NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York
www.nyupress.org
2019 by New York University
All rights reserved
References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
ISBN: 978-1-4798-8525-1 (hardback)
ISBN: 978-1-4798-7961-8 (paperback)
For Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data, please contact the Library of Congress.
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Also available as an ebook
Introduction
Brewing Local Culture
The line stretches a hundred deep along the sidewalk, with the stray meanderer drifting into the parking lot. July afternoons in Las Vegas are not ideal for standing on pavement and asphalt on the west-facing side of an industrial park. But this is no ordinary industrial park. Its the soon-to-be-anointed Artisan Booze District. And this is no ordinary day. Its the grand opening of Bad Beat Brewing.
Sweat gathers underneath and saturates the assorted hats emblazoned with logos of nationally recognized and well-regarded pioneering craft breweries like Stone, Russian River, and Bells. Though their hats are from elsewhere, these people are locals, or at least theyre transplanted locals, as is the norm in the notoriously transient Las Vegas. The license plates on the cars that parallel the line suggest as much. Regardless of how long these individuals have lived in Las Vegas, it is home now, and today is their first chance to sip beers at a new brewerys taproom in their relatively new city. Even for those born in Las Vegas, the city itself is still relatively young compared to others across the American urban landscape, a fact that leads to the types of growing pains and identity struggles that more established urban areas have learned to deal with, or at least recognize as issues to address one way or another.
Individuals shift their weight from one foot to the next, giddy with anticipation; theyre here to experience and help birth the second new brewery in the valley in the last year. Most seem to know there are a few more breweries planning to open over the course of the remaining months of 2014, and more on the horizon. Las Vegas locals looking for a sense of community, a sense of local identity, or merely a broadening of aesthetic offerings are eager to tap into the rising desire and supposed promise of craft beer. The patiently waiting thirsty sun-battlers feel like theyre taking part in something new and important, something that feels different from the typical and clichd experiences routinely offered in Las Vegas.
Sure. They could just be impatient. Or maybe the sun is getting to them. But heat be damned, theres craft beer here. And its craft beer from here.
Two stacks of empty kegs serve as a gateway to the entrance. A ribbon of dangling kings, queens, jacks, and jokers hangs between the keg towers. Former professional poker player and founding owner Nathan Hall steps forward, says a few words, and cuts the cards, literally.
The doors open.
One by one, each person heads into Bad Beats tasting room. Two long oak tables, surrounded by stools, stand between them and the bar where taps flow with freshly kegged beer from the hidden brewhouse behind it. The walls are minimally decorated, making the wooden sign with the Bad Beat logoa poker chip with crisscrossing cards, a seven and a two to represent the local 702 area codethat adorns the far wall pop out to greet the eager crowd as they line up for some of Bad Beats first public pours.
The chalkboard behind the bar lists each beer by name, style, ABV (alcohol by volume), and IBUs (a gauge of beers bitterness). The man and woman in front of me receive their beers and quickly sniff and then sip the liquid in their glasses. Their heads rise and they look at each other, nod approvingly, and make their way through the growing crowd. I order and then quench my thirst with their most unusual offering, Ace in the Hole, a pale ale brewed with basil. Its kind of like pizza in a glass without the cheese. Each beer sports pun-infused names that come with cartooned labels depicting poker terms and roused gamblers. Their wheat-based German hefeweizen is called Bluffing Isnt Weiss. Ante Up Amber shows a woman pointing her finger, demanding the drinker to get in the game or get out. A successful gambler hugging his days winnings adorns the bottles and cans of Hoppy Times, a typically citrusy and floral West Coast IPA.
Bad Beats brews can be sipped while sitting on a bean bag next to an old Nintendo system that is the only electronic gaming system in the brewerys taproom, unlike most drinking establishments in Las Vegas. Theres no video poker here, just some classic Duck Hunt. And there arent any playing cards either, just a stack of Cards Against Humanity open to anyone who wants to test their moral compass while sipping on a few locally crafted elixirs.
I met Nathan and his pal Mike Dominiak when they were serving their homebrews at a local beer festival less than a year earlier. In fact, that particular festival convinced me that the burgeoning craft beer scene in Las Vegas deserved a full book-length treatment to delve into its interactional potential for constructing and maintaining local urban culture. From behind the booth that belongs to the local homebrewers club SNAFU (Southern Nevada Ale Fermentation Union), they poured beer into my tasting glass. More importantly, they poured out for me their plans about opening a brewery.
Though the beer I had at the festival was theirs and, for all intents and purposes, tasted good, they hired Weston Barkley, a former award-winning homebrewer and shift brewer at relative local stalwart Joseph James Brewing, to guide Bad Beats brews. Weston is a versatile brewer with the ability to brew across the style spectrum. According to Mike, Bad Beats director of imbibing operations, their goal was to nail a few particular styles out of the gate and then experiment and put out some really fun and innovative stuff. He also recognized the challenge ahead of them of trying to appeal to a population with a relatively low craft beer IQ.
We dont just want to be the place that people go because were local, because were convenient. We want people to come because we make good high-quality beer that is brewed here and appeals to local tastes. The more and more craft beer is available and makes it into the normal everyday lives of people in Las Vegas, the more and more people will accept craft beer.
Across cities, suburbs, and towns in the United States and elsewhere, both local and craft have garnered increased valorization and are often treated as synonymous. As Mikes comment implies, they are not the same despite the common misuse of the two terms by local beer drinkers and local tourism boards alike. As we will see throughout this book, the meanings given to these terms and what they are supposed to represent are not straightforward and, in turn, are subjects of much debate.