Las Vegas Brewing News

Three Sheets Adds Tasting Room for Astronomy and Mojave

The ever-popular Three Sheets craft beer bar in the Arts District has given us another reason to stop in. Its second level is now a dedicated taproom for local breweries Astronomy Aleworks and Mojave Brewing, bringing a downtown presence for each. The nine taps are divided between the two and during my visit the day after the launch, taps included Astronomy’s Return of the Citra Rye IPA and Drink Me a Lot of Peaches Fruited Sour and Mojave’s Punk Lemonade Cider and Point Break IPA. As both levels are run by Three Sheets, you can bring your beer downstairs or vice versa.

The Silver Stamp Celebrates 1st Anniversary

I can’t believe it’s been a year since the already iconic The Silver Stamp opened its doors to beer fans who immediately became regulars of this craft beer bar that is a legitimate contender for the best in Las Vegas. Owners Andrew Smith and Rose Signor from day one made their bar stand out as one that not only has a cool, fun vibe that makes you think of your grandfather’s old beer room from the 70s, but a beer list that is second to none with gems not to be found anywhere else in town (and oftentimes in the whole state).

To mark the anniversary on February 22, 2022, Rose and Andrew tapped a rare cask of Hanssens Scarbecca Kriek Belgian Lambic and Einbecker unfiltered pilsner and also brought out several special beers not found elsewhere including some barleywines, rauchbiers, vertical tastings and a really unique Italian balsamic vinegar stout. Here’s to many more years of being wowed by the magic of great beer brought to us by Andrew and Rose.

Brewer Updates

CraftHaus has hired two new assistant brewers: Armando Donis and Danny Gutierrez. Both grew up in Southern Nevada, began their brewing path as homebrewers and worked at the brewery’s downtown taproom before being promoted to brewers. Donis is a Silverado High grad who lived in Portland, OR, for a time, where he fell in love with craft beer. Danny is a Valley High grad and also spent time in the Pacific Northwest, having previously brewed at the Slippery Pig in Seattle.

What’s Pouring in March

As always, our local roving nomad brewer Juxta Nomad (aka Kyle Weniger) is bringing out more of his pastry stouts, which he has become quite prolific and adept at. His latest gifts to us are “Blue Man Soup” (think blueberry cheesecake complete with a graham cracker crust) and “Dirté (it’s French),” which is modeled after the Midwest classic Dirt Pie and made with real Oreo crumbs, cacao nibs and vanilla. You can find both at Astronomy Aleworks, which is also where they were brewed.

Richard Lovelady at Lovelady Brewing tells me he has “El Rancho” (part of their dead casino project), a 7.5% strawberry double hazy IPA; Mari Me in the Spring, a marionberry kettle sour (taproom only); and Run-on Sentence, an 8.3% strong ale (taproom only).

March Beer Events

On March 12, 2022, Aces & Ales will host its 2nd annual IPA Smackdown competition at its Tenaya location. Similar to a Sweet 16 NCAA-style event, several IPAs from our local breweries will be on tap and patrons will vote for their favorites on their phone (using QR codes) in individual matchups of two in 10-minute rounds, with the winners moving on to the next round. The final winner will be awarded the IPA Smackdown belt, which currently resides with and has been frequently worn by the inaugural event’s winner: Astronomy Aleworks Owner Matt Brady. As I write this in late Feb., the majority of our Southern Nevada breweries have signed up, with 15 ready to enter their best IPAs, so if you like the IPA style and supporting local beer, this event has your name written all over it. The tentative start time is 3 p.m. For the complete list, visit tenaya.acesandales.com/#events.

After a three-year Covid hiatus, the Boulder City Brewfest will return on March 26, 2022, and will again be held at Wilbur Square Park in the heart of the historic city from 1-7 p.m. They are expecting to have more than 36 brewery tents (including several locals), 10 food trucks and beer-centric specialty vendors. Admission is free, but to sample unlimited beer the cost is $45 in advance for VIP admission at 1 p.m. ($60 the day of) and $35 in advance for general admission at 3 ($45 the day of). For more info and to purchase tickets visit bouldercitybeerfestival.com.

February 2022

Rebellion Pizza Adds Draft List

This past summer I reported on the opening of Rebellion Pizza and commended its owners, pizza business veterans Ricky Lewis and Ryan Perras, for having a canned beer list comprised 100% of beers from Southern Nevada breweries, and possibly the only establishment other than brewpubs doing so. Accolades are again in order, as the thriving business has added a draft line system, which also honors our local breweries with 100% of the taps pouring local beer. I stopped in a few days after the draft lineup launched on Jan. 25, and found the eight taps pouring Able Baker Honey Dip Imperial Stout, Bad Beat Bluffing Isn’t Weiss Bavarian Hefeweizen, Big Dog’s Craft Lager, CraftHaus Hop Vegas WCIPA and Giggle Juice Imperial IPA, Lovelady 9th Island Pineapple Sour and Love Juice Hazy IPA and Tenaya Creek God of Thunder Baltic Porter. In addition to the new draft offerings, the canned beer list has been expanded, offering 26 more Southern Nevada beers to choose from, qualifying Rebellion as one-stop shopping for local beer. Ricky says the response to their local beer support has been extremely positive and they have numerous regular customers.

It’s certainly worth a visit for the stellar local beer selection, but Rebellion Pizza also is arguably one of the best pizzerias specializing in NY-style and Sicilian pies in Southern Nevada. Rebellion is located in the Anthem Village Center at 2540 Anthem Village Dr. in Henderson and is open Tue.-Sat. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

What’s Pouring in February

On Feb. 12 CraftHaus Brewery will celebrate its 8th annual Comrade Day with the annual release of its Russian Imperial Stout being a seated two-hour event at its location in the Henderson Booze District. Available seatings are 12:30-2:30 p.m., 3-5 p.m. and 5:30-7:30 p.m. Tickets are $40 per person and include a 4 x 4 oz tasting flight of either a vertical tasting of 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 Comrade Stouts or variants of 2020 Stranahan’s Barrel Aged, 2021 Stranahan’s Barrel Aged, 2022 White Chocolate Macadamia and 2022 Amigo Mexican Stout; a Comrade logo keeper glass; and a 10-oz pour of the 11.2% ABV 2022 Comrade Russian Imperial Stout. Ticket add-ons include a brat (Beast Brat made with wagyu, wild boar and elk, Spicy Chicken Mango Sausage Brat or Vegan Beyond Brat) with two desserts custom made for Comrade Day and bottles of 2022 Comrade and 2021 variants. Designated driver tickets are also available. For more details and to purchase tickets and choose your seating time, visit comradeday2022.eventbrite.com.

Able Baker will give us all a Valentine’s Day gift with its annual Double Barrel Honey Dip, a barrel-aged version of its hugely popular Imperial Stout. This year’s release is a blend of two barrels, with 50% aged in Elijah Craig Bourbon barrels and 50% in Rittenhouse Rye barrels, and logs in at a huge 12.4% ABV. They will also be offering a limited amount of bottles of both individual versions (some aged in just the rye barrels and some in just the bourbon barrels). The brewery describes it as: “All the identifiable flavors in Honey Dip Stout (vanilla, honey, oak) are softened and rounded by the aging process. The barrel aging adds a deep chocolate flavor, another layer of sweet richness and subtle notes of bourbon.” They will be available beginning on Feb. 14 at the brewery (at 1510 S. Main St.) only on draft and in 22 oz bombers.

On Feb. 26 the NCBA (Nevada Craft Brewers Association) will host the NV Beer Dash at Cornerstone Park in Henderson. The event includes a mile relay with teams of four people at 1 p.m. followed by a beer festival at 2 p.m. You can choose to participate in just the beer mile relay, just the beer festival or both. The mile relay will have teams of four each running a ¼ mile and drinking a beer (or root beer for underage runners and nonbeer drinkers). The fest will have 30 beers pouring from at least 15 Nevada breweries, including most of the Southern Nevada breweries. There will be food trucks for food options. For more info and to purchase tickets, visit raceroster.com.

January 2022

North 5th Brewing Now Open

The family-owned and -operated North 5th Brewing opened its doors last month and became North Las Vegas’ first-ever brewery. The brother brewer team of Head Brewer Patrick Tofte and Assistant Brewer Sam Tofte has been hard at work coming up with new recipes and making great beer. The first beers out of the gate were a session IPA, West Coast IPA, hazy IPA, amber lager, Russian imperial stout and Fierro, a crushable Mexican lager named for owners/siblings Amanda and Matt Payan’s grandma’s hometown in New Mexico.

Being unveiled in January is a creation of Assistant Brewer Sam, a Scotch Ale. This is a style you don’t see that often and when you do it’s usually in the 10-12% ABV range, but Sam’s is a more approachable, yet still complex, 6.5% version.

North 5th is located at 60 Mayflower Avenue, off of Commerce south of Cheyenne. Current hours are Mon.-Thurs. 4-10 p.m., Fri. 4 p.m.-midnight, Sat. 11 a.m.-midnight and Sun. 11 a.m.-10 p.m. For more information, visit north5thbrewingco.com.

District Brewing Rebranding as Neon Desert Brewing

District Brewing, one of the eight breweries located in Brewery Row and the Arts District, will soon be completing its name change and is putting the finishing touches on its rebranding as Neon Desert Brewing. The grand opening date has not been confirmed but will likely be in early February. I promise to have more details next month, but in the meantime, you can check for updates at neondesertbrewing.com or stop in and try some of their seasonal brews, which this month will include Golden Milk Coffee Stout made with coffee from local Dark Moon Coffee Roasters, a bourbon barrel-aged chocolate stout and a pepper lager.

Tuscany Hosts Mojave Brewing Beer Dinner

On Dec. 10 Tuscany Suites & Casino hosted a beer dinner featuring the beer and cider of local Mojave Brewing. The dinner was the first-ever beer dinner for Mojave and the evening was a casual, relaxed gathering with each course introduced by Pub 365 Beer Director Amber Tuttle and Mojave Co-owners/Brewers John (aka Griff) Griffin and Nate Carney. The dinner was prefaced with a reception and the pouring of Mojave Ruby Soho Cider made with grapefruit puree. Griff shared that Mojave is the only cider maker in Nevada that is distributing its ciders and one of the reasons they decided to make ciders was to offer a gluten-free (and delicious) option.

The first course paired a tomato avocado salad tossed with a citrus vinaigrette with the Blair Wit Project spiced with orange peel and sweet orange zest.

A bacon and beer cheddar cheese soup (my favorite of the night) was matched with Point Break, an American IPA. At this point I should point out, if you haven’t noticed already, Mojave’s beer and cider names are inspired by movies or ska music.

The protein course was NY strip with housemade bearnaise alongside Almost Famous, an American porter which Griff informed us years before the brewery opened was a homebrew contest winner held by Joseph James that Griff got to brew on their system and was entered in the GABF ProAm category. Furthermore, this experience was the spark that led to his decision to turn his homebrewing hobby into a profession and open Mojave Brewing.

The finale was chocolate layered cake with Kahlua and rum pudding backed up by the equally robust Nothing to F* With, a HUGE 17% ABV imperial stout that I had enjoyed a week prior at the inaugural Southern Nevada Brewers Guild Winter Wonderland (also held at Tuscany) and proclaimed it my absolute favorite of the beerfest. When discussing this beer with Nate he stated he’s 99% sure it’s the biggest stout in the Vegas Valley and added, “Once you taste it you’ll know why we named it that.”

The dinner concluded with the introduction of Bryan Giordano, who happens to be Pub 365’s new executive chef; the excellence of the dinner proves that Tuscany chose well in hiring him. Kudos to Amber as well for putting the dinner together, doing the pairings and always supporting our local breweries. In fact, the staff’s new shirts state “Drink Local” and include several logos of the local breweries that Pub 365 pours.