The Brass Tap

Having gained a significant palate for craft beer in the past year, The Brass Tap has been a valuable addition to Gainesville's brew scene.

Prices are what you would expect from a chain tap house, but there are definitely specials throughout the day (and week) that make for a great value overall.  For instance, Wednesday nights are College night and all drafts under $8 are half off with student/staff ID.  The discount can make for a quality beer served for as little as $2.50.

The selection is quite nice and the menu changes somewhat satisfactorily from week to week, with a few incredible beers tending to stay on consistently (Weihenstephaner's name can be seen frequently, as well as SOMETHING from Swamp Head).

Another plus: plenty of TVs at various angles for watching whichever game you might be interested in.

The main issue I have with this place is the service (and I have been here enough to give them a fair chance to improve it).  It can take anywhere from 10-15 minutes before you are drinking your first beer if you go on a busier night.  Some of the waitresses do not write down the orders your party places, so in many instances we have been serviced in waves across a span of 30 minutes or more.

Another crucial piece of this experience is that, though the tap house may not be busy, the parking continues to be due to the surrounding business.  Consider this when planning your putting.

Final Notes:
-You can ask for tasters of their draft beers (for free)
-They do not serve any food, but you are allowed to bring take-out or have food delivered

I would give them four stars because their service was excellent, the beer selection was excellent, and they even had a very rare beer (Bells Barrel Aged Batch 9000).  WOW!  Very outstanding and rare beer!

My only complaint is we also ordered an Anderson Valley Wild Turkey Bourbon Barrel Stout.  It too was exceptional, however, they charged me $25 for a 22 oz bottle.  Well, I stopped by ABC liquor store tonight and they had the exact same beer for $9.99 per bottle.  I don't mind paying a little more for a good beer while out on the town but $15 premium is a bit high.  Minus one star for gouging.

The Brass Tap is located next to a frozen yogurt shop, a chipotle, a pita pitt, and on tranquil Archer Road, a rarefied air for such an establishment. So parking sucks.
We were greeted by an assault on our unsuspecting ear drums, live "music" more reminiscent of a large animal in its death throes, amplified to a volume more commonly heard on airport tarmacs.
In the busyness, I went off to secure a table for my boyfriend and I, as he attempted to make contact with the dullards at the bar. The inmates were truly running the asylum. He promptly returned with ONE beer...why you may ask? Because apparently they are running a candy store in an adult establishment, and expect children to purchase libations. "One drink per ID"? Maybe they can funnel their profits into the procurement of a suitable person to check the IDs prior to entering, so that the enforcement of their stated policy of no under-21s after 8pm might actually streamline the process of buying and selling alcohol, the sole purpose of this establishment.

Finally having procured my own beer, I was submitted to another battery of questions:  who is my server? where am I sitting (in this room for 30 people)? where is the tab? Questions that only needed to be asked because they wouldn't honor my boyfriend's simple request to run a tab at the bar. But alas, we were in the capable hands of our phantom server, who stumbled over, peddling my boyfriend's credit card to the next table over, a misguided attempt at identity fraud. Taken aback by being caught red handed, she glumly shuffled over and yielded, turning the credit card over, nary an explanation, save for another ridiculous question of who had the tab. With yet another sigh and a shake of our heads, we retold the complicated story of the beers, ordered at the bar.

The music had finally ceased its siege upon our psyches, and we eagerly gulped our overpriced beers to hasten our escape. With our brief foret into binge drinking concluded, we made straight for the bar to settle this mystical tab. After a lecture on the minutiae of Brass Tap protocol from the dull-eyed bartender which must have surely rivaled the training manual in length, the proverbial buck had been passed once more into the abyss, no one in this bar seemingly wanting to take our money. Our server, busy gazing deeply into her own navel, finally bumbled over with the elusive piece of paper granting our freedom.

What happened next could not have been a more apt metaphor for our experience, as the shattering of glass so often accompanies vicious car accidents:
a pint glass mysteriously shatters at the bar, hurling shrapnel into the surrounding crowd, undoubtedly a primitive show of anger from another abused patron who was denied release from this hell hole.  

Thus concluded our first and only trip to the Brass Tap.