Heading over to El Paso to visit my son who is stationed at Fort Bliss. Any good craft beer bars, bottle shops, or breweries in the area? What are some good Texas beers to look for that are available there? Thanks in advance for any recommends.
Hoppy Monk is what most would recommend for beer bars. Great selection on tap and you'll probably luck out and find some beers you've wanted to try for a while. Unfortunately the place has a really trashy feel to it, complete with shitty music and dirty mop water aroma throughout the place. There's a bar and restaurant right across the street called Block- Table & Tap and they have a respectable tap list and lots of bottles as well. A note on bottles though, the bars in El Paso will charge you 2-2.5 times what you'd pay for a beer in the store so unless you really see something you've long wanted, don't bother with bottles. A ten minute drive will get you to Spec's which has a good bottle selection, although they hide the rarer/harder-to-find beers. In the downtown area, Craft & Social has a decent tap selection and bottles for sale too. Bottle prices can get exorbitant and the taplist is good but a tad conventional and unlikely to have anything rare. Sadly, there's not much else in EP. You can go to Side Door Liquor store and get La Cumbre Elevated though.
Hoppy Monk. I didn't experience the trashiness Or mop smell explained by previous post. I loved the selection and patio.
Hoppy Monk, Block Table & Tap, Craft & Social, and even Blackbird Cantina Deluxe for beer bars. Then Specs (ask the beerguy if he has anything in the back), Side Door Liquor ( New Mexico distro and you can also go into the back beer fridge and look around in there), The Liquor Company in the Northeast, and Western Beverages for bottle shops. Those will be your best bet.
