may have ended up being my favorite beer of the event!  Just as the name implies, this was German chocolate cake in a glass!  Big, chocolate and coffee stout flavors, with a perfectly balanced coconut flavor throughout.   I really hope this one ends up in a bottle someday soon!

Overall, I would highly recommend that any lover of craft beer does not miss this event next year!  Las Vegas craft beer needs your support, and the prices ($27 for regular, $37 for VIP) are very reasonable when you consider the amount of beer you will be experiencing!

A couple of weeks ago, New Belgium released their newest beer, Shift Pale Lager.

Shift Pale Lager tastes like a pale ale would if you fermented it with a lager yeast. The beer is super dry and crisp like a lager, but with more hops than any lager I’ve ever had. The hop presence is primarily very floral, it smells, and tastes, like fresh cut grass. It would definitely pair well with lawn mowing. It has a dry, cracker-like malt flavor with a nice bit of hop bitterness in the finish that lingers a around for a while. This is a very refreshing beer. Definitely perfect for the hot, sunny days here in Vegas.

New Belgium will be providing Shift Pale Lager year round, much like Fat Tire, Ranger IPA, 1554, and others. However, while those beers are available on draft, bottles, and cans (in the case of Fat Tire and Ranger IPA), Shift, on the other hand, will only be available in 16 oz cans. No bottles, no draft, only cans. But why cans? New Belgium is really pushing the idea of Shift being THE beer to reach for after your work shift (get it?). All the advertising and marketing depicts this being a beer that is enjoyed while working on the car, sitting by the pool, out at the park, basically the kinds of things people do to unwind. To that end, it is only available in cans simply because it is the cheapest way to make the beer as accessible as possible for every possible scenario. What I mean by that is, you can take a can anywhere! Usually public pools, parks, beaches, etc, do not allow glass. By only allowing consumers to purchase this in a can, they are allowing those who purchase it the freedom to take it anywhere they want to enjoy a beer.

It seems these days that most of the breweries jumping on the can bandwagon tout how eco-friendly cans are compared to glass, since they weigh less and are supposedly more recyclable. The week of Shift’s official launch, another well known brewery was tweeting out all the different ways that mining for bauxite, and the process to convert it into aluminum, is very harmful to the planet, and has caused toxic damages to the countries where it is mined. New Belgium went ahead and gave an honest answer to the sustainability of cans here. What they wrote matches my own personal research: There has been no comprehensive, UN-BIASED study comparing cans vs glass, and which is more sustainable. The fact is, can’s harmful mining requirements probably equal out to the increased fuel consumption that glass requires. Basically, it’s a wash. Neither are truly sustainable. If you care about sustainability, the only way to make either one more sustainable, is to recycle.

The main point here though is that Shift is a great beer and is the perfect solution to nearly every occasion. Canning this beer was a smart move in that it is a very accessible beer for nearly every environment. Is it better for the environment than glass? Who knows, but at least you can bring it to the pool, or take it hiking. Because let’s be honest, that’s all we really want, right?

Best part: Do you like beer? No? Go to another blog that better suits your interests!

More info on the brand new Shift Lager that was just released today here.

This Facebook post from Mikkeller is worth a read. It is a great example of the biggest issue craft beer has. Many consumers simply do not fully understand all the different aspects of what makes something from a brewer like Mikkeller truly craft, and why it’s worth paying more for. To clarify, I do not believe that a beer education is needed to enjoy craft beer, but it prevents issues like these from arising. Even if the customer in this story understood bottle fermentation or filtration, they probably still wouldn’t have liked the beer, but maybe they’d have been less likely to have purchased this particular beer and wouldn’t have shut out purchasing again from a great brewer like Mikkeller.

This is one of the main reasons I started Hooked on Hops. I want everyone to understand, appreciate, and enjoy good quality beer. Part of being able to do this requires creating a culture where you can learn and experience beer from knowledgable individuals. In Las Vegas, I recommend you visit any of the local breweries (like Tenaya Creek or Big Dog’s) or a craft beer retailer (like Khoury’s Fine Wine or Aces & Ales). These are places that have a culture of craft beer and have knowledgable employees who can guide you to the best decision.

Mikkeller’s response is perfect. I like that they are honest enough to share this letter publicly to try to do something to change consumer perception.

From the Brewers Association: