Beer & Blog Road Trip - Lake Las Vegas

We will be meeting at Whole Foods Market in Town Square at 12:30pm to caravan / carpool up to the event.  Here are some more details for those of you who have not attended before:

The Village at Lake Las Vegas and Buckbean Brewing Company will host Brew’s Best Hand-Crafted Beer Festival Saturday, March 13, from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Taster kits are available for $25, which include 30 sampling tickets and a souvenir tasting mug. All proceeds will benefit local charity New Vista Community.

Wk10 - Big Dogs Draft House

We were at Big Dogs Draft House last night, for the Belgian White Tapping Party, very tasty little number, perfect for the inevitable hot weather in Vegas.  Also tried the Double Red, very hoppy and also quite excellent,  Big Dogs continues to roll out excellent craft beer. 

A poor showing last night due to SXSW and the Festival on Saturday, all I can say is you don't know what you are missing by skipping the Draft House nights.  It truly is an institution in that part of town and you need to do yourself a favor and stop in one of these days.

Wk9 - ESPN Zone

As a follow up to Week 9, we have the after thought on the experiment and the evening.  One word, LEGEN - wait for it - DARY... really it was an awesome #BNBLV. 

We all trickled into the over priced under staffed Pour 24 for a few pricey pours of good beer.  It is a casino and that is what you really need to do is keep telling yourself that when you visit one.  At any rate, I am happy to drink draft Ruination IPA and Anchor Steam whenever possible.

After a while we decided to go in search of food and since Nine Fine Irishmen was closed for a private party we ended up at the ESPN Zone.  It was late and we had a sizable crowd, but they did a good job handling our group.  Even granting us separate tabs after a bit of haggling with our good natured waiter.

We had a rocking time just laughing and goofing off, a lot of the goofing at the expense of our current Gowalla addiction.  None the less, good experiment.

Wk 9 - Pour 24

Trying a little something different this week.  Pour 24 is located inside the NY NY Hotel & Casino, near Coyote Ugly.  It is only a bar, with 24 taps, most of which are excellent craft beers.  You can check out  Taplister for the complete and up to date listing of beers.

Because this is a bar only, they do not serve food, but people are welcome to pick up a slice, or a Nathan's hot dog or pretzel and bring it into the bar area to enjoy.  Depending on the size of the group and interest, we might also swing by another of the establishments in the NY NY, such as Nine Fine Irishmen.

The group should be gathering around 5:30, if you self park, you want the third floor next to the right entrance, just walk down the ramp and into the casino.

The rest of the month is shaping up as follows:

March 11th - Big Dogs Draft House (Craig & Rancho)
March 13th (Road Trip!) - MonteLago Village Beer Fest
 - See their website for more details!
March 18th - Freakin Frog or Cancelled due to St Patricks Day
March 25th - Las Vegas Twestival Caramel Bar and Lounge located inside Bellagio Resort and Casino from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m - See their website for more details!

Wk 8 - Freakin Frog

We decided to meet at the Frog this week, for a small gathering.  We actually sat at the bar the entire night and had a small rotating crowd.  But good conversation as always and good beer, of course.

It was a group decision to leave the Frog as our usual meeting place, but we are working our way back there with a once a month or so visit.  The vibe has changed quite a bit since a year ago, the loud live music rarely starts before 10, the ambient music is now jazz or light rock.  Visually the place is more well lighted and an increase in tap prices has driven out some of the college crowd.  All these changes have worked in our favor to begin to frequent it on occasion.

Wk 7 - Big Dogs Draft House

Another tapping party led us out to the Draft House for their War Dog IPA, another excellent brew from that establishment.  We also caught the start of the cask conditioned kegs, this weeks was the Holy Cow Pale Ale. 

Between the great food, awesome service, tap parties and now the cask conditioned kegs debuting every Thursday... Draft House is definitely becoming our NW area staple.  Now we just need to convince a few of the folks that think this is the boonies to venture out here once in a while.