The
Biggest Little City's best Breweries Related stories
By Deanne
Evely and
Jordan
Rasmussen,
Outpost staff
Brew
Bros. review
The
Great Basin Stage
Great
Basin Review
With the ever-explosive popularity of microbrews, it is almost inevitable that every metropolitan area has a handful of its own brewpubs. This is exactly the case in "The Biggest Little City." Currently microbrew fans have three vastly different breweries to choose from.
Outpost set out to find the best brewpub in town, and although we couldn't decide on a favorite here are some great things about each one:
|
|
|
|
Located inside the Eldorado
casino on Sierra Street, Brew Bros. is a genuine
Reno
hot spot. It is a huge tourist attraction but also fills
with locals on the weekends. Naturally, people flock here
for the live music and great dance area. A beer aficionado
can expect anything from big band and swing to classic rock
and blues. There are swing dance lessons if you catch the
right night. Many television sets are available for fans of
sports or music videos. Cigar connoisseurs can wander
through the bar with no fear of non-smoking areas, for there
are none, a real treat for visitors from smoke-hating
California.
The menu is
extensive
for a brewery, including pizzas and salads,
out-of-the-ordinary sandwiches, and even oyster shooters
(blech!). The daytime menu is available until 10 p.m. then
they pull the menus and decorate the restaurant with table
tents offering late-night munchies. Surprisingly, this
brewery food is good, especially the vegetarian pizza.
Brewmaster, Darren Whitcher blends up specialties every day at 4 a.m. for your palate's pleasure. Brews include Big Dog Ale, Golden Dollar Pale Ale, Double Down Stout, Wild Card Wheat Ale, Lucky Lady Lager and non-alcoholic root beer.
After sampling a majority of these fine specimens our favorites were the Extra Pale Honey Ale, "a light and clean ale brewed with orange blossom honey," and the Red Head Amber Ale, "a rich red smooth and satisfying ale named after the Redhead duck."
Brew Bros. is open from 11 a.m. until 2 a.m. on Sunday through Thursday and closes later on Friday and Saturday nights. Because it gets so crowded, standing room only should be expected on the weekends. Go to the Brew Bros. Web site by clicking the beer mug.
Having called Sparks home for more than five years, Great Basin is the oldest brewery in town. The address is historical Victorian Avenue in Sparks, a Reno suburb. Open-mike nights and live music are treasures that take place weekly at Great Basin. During Hot August Nights, Farmer's Market and Cinco De Mayo, Great Basin is jumpin'. It has more of a country feel and has great deals for local beer drinkers. For $25 plus tax one can purchase two pint glasses and a Growler with one free fill. What's a Growler? You might ask. Dating from Olde English times, a Growler enabled bar patrons to take beer home from their local pub. Great Basin offers this time-honored tradition to modern drinkers. Bring back your Growler and fill it for $7.75.
Eric McClary is Brewmaster here and works five days per week to watch over yeast and hops as they make their journey into beerhood. His hard work has obviously paid off.
The Great American Beer
Festival has awarded this local brewpub with five awards.
The Wild Horse Ale won in 1994 and 1995 for German-Style
Brown Ale/Dusseldorf-Style Altbier, and can be sampled year
round. Seasonal beers such as the Rosemary Ryepatch, which
won in 1998, and the Cerveza Chilibeso, which won in 1994
and 1997, gained the award in the Herb/Spice category. These
beers change as often as every two weeks.
Other great brews that will be found year-round are the Nevada Gold Ale, the very popular Ichthyosaur India Pale Ale, and the Jackpot Porter.
Great Basin is open every day, with a happy hour from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Be sure to call before you go as Great Basin often closes before midnight. Got to the Great Basin Web site by clicking the beer mug.
Although we say we didn't pick a favorite, we did save this until last for some reason…
Newly opened, Silver Peak is the baby of the group. Owners spoke with us for hours about the history of the building as well as future plans for the establishment. Trent Schmidt, Brewmaster and part owner stressed the importance of the fact that this is not a brewpub, but instead, a restaurant that brews its own beer. (And good beer at that!)
Plans for live entertainment are underway, and will take place upstairs on the deck, which should be open by early May and you don't want to miss this deck. It has a great view of the city lights as well as an unbeatable sunset.
The menu amazed us. Although we were too late to sample any of the dinner specialties, they included salmon with basil-lime butter, smoked chicken pasta with Shitake mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes with a Marsala wine cream sauce, New York Steak, and grilled jumbo prawns served on a saffron-lemon-cream sauce over black pasta. They offer over 35 wines and extravagant desserts. If we had really wanted to taste the flavor of Silver Peak we could have ordered from the late menu that has better-than-average snacks. Reservations are recommended for the restaurant.
As for Schmidt, his brew days are Wednesday through Friday or "whenever the yeast calls." He says most of his job is cleaning, but also says he is "the busser, dishwasher… everything." Jason Benedict, the head bartender, offered us Midtown Brown Ale, Red Roadster, Bailey Wheat, Peavine Porter, XXX Blonde Ale, and Silver Peak Pale Ale, which were all great.
Silver Peak is open from 11 a.m. until midnight on weekdays and closes later on Friday and Saturday. We highly suggest this brewery because the evolution of this building has produced a perfect atmosphere. It isn't filled with smoke like other bars even though cigars are sold and smoked in this well-ventilated restaurant/brewery with a very high-class feel. Go to the Silver Peak web site by clicking the beer mug.
Posted April 23,
1999
Copyright 1999 Nevada Outpost
|
|
|
|