About the Town | All American Craft Beer Fest | Golden Nugget

The Second Annual All American Craft Beer Fest’s first night took place on the evening of October 14 in the Grand Events Center of the Golden Nugget Hotel downtown.  Hoisting heavy Samuel Adams (sponsor) glass beer steins, attendees were able to sample two fingers’ worth of any one of 120 micro-brewed, artisanal beers. 

Brew 101:  Beer and Ale

Beer is a fermented beverage made from grains and yeast.  Two basic categories are ale and lager, a term which has come to be interchangeable with beer.  Ale is brewed differently, with a yeast variation: ales are brewed using yeast that gathers on top of the cask, while lager (beer) uses yeast that ferments on the bottom.

 IPA’S

These ales contain extra hops and are known as India Pale Ales.  They have a citrus or pine aroma and a bitter taste that goes well with spicy food.  Festival IPA’s included Dogfish Head’s 60 Minute IPA, Speakeasy’s Big Daddy IPA, Mendocino Brewing Co.’s White Hawk IPA, and Deschutes Brewery’s Inversion IPA.

Porters and Stouts:

Brewed with roasted barley (un-malted), stout has a dry bitterness on the palate and deeper roasted notes for an aroma.  Porters are usually sweeter in aroma and taste, usually in various shades of brown.  Stout shades range from dark brown to black.  There are exceptions and interwoven customizations with both brews, but generally they can be differentiated by the use of roasted, un-malted barley (stout).  At the Festival – Wasatch Beer’s Polygamy Porter, Stone Brewing Company’s Smoked Porter,  Squatters Beer’s Captain Bastard’s Oatmeal Stout, and North Coast Brewing Company’s Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout.
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Brewed beverages of every color variance could be seen being poured into and just as quickly emptied out of heavy glass steins.  From light gold to licorice black with endless taste distinctions brought about by ingredient, brew process or flavoring, you could hardly run into two people with the same hue splashing around at the bottom of their glass.  Citrus and pumpkin seemed to be popular flavoring agents adding either crispness or spice to the sampling.