By Bob Barnes
Ahern Hotel Hosting Super Beer Festival
If you’re wondering what to do the day before the Super Bowl, Ahern Hotel at 300 W. Sahara Ave. just west of the Las Vegas Strip has you covered with its Super Beer pregame event Feb. 8 from 1-5 p.m.
There will be all-you-can-drink beer, live music, a complimentary photobooth and a chance to win prizes by wearing football gear, participating in a free stein-holding competition or playing in free tailgate games.
Participating local breweries include Able Baker, Beer Zombies, Big Dog’s, HUDL, Neon Desert and Tenaya Creek, and there will also be beer from Sierra Nevada and Voodoo Brewing.
GA tickets for admission at 1 p.m. and unlimited beer are $39.99, and VIP for early access at noon and stadium-inspired food by Ahern Executive Chef Joel Ott are $74.99. For tickets and more info, visit BeerFestLV.com.
Las Vegas Roving Brewer Juxta Nomad
What do you do if the brewery at which you have worked your way up to Director of Brewing Operations closes in the first months of the pandemic? If you’re Kyle Weniger, you become Southern Nevada’s first and only nomad brewer and create a one-man operation named Juxta Nomad.
A nomad brewer is one who doesn’t have a brewing facility but instead travels to functioning breweries to produce their own beer, which is exactly what Weniger has been doing since Joseph James, a production brewery in Henderson, shut its doors in April 2020.
With a focus on juxtaposition, Weniger uses interesting ingredients to brew innovative beers. There is no shortage of brewpubs and craft beer bars pouring his unique creations.
He most recently completed collaboration brews with North 5th, Beer Zombies, Mojave, Big Dog’s and Able Baker and has a beer in planning with the soon-to-open Aces and Ales/Evolve Brewing.
Weniger has proven himself adept at designing bold stouts with nontraditional ingredients, such as the caramel apple pastry stout with Beer Zombies, coffee maple porter with Mojave for Atomic Liquors using coffee from Toasted and Roasted and an oyster stout collab, “Shuck Buddies,” with North 5th and Tinned Fish Club with charred Vidalia onions, thyme and oyster shells.
While most nomad brewers make only one-off beers, Weniger has proven his beers to be popular enough to entice several bars and restaurants to have him brew exclusive house beers to their specifications, which currently include both Servehzah locations, Bin702 and 18Bin, Beer Park, 595 Craft and Kitchen and Red Dwarf, all of which are collaborations brewed at HUDL Brewing.
When asked if he ever thinks about taking a job at a brewery or opening his own, Weniger said, “I won’t say never, but no immediate plans to. I like the freedom and feeling of community that comes with working with other brewers. I think about it every time I’m offered a brewing job, especially when bills are due, but I love what I do, and it’d take a stick of dynamite to push me in any other direction.”
Local Brewery Champion of the Month
In this recurring feature, we spotlight establishments that appreciate our local breweries enough to devote their beer lists to beer made in Nevada. Main Street Provisions, one of the first upscale eateries to open in The Arts District, is self-described as a community-oriented restaurant serving modern American comfort food.
That love of community extends to its beer selection, as there are a dozen local brews such as Able Baker Cran Apple Clink! Clink!, CraftHaus Silver State Blonde, HUDL High Hatter Hefe on Pineapple, Las Vegas Brewing 1677 Stout and Tenaya Creek Hop Ride IPA.
1214 S. Main St., Las Vegas. (702) 457-0111; MainStProvisions.com
Photo: Kevin Lingley
