Two beer posts in a row! Oh my!

Earlier this summer, Groupon informed me of a festival of beer in the Summerlin area of Las Vegas.  Tickets were probably about half price and it promised local beers from Nevada and Southern California so I snatched up a Groupon for the Husband and I to add to one of our weekend schedules.  The festival boasted beers from many places we’d never tried as well as some favorites, plus there would be Las Vegas food trucks there – we were looking forward to it!  The event was at Tivoli Square, a newish shopping and restaurant district in Summerlin and they set up ample parking across the street for the crowds.  The line was crazy long but we patiently waited through it (and we were entertained by a man on stilts which I failed to get a picture of unfortunately).  After a bit, we made it to the front of the line, turned over our Groupon and received wrist bands, tasting cups, and a booklet informing us of the beers available that evening.

We headed through the security check points and began plotting out what beers we wanted to sample.  It was hot (as Vegas summers tend to be) and the space was very crowded (see below) so we just started hitting each table as we could.  A band was playing very loudly so it was very difficult to talk to each other and to talk to the brewers unfortunately.

We sampled a few beers along the first edge (the tables were set up in a u-shape)

I believe by the shade of this that it was one of the blueberry beers… it was actually pretty gross though (New England breweries have the best blueberry beers in the country and this one came no where close to it)

After a few beer samples, we were starving so we headed back out of the beer area to check out the food trucks.  There was Slidin Thru, one of the more famous food trucks in the area.  The line was insanely long and we’ve had their food many times so we wanted to explore our other options.  We came across the Haulin Balls truck and were excited to try them.  We had recently discovered them when their truck was parked around the corner from our house! Apparently one of the owners lives in our neighborhood and we chatted with them while ordering about how small of a world it is

The theme of the truck is what they call Ballwiches, sandwiches generally made up of various meatballs.  The prices may look expensive for a food truck, but the portion sizes were huge! The Husband and I decided to order one ballwich each, sides, and drinks to share.

From left to right, I believe we ordered the Godfather and the Porky as well as an order of fries and two orders of their 3 Cheese Mac N Cheese (with truffle crumble – if you haven’t tried truffle oil in your mac n cheese, DO. IT. NOW.)

The food was excellent and the staff was incredibly friendly! We ordered too much food and unfortunately had to let it go to waste, but not before trying each item.  At least as of this summer, they have a weekly routine set-up at Khouri’s Fine Wines (to which we also have a Groupon) so expect to see us having dinner there some time this fall).

After getting our fill, we headed back to the beer tables.

In general, I was wholly unimpressed with many of the beers.  One of the breweries had “sour beer” – something they were positively trying to market but I found repulsive.  Have any of you tried sour beer and enjoyed it?

As the sun started to go down and the place cooled off, the crowd got drunker and tables ran out of beer.

Luckily for me, though, I found a new summer favorite beer – the only one I remember enjoying the whole evening – Fat Tire’s Summersault.  It’s flavorful but light enough for a summer beer.  I hope they bring it back again next summer!

Overall, the beer festival itself was a general bust, but at least we got to experience a great summer beer and some tasty food from a new favorite food truck.

Any of you attend any good beer festivals this summer? Any new favorite beers that you recommend?