S2E2: On Saturday, August 23rd, 2014, the “I Love Beer” returned to Cheers Bar in Las Vegas for the second installment of craft beer shows for the 2014 season. Beer Show co-host Dameron returned to the craft beer show as we featured Stone Brewing’s RUIN TEN IPA and Unapologetic IPA. We also tried craft beer from the Bruery with their Smoking Wood Rye barrel aged beer with interesting results. While the high alcohol level of these three craft beers doesn’t make them good for sessionable drinking, they seemed to have a fun effect for all as the night went on.


Let’s start the recap with our first beer selection of the night, the Stone RUIN-TEN IPA. Stone first released this craft beer in 2012, as Stone Ruination Tenth Anniversary IPA, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of our their bitter Stone Ruination IPA. Stone RuinTen IPA uses the same recklessly hoppy recipe as the 2012 release; only the name has changed, since they are now unleashing this delicious hop monster to the public on an annual basis. Packing a whopping five pounds of hops into each barrel, and cranked up the ABV to stand up to the hop onslaught (plus a 10.8% alcohol content), the RUIN TEN is amazing as all who sampled this craft beer rated it a “thumbs up” for the evening.

Bv08QkDIUAA0vr-[1]Next up was the Smoking Wood Barrel Aged Rye from the Bruery in Placentia, California, a Special Collection craft beer checking in at 13% alcohol. It showed from the very first taste! This smoked beer is brewed with beachwood and cherrywood smoked malt and aged in rye whiskey barrels. It’s what wood has to offer when it comes to beer, but it’s not for everyone because the taste is so strong right from the start. This imperial smoked porter is brewed with a hefty amount of rye malt with toasty oak, caramel, and vanilla flavors to balance the smokiness.

We finished off the show with another favorite from Stone, the Unapologetic IPA. Being big fans of Stone, we pretty much knew this craft beer was going to taste great, since everything Stone brews is pretty amazing. They also brew a lot of different IPAs, so the question becomes: “Is there room for another great tasting IPA from these guys?” And the answer is a decided YES!  At 9.0% alcohol, this “light” IPA makes for a great easy drinking craft beer that again went over well with everyone at the bar throughout the evening.

As usual, everyone at Cheers Bar were great. And Dameron certainly was “on a roll” as you can tell by the very end of the show video. Get in on the fun yourself! Don’t forget to text BEERSHOW to 95577 to get immediate notification of new showdates and I Love Beer Show events.