Calling all beer enthusiasts to these tasty brews on the Vegas Strip.
Ten or even five years ago finding a beer from a local Nevada brewery pouring on the Strip was akin to hitting a big dollar jackpot: not impossible, but highly unlikely and rarely occurring. Well, times have changed, and these days it’s more unlikely to not find at least one bar or restaurant in the megaresorts pouring at least a few brews from Southern Nevada’s (and Reno’s) heralded award-winning breweries.
At long last managers and somms are realizing that local beers are every bit as good as those more established and recognizable craft beers, and furthermore, what beer enthusiast tourist isn’t going to want to try beer from a city that he/she will never have the opportunity to experience back home.
The Venetian
Many don’t realize that we do have one brewery on the Strip, Trustworthy Brewing situated within The Venetian Grand Canal Shoppes. The entirety of the draft list are beers made onsite or at its other location in Burbank, CA. There are six core beers (those pouring all the time), including the Gigil Rice Pilsner, Brass Jar Hoppy Amber Ale and What Plane? Oatmeal Stout; and if you’re lucky, you may pop in when Head Brewer Zack Johnson has uncorked one of his cask ales. You can also purchase packaged beer to enjoy later or back home.
Yardbird, located in The Venetian’s Restaurant Row, made the commendable decision from the day it opened in 2015 to pour exclusively beers from Nevada breweries from its 12 taps (still the only pub on the Strip doing so) and even goes so far to have a house brew made by Able Baker and served exclusively at Yardbird: Unforgritable Pale Ale featuring grits in the mash bill to complement its southern fare. Some other local taps include Astronomy Aleworks Golden Ale, Big Dog’s Dirty Dog IPA and Icky IPA from Reno’s Great Basin.
In the casino, Black Tap, a chain specializing in craft burgers, crazy shakes and craft beer with locations in NYC, Disneyland, Bahrain, Kuwait, Singapore, Switzerland and the UAE, gives the nod to seven locals, such as Big Dog’s Las Vegas Craft Lager, CraftHaus Citrone Gose Sour, Pigeon Head (Reno-based) Pilsner and Bad Beat Bluffin’ Isn’t Weiss Hefeweizen.
The Linq Promenade
One of the largest local beer selections can be found within The Linq Promenade. The award to the hostess with the mostest goes to Yardhouse, devoting 20 of its 180 taps (the largest tap selection on the Strip) to locals. To make it easy for you, there’s a separate locals beer menu and you can opt for a sampler flight of six local beers of your choice.
Another worthy stop in the Promenade is Flour & Barley, an ideal name for a restaurant specializing in pizza and beer, with seven local beers, including CraftHaus Belgard Coffee Stout, Lovelady 9th Island Pineapple Sour and FB Cerveza, a Mexican-style lager made for Flour & Barley by Tenaya Creek.
Just across the way is ameriCAN, named for its selection of 50+ beers from the U.S. and the packaging they are served in. There are eight Vegas brews such as Able Baker Chris Kael Impale’d Ale and Tenaya Creek Bonanza Brown. Bar Manager Robert Wilk said, “Local beer is always a go-to; I tell customers you’re in Vegas, try something new.”
The Park
Beerhaus in The Park does more than give lip service to locals, pouring nine to ten, and clearly identifies their Las Vegas origin on its beer menu. Here you’ll find the likes of 7Five Showtime Blonde Ale, Tenaya Creek Gypsy Fade IPA, Banger El Hefe Jalapeno Hefeweizen and CraftHaus Cuckoo Munich Dunkel Lager. Its location just steps from T Mobile, Park Theater and Allegiant Stadium make it an optimal spot to stop in before or after events.
Paris
Beer Park offers one of the best views of the Strip from its open-air balcony above the Paris Casino. Although the list is quite heavy on Anheuser Busch products, some love is shown to locals, with five pouring, including HUDL Vanilla Oak Cream Ale, Lovelady Love Juice IPA and Revision (Reno-based) Blonde NV.
The Cosmopolitan
Beer and burgers make an excellent pair and Holsteins offers both. The beer selection is so stellar in both quantity and quality that it is without question THE beer spot at The Cosmo, on the Vegas Strip. GM Ivan Cuevas, who curates the beer list, said, “People always ask about local beer,” and added that with the recent supply problems adding more local brews makes a lot of sense. Here you’ll find several taps pouring locals representing a diverse range of beer styles including Able Baker Atomic Duck IPA, Big Dog’s Las Vegas Craft Lager, CraftHaus Evocation Saison and Tenaya Creek Hop Ride IPA.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, with more venues popping up all the time and more and more beverage managers seeing the light of the goodness of local beer and obtaining common sense to realize pouring local beer is a win-win decision.
