beersk
March 2, 2016, 9:55pm
21
hopfenundmalz:
beersk:
THIS right here. I’ve been thinking this for quite some time. So many of the “craft beer” bars have nothing but IPAs and Imperial stouts on tap, nothing but super high abv stuff. It’s annoying. There’s a place called El Bait Shop in Des Moines that has over 100 taps and I looked at the menu for 10 minutes, like Eric, couldn’t find a damn thing I wanted. The IPA and stout list was HUGE, there were no lagers, no wheat beers, a few sours (which I don’t drink). It was ridiculous. Plus, if they had something like Chimay it would be like $9 a pour. Screw that.
A different time, a different perspective. There have been times I was not impressed by other places with high ratings.
El Bait Shop was a standout on a road trip to CO/UT/AZ/NM. We had a hotel in walking distance, had beer and bar food, and were saying that gee it was affordable. We were just in Chicago last weekend, that was sticker shock. We were happy with the selection at El Bait Shop, found what we wanted, and tried new beers from the center of the nation that we don’t get, and I think I started with a lager. Just looked at the online list, there seems to be enough lagers on the list that I could drink my fill in a night. Heck, I would drink all 4 of the Schell’s Bocks. The lines were all clean, and the server was knowledgable and helpful. For that many beers we are impressed.
The other standout was the stop at Le Cumbre in Duke City. They are know for the IPAs and Stouts. We had the taproom only Pilsner and Helles, which were darned good. Did buy some IPA and Stout to go.
When I was there, the server didn’t know sht, there were hardly any lagers or wheat beers. It was summer, I didn’t want a huge f cking stout or IPA. Just not my place. Plus the beers were crazy expensive. Hessen Haus is THE place to go in Des Moines for me. Great place.
I’m getting to the point where I don’t want to go anywhere for beer unless it’s a brewery.
beersk:
hopfenundmalz:
beersk:
THIS right here. I’ve been thinking this for quite some time. So many of the “craft beer” bars have nothing but IPAs and Imperial stouts on tap, nothing but super high abv stuff. It’s annoying. There’s a place called El Bait Shop in Des Moines that has over 100 taps and I looked at the menu for 10 minutes, like Eric, couldn’t find a damn thing I wanted. The IPA and stout list was HUGE, there were no lagers, no wheat beers, a few sours (which I don’t drink). It was ridiculous. Plus, if they had something like Chimay it would be like $9 a pour. Screw that.
A different time, a different perspective. There have been times I was not impressed by other places with high ratings.
El Bait Shop was a standout on a road trip to CO/UT/AZ/NM. We had a hotel in walking distance, had beer and bar food, and were saying that gee it was affordable. We were just in Chicago last weekend, that was sticker shock. We were happy with the selection at El Bait Shop, found what we wanted, and tried new beers from the center of the nation that we don’t get, and I think I started with a lager. Just looked at the online list, there seems to be enough lagers on the list that I could drink my fill in a night. Heck, I would drink all 4 of the Schell’s Bocks. The lines were all clean, and the server was knowledgable and helpful. For that many beers we are impressed.
The other standout was the stop at Le Cumbre in Duke City. They are know for the IPAs and Stouts. We had the taproom only Pilsner and Helles, which were darned good. Did buy some IPA and Stout to go.
When I was there, the server didn’t know sht, there were hardly any lagers or wheat beers. It was summer, I didn’t want a huge f cking stout or IPA. Just not my place. Plus the beers were crazy expensive. Hessen Haus is THE place to go in Des Moines for me. Great place.
I’m getting to the point where I don’t want to go anywhere for beer unless it’s a brewery.
I will give Hessen House a try. Used to live in Hesse, so the name has some nostalgia.
skatz
March 2, 2016, 10:29pm
23
All I want is half decent lagers. FW 805 is available in cans and draft most places, but it would be nice to have a selection.
jeffy
March 2, 2016, 10:47pm
24
ethinson:
reverseapachemaster:
More is not necessarily better. 92 taps might bring people in who feel like they must be able to find something they like. People who are not well versed in craft beer they are likely to be overwhelmed, shrug and order whatever name is most familiar. Craft beer snobs expect 92 taps to carry enough diversity to find something interesting. Then we end up with the same beer selection available in the grocery store. It’s not that those beers are bad but I wonder why I am paying a premium for the same beers at a fungible bar experience. I also know there is no way they are turning over 92 taps with regularity so the freshness of the beer is questionable. If you’re carrying 30 IPAs that’s a problem.
Give me a far smaller selection with a well curated tap wall. It doesn’t have to be exotic or hyped up beers but just a good mix that includes a range of styles and includes some quality local options. I would rather give my money to a local business that appreciates craft beer like I do and really cares about my experience over a shotgun approach.
I can’t recall the name of it off the top of my head but there’s a place in Raleigh North Carolina that just opened up with 300 taps. I believe they have three levels, the top level being all NC local beers, the middle like Belgians and Sours or something like that and then the bottom level being all the big name nationwide distributed stuff, so supposedly something for everyone. I didn’t get the chance to go there while I was visiting the East Coast over Christmas but the review I kept reading over and over and over on Yelp and Google was that all that beer was going to go sour and funky because there’s no way they were turning it over fast enough. They’ve have to be blowing 100 kegs a night. I appreciate the focus on local but the rest just seems like overkill. On the one hand I wanted to try it out, but after reading the reviews I wasn’t sure it’d be worth it.
Another major complaint was the waitstaff had no clue what was on the taplist.
I was there in December. The difficulty was the menu - I had to do it on-line on my phone because they had no up to date paper. But they organized it by floor, so you had to look through a bunch of categories that were on tap on the first floor, then the same categories on the second floor menu, then the third to see what to order. I have this thing about 1. ordering the best thing on the menu or 2. ordering the perfect beer for the occasion/food/whatever, so I have to look at all the beers on the menu before deciding. They made this difficult.
beersk
March 3, 2016, 7:27pm
25
Man, me too. There’s no half decent lagers available in bars, it’s sad. And I’m so damn tired of paying more than $5 a pint. It’s just too much. But there are random spots with sub-$5 pints. Last night I was drinking Ranger IPA for $3 a pint. Thas what I’m talkin’ 'bout!