Local Pittsburgh BA's.....

1) Sharp Edge on Penn Ave. has a great beer selection, specializing in Belgians, & good food, but be prepared to pay.
2) Probably the best options for takeout close-ish to downtown are on South Side. Carson St. Deli comes to mind.

 

Don't know about the driving and headed out of downtown, but if you got to the South Side for takeout, there are some good places to drink over there as well. Fat Head's, Smokin Joe's Saloon, and Carson St. Deli come to mind. (Parking can be a bear over there, especially on the weekends, so be forewarned if you're driving over.)

I'm sure you'll get more locals to give you more specific information than I can give.

 

If you are staying downtown, OneDropSoup and NABS mentioned the most popular places to visit. Assuming you can get a cab, it is a quick cab ride over the river to the Southside, may be a better option for you and it will be pretty cheap. The only problem is getting a cab back over to your hotel.

I personally enjoy going to Pipers Pub on the Southside, it is on the same street as Fat Heads but on the opposite side. Many here may not recommend it, but I like their beer selection (albeit way smaller than Smokin' Joes and Fat Heads). They have an excellent selection of Whiskey and great food.

Fat Heads is a great place, though it gets quite crowded around the 5pm hour. They have many beers on tap, but they tend to focus more on IPA's.

Smokin Joe's has the largest beer selection. Tons of draft and tons of bottles. It does get crowded there as well, though with the colleges finishing up, might not be as crowded, especially during the week. Smokin Joes is just a few streets down from Fat Heads and Pipers Pub.

Some other places a short cab ride away are Rivertowne North Shore by the Football and Baseball stadiums and Penn Brewery.

 

My suggestions:

1) Fathead's (South Side) - Best draft beer in WPA, and greasy barfood done exceptionally well. 42 kegs that drain quickly, keeping the beer fresh and allowing for a lot of rotation, which helps keep things interesting. They'll have a couple of their *own* beers on draft, that they brew up in Cleveland.

Also has a bottle shop upstairs that you can get some takeout from.

2) Smokin' Joe's (South Side, about a block or two from Fathead's) - Probably the second best draft beer locale in the Burgh. 61ish drafts, great selection.

3) "The Sharp Edge" is a local establishment that has 4-5 locations in the area. There newest locale is right downtown. Nice selection, particularly belgians, but very pricey. The bottle list is big, but again, expensive. And some of their *hoppy* bottles have lost their luster.

4) "Rivertowne" is a local establishment that has 4 locations as well. Their newest one is on the North Shore, between the baseball and football stadiums. Classic greasy barfood, and 15-20 drafts. The brewpub were they brew their own beer is out in Monroeville, which is a 10-15 minute jaunt out the parkway from downtown, FYI.

5) Piper's Pub (Southside, about half way between Fathead's and Smokin' Joes) has 20 or 30 drafts, including 3-4 cask engines, if I remember correctly. It's a European place that'll emphasize British beers. It's probably best known for it's selection of single malts, though.



Bottle Shop:
1) Dee's (Regent Square, NOT the Monroeville location) - Good draft list, and a big "beer cave" with nice selection.

2) The best bottle shop in Western PA is "The House of 1000 Beers", but it's pretty far removed from downtown, way out in New Kensington. If you don't have a vehicle this is likely not an option, but I wanted to mention it, because as far as bottles go you'll be hardpressed to do better. And they're up to 46 drafts now, with an online system that will show you LIVE what's on tap at the bar. Pretty cool *dive* of a place.


Hope that helps.

 

Just a 'heads up', Pittsburgh is not like other major cities, such as Chicago. Getting a cab is not necessarily the easiest thing as Pittsburgh does not have many on the streets. Getting a cab from your hotel should not be a problem, but getting one back from the Southside, well that may be tricky. While it is not hard, you will have to call from the bar to get one, they don't really pass by on the streets. So expect to wait a little bit for them to dispatch it to your location.