Pints Brewery & Sports Bar

 

 

Now I try to approach most business's with a sympathetic view, understanding the difficulty of operating and following through with a quality brewpub type establishment. But pints brewery is the extra special place, that sets the low standard for the brew pub industry. The joint that fosters the judgmental catch-all of the impersonal micro-brew restaurant. The seemingly entry level staff, took a vague interest in dealing with our party and a complete lack of interest in representing the beer being brewed and served on premise. Now don't take this as your average server bashing, blatant finger pointing review, the service wasn't horrific to many standards, but for any self respecting mid - "high" end brewery restaurant it was sub par. Our food order was taken and delivered in a decent amount of time and then we started our meal. The calamari, which may as well have been chicken strips was bland, insignificant and carried that certain...cookie cutter, cafeteria chicken fries character that you come to expect of a frozen TV dinner. We also had chicken sliders which consisted solely of a dry breaded piece of chicken, placed on a potato bread like slider bun. The bun was of decent quality and tasted pretty good, but paired with its dry chicken counterpart It was not much to rave about. Now all we had remaining was the spinach chicken salad, which overall, would not have been half bad if it hadn't been drowned in a dressing that was so spicy, even the heat seeking, culinary spice lovers of our party could attest to its intensity. Unfortunately this unbalanced drowning of a simple spinach salad, places this dish in a category fitting of a grocery store deli menu. Finally onto the important matter at hand, the beer. I did have a chance to try all of the beers on hand here, and they all deserve their own mention, in both a positive light and not so much. A popular choice seems to be the blueberry ale, which, tastes of blueberries, no doubt. That's about all that can be said in a positive light about this beer. The pale ale, listed as an IPA on the menu but a pale ale on the sampler list, was of decent quality, embodying everything stylistically of west coast style pale ale. Medium bodied, a moderate but muddy malt character with a decent amount of American north west hop flavor and an expected amount of bitterness. I did quite enjoy the stout, it harbored a significant amount of granular raw coffee been type flavor and a rich cream like finish all wrapped into a high viscosity body that playfully hints at some hop bitterness. But amongst everything tried and experienced, nothing stands out more than the "wild card", which after asking our mildly informed server, we discovered was a brown ale. It had a very rough muddy malt character and no discernible highlights to be found. I had very high hopes for my visit to pints, unfortunately they were squashed.

 

 

I tried to add this bar all over again here but I was denied because beeradvocate says the bar already exists. That was a mistake in my opinion since these other reviews are dated and irrelevant since the bar has changed completely over the past 6 months. The only aspect of the earlier reviews that can be relied upon is the updated name of the bar. It was changed from the Boiler Room to Pints earlier this year. After Rock Bottom Brewery couldn't make anything happen this latest attempt has proven the best yet. The old reviews that can be read here are not accurate at all since management of the brewery and the beers offered have changed many times recently. For one, as of 3 weeks ago when I last visited the bar, there is no IPA offered at all. The closest thing is the Pale Ale which was surprisingly good considering that it is brewed within a run down casino in Laughlin. The Blueberry Ale was an even greater surprise. I am not one for fruity beers but this is the most actually blueberry tasting beer that I have ever tried. It is really like drinking an ale/blueberry juice blend. The Stout seemmed to be similar to Guinness Stout just not quite as good. The other beers were rather terrible and should not be mentioned. The beer staff had no idea what a flight was when I asked. The bartender that I dealt with over the course of 2 days was not knowledgeable about beer. When I asked how the Pale Ale is he told me sternly, "its a pale ale"! Then I asked what he likes and told me that he only "likes goldens". Weird! They had no beer list available. That being said, anywhere that I can get a decent beer while playing Blackjack in the bar is okay with me. Plus, if you are gambling, they comp the beers so you will only pay the idiot tax of gambling. I asked about Growlers and I got a very ambiguous answer not worth mentioning either. Sweet!

We were in Laughlin for two nights and decided to try the "Boiler Room" Brewpub at the Colorado Belle. The room is huge and rather dark and is filled with pipes and gauges and lights to resemble the boiler room of an old paddlewheeler. Oldies music played in the background. The air was suprisingly fresh even though smoking is allowed.

I first tried the stout which was a dark black color and had a solid creamy head due to the nitro pour. It had some great coffee and roasted grain flavors and finished silky smooth and slightly sweet like a milk stout. The next beer I tried was their "seasonal" and was an imperial brown ale. This beer also had great malty flavor and some kick to it that resembled a Belgian strong dark ale. The next day, I enjoyed their pale ale which was very bitter and had great citrusy hop flavor and was more like an IPA than a pale ale. It also seemed to be over carbonated but all in all very good. I finally tried their amber ale which was more like a red and while not a standout, was also very good. Overall, these beers were very good and I especially liked the stout. They were also a very good bargain at 75 cents per pint (on Thursday - $3.25 other days).

The food was also a pleasant surprise. My wife enjoyed the chicken sandwich and I had the "Boiler Room Brats". These were two brats on tasty rolls with a topping of fried onions and garlic cloves and a side of fries. The next day I tried the chicken quesadillas that were about an inch thick with chicken chunks, onions, peppers, and avocado slices, all with a side of red salsa, sour cream, and green pepper salsa. These were absolutely delicious and were the best I've ever eaten. Prices were reasonable and the service was attentive even though they were quite busy. Only one thing grossed me out and that was watching the bartender pour a Bud Lite into a frosted mug and then add about 3 oz of tomato juice for a few patrons. Yuck! The next time I go to Laughlin will be on a Thursday and I will come hungry and thirsty.

The growlers are $13 bucks, but you keep the monster and it's only $7 for a refill. The music was really loud when I was there, and no-one was in the place, but the burger was killer, the nachos were loaded with toppings, and the bartender was friendly. The menu selections are a bit pricey and I wish the menu was a little bigger, but all in all, a decent, fun place to have a few cold ones and some grub. College football bowl games were on when I was there, and the sportsbook thats next door was super fun!

Located on the first floor of the Colorado Belle casino at the front of the boat. Fairly large pub, with a good size bar that has video poker. The decor is what it has to be, a boiler room, pipes running here to there, maps on the walls, they even made the stoves visible to show you they look like old steam boilers. Very cool. Glass behind the bar gives you a view of their tanks. And speaking of view there are TV's everywhere and there not all on one channel.

On a thursday night four of us had dinner at about 7p.m. the place was 3/4 full. Asked to have a table at a window overlooking the water, success. Waitress took so long I went and got drinks at the bar, after that there were no problems. Menu is pretty standard pub grub at a reasonable price. Each person ordering a different dish was very satisfied(pizza,sandwiches,burger).

Having had beers here before and a couple times on this trip I can say that the service and brews are constantly good. With only four core beers and one seasonal(Brewers' Reserve) on tap they seem to believe in quality rather than quantity. Each tap tower has 6 taps so that they can quickly and easily rotate in the next seasonal selection. The core beers are, Golden,Stout,Pale ale and Amber. At the time they had an IPA for the seasonal. Stout being the only one I didn't totally enjoy. Service at the bar was good and I asked the bartender some questions about the beers, he said they have a sheet of information just in case people ask but he couldn't find it at the time. From memory he could tell me the IPA was 7.2% abv but he didn't know what hops were used as that were my question.

I meant to grab a growler on the way out of town, $13.00ea. not available in bottles. And if you so happen to be there on a thursday your in luck because pints are $0.75!


Overall I recommend this place to anyone on there way to Laughlin.