Pint Defiance

Visited a few months back while in Tacoma for a golf outing. What’s a round of golf without a beer to follow? Strip mall location, and from the outside, I expected a much smaller selection. Pleasantly surprised to see a massive bottle selection, with some pretty rare stuff. A lot of south sound, regional stuff that doesn’t all make it up to Seattle, so it seems. Good taplist, that left me with a tough decision. I plan on making this a regular stop when I’m in the area. Very cool place.

Love this place. Always a great selection on tap, amazing bottle fridge, and knowledgable staff. A must visit place.

I originally drove past PD since it is in a pretty non-description strip mall. But once inside the clean, well lit, well stocked feel cheered me up a bit. I grabbed a pint and started browsing. Their selection is nearly all PNW based but they have a decent overseas/Belgian selections and I did spot some Victory Summer Love, which is a great east coast beer. Service was attentive and highly knowledgeable. I had a couple minor questions which were politely answered (I wanted to make sure it was ok to break up their six packs of cans and bottles- it is). I stopped in mid-day on a Friday so there were about 8 or ten others in PD with me. Plenty of room and did not feel crowded. They have two coolers devoted to cider, which was a cool feature I thought. Prices seem standard and while the grocery might be able to beat them by a few cents they can’t beat them on the selection. Great shop and I’ll be back for sure.

Triple IPA fest was awesome. They do have a pretzel from a local bakery for 3 dollars. Pints from a rotating selection and prices are reasonable. Average $ 4.50 to $5.50 a pint. 4 to 12.5 percent Abv.

Went here on a weeknight to find some bottles & have a brew on tap, got both. The ambiance is OK, the only thing is that is has kind of a new, strip-mall feel (I guess they opened just last year) but it still doesn’t feel like an inviting place to have a beer (even though they have board games). The service is very good and seemed very knowledgeable both about the beer on tap and that from the bottle. The selection was good overall, they have some interesting local-ish beers on tap and select beers from the state, region, country, and worldwide! The value was very good, with a $1 corking fee for any beer purchased from the coolers and decent prices on pints. It was a little cheaper than Total Wine on most bottles when I compared online. Very good place, I’d go back when the taps rotate, I expect it to improve.

Great store with a hearty selection. Very knowledgeable staff providing excellent service.

Tacoma now seems to have every kind of bottle shop. They have the little places that kept expanding their selection until they offered hundreds of labels, and now they have the place that set out from the beginning to be a beer nerd’s one-stop shop. Pint Defiance is that purpose-built bottle shop, from the ground up. It’s right next to a good Thai place in a strip mall in the north end. There’s decent parking, and the place is clean and bright inside. There’s nice new flooring, and big lines of perfectly matched brand-new coolers packed to the gills with all different beers. There’s a glassware shelf, and in back there are tables and stools so you can hang out. It’s brightly lit and not uncomfortably chilly. The selections don’t seem to be organized by style or by geography, at least not to an OCD level. There’s a loose Belgian section, and then there seems to be a bit of a tendency to bundle domestics together by state. But there didn’t seem to be an obvious pattern. There are about 600 bottles in, probably, and prices are reasonably solid by bottle shop standards (e.g., a supermarket can probably beat their prices on the things they get, but this place has much more selection and better service). In back there are about 18 taps. Like most places these days, the selections will be familiar to most people who visit good beer spots regularly, but they do have the occasional rare treat on. You can get growlers to go in two-pint and four-pint configurations. Bottom line, this place does a really good job across the board, and they have the crowds to show for it. I’ll definitely be back anytime I am in T-Town and beer shopping.

Barry has set a new high mark for PNW bottle shops. PD have exacting control over cooler temps and have gone through great lengths to ensure that their beers aren’t lightstruck: LED lighting and tinted front windows. Selection and knowledge are top drawer, as is the service. WiFi and 10 handles make leisurely shopping even more attractive. Selection is definitely PNW-biased, but with so many excellent local beers available, there’s no need to look to far afield.

Great place awesome ambiance. 8 taps with super fresh stuff on tap. Over 750 bottles with more coming. Great staff and they are very knowledgeable with the brews. I was impressed and will be back.