Do you enjoy going to craft beer bars with 100+ taps?

Ehhh not so much.

I’m a huge fan of the Tap and Handle in Fort Collins; they boast a measly 74 taps

https://www.tapandhandle.com/beer-menu

The selection there is always great, fresh, and varied… they often have what many would consider to be whales available either on tap or in bottles. Their staff takes great care in cleaning lines regularly and using proper glassware for whatever you choose.

I’m pretty sure they could handle another 26 taps, but space is limited so I doubt they’ll ever have to face that challenge!

 

When you say this, do you mean a customer never complained? Or that it never came up amongst the staff/management? Cheers.

 

We have What's on tap here in the DFW area. Believe it's like 50 taps or something like that.

I don't drink tap much but when I do it's at a brewery tap room that has 10-15 taps. I'd rather have fewer taps available and just make em good beers.

 

Yeah, I had a Courage RIS on draught there once. Seeing it, I almost pooped my pants.

 

I think it was either this place in Raleigh or the Flying Saucer that I visited on a business trip in 2009. Right before I discovered Beer Advocate. Having a 4-5 page menu of beers organized by style/country I though was really awesome and never seen anything like it before. This really opened my eyes up to the world of craft beer. Today, 12 years into craft beer, I’m usually good with 20-40 taps/variety (local places) and hope there are a few high quality options or interesting beers I’ve not had before. If I’m out of the area I’m good with less taps.

 

Locally, we have a Yard House in VA Beach. 100ish taps. I can say there's never really anything "exciting" or new there, just tried-and-true type stuff.

In Lexington, VA, there's Salerno's Pizza, which has 35-40 taps of "pour by ounce"/card activated wall. Here, you are apt to find a bit more variety than the above.

 

There is one here called pint room, actually have a handful of locations across the US: https://www.pintroom.com/carmel-indiana/

They maintain their taplist pretty well on untappd, showing 106 beers or so. They get so much traffic that beer doesn't sit. However, I have been at the bar during off hours and the staff is testing beers and cleaning lines. If anything is off, they take it out of rotation.

Clearly this is an exception, but you can find some bars that care about this stuff enough to make the effort. Food is great bar food too. Worth a stop if you are in Indianapolis.

Conversely, I will never set foot in a Yard House again.

 

Yeah I think you are correct. And Big Boss was also the first microbrew taproom I ever went to as well while on that business trip. I can’t even remember the purpose of that visit anymore..just beer memories.

 

No I did not, but I admittedly didn't drink there a lot. And when I did, I would really only drink the "chalkboard" beers which were the only rotating taps, and the only 1/6 bbls. The rest of the cooler would be 1/2 bbls. That's right, a cooler of entirely ~130 1/2 bbls. Once a week they would recruit people looking for extra hours to come in early and help reorganize.

 

All of the above and I never tasted a stale beer the entire time I worked there.

 

In New York there have been any number of sports bars + super-pubs with 100 taps, especially around Midtown.
It's totally possible to be bored by such a selection, which often looks like this:

• 10 big corporate lagers
  • e.g. Bud Lime, Stella Artois
• 10 big corporate ales
  • e.g. Guinness, Negra Modelo, Blue Moon
• 10 BMC-owned craft
  • e.g. Sweetwater 420, Blue Point Toasted Lager
• 10 nationally distributed craft that are kinda dull
  • e.g. Yuengling, Fat Tire
• 10 wide distro German, Czech, Belgian + British, but not the good ones
  • e.g. Bitburger, Pawel Kwak
• 10 craft beers that have been around for 20 years
  • e.g. DFH 60 Minute, Anchor Porter
• 10 seasonals
  • especially pumpkin + Oktoberfests
• 10 wheats + blondes
  • e.g. Paulaner Hefe, Kona Golden Wave
• 10 fruit beers
  • e.g. Abita Purple Haze, Sam Adams Cherry Wheat
• 10 local breweries, but not the ones you want
  • in NYC let's say Montauk or River Horse

The IPA Borg assimilation of recent years has actually helped here...
That tap that used to be devoted to some random red or ESB now has something hoppy with a chance of being good (though still probably not fresh.)

 

When I was in college in Boston I used to like going to the Sunset Grill & Tap in Allston, grab a Stone Smoked Porter and shoot some pool upstairs. I think they had ~100 or so taps, and my unrefined palate at that time never noticed anything being overtly stale. Haven't been anywhere with that many taps before or after.

 

If they are not cleaning these taps and lines in house this has got to be a monster client for some vendor in the tap cleaning sector.

 

Ahhh so true...I'd love to yawn in the face of these distro reps...go work a golf outing sales boy.

 

I've been to the World of Beers that was at one time in NE Ohio and several others boasting a lot of taps, too many choices I get but seriously, just like retail, pick something and enjoy.
Places I avoid are any place I have to wait for a beer or basically make an ass of myself to get the back's attention. Really hate the trendy, wait on line for the privilege of being served or to have the beer of some brewer or establishment, no thanks.
You all can enjoy the sardine can, I'll go where the action isn't and make some of my own.

 

Holy cow, they better, otherwise they will have a lot of beer sitting around. I would assume from a GP stand point as a business I'd have someone doing that in house, specifically doing that task. Not all tats and gauge peeps have to work the line at Chipotle.

 

I went there about 7 years ago. Some of their beers were extremely overpriced but they did have a big selection from what I recall. I haven't been back since though. It was fun going with a group. I doubt I'd go solo. There are too many options closer to me to make that trip regularly. I generally prefer to drink at home anyway.

 

The real real problem was ordering something from the menu that was actually in stock.

 

Nope.

 

I am sure I have. Quality is usually a concern in my books. Sadly, I have been to a lot of 30 tap places & just not found anything to get excited about. It is a given here that 8 taps are macro crap & another chunk are subpar locals. So, I wouldn't be put off if a 100 tap place opened near by. But I been to enough chain multitaps to know their list isn't very well curated.

 

Beer Museum.
God made bottles and cans for a reason.

Nope. Next.

 

I've never been to anywhere with more than 40 taps and that was a one off. Must seem to have around 10 to 15 here in the UK, unless I've led a sheltered life.

40 was to much choice still!

 

God this is so fucking accurate lol. I've been to Yard House twice and it can be fun, but ultimately not worth it. Locally, Bayberry Beer Hall in Providence has I believe 20-25 taps of wonderfully curated options, not to mention a huge bottle/can list with some relatively rare stuff. That's definitely more my style

 

@JackHorzempa I have been to the Charlotte Beer Garden, within the same company that owns the Raleigh location. Didn't know about it until planning a trip there earlier this year. The beer fanboy in me looked at the tap list and said, "OH, they have this on tap...and this! and this! and this!!" Basically, all the stuff I wanted to find from the area plus dozens more from around the country I wanted to try. When I got there, I was in awe of the number of taps on multiple floors. Never saw anything like it. The now closed Tapwerks in Oklahoma City would be second, but that was only (!) about 225 taps. But as I should have known, every sample I tried was off due to either a stale keg or unclean lines. Quite a disappointment. And the clientele didn't seem to match the draft selection. I feel like most of the guys there would have been happy with a bottle of Michelob Ultra. Maybe if they packed in the place every night with hardcore beer nerds and scaled down the taps by 300 or so there might be hope for fresh beer there.

Ahhh, Naja's Place. I remember leaving the Stone Sour Fest in 2012 specifically to make my first visit to Naja's. That place was packed. Interesting crowd to say the least. Been back a few times and though they have 100 or so beers, I have never been that impressed by the list, though they did have DDH Pilny when I was there last year.

There's a local place with 100 taps and bartenders who couldn't really describe any of them. Bless their hearts come November though. A full pint pour of Bourbon County like it was Bud Light.

@StJamesGate You nailed it. I made the mistake of going in those Midtown Manhattan places more than once.

 

I'm more into seeking out local small breweries. When I was in Vegas this Summer I went for all Tenaya Creek when I could find it. I knew because the brewery was in Vegas proper they would have fresh beer being delivered constantly.

I've kind of graduated from quantity and seeking out crazy whales OMG to local and fresh when I'm on vacation. I remember when I was first out there I was hoping to get my hands on Firestone Walker and being on the lookout for Pliny the Elder (lol) just because those were mythic beers for someone back east in 2016.

I had much more fun in 2022 trying the local Vegas brews even at the tap houses with huge amounts of beers from California.

 

Never have. Never will.

There is a bar in San Diego that has two taps and they are both Budweiser. Rocks.

 

Tenaya Creek is hands down my favorite Vegas Brewery. There are a half dozen more I try to hit each trip. The Vegas scene has really grown strong the past five years.

Hope you found a few beers you enjoyed there! Can’t wait to return tomorrow for Pint Night!

 

I’m not big on beers on tap anymore. Only at breweries. I do like how a few places have really upped their canned selection since the lock downs. Just have to keep an eye on the dates.

 

Blatz!!!!!!! I gotta find some!

 

My local dive bar has 12 handles and I'm thrilled he keeps them up......

 

I have been to the beer garden in Raleigh. Nice venue, lots of activity, lots of beer. I go to places like this to check out the vibe and have a beer. Same with Kickbacks in Jacksonville (over 200 taps). As mentioned, these types of bars are disappearing with the proliferation of breweries and the covid shutdowns.

 

I definitely enjoy the pull of a lengthy beer menu and did find the pull of The Yardhouse tantalizing years ago, before the local brewery explosion the last 10 years, but would agree with the sentiment that local and smaller is better given my samples of local brewpubs across the country. With that said, over the last five years Da Boss and i will have a meal at a Yardhouse, be it in PHX or Greenville, SC and the only thing i order is Chimay Blue...always found it to be in excellent form!
Cheers!
Tom

 

Don't think I've ever been in a bar with +100 taps. I recall being on a business trip in Detroit and hitting one with a lot more taps that I thought reasonable and had a difficult time finding something to order. This concept noted by some above that a huge clientele assures turnover and freshness seems faulty to me. Think of a store with an off-premise license. Does anyone think that every one of those dozens of beers sell at the same rate? Of course not - just looking at some of the date codes proves that. Why would a +100 draught selection be any different. (How much vanilla did Howard Johnson's sell compared to orange pineapple or lemon? Me, I always bought pistachio - the IPA of the ice cream world.)

I stopped into a Wild Buffalo Wings once, 'cause I heard they had a large selection of local NJ beers. 40-50 taps, I guess. I ordered off the menu some local beer and saw the bartender grab a tap handle of another brewery's beer of a totally different style.

"Ummm... I order Brewery A's Pilsner. That tap handle is Brewery Z's Fruitcake Sour."
"Yeah, we don't have that tap handle but this is the right beer."
"But what do you do when some orders Brewery Z's Fruitcake Sour?"
Blank stare.
"Uh, forget it."

Hey, look. Tap handles are sometimes hard to get from the distributor or brewery (they're all being sold on eBay) but stick some masking tape over the "wrong" handle and at least write the correct beer's name with a Sharpie.

 

I've been to a few over the years and have to say they were mostly enjoyable. The first was The Taphouse Grill in Bellevue Washington. Was a place me and my future wife would go when she was in town. Never had a stale beer there. They closed a few years back due to property development, and I think their downtown Seattle location was killed off by the pandemic, closing in 2020.

Another lovely multi-taphouse we enjoyed was the The Underground Tap & Grill in Edmonton Alberta. Wife had a business trip to Edmonton in November 2018 and this was not far from the hotel. All good beers and every one I had was fresh as. A lot of hoppy IPA's to be had! It may not qualify for this thread as it only has 72.

 

I'll occasionally reminisce fondly about Sunset Grill in Boston (technically Allston, but who's counting?) I think they had 120 taps. The food was fine until near the end where it turned to crap, and I got to try a lot of interesting beers. I had a great night when the bartender accidentally served me a pint of World Wide Stout.

RIP.