March 27, 2011
Yeah, all the reviews are spot on regarding the food, which is a step below even standard pub fare. No more to say on that count. They had about a dozen beers available, on tap and in bottles. Because my group was there to brew, the staff was excellent about providing free samples, although the purple-haired girl seemed a little grumpy. Yes, the place is a little bit of a dump on the inside: there seems to be a lot of wasted space that is just kind of junk storage. However, where it really shines is in the customer brewing experience. They provide an extensive menu of choices, then quickly but competently walk you through the steps and provide a pretty much idiot-proof instruction list for each brew you’re making. Then they stay around to watch you brew and help as needed, while letting you do most of it yourself, which is how it should be. Definitely go if you want to learn how to brew beer or pretend to be a brewer for a day. Also, definitely eat beforehand.

November 23, 2010
Well, I like the setup with 8 brew on premise copper kettles in the tasting room, but the service kind of sucks. They had 4 beers on tap and 3 in bottles at the time of my visit. I did not eat here, partly because I was headed to Rustico afterwards, and partly because nothing was fresh - it was all being microwaved from the freezer. There are at least 3 restaurants in the strip mall, and I would venture a guess that is where one should eat. They are also rather proud of the 5 beer sampler, charging $9.75 for it, and $6-plus for bottled beers (12 oz bottles). This place is definitely not worth the money, and I suspect they really make their dough on the brew on premise side, $140 roughly for 5 gallons of beer? Two guys walked in and proclaimed that they wanted a Chimay-like beer. "Well, maybe our Tripel will be close" the worker said. I am thinking that it really depends on which Chimay you are trying to brew. But, that is just me, so go see for yourself.

November 13, 2009
Located in a nondescript building just off of the interstate. Some of the earlier reviews kinda scared me but I found the place to be clean and fairly well lit. Though the kitchen didn’t look like much more than a microwave. No way I’d eat there by the look of it. Beers were drinkable but nothing special. Both singles to go and growlers. The girl at the bar was nice enough to give me two samples on the house and both of the brewers there were helpful with some beer info for us Ratebeer folks. They really do need to work on the website. Worth a stop if you’re nearby and looking for a few ticks.

October 4, 2009
This place was...interesting. Drove 2 1/2 hours on a Saturday afternoon mainly to get a growler f/a trade. Quite a few people brewing their own, this was obviously who they catered to. Ordered a sampler which was placed in front of me, guy behind the bar proceeded to list them out for me by hand on a guest check receipt. Had to ask for further explanation as one of the beers he listed out wasn’t on the draft list chalkboard. Guy next to me ordered a sampler & the woman behind the bar gave him 5 different brews! Asked for a sample of one of the ones he had after I finished mine & was given a $6 Pint! Taps were over pressurized so they were pouring everything into pitchers first, than into glasses. Beer was lukewarm & flat from sitting. No growler of Oktoberfest due to this problem, they were out of Old Rag....Food was chips, a crock pot of chili & some nasty looking pretzels like you get @ 7-11. None of the brews were anything special, some were kind of nasty; nothing I would send out on a trade! I really wanted to like this place because of the whole brewing scene going on, but it was pretty much a clusterf**k! Hours very limited & website is horribly out of date! I can’t see going back here unless they make major improvements!

December 20, 2007 [ Updated January 7, 2008 ]
This place is a dump. Been there twice, both times were disasters. I went right before Christmas 2005, and found out they were closed for an extended period of time. No re-open date, nothing on their website, no nothing, period. I spent over 2.5 hours in Dc traffic getting there, only to find out they were closed. The second time I went there, I wanted to get some beers to go, the waitstaff acted like they were doing me a favor by waiting on me. When they handed me a bottle with a rusted on cap on it, I knew it was time to go. I hope they close this dump forever. The floors were dirty, sticky, as was the counter top. Just a dirty little dump IMHO. 2008Update This place has improved leaps & bounds over what it used to be. It has to be the new owner making all the differences. The help was attentive, knowledgeable, and helpful. It has been cleaned up in a big way since I was there last time.

December 7, 2006
I can’t really say if it was busy or not, as I wasn’t sure who was an employee of the store (Becides the two ladies), but it had a decent amount of people catching a beer and/or working on their own batches of beer. Not an overly attractive place on the outside or inside, kind of dull, but it gets the job done and wasn’t shabby. Service was fast and the people were nice. Only stopped in to grap some bottles to go, next time when I’m not in a hurry I may just have to grab a beer on draft. They seemed to have a good variety of their own beers, and didn’t expect them to cater other’s there so I can’t fault them on a smaller selection.

May 27, 2006
Found this place while walking from the Van Dorn metro station to the place where my car was getting fixed. Never having been in that neighborhood before, I was pleasantly surprised to find a brewery/pub (although whenever I am somewhere new in Northern VA, I seem to come across something like this). Nice people, empty when I visited, the two beers I had were pretty decent, but nothing too great. I think I may stop by the next time I get my car repaired.

June 11, 2005
Real nice people run this on-premises brewery/tap house, but few of the beers shine, and the food selection is very limited.