Back to Fremont Street for more craft beer!

Well, I'll tell you one thing for free. When I posted this on
Twitter and asked, "Guys, drink holders at urinals: Yay or
Nay?" it certainly brought out some spirited discussion.
About two-thirds said, "Good idea" but the third against
it were pretty vocal about the sanctity of their beers in an
unsanitary area. Personally, I'm all for it. But I'm weird.

(Yeah, this one's the beer blog that's been around forever - or at least since June 2013. Gets confusing, eh? Well, for you, maybe. I know which is which. But it's about beers around Fremont Street in Downtown Vegas so there's a duel component at work here. You get beer. You get Vegas. But you don't get showgirls. That'd be too much for one blog.)

Okay, a lot of my beer blogs start off strong... and then go down the crapper. So this time, I figured I'd just start in the crapper. Literally.

You see, almost every single washroom I've ever used in Vegas has those little metal flat stands where you can rest your beer while you, y'know, get rid of the beer before it. Beer goes in, beer goes out. It's a story as old as time.

So I took a picture and threw it out there on Twitter, asking: "Beer or drink holders right there at the urinal: Yay or Nay?" The thing is I'm not sure I've ever seen this in Canada. Actually, I'm pretty sure I haven't. We just find some precarious perch for it or leave it where it was before entering.

About two-thirds of the respondents enthusiastically said, "Great idea!" having the platform for your beer at the urinal but a few added a reason I hadn't even considered.

This is Pete, originally from New York, serving me
up a big 32-ouncer of Bell's Brewing (Kalamazoo,
Michigan) Two-Hearted Ale, long considered one
of America's best IPAs, at the Prohibition Bar in
the Golden Gate Hotel and Casino on Fremont
Street. I'll be staying there on the March Break. As
you can see, the bar has some Rat Pack history...

That was the possibility of someone dropping a roofie or a goofball into your drink if left unattended outside the washroom. True, true... that makes you somewhat susceptible to robbery or a good old-fashioned mugging within about 15 minutes.

A couple of the nay-sayers suggested that you down any drink before entering the lavatory. Well, take a look at that beer up top. That's a 32-ounce Stone IPA that I got at The Longbar in The D. If I had to go for a whiz at this point, does it really look like I could finish that first? Among the many activities I enjoy in Vegas, pissing my pants doesn't make the list. We've all heard the stories of folks wearing Depends at their slot-machines because they don't want to leave it for a natural bodily function and miss the big payoff.

But there were other nay-sayers that offered even stronger reasons - the issue of what's actually floating around in the air within the washroom. Noted Ron Gold, "Food or beverage should never enter a washroom - there's aerosolized fecal matter in the air." So, basically, Ron's saying every washroom we walk into is quite literally a flying shit-storm. Giraffeturd agreed: "Once you consider the plumes of spraying and splashing urine that is really going on in there, there's no way I'm taking a drink in there."

In the end, it was S. Andrews who perhaps offered up the smartest compromise.

This is JJ at Banger Brewing offering me up my beloved
El Heffe Hefeweizen wheat ale. The brewery and I have
long been debating how hot this beer actually is on my
Twitter posts. I maintain that, yes, this is a very spicy-hot
wheat. The brewery maintains I'm just a gigantic wuss.

Bring it in with you, he said, but "one hand over the beer to limit any presumed nasty germs from getting to your drink. When finished, wash hands and continue. (It's) not safe to leave on the table/bar so yeah, the beer shelf."

But I had to laugh. A simple post like this and it sparked such vigorous debate. Perhaps the motto the city should have gone with is: What happens in Vegas... becomes a focal point for intense scrutiny on Twitter. So, anyway, that's how I start my beer blogs. I wonder how the other beer writers start theirs? I'll have to read one someday, I guess.

Okay, let's move along from the exit strategy of everyone's beer and get into the actual matter of my beer intake on Fremont Street in Downtown Las Vegas during my Birthday Week trip earlier this month.

Let's start with Banger Brewing right on Fremont Street simply because the brewery and I have an ongoing Twitter debate. That is simply this: How hot is their El Heffe Hefeweizen? Now when my buddy, Mark, and I visited the brewery on February 9 to film one of his Pennys4Vegas travel vlogs (see You-Tube), we both drank it. That surprised me.

Not the first time I've mentioned this gang in my beer
blog when I visit Fremont Street and likely won't be the
last. I'm a pretty big fan. Though not a huge place, their
selection is pretty impressive and their styles diverse.

You see, Mark likes his macro beers, such as Bud or Corona in Vegas and Labatt Blue up in Canada. This was his first foray into craft beers. Quite probably his last, as well, but I was there first-hand to see him do it, all for the sake of a different and fun new angle for his vlog. Because of Mark's Groupon coupon, the brewery gave us a paddle consisting of four shooters, all four ounces, and four more full-size 16 ounce pints. It think it was $26 all-in. One helluva deal. But then Banger is one helluva solid brewery so...

But back to that El Heffe dispute. You see, it's brewed with jalapenos, serranos, habaneros and, I believe, both red and green bell peppers. I maintain it's a pretty hot and spicy beer.

Banger good-naturedly disagrees: "It's not even spicy. Not even a little bit. The peppers are fire-roasted, leaving little heat behind. You're one of those who think ketchup is spicy, aren't you?" Hey now, I'll have you know I ask for the hot salsa in my burritos! That said, skinny, white suburban folks from Canada like myself don't really know the hot stuff. My co-worker's family hails from Sri Lanka and he maintains that in food, his level of hot and my level of hot are pretty far separated.

This would be Daniel at the Whiskey Licker Up Bar, serving
me a Saint Archer Hazy IPA. I watched the Whiskey Licker
Up Bar at Binion's Casino being built when I first visited
Downtown Vegas last September and it was completed by the
time I returned in November. It has a killer craft beer menu.
But I didn't visit the place for the first time until I came
down to Fremont Street for Birthday Week 2020. Cool spot.

So here's my compromise, Banger, because Canadians are all about getting along. That is the hottest wheat ale I've ever had. Truce?

So anyway, on our Banger Paddle with the four separate four ounce shooters was the El Heffe, their Morning Joe Kolsch, their Coppertail Marzen and their DTB Brown Ale. I gave Mark the Morning Joe, figuring a lagered-ale might be his kettle of fish. He made a funny face after that first sip so I suggested he take the El Heffe and I'd drink the Morning Joe. I knew why as soon as I tried it. Strong coffee back-flavour. Turns out Mark doesn't drink coffee. No problem. I drink exactly two liquids and coffee's the other. I loved this one and I'm that beer lover who finds most Kolschs as boring as hell. When a brewery tells me they're releasing a Kolsch, I'm like, "Hey, good for you. (*Polite pause*) So what else you got?" Mark saw the two darker ones - the Coppertail and DTB - and backed away (no surprise) so I had both. They were damn solid brews and both completely on point, style-wise.

However, I just noticed on their on-line menu that they also have a Morning Joseph Imperial Kolsch now. It's 9%. Yeah, count me in when I return for March Break. Screw morning coffee. Gimme that Morning Joseph, instead! Now, that's a Kolsch!

Here's the outside view of the Whiskey Licker Up Bar at Binion's
on Fremont Street. Okay, so the 360-degree bar may not be quite
a unique design in Vegas (you will notice many bars in the middle
of a casino are circular - I have a whole theory about this) but this
one moves! It takes about 20 minutes to do a full revolution. So I
don't think motion sickness is ever going to really come into play.

That said, it's possible this beer will remind me of two of my four greatest fears. Now I don't share this with everyone because it's very personal you have to understand. But they are: 1) Running out of beer. 2) Running out of coffee. 3) Running out of toilet paper. And 4) Running. This beer could actually unearth some scary stuff on a deep internal level. If, y'know, I had any of that in me. So, yeah... I'm good.

Okay, let's shift off Fremont Street and take a five minute walk down a side-street over to my home for Birthday Week, the Downtown Grand Hotel and Casino so we can check out the beer action there.

Not only would I highly recommend the Downtown Grand (truly a fantastic place and experience there) but if you like your craft beer, oh yeah, they have a couple of treats on tap for traveling strangers. I was barely through the door when I was checking out the taps at the casino. I was pretty pumped to see the distinctive tap handle for Doghead Fish 60 Minute IPA. While nearly all I know prefer their 90 Minute IPA, I am a hold-out for the 60 Minute.

Toby was working the bar at Freedom Beat restaurant
and by the first night, knew my name. I felt like Norm
on Cheers. "Don!!!" This was during one of their 2 to 5
in the morning Happy Hours where pints dropped from
$8 to $4. (Appetizers also half off.) Their OTHER Happy
Hour was from 2 to 5 in the afternoon. I think they may
have been a bit surprised to see me at nearly ALL the
Happy Hours during my one week stay. What can I say?

In fact, it was in Vegas that I finally got to try them side-by-side. There was a Walgreen's on the strip with a walk-in beer fridge. It had both so I picked up a sixer of each, wandered back to the nearby New York New York Casino, sat down at a slot and tried them both at the same time. With its pine richness and solid malt backbone, I can certainly see why most prefer the 90 Minute but there's something about the fruit punchiness of the 60 Minute that made me give it the edge. Doesn't matter - they're both fantastic.

But as I spotted that 60 Minute tap handle at the Downtown Grand casino bar, the bartender, noticing my excitement, pointed to their restaurant, Freedom Beat, and said, "An even better selection in there for a guy like you." No kidding. As well as the 60 Minute IPA, they also had the Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing IPA. So in one bar, I had premium east coast style and west coast traditional IPAs.

But wait! There's more! Freedom Beat also had a Peanut Butter Stout on tap from Mother Earth Brewing (Vista, California) called Sin Tax Imperial Peanut Butter Stout. Holy Godiva, this was some tasty. While I was sitting there, I found out on Google that not only does this 8.1% bad boy use peanut butter but also chocolate malts, chocolate wheat (that's a thing?) and brown sugar. Small wonder it tasted so great with all that!

When the amenable young man suggested a fridge for my room, I really
figured I didn't want to let him down, given his kindness, so I started
stocking it. On my first trip to Downtown Vegas-Fremont Street back in
September, I quickly found a souvenir shop with an amazing selection of
craft beer in its fridges because, well... of course, I did. I had already had
the New Belgium Voodoo Ranger Juicy Haze IPA in November for the
first time but the 9% Sierra Nevada Fantastic Haze Imperial IPA was a
new one for me! Geezuz, lemme tell ya, that was one juicy AF fridge!!!

Fun side-story from my first night there. I landed at about noon on February 9th and then went to Banger Brewing that night with Mark for his vlog. Went back to Downtown Grand after that and straight to my room because I'd been up since 5 am Toronto time. But after a power nap, I woke up at 3 am, dragged a brush through the mop I call hair and scooted straight back downstairs for Happy Hour at Freedom Beat.

I was just relaxing in the casino, chilling, listening to the sounds of slot play and cheering at the crap table (which I love) when at about 4:15 am, the supremely-familiar opening instrumental of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" started to play. You could hear a pin drop because that song is a timeless rock anthem to many.

When our Vegas friends, Kaylene and Nick, of Sin City
Nerds fame (both on Twitter and YouTube) posted a
picture of Nick laying all model-like in front of a Vegas
fountain (forget which), Kaylene decided perhaps we
needed a calendar of Vegas men in front of statues. Hog
of Hogand2cent instantly decided mine had to be this
one, the replica of Manneken Pis from Brussels, Belgium.
Now in actual fact, Manneken Pils literally translates to
"little pissing man." The one in front of The D is actually
bigger than the original which is 24 inches high. And if
that doesn't bring this blog full circle, what else could??
Starts with beer stands at urinals, ends with this. Noice.

As the singing began, right along with Steve Perry, two ladies at the craps tables started singing loudly (and very well, I might hasten to add), "Just a small town girl..." and simply kept going along with it. By the time, it got to "Just a city boy..." about a half dozen more, myself included, jumped in to join the Sing-Along-With-Steve Show. Within seconds, more than half the place was singing the song. Granted, as I said, it's a smaller casino and it was 4:15 in the morning but that meant about 25 of us, all joined in harmony. Locked into the moment. At the end, we all clapped, laughed and hooted a little.

Yeah, I suppose this could have happened anywhere. But for that night, it didn't. It happened in Vegas. When people ask me, "Why always Vegas?" it's because of this! That's why Vegas! If you think about it, our inner child is actually the oldest part of us all and in Vegas, we all remember how to play again. And for that one Journey song, strangers from across the world shared the sandbox beautifully. That's why Vegas!

Okay, done with beer but not quite done with Vegas. Months ago, Hog and 2 cent were on a podcast with Chris from Faces And Aces LV. This week, Vegas Podtoons recreated that interview in cartoon form and I... was... dying! As well, my man, Mark had a one-on-one with Jonathan Jossel, CEO of the Plaza and it was a beauty! So click here for: Back Alley Chicken With Hog and 2cent and click here for: Plaza Walk-Thru With JJ Both are well-worth a watch. Okay, Scooby Doo Gang, that's it, that's all and I am outta here. And remember: That's why Vegas! Peace out.