Max’s Taphouse

Been wanting to come here for years! Unfortunately only had 45minutes. This is a place to spend all your money and many hours. Huge draft list and huge bottle list. Decor is fine enough. Bartender friendly. I was waiting outside when they opened for the day. Got smoked rockfish sandwich which was good. I need to come back.

I was worried about parking, but I found free street parking on a crazily narrow street like a half block away, so I win. A block off the waterfront, as noted previously. Place was pretty empty mid-afternoon on a Thursday, so I win again. Taplist is certainly extensive. There were no whales on it, but a lot of solid beers to select from, with a clear focus on regional product. As stated previously, everything is available as 5 oz pours, which is a very nice feature that I wish more places would adopt. The overall ambiance is a bit divey, in a beer geek sort of way. I was planning to avoid the food after some of the reviews, but I ended up with a couple of street tacos, and they pretty much lifted. Probably twice as much carnitas as I would get at a place in Cali, and it was xolid. In any case, this is not necessarily a place to spear a whale, but it is a great place to tick a few and spend some quality beer time. Finally, I just gotta say, you can of course review how you like, but giving a dive beer bar an 8 for not allowing children is a dick move in my book. I have two kids myself, and we eat lunch at brewpubs when on travel, but I would never dream of taking them here, even if they were allowed. Use some common sense.

Certainly deserving of its reputation - one of the bars in all of the US. The place is huge and centrally located right at the Harbour, so on a weekend night, it’s pretty crazy in there. Extensive draught selection that was dominated by hoppy beers when I visited, since they had just had some hoppy fest. Every beer is available in a 5 oz pour, priced individually, so it is a phenomenal opportunity for sampling tons of beers. You could spend hours in here racking up the ticks and enjoy most of them, given the fantastic selection. They have a very good bottle selection too, with even a dozen or so that are heavily discounted - some gems in there. Service can be a bit douchey and abrupt, but given the busyness, I can forgive it - they try their best. Atmosphere is terrible though - it’s a sports bar, and very loud, with terrible tunes and a rather obnoxious clientele. If you only visit one place in Baltimore, this is it.

This place fucks more than any other I'm aware of in B'more. No Natty Boh in this establishment! Just a crapload of taps and bottles. Some pretty interesting stuff too, Belgos and whatnot. Chill dive bar but not too divey 'biance. Prices are as you'd expect.

This place is a block from the inner harbor, if that interests you. Parking at this place sucks, took about twenty minutes of driving around and found a spot then I paid and the machine did not spit out the paper, but at 8pm (on some nights) the spot was free. The place is a worn down dive bar on the corner. This place has a really long bar, but even on a Wednesday night this place was busy (sometimes not that busy on off nights, but every time I have been here people are at the bar), but I was able to get one seat quickly, but as soon as I left a girl swooped in to take the seat. The tap selection was a large selection of some different beer and have tried a couple at times (sometimes nothing I have been looking to try). The bottle selection was also large and I found a gem to consume (and other times did not find anything I wanted to try). Pricing seems to have gone up over the years. Online draft beer menu is mostly up to date. Service has always been pretty good. I would come back, but I suspect this place would get crazy busy on Friday and Saturday nights.

I thought this place was awesome! Tons of cool beers on tap, just have to watch out for freshness. The bartender said they rotate taps pretty regularly because they mostly only mess with sixtels and 30L's. The food left a little to be expected, but I'll definitely be hitting this place again next time I'm around Baltimore!

This place is extremely popular with both beer geeks and the general populace. It’s also in a touristy part of town (the harbor area) so it naturally attracts a lot of tourists. You probably can’t find a better place in town for the selection of brews. Nevertheless, it’s popularity is lost on me. Surly -- I mean, surly! -- bar keeps. Mediocre food. LOUD ambiance -- it’s like a testosterone-packed frat bar, and sorry, but even in college, I didn’t enjoy that level of obnoxiousness. If it were up to me, I’d tear out the sports televisions, replace them with a nice stereo system that places jazz and cool rock music, and hire friendly bartenders. What’s so damned difficult about creating a relaxing place to drink beer?

We came here on 13.4.2017. 84 beers on tap and a really good selection, some rare beers I have not seen before. They have Stiegl Lager on tap!!!! My home town beer. The bar area also due to several sport TV screens is extremely loud and it is hard to have a conversation. They have many special events inviting breweries to their pub.

The place was packed with beer geeks on a Thursday night, of course there was a convention of us in town. Old wooden bar spanning most of the right wall of the place. Tables to the left and in back. Huge tap list and I hear the bottle list is even better, but I never got past the taps. bomb! and parabola on tap and a hundred of their friends. I had a chicken sandwich that was messy but tasty. Service was pretty good for how busy it was. It is a bit pricey, but you get what you pay for I guess. I’d go back in a heartbeat.

So I read the review from the gentleman that visited Aug 1/2015 and thought it has been 6 months so maybe things have changed on minors being allowed in so I called, long distance, from Canada and the lady that answered the phone told me that kids were allowed in up till 5 pm. So on Sat Mar 12/2016 my kids and I took the long 1.7 mile walk from our hotel to Max’s. When we got there the 2 guys at the door told me "no kids allowed". I proceeded to tell them that I had read a review that said this and that is why I called before I wasted my time walking all the way there and was told kids were allowed up till 5 pm. They looked confused so they handed me off to the manager who told me the same thing. I explained to him that I called and was told different. He then told me that there was a special St. Patrick’s day thing happening and kids just couldn’t be there. That sounded reasonable to me, as I didn’t tell the lady on the phone when I was coming until I asked the next set of questions. I asked the manager if it wasn’t a special day would kids be allowed and he told me "no, not on weekends". At this point I had to take the questioning all the way so I asked him if kids were allowed during the week then. His answer was "sometimes, maybe, not sure". So at this point I can’t really blame the lady that answered the phone as the manager is just making stuff up as he goes as well. Max’s let me help you with this. Decide on a policy regarding minors, inform your staff, and then put it on your website. I realize you have a fantastic selection and are probably one of the best beer bars in the country but if you keep pissing people off that isn’t going to be enough someday.