Wednesday 8th of August 2012 01:02:10 PM

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So this is the last place (brewery) that my wife and I went on on our week long trip. And we didn't just stop here for the beer either. We stayed in the hotel as well. The hotel is a really old building I want to say has been there since 1929 I believe. They've kept the old feeling in every aspect of the hotel with a few added modern things. The whole thing reminded me of a Stephen King movie or something. The bedrooms do have flat screen TVs, coffee makers and mini fridge. Depending on what size room you get you may be lucky to get a Keurig Coffee maker like we did. The stay was very nice, cool and quite and the front desk staff was very nice. I think that they didn't have many people reserving rooms because when I initially looked at room rates 3 months ago they executive king was 159. I made the reservation 5 days ahead of time and it had dropped to 129. So please, if you are staying in town there help them out. You'll be glad you did. Plus they have their brewery restaurant downstairs which I will now talk about.

The beer here was pretty good. Don't expect to get what you see on their website as when I went they had none of them. In fact the 3 beers they did have were a summer seasonal and 2 experimental beers. At least that what I think he told me. They were the Faust Summer Ale, Altered Alt, and an ESB. The first one they liked to call a half-a-weizen. It tasted to me like an American Adjunct Lager with a better taste to it. The ESB was very good and an easy drink. The Alt was very dark, almost like a stout and was a serious sipper beer. Delicious though. They also had a bunch of other local brews, German brews and a few of your basic beers on tap. I also noticed they had a really nice bottle selection. They didn't have a beer selection menu but you could easily walk up to the fridge and see what was in it. One other thing I did notice was that they were using for the most part correct glassware. Maybe not so much for the style of their beers but when you had their house beer there served it in their glass. If it was like a Dos Equis they had a XX glass. UFO Hefe was served in the UFO Hefe Glass. Some of the basic beers were served in a basic shaker pint.

The menu for food is rather small but it seemed to me that if you're there for the beer then you really only need a few munchies. They offered a few different German type foods, appetizers and sort. I instead went with their Cochinitas. Build your own tacos that included a really good shredded and marinated chicken, cheese, onion, tomato, jalapeno and lettuce. They were amazing! My wife had a Ruben which she liked but said tasted better leftover the next day. I also ordered before the food came out a cup of Beer Cheese Soup that they normally make with their blonde ale but since it was out they used a different beer. It was amzing as well.

Service I can't really say a whole lot here because they had a huge party going on. When we were first seated the bar tender who was serving us at our table was really courteous and prompt and able to answer questions we had about the beer. After the party got going there were probably 100+ people there and it was really crazy and load and our server was so busy at the bar we had a few other servers who helped us occasionally. At the end I had to go get my check and the bar. Not a big deal since I knew I was crazy. I think that if there had not been the big party he would have done much better at seeing to us.

The bar/restaurant area is kind of old school German. Dim lighting and wood paneling. So it really set the mood for this place since they are a very German oriented brewery and hotel. I really liked it though it was dim. Most of the light came from the windows that ran the length of the restaurant. But because the building next to us was so close and about as tall, didn't let much light in.

Overall, I really enjoyed this place. If ever I am in the area again driving through or staying I will definitely go there again. I got to try 3 of their beers and I'm sure the next time I go I will get lucky enough to have some of their other brews.