National Honey Month saved one of the best for last. The Las Vegas Chapter of Pink Boots Society will keep Mojave Brewing Company’s long-standing tradition of paying homage to popular movies, and ska, punk and hip-hop tracks with their Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems Cream Ale to be released on Sept. 29.
Pink Boots Society Las Vegas Chapter President Ashlie Randolph says that accepting the opportunity to brew Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems for National Honey Month was a “no-brainer” and her chapter jumped on it when it came along.
“It’s a tremendous honor to be considered,” Randolph says. “I met with the Nevada Department of Agriculture locally and they were very excited to hear about this collaboration as there is so much produced here in Nevada, and most people are not aware of that. In the brewing industry, we are all creative and love to play with different flavor profiles, so this is a great showcase to bring attention to ingredients that aren't necessarily first to mind.”
Being largely influenced by the multicultural cuisine showcased in Southern Nevada, the chapter put their heads together with the team at Mojave Brewing Company and decided to showcase the “smokey” qualities of mesquite honey alongside hatch chiles for their National Honey Month beer.
Randolph says that the popularity of using these peppers during hatch chile season was the inspiration to utilize this ingredient rarely seen in craft beer.
“Mojave does an amazing job of incorporating diverse flavors familiar to consumers from different cultures already. They have a tamarind cider, which has become my absolute favorite cider in the world. They also make a fantastic raspberry serrano blonde ale, so brewing a beer with hatch chiles is very much in their wheelhouse already,” she says.
Brewing beers that pair chiles — especially hatch — with the honey, according to Randolph, is something that not a lot of brewers are doing.
“I think that’s something that Mojave excels at: showcasing flavors that aren’t necessarily top of mind,” she says. “I think it’s a great talking point for people to not only experience what’s going to be a phenomenal beer, but just to really revisit honey. Depending on what culture and background you come from, you may have been introduced to the medicinal aspects of it or simply as something used to sweeten your tea. I’m very excited for the National Honey Board to come out for our release and to share some educational components on honey, not only how to use it in applications when it comes to beer and fermenting, but in everyday uses.”
When developing the recipe for this upcoming release, great consideration was given in regard to when to introduce the Mesquite honey into the beer. Depending on the type of honey used and its specific characteristics, it can either add sweetness after it’s done fermenting, or it could also add a dryness to it. Incorporating this ingredient at the correct time is essential to ensure that the yeast in the beer won’t consume it all and raise the ABV of the beer as a result. Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems will have a relatively low ABV, 5-6%, making it an easy to drink “sessionable” beer.
Next door to Mojave is a restaurant named Bourbon and Biscuits that showcases its namesakes. Once the Pink Boots chapter knew they were going to partner with Mojave in brewing this beer, they wanted to make sure they had a beer that would complement the offerings next door.
The brewing of this beer will afford all members and invited guests in attendance on the brew day — Sept. 2 — the chance to be involved in creating a beer from start to finish: Chapter members will return on a later date to add the featured ingredients of the hatch chiles and mesquite honey during secondary fermentation
September is also Latin Heritage Month, so the team wanted to pay their respects by using an ingredient indigenous to New Mexico, to a culture that Randolph notes is not recognized in the craft beer industry quite to the level she knows it can be.
“Our financial liaison Amanda Payon’s family established North 5th Brewing, which will be the first Latino-owned brewery in Southern Nevada,” Randolph says. “We definitely have a diverse membership, and we want to make everyone feel included in everything that we do. During my tenure as chapter president, it’s important for me to make sure that people who may not feel like they are necessarily first of mind in this industry know that they are and that they’re important to us.”