Hop City - Birmingham

Amazing place right in the heart of Birmingham. Perhaps two dozen taps and shelves and shelves of beer. Most of the focus is on regional beer, particularly Alabama, Georgia and Florida. However there’s stuff from all over the U.S. and a decent international collection, particularly from Belgium. It’s interesting to find a Belgian beers on a shelf in Birmingham that are impossible to find in most regions of Germany. Apart from that fact, no great rarities that I saw, but the depth is impressive. A must visit if passing through Birmingham.

Grat place. Def must stop if You in Birmingham

Another must-stop (along with TrimTab) if you're in the B. A good selection with a massive draft list to boot. Staff is fine, but you're coming for the beer anyway, especially in an otherwise Twilight Zone.

If you are buying beer the customer service is good. If you are in their brewing supply section, which seems to be an afterthought to the rest of the store, the story changes. It’s like you are bothering them to ask for supplies. I’ll keep buying beer here but I will definitely buy my homebrew supplies online or from Alabrew. At Alabrew the owners take the time to talk with you about the craft and help you make decisions. Northern Brewer is another great, knowledgeable place to get supplies from.

Visited on a Saturday around noon. Really nice bar/beer store. Probably 50 beers on tap or so, with a really nice local selection. A large selection of bottled beer as well. One downside I saw was that singles weren’t available (apart from bombers), but that may have more to do with Alabama regulations. I will definitely come back if I am in Birmingham again.

Much like the Atlanta store, this place is lined with rows and rows of delicious beers. Not quite as good as the ATL store since AL distribution isn’t on par with GA. Nice staff and a huge bar offering up pints and growler fills. They also tend to get kegs of special releases and host some decent events. The night I visited, Spike from Terrapin was in. A nice one-stop shop for the area.

Rather impressive store considering the unassuming surroundings and general location in Birmingham, Alabama. Everyone I met was friendly and helpful. Great selection, especially for local AL beers and other southern states. I’ll definitely stop here again when passing through Birmingham.

Parking was slightly confusing for a simple person like me. They share the building with a computer company, so I parked on the side where the Hop City sign was. The beer store is actually in the rear, though, so I should have parked on the opposite side, with the computer store sign. Anyway, the selection here is extensive, both in bottles and their tap list. They had a dozen beers from half a dozen local breweries on draft, all 4 ounce samples, ordered one at a time, were are a buck or buck and a half. Service is OK. They did seem to be limited by AL state beer distribution; they had Cigar City, but nothing from any of the other states in the region as far as I could tell. Of course, that’s not their fault. Still, a very good place.

Gotta say this place has an awesome selection, wasn’t expecting this much but there’s rows and rows of great beer, and large fridges to add to that. I picked up a few local beers as well as a Stone Unapologetic IPA and an Enjoy by IPA that arrived the week before. Could have stayed much longer but we were on a tight schedule so didn’t get a chance to try out the drafts.