April 5, 2012
Have witnessed the paranoia of the staff in regards to "proper identification" and whatnot but it still cannot deter me from their extensive offering of alcohols. A strong international selection, haphazardly arranged for the customer... just awesome. Also, if you like whiskey or wine, you might be in the store for a really long time. GREAT prices.

February 7, 2011
Very glad we made to stop out here. A very nice beer and wine store with a great selection: Russian River, Lost Abbey, Alesmith, Fantome, 3 Fonteinen, Deschutes. Had cases of Abyss and new RR Santification bottles. Very nice selection of old Fantome Saison and Fantome Noel if you are looking for them. Pretty awesome place.

January 22, 2011 [ Updated January 26, 2011 ]
Don’t let the shady environs, initially paranoid Indian guy, and disorganization get to you - this is a great beer store. Good selection of Russian river, along with limited releases from locals like firestone walker. I picked up hoptimum there, and they also have a great selection of Deschutes and Colorado beers. Tougher to find east coast stuff, but you cant have everything I guess. Lots of glassware too. Prices are reasonable, similar to those at Berkeley bowl west. This is your local spot if you go to Berkeley. UPDATE: My roommate tried buying beer there, as he turned 21 in December. He was told his license had expired and therefore his id must be a fake. Ten minutes of arguing + paperwork for his temporary license until he gets a new license yielded no results. These guys are flat out paranoid, so build a good rapport early if you can.

October 13, 2010 [ Updated November 3, 2010 ]
Fortunately, Ledgers is two blocks from where I live. They are pretty much the only place around to carry Pliny and Blind Pig, and they’re always fresh. They have a great selection. On the down side, it’s poorly organized, not everything is refridgerated (including some stuff that should be) and it sometimes feels like a garage sale. The selection, however, makes it worth it. After having been noticed as a regular, the two guys who work there (really the only two) are very helpful and generally nice dudes.

September 7, 2010
Great selection. Friendly service. This is a large convenience store, not well organized but with a number of interesting beers at good prices. I was stoked to find a case of Jever on the cheap and they had 3 different types of Polish bison grass vodka as well.

January 12, 2010 [ Updated February 4, 2010 ]
I ended up here because it was on the list of retailers that carried Russian River brews and I was very impressed by the selection of microbrews. If you’re OK with the layers of dust on everything and a somewhat disorganized beer section, this is a great place to hunt for rare brews. This is the first place in the Bay Area where I’ve been able to find AleSmith Beer and some of the less common Stone beers. Great selection of German and Belgian beer as well. Definitely the place to go for craft beer in Berkeley.

January 9, 2010
My favorite neighborhood beer store. Staff is knowledgeable and very, very helpful. They will go out of their way to get you matched with the right beer/wine/liquor. Selection is always outstanding. Mind you, they don’t have the best selection of beer in the bay, but pretty damn close. They work hard to get the best new releases and keep abreast of the craft brew movement, but with the mixed clientele from the surrounding South Berkeley area I am sure this can’t be an entirely profitable venture. Prices are good. I’ve noticed that bombers, 750 ml bottles and other singles are .25 to .50 cheaper than, say, Whole Foods. Which may not be much, but it shows that they aren’t trying to gouge the consumer.

January 7, 2010
nice easy to find place with a great bottle selection. things area lil mixed up, but they have plenty of goodies! some inconsistent price tags, some over priced stuff, but also some great deals on some reare finds! it was also really awesome that the guy gave me a free beer randomly ’i’m not gonna charge you for this one’. i won’t argue! lol! solid selection, and good quantities of some rare stuff too. worth a trip by, it’s only 5 minutes off the freeway.

November 18, 2009
small storefront on University with back wall of coolers and two shelves of beer, pretty disorganized and rummaged through but quite a few nice finds, close to the freeway

November 15, 2009
Big, dusty bottle shop with (as in the picture) huge shelves of wine and liquor bottles lining the entire area behind the registers. Huge selection of West Coast stuff (Lost Abbey, Cascade, some Alesmith, etc.) some Jolly Pumpkins, and a nice selection of Belgian / international beers (Cantillon, Struise, etc.). Highlights included the last bottle of Cascade Sang Royal (they also had bottles of the Kriek and Apricot), Cantillon Cuvee de Champions, Drakes 1500 Pale Ale (never seen it before), and bottles of the SN / DFH Life and Limb. Pricier than even BevMo!, I held off on buying certain things I knew I could find elsewhere.