Here is the beer menu from the Pub at Monte Carlo casino in Las Vegas. I’ll be there in a couple of weeks. While I know I’ll be limited to the usual selection on the casino floor, I thought I’d pop into this pub for a few good beers during the trip.
From a quick glance, I think I’d probably enjoy selections from the Amber, IPA, and Lager menus the most, but feel free to suggest anything on their menu that is reasonably priced.
Not trying to be a party-pooper, but $8.00 bucks for a draught Full Sail or Newcastle?!?
$9.00 dollars for a bottle of Dogfish Head?
These are prices that would seem REALLY expensive in places like NYC, San Francisco or Boston, let alone (usually bargain-priced) Vegas…
(Of course it doesn’t really matter, what with all the money you are sure to win on your trip)
I’m more of a Belgian drinker, but Mr. Athena is into the styles you mention and I know what he drinks. So here’s what I’d say:
As a general rule, anything from Dogfishhead is worth a try; they’re some of the best beers in the country.
On the **IPA **List, here’s what I’d be looking at (besides the Dogfishhead):
Lagunitas
Piraat
Stone (both)
Ales
Good lord, I was going to say the Saison d’Erpe-Mare looked interesting, but does that say $450 a bottle?!? That can’t be right… can it? I’m looking around the Interwebs and I’m not seeing anyone talking about that bottle being so pricy, so let’s assume it’s a typo. I’d try it, assuming the price is not $450. Or you’re buying a keg of it.
Stone Arrogant Bastard is good
Amber
People get all giddy over Fat Tire, so if you haven’t had it before, you might as well try it. But I personally don’t think it’s all that great.
The Rogue looks more interesting.
Other styles, in no particular order
Nice hefeweizen list there - the Kellerweis is good, as is Hofbrau and Spaten.
Delirium Tremens is a fun one.
Unibroue La Fin du Monde is one of my favorites, as is the Leffe. Hoegaarden also good.
Overall, that seems like a decent beer list, but not spectacular. A lot of the stuff is pretty ordinary and easily found in most parts of the country. And, as MPB in Salt Lake says, it’s pretty pricey.
A fair number of mistakes on the menu as well. I’m guessing it’s a touristy kind of place (not surprising, being Las Vegas) more than a true beer drinker’s place.
I can’t get the .pdf to load for me, but you’d be better served (in all senses of the word) by taking a cab downtown to Main Street Station. They make their own, and it is quite good. Monte Carlo is likely over-priced crap.
In fairness, it looks like draught beers are 1/2 priced during their weekday happy hour (3-7 pm) so that would be a good time to do some sampling without breaking the bank…
(The Belgian beer selection looks quite excellent, but it is almost all bottled, and so not subject to any happy hour discounts)
At those prices, I wouldn’t go there just on principle. $7 for a Coors Light? You can get a 12 pack for that.
As has already been noted, the prices are stupid. That said, they have some interesting beers that I think would be hard to find elsewhere. The Goose Island offerings are ones I’ve not seen other than at the brewery in Chicago. I’ve had two different Hitachinos (the red rice and an espresso stout) before, and both were excellent. I’ve always wanted to try Farson’s Milk Stout, as I like Left Hand’s version.
But yeah, the prices are crazy, and I don’t see too many bargains. Maybe the Samisclaus?
Edit: Wait, the bottles are 12 oz (judging by the separate page for bombers at the end) and they want that much?! Hell, no.
Ok, rather than gripe about prices let me make some recommendations.
Ales:
Fullers ESB is a personal favorite as is Smithwicks Irish Red. EVERYTHING Stone makes is good. This goes double for Arrogant Bastard ale, but be careful with it. The alcohol content is high, but if I could only get one thing off the menu it would be this. The fact that it is on Tap is what puts it over the top for me. If you are going to get more than one, skip this Stone and go for Smithwicks on tap or Fuller’s in a bottle in that order. There are other good beers on the menu, but those are the three that I REALLY like.
Amber:
The first four are all good middle of the road beers. None are remarkable but all are good. Rogue is also good, and Speakeasy is interesting. If you want something easy to drink this is the menu to hit. Pick almost at random and something you get will be good.
Bock:
Rogue Dead Guy on tap. Do it. You won’t be sorry. Spaeten Optimator Doppel Bock is good too.
IPA:
If you like IPA’s, and you say you do, Stone makes the best I have ever had. And they have them on tap, double good. Either IPA or Ruination. You can’t go wrong. Both the Dogfishheads are good too. I like the 60 minute better than the 90.
Lager:
Anchor Steam or the local micros are the only ones I would consider. Everything else you can get at a store near you. Why bother?
Pale Ale:
Boddingtons! Not what you expect from the Pale Ale category. Creamy and rich. Do it.
Sierra Nevada on tap is something that needs to be tried if you haven’t had it. It’s head and shoulders above what you get in a bottle.
There are a bunch of other good ones on the list too, but those two are special.
Porter:
The Samuel Smith or the Fullers. Both are good.
Stout:
Not on tap but Rogue Shakespear Stout and Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal stout are both fantastic. Youngs Double Chocolate Stout has to be tried to be believed, it’s brilliant.
Stay away from anything unusual, either in bottle or on draft. Even in a place like this, the beer is likely stale. Unless they turn over a couple of cases of the stuff a week, it’s been sitting in the cooler for who knows how long. So stick with the higher alcohol Belgians and such if you want them to taste the way they should.
Sierra Nevada’s Anniversary barleywine is nice.
Pale Ale
A pale ale is warm fermented and uses a higher proportion of pale malts and fewer
dark roasted malts than brown and dark beers, resulting in a lighter color and less
wheat than wheat beers.
Say what? Who wrote their menu?
$85 for a bottle of Piraat? $450 for a bottle of Duvel?
I think that Slots O’ Fun (next door to Circus Circus) still has over 70 different bottled beers (mostly imports and microbrews) for $2 bux a pop, all day, every day…
32 Below at M Resort has 92 beers on draft at $4/pint and you can get free pints of most of them at the slots.
BTW, a bottle of Piraat costs $3.99 + crv at my local Bevmo.
Yeah, I was kind of having fun (Japanese stout???) until I got to the beers listed as MP. In Vegas the DB factor is never far at bay.
I know the prices are high. However, the tab (minus tip) is going to be charged to my room and paid with casino comps.
I still couldn’t do it. My inner brewer would rebel. If you are going to spend comps, go throw them at Andre Rochat.
Now that’s a whole 'nother story—If they are picking up your tab, you might as well treat yourself to the Good Stuff!!!
In that case, be sure to try a Westmalle Trappist Tripel and a few assorted Chimay’s (ask the bartender which specific ones they sell the most of and try those, to ensure you get as fresh of a brew as possible) to give yourself a little tour of Belgium, right in the heart of the Mojave Desert…
Enjoy your beer, sounds like it will be a great way to take advantage of your comps.
The menu’s style descriptions certainly include some clunkers, but your example isn’t the worst. At least it’s not 100% factually incorrect, since Pale Ales do indeed use less wheat than wheat beers (given that “zero” is less than “some” 
).
The description that I particularly enjoyed, at the top of Page 2 of the PDF menu, was:
‘The term “barleywine” refers to regular grape wine cooked with barley in it.’
This one is just so unbelievably wrong that I decided that it had to have been lifted verbatim from somewhere. It seems to me that our friend the menu writer glanced at the Wikipedia entry for Barley Wine, and completely missed the context of one sentence. Oh well…
But this does explain why you like the Sierra Nevada Anniversary barley wine, silenus. It’s obviously the grapes. 
Is that American dollars. I saw one for 500 bucks, a couple more for 450. I could not be rich enough to buy a beer at that price when some very good beers were much. much cheaper. When you see a 500 dollar beer, a 7 buck beer seems reasonable.
I still couldn’t do it. My inner accountant would rebel. “Money is fungible!”, he’d shout, and urge me to find a better redemption value for my comps.
I don’t know. Andre has a pretty nice restaurant at Monte Carlo. Since, AFAIK, you can’t cash in comps for hookers, it seems eating well is about the best use there is. 
I will only comment on the British and Irish beers, where my particular expertise lies.
Out of all of them I would strongly recommend you try **Fullers ESB **- so long as it is the *bottle conditioned *export version.
It has won many medals in the UK including best bottled beer (all the short list being bottle conditioned, where some yeast has been added to the beer upon bottling so that it is alive).