Local Las Vegas brewery, Joseph James, has not only a gluten-free beer, but the first gluten free beer to be canned!
Also notable, this is one of the few gluten free beers that doesn’t use sorghum, the typical barley replacement. Instead, Joseph James says it uses “organic rices and nectars.” The taste of this pale ale is very light, dry, and crisp. This light flavor profile, along with the low alcohol content, hides the fact that there is no barley in this beer. The American hops give Fox Tail a light grapefruit citrus taste.
The beer paired well with the sausage, mushroom, onion pizza I was eating. The lightness in the beer allowed the vegetables on the pizza to still be present with each bite. This is an ideal beer for any sort of meal involving primarily vegetables with little seasoning.
Since Joseph James is a local brewery, you can find their beers at nearly every beer retailer in town.
I am very excited to announce that we have finally launched version 2.0 of Hooked on Hops! In addition to the new look of the site, here are a few new features:
#hookedonhops – If you take any beer photos on Instagram, tag it #hookedonhops to see it here!
@hookedonhops – Twitter feed is now displayed as well, for those who are not following us on Twitter.
We also added some menu items. This is so relevant articles can be easily found, rather than being lost in the blog timeline:
Food – All posts related to beer and food will be here. Recipes, food pairings, restaurants and more.
Beerology – All the beer “how-to’s” and educational pieces here. All the homebrewing articles and “Science of Beer” articles can be found here.
Las Vegas – The topics vary quite a bit on this site, but we wanted to make sure that all the articles that are about local Las Vegas breweries, retailers and events can be easily found as well.
Special thanks to Danny Szeto (@gatr) for designing the new look!
The above image greets you when you visit Public House’s website. There are billboards in town with a business suit dressed chimpanzee holding an American flag. While the concept of a gastropub is traditionally English, Public House is quintessentially American.
The interior resembles a library. Dark wood covers the floors with bookshelves holding various old books, ornaments and antiques. The decorations typically have an American theme. Pen drawings of American Flags or founding fathers are displayed.
Where to start? Public House is home to the only Certified Cicerone in the state of Nevada, and as such, has an impressive beer list. There are roughly 200 beers to choose from, primarily in bottles, ranging from German lagers to Belgian abbey ales, and from French farmhouse ales to American IPAs and even a few sours and barrel aged beers. They also regularly keep a beer available on cask. During my visit the cask beer was Deschutes Black Butte Porter. The cask version gave this beer a very soft and smooth texture. It retained it’s dark chocolatey taste while feeling very light texture-wise. I also tasted Stillwater’s Existent, a dark farmhouse ale. A lot of plum aromas paired with grape flavors. Despite the dark, fruity flavors, the beer was still refreshingly light.
Both beers paired perfectly with the hearty, rich food that Public House has to offer. Appetizer was the Welsh Rarebit. “Cheddar-Beer Sauce on Toast” as the menu described. The cheese sauce tasted like it was comprised of a dark malty beer with a little mustard, possibly even Worcestershire sauce? The bread was perfectly crusty to contrast the creamy cheese sauce on top.
I opted to try the Pub Burger for the main course. Maybe it was the bacon marmalade, the Guinness aioli, or the gruyére cheese, but this was one of the best burgers I’ve had in Las Vegas. The grass-fed beef was juicy and the toppings complimented it with rich cheese and sweet bacon. Despite the flavorful ingredients, the burger was perfectly balanced with no one aspect dominating the others. This is a difficult burger to eat in one sitting, but it’s even more difficult to stop eating it!
Other items on the menu include fried quail served with waffles, roasted bone marrow served with bacon, and various steaks, and shellfish. There is also grilled octopus, duck confit, and a foie gras parfait.
Public House is located in the Venetian resort on the strip. They use the best quality ingredients and have a renowned chef. As such, the prices reflect this. The quality of food definitely matches the price and this restaurant is worth every penny. That said, the beer prices are also higher than most places in Las Vegas. Bottles start at $7 for 12oz and drafts start at $8. You are likely to end up paying about $10 a beer if you want to drink the less common stuff. Yes, the beers are priced high, but you are likely not going to find most of these beers anywhere else in town. Even still, this place is completely worth it for the food alone.
Rye is an acquired taste. I for one cannot stand rye bread. I do, however, enjoy rye beers. Many people either like one, or the other. Or neither. Rye adds a harsh, rustic, peppery taste in beers. This makes Sierra Nevada’s Ruthless Rye the perfect beer for rotisserie chicken. 
Ruthless Rye is a new IPA from Sierra Nevada that was just released about a month ago. The hop bitterness is very similar to their Torpedo IPA. This means that the aroma is also very citrusy, with an orange marmalade kind of sweetness. The rye in this beer gives this IPA a very different level of flavor and taste. This is not a smooth beer, instead there is a strong, harsh bitterness that can only be found in rye beers. 
Unless you’re fancy enough to know how to make a rotisserie chicken, I recommend you go buy one at the grocery store. Chop up said chicken and eat it while drinking this beer. The peppery rye will match perfectly with the pepper and herb seasoning. The sweet, citrusy taste will match the caramelized skin on the chicken. Finally, the carbonation and bitterness will cut through the fat and lift the flavor off your tongue, preparing you for your next bite. 
UPDATE: Joseph James commented on Twitter regarding how to find the new recipes:
Red Fox 4-packs, Lager cans, Gluten Free (Fox Tail) cans, and Weize Guy bottles that do not have the word ‘light,’ are new. As for Tahoe and Hop Box, look for Tahoe 22oz and Hop Box 4-pack bottles. In about a month all beer in the market should be the new recipes regardless of package. These recipes have been evolving over a year so there are newer versions on the shelf.
This past Wednesday, Joseph James re-launched their brand at Khoury’s Fine Wine.
Earlier this year, the brewery hired Alex Graham as the new head brewer. They then began the process of seeking honest feedback about their beers and rewriting all the recipes to match what they wanted to represent their brand. From what I understand, every recipe of theirs was changed. Some beers were completely rewritten from scratch, others were slightly modified.
At Khoury’s, the brewery staff was on hand giving free samples of all of their beers. I didn’t try all of them, but here’s a recap of what I did try:
Tahoe Blue Pale Ale: I had never tried this beer before, so I can’t compare it to the old recipe. I can say though that this is a very solid pale ale. Very crisp, bright and refreshing. On the hoppier side for a pale ale, so it’s got a nice bitterness up front before the dry, citrusy finish.
Hop Box Imperial IPA: Previously, I always had mixed results with this beer. I’ve always thought it was a decent beer, but it was never bitter enough, or had enough hop aroma. The new recipe takes care of all of that. Very strong upfront bitterness with a wave of grapefruit aroma. Less sweet malts are used to keep the focus on the hops. Overall, this is a great IPA.
Red Fox Imperial Stout: The old version was a good stout, but had a bit of thin mouthfeel. This new version feels like a stout should. It has a dark roasted espresso taste and it’s also a bit smokier too, with an almost ashy, vanilla finish.
Joseph James is also experimenting with new beers as well. The first 48 customers at Khoury’s had received one of Joseph James’ “rough draft” beers. I was able to snag a bottle of Toasted Coconut Pumpkin Porter. The other rough draft beer available was S’mores Porter.
I picked up all of their beers so I’ll get to try the rest that I didn’t try that night and write about them here.
Thank you to everyone who came by Tenaya Creek this past Tuesday for the stout and cake event. We all had a blast drinking awesome beer and eating Goran’s amazing cake! Hopefully in the future we can plan more of these types of events!
Thanks to Justin Massongill for the photos
Hello,
Today we will be Tiramisu with a twist. Instead of using Rum and Espresso we will be using Beer Geek Breakfast. You can find the review on the beer in the previous post on HookedOnHops.com
On to Cooking!
Ingredients:
- 3/4 c Cold Heavy Cream
- 2 ea Eggs
- 1 c Confectioner’s Sugar
- 2 1/2 t Pure Vanilla Extract
- 2 ea (8 oz) Tubs Mascarpone Cheese at toom temperature.
- 2 c Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast
- 40 ea Ladyfinger Cookies
- 1/2 c Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
Preparation:
- In a chilled bowl, whip the Cream until stiff peaks form, making sure not to overbeat. Cover the bowl when done and set it aside in the refrigerator.
- In another bowl, beat Eggs and Salt until the volume doubles and the color lightens. Add the Sugar, Vanilla and Mascarpone. Mix gently until incorporated.
- Fold in the whipped cream and then set aside in the refrigerator.
- In a shallow dish quickly dunk both sides of the Ladyfingers. Arrange them in a single layer in an 8 inch square dish.
- Spread the layer of Mascarpone mixture over the Ladyfingers. Sprinkle on a liberal amount of cocoa using a fine mesh sieve. Repeat the layers, using all the Ladyfingers and Mascarpone mixture, and generously dusting with Cocoa again.
- Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.
Notes:
Beeramisu will keep covered and refrigerated for up to 2 days.
The final product will look like this:
The short article above points out that while Dogfish Head and Sam Adams may argue their “overrated” status as simply a result of their popularity, the truth is that a majority of the posts on the Beer Advocate thread that started all this, was based on the quality of product not matching the price charged for some of the more hyped beers.
I can see both sides of this argument. It is understandable that if you are going to spend more money on something, you expect it to be better than something that costs less. The other factor however, is that some beers simply cost more to make. Dogfish Head makes several seasonal beers that cost anywhere from $8-$16 for a 25 oz bottle. These beers will include ingredients that are not typically in traditional beers, causing the beer to cost more to produce and in turn, more to buy. However, most of these beers are unlike anything that costs less, both in magnitude of flavor and texture. Due to the intensity of these beers, an individual’s personal taste preferences play a much bigger role.
This leads me to believe that the reason people find Dogfish Head overrated, is because of both price and popularity. I think this is an overarching issue for craft beer in general; public interest in craft beer has grown tremendously without public knowledge of craft beer growing to match the interest. Many consumers are buying the higher end craft beers without fully understanding what it is exactly they are spending their money on, why it costs the way it does and when it would be appropriate to drink said beer.
Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA costs around $8-$10 a six pack. 120 Minute IPA costs the exact same, but for only one 12 oz bottle. It has close to the same amount of ingredients as the six pack and takes much longer to produce. Economically, it makes sense why it costs what it does. However, this is not a “better” beer and it can never take the place of 60 Minute IPA in the situations where 60 Minute really shines. If you are having a barbecue on a hot summer day, I do not recommend you drink a six pack of a sweet, syrupy, 18% alcohol beer.
What is the right way to price beers? For beers brewed in America, I feel the current prices make sense. Granted, I’m comfortable enough in my knowledge to know what I’m getting into if I decide to spend a bit more on something. I’ve rarely (if ever?) spent more than $10 on a beer and didn’t like it. This isn’t to say that I have some sort if refined palate or anything, I just know what styles I appreciate and enjoy more and what styles are on the opposite end of that spectrum. There are certainly beers I would not pay more than $10 on. Not because they are bad beers, they are simply not styles that I like enough to spend that much on. I’ll happily spend more on a good barley wine or stout, but a Flanders ale? Not so much.
But what tools are available to the average consumer who may not know what their preferences are? As craft beer becomes more popular, I see the need for more professionals who have a strong knowledge of beer being needed in customer facing environments to help guide the consumers to the best choice for them. The staff at a retailer, restaurant or bar should be knowledgeable enough on their selection to help guide and educate consumers on what beers they should try and which ones they should be steering clear of. Otherwise, without these resources we are doomed to continue in the future of these polar views of what beer is good and what is overrated.
Good post continuing on Sam Calagione’s Beer Advocate post and Armando’s recent article on craft beer and metal.
Looking for some of the best and rarest beer you can find in Las Vegas? Head to Aces and Ales and let Ryan, Sumi and crew serve it up for you! Check out acesandales.com for more info! We hope to see you there!
