The Great American Ale Trail - Christian DeBenedetti [93]
Nevada
Reno
BUCKBEAN BREWING CO.
1155 South Rock Blvd., Ste. 490 • Reno, NV 89502 (775) 857-4444 • buckbeanbeer.com • Established: 2008
SCENE & STORY
With just a small seating area for a taproom and a couple of dartboards, the warehouse-like Buckbean HQ is a modest affair, but the cans-only brewery has big visions of supplying the region with craft beer in the mighty. The brewery offers free tours and tastes in a small taproom area with four drafts.
PHILOSOPHY
If you can it, they will come. Buckbean sponsored the first annual Reno International Canned Beer Festival—CanFest, for short—in November 2009, drawing dozens of brewing companies and hundreds of beer aficionados together just for the heck of it (www.canfestreno.com).
KEY BEER
Try the Original Orange Blossom Ale, an American amber ale made with Munich and caramel malts, American hops, and orange blossom water.
FREAKIN’ FROG
4700 S. Maryland Pkwy. • Las Vegas, NV 89119 (702) 597-9702 • freakinfrog.com
SCENE & STORY
The Freakin’ Frog is a three-mile drive or cab ride from the strip or downtown near UNLV, harkening back to a simpler era when there was no such thing as a roller coaster on top of a rotating hotel bar or the monstrous Wynne. It’s dark as a dungeon; with no windows, the prettiest view is inside the walk-in beer cooler. There, in neat rows, are nearly 1,000 beers. The upstairs bar takes a similarly encyclopedic approach to whiskey and the pub grub is standard issue.
PHILOSOPHY
A good beer lover’s retreat in a desert of tacky strip clubs and casinos, there’s not one video poker machine in sight.
KEY BEER
The very un-Vegas-like Fantôm Saison D’Erezée, an earthy, rare Belgian farmhouse ale (8% ABV).
Utah
LITTLE KNOWN FACT: AS OF JULY 1, 2009, THE NOTORIOUSLY conservative state of Utah’s beer laws took a great leap forward. For the state’s twenty-plus breweries and brewpubs, beers over the limit of 3.2 percent alcohol by weight (4.0% ABV) were made legal, though they must be bottled and sold in a place with the right license (which could be a brewpub, bar, or restaurant). The irksome “private club” law was dropped (it required drinkers to pay a membership fee for bars and sign a registry), but a few bars and other establishments still hew to the practice. “Taverns” must still sell only 4.0% ABV or weaker beer, and no wine or hard liquor. Keg sales are verboten, as is sampling at a brewery-only location, but home brewing up to 200 gallons per year per household is A-OK. It all makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? So it goes. Time for a beer—might as well make it a strong one.
Salt Lake City
SQUATTERS PUB BREWERY
147 W. Broadway • Salt Lake City, UT 84101 (801) 363-2739 • squatters.com • Established: 1989
SCENE & STORY
Utah’s most famous beer spot owes part of its fame to its central location in downtown Salt Lake City, which has of late gotten more fun to explore by night, thanks to the relaxation of state alcohol laws. There are nine taps and six bottled beers available (the excellent Reserve Series), with occasional casks, and a huge menu of good pub grub. It’s big inside with exposed timber, corrugated metal details, tastefully modern lighting, and wide, polished blonde wood bars. Growlers are a mere $7.99, which makes them a good idea for après-ski libations up in the whisper-quiet Little Cottonwood Canyon.
PHILOSOPHY
Under the draconian limitations of the “3.2 laws” Squatters had to do a lot with a little for a very long time. But brewmaster Jenny Talley, in the role since 1994, has risen to the occasion, racking up a war chest full of medals for lower strength beers