Sin City Brews
Pulling back the curtain on some thirst-quenching beers in the middle of the desert
Las Vegas has given rise to a burgeoning independent brewing scene over the last decade, anchored in part by the high-concentration of businesses on the Art District "brewery row."
Despite significant barriers to entry and Nevada liquor and licensing laws that complicate operations, these breweries continue to produce compelling, high-quality beers while fostering tight-knit communities in their orbit. These were some of our team's stand-out pours on the ground; ones that blend the personality, resourcefulness, and flavor defining Las Vegas' beer scene right now.
Cafe Mocha Canela • North 5th Brewing
If Brewer Patrick Tofte had to pick one beverage to drink for the rest of his life, he would pick coffee over beer. Tofte knows these are "bold words for a brewer," but who says you can't combine your two loves? At North 5th Brewing Co., he marries coffee and beer in the Cafe Mocha Canela, a coffee and cinnamon-infused Mexican-style lager. Tofte begins by infusing whole mocha-flavored coffee beans and broken Ceylon cinnamon sticks into a base lager using mesh bags. This sits for 24 hours, before he removes the bags and transfers to another keg. The resulting flavor profile is spiced and lightly sweet with the coffee and mocha bringing a depth that is reminiscent of Café de Olla. The Mexican-style lager base is crushable rather than rich like a pastry stout. Experimental brews like the Cafe Mocha Canela are built into the brewery's business model, which offers members-only, small-batch brews. "It's a very useful tool to experiment at a super small scale with our most trusted people," says Tofte.
Free Hugs • Evolve Brewing
At Evolve Brewing, Brewer Josh Kunzli crafts a double IPA with a blend of different hops that makes for a clean, acidic, perfectly bitter beer. He starts his Free Hugs with a gambrinus pilsner malt and adds a splash of dextrose to bump up the ABV. For the hops, he combines citra, mosaic, simcoe, and strata. The strata, in particular, gives an "almost dried chile nature and a big strawberry note," and works to create a deep flavor profile: "the blend of different hops kind of all comes together and makes a nice final product," says Kunzli. "It's not as one note as some of the other beers I make." The beer is fermented for two weeks and sits on the hops for another three to five days, and then stays one to two days in the serving tanks before being served on the draft lines. "I want it to have a kind of candy element to it," says Kunzli. "I want a little element of almost a Haribo gummy candy, but then bitter, hoppy, whatever the notes of the hops are itself."
Mojave Sunrise • Mojave Brewing Co.
For Brewer Andy Kohon, the Sunrise Mojave beer is an opportunity to breathe new life into orange scraps. At Mojave Brewing Company, Kohon takes his standard American wheat ale and steeps 60 pounds of dehydrated orange and blood orange peels in it, much like tea. He sources these discards from Dress The Drink, a company that makes garnishes, like orange wheels, for restaurants in the area. "The ugly ones are thrown away, but we actually just take those because it doesn't matter how it looks for us," says Kohon. "We just need the flavor, so we're actually repurposing them instead of going to the landfill." It may sound simple, but the refreshing final product took a full year of R&D. "We really had to fiddle with the ratio of blood orange to orange, because blood orange actually gives off more of a pungent flavor," says Kohon. That, along with adjusting the pressure of the steeping, made it so the final brew wasn't too pithy, but instead a balanced, orange flavor. Now, Kohon even sells this beer to Caesars properties. "I think everyone's been loving it," says Kohon. "It's one of our top selling beers month after month."
