Very excited to see Las Vegas’ newest brewery opening up next month. Henderson is looking to be the future of locally produced alcohol in this city, with not only Bad Beat, but also the Las Vegas Distillery, the winemaking business Grape Expectations, and later this year CraftHaus, all located in the same business park; or “The Booze District” as it is being called.
I can say that what makes me personally most excited about Bad Beat, is the hiring of Weston Barkley as their head brewer. I never personally had any of Weston’s homebrew, but I got to enjoy several of his beers while at Joseph James. Magic Sticke was his creation, and I can say that it is my favorite brown ale and I’m excited to see what he does at Bad Beat. Knowing that he prefers to create easy drinking, flavorful, balanced beers, I have no doubt that this will be reflected at Bad Beat, and you will be hard pressed to have any flavorless, fizzy beer.
Congrats on the grand opening. Full press release can be seen below. (more…)
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…)
Big news everyone! CraftHaus has officially announced the hiring of both their Head Brewer, along with Director of Research and Design Brewer. It is also quite possible that Steph Cope is not only the Head Brewer for CraftHaus, but possibly also the only female brewer in Nevada? Anyone have any word on that?
I’m very excited for what’s to come with CraftHaus as they start building out their brewery in the next couple months. Both Dave and Wyndee have worked their asses off to get to this point. Dave has been homebrewing and bottling everything himself each time CraftHaus pours at a festival, so I’m happy that he’s hired someone to do the brewing for him. He and Wyndee can now focus on their business and becoming ingraining CraftHaus into the local community. For the full press release, see below. For a photo of Dave, Wyndee, Steph, and Steve, look here:
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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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May 6th-9th, Goose Island is celebrating what they are calling ‘Migration Week,’ by visiting 32 different cities and having several different tap takeovers. Here in Las Vegas, they will be having several different tap takeovers, and beer and food events, featuring various vintages of different barrel aged beers!
Tuesday, May 6, from 6–9 PM at Atomic Liquors for our Kick Off Party
Beer List:
– Bourbon County Brand Stout ‘13
– Rasselbock ‘13
– Sofie
– Matilda
– 312 Urban Pale Ale
– 312 Urban Wheat
– Honker’s Ale
– IPA
– Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout ‘12
– Bourbon County Brand Vanilla Stout ‘10
Wednesday, May 7
3-5 PM: Chocolate and beer pairing at Whole Foods Las Vegas Boulevard
6-8 PM Growler station sampling at both Total Wine & More locations
6-8 PM Tap takeover at Khoury’s Fine Wine
7-9 PM Beer pairing dinner at Todd English PUB
Thursday, May 8
3-5 PM Beer and cheese pairing at Whole Foods Ft Apache
6-8 PM Tap takeover at Money Plays UPDATE: This is a 3 day takeover, carrying over into Friday and Saturday!
Friday, May 9
3-5 PM Chocolate and beer pairing at Whole Foods Green Valley
6–8 PM at Aces & Ales for a Happy Hour Tap Takeover
Beer List:
– Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout ‘12
– Lolita ‘10
– Juliet ‘10
– Bourbon County Brand Cherry Rye ‘12
– Bourbon County Brand Stout ‘09
– Bourbon County Brand Stout ‘13
– Rasselbock ‘13
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
This upcoming Saturday, the largest beer festival in Las Vegas will take place downtown. If you haven’t already, purchase your tickets here.
Assuming you have your tickets, the next course of action is to take a look at the festival map here. Start planning out which booths you want to visit, to ensure that you get samples of all the beers that you are interested in. Keep in mind though that not all beers are available all at once, and many breweries will tap a new beer each hour.
Probably one the most easily forgotten tips of a beer festival is to drink plenty of water and eat plenty of food. The purpose of this beer festival is to “discover beer.” This should be an opportunity to learn more about what types of beers you prefer and give you an opportunity to try something new. Hopefully, a newfound appreciation can be started for something unexpected. Of course, the only way for any of this to make any impact, is if you can remember what beers you are sampling.
Water is typically available to all attendees for free, so be sure to take advantage of it. Additionally, if you purchased a VIP ticket, then not only can you enter the festival an hour earlier than everyone else, but your food for the day is included in the price of the ticket. There are also plenty of food booths and trucks are available for anyone to purchase from.
Be safe, and have fun. It’s going to be a great event. And if you happen to run into us, be sure to say hi! Follow @hookedonhops on twitter to see photos and updates from the event!
“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…)