Nevada Brew Works is Brewing for a Cause

The newest brewery and taproom in downtown’s Art District opened its doors last week, and this one is brewing for a cause. 

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Nevada Brew Works located on the north-east corner of Imperial and Main is a family affair. Owners Jason Taylor and his wife, Lauren are life-long beer enthusiasts – so much that they even got married at Mickey Finn’s brewery in Libertyville, Illinois. 

Originally from the Chicago suburbs, the couple moved to Las Vegas in 2009 during the recession. During their 11 years as Vegas locals, they saw the city go through many rebirths – but always felt Vegas was still lacking the beer culture that many cities on the West Coast had. 

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 “I decided I wanted to start my own brewery 5 years ago,” Jason told Vegas News. “We were behind here in Vegas, a lot of cities in the West were starting to pass us by, and had this explosion in the beer culture industry. We were watching it happen but not taking any action in this city.”

“So that’s about when the idea started to bloom two years ago, when I actually started the company and incorporated our journey,” said Jason. 

Lauren’s father, Ken Hallyburton is the brewmaster for Nevada Brew Works. He attended the famous Siebel Brewing Institute, which is considered the “Julliard of Beer,” in Chicago. He has over 25+ years of beer brewing expertise.

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Jason and Lauren’s daughter, Ariana Rye, was born premature and spent 117 days in the NICU. She has spastic quadropelegic cerebral palsey. They created the Ariana Rye Foundation, to families in need of medical equipment for their disabled children. 

Nevada Brew Works will offer the Ariana Rye Pale Ale, a red hoppier pale ale, and portions of the proceeds will go towards the foundation. They will also be supporting The Humane Society, sponsor 5K races, and involve themselves with other big community programs. 

“We will have another beer on tap from a child that we will sponsor, and name the beer after them. A portion of the proceeds of that beer will go towards that family to help them get much needed medical equipment,” Jason said.  

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Construction for Nevada Brew Works began in January. “By the time the pandemic started, we were in pretty deep at that point, there was no discussion about stopping it,” said Jason. “There was no turning back.”

Against all odds, they pulled through. They deliberated how to mitigate the impact, and worked with their contractors and suppliers to keep things moving along. “We knew there would be delays and problems, but there was never any consideration of stopping,” he said. 

Vegas local Kevin Berman, was at the brewery on opening day to support Nevada Brew Works. Berman grew up with Lauren in Illinois, and harmoniously, they both ended up in Vegas and reconnected after 15 years.  “You want to hear something funny?” Berman told Vegas News. “We used to steal beer from [Brewmaster] Ken’s garage in high school.”

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“They put all their family eggs into this,” Said Berman. We’ve been watching them build this [brewery], it’s been a 2 year process for this to happen.” Berman and his wife have been avid supporters of the Brewery, even contributing to their Kickstarter campaign. 

Nevada Brew Works will offer a wide variety of beers, a lot of German beers, Belgian style beers, and some West Coast hoppy beers. “We’re not going to  be the spot that you come in and you can select from 24 different IPA’s.”

They have 16 available taps, 12 will be their own beers, in addition to a guest cider, a sour and a seltzer. They have a full service kitchen, and an involved craft cocktail menu – specializing in bourbon. 

Nevada Brew Works is now open 7 days a week. Grab a personal 700° pizza, craft beer, and sit out on their large patio at 1327 S Main St Ste 160

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