Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

Hi folks,
Yesterday we went to the 12st Street Taphouse to partake in the ingestion of malty goodness when I inquired about a new sign they have posted behind the bar: "Ask us about our Beer Discount Club".

Ok, get a load of this: You join the club by putting an initial $50 on a 12th Street "credit card". Then every time you go to get a pint (they're 20 ounces!!!), you get that pint for THREE DOLLARS!!! That $3 is subtracted from the initial amount, until the card is dry. You can then put any amount you want back on. (This cannot be used for tips, so bring a little cash with you to tip the barkeep.) Wholly smokes people, we're not talking Bud or Pabst, we're talking really good brews here! (see below) I had a great talk with the gentleman that orders and chooses what's on tap - he works with SIX different distributors and is constantly rotating kegs out. He's extended us an offer that if there's something that we know we want, he can try to get it for us (ON TAP) and just needs about a week or more to order it. Now, that doesn't mean that we can get a keg of rauschbier (sorry Tom) but we can order anything that will sell.

There's a jazz band that starts to play on Tuesdays @ 7:30pm. I propose that we have a meeting there with a special brew. Their food is good and moderately priced for what you get. ($9 - $15? I had a $9 chicken curry that was REALLY good.)

Here's the brews that were on tap as of yesterday:
Starr Hill: Love, Northern Lights, Amber, Jomo
Guinness
Wittekerke Belgian White
Original Sin Cider
Ledgend Lager
Tommyknocker India Brown Ale
St. George's Porter
(one more that wasn't tapped yet and we missed the board.)

We were there on Valentine's Day weekend and the only brews that are the same are the Starr Hill's (I was told that they're always going to try to have locals on tap), and the Guinness. All the rest have rotated! That's awesome!

Think about it, (commercially) where else can you get a $3 - 20oz pint of fresh craft ale?

Wow, an even more fantastic deal.  We should at least ask about the smoked beer . . . LOL.

I love this place.  Lots of beer for really cheap.  We've been about 5 times since its opened.  I think when my brothers were in town we consumed the whole Old Rasputin keg.  I'm not a big fan of Starr Hill (sorry), so my only complaint is half the taps belong to them.  A couple weekends ago I had some french sounding named beer (I forgot what it was called) that was like the poor man's Utopias.  It was definitely beer but resembled wine more than beer.

I did not know about the credit card deal thing.  I will have to check on that next time we go.

Likewise. While I loved the tour at Starr Hill, and I really enjoyed the Northern Lights, I think having THAT many taps devoted to any one brewery is a bit of a mistake - IMO. They told me that they want to support the local breweries. I'd like to see some Blue Mountian, Devil's Backbone...etc.

For the record this would be under the category of "unsecured debt".  Namely if they go under you'll never get a refund.  I'm not saying don't do it just, with the rate of restaurant failure, drink it up fast.