April 29, 2012
Being somewhat new to beer, in particular craft beers and high gravity, I found out about The J Clyde and thought this would be the perfect place to start learning. We eased in the door late one Sunday afternoon to find just a handful of friendly people sitting around chatting. The bartender took my inexperience and my brief description of what I thougt I liked, and he ran with. He hand-picked a flight of beers that he thought I’d like. All 5 beers were different, some dark, some sweet, and even a high gravity thrown in. All 5 were excellent choices and fit my tastes well. We ordered their fried sour kraut balls to go along with the flight. The beer and the conversation started out good and only got better. Same goes for the bartender who kept coming back to slip me a sip of various other beers he thought I’d like. One J Clyde burger and two hours later, I had sampled 8-10 different beers, had some excellent food, met some super nice people including the nicest most beer knowledgeable bartender in B’ham, and indeed met my goal of learning about a handful of good beers. I’d recommend The J Clyde for every beer lover as they have one of the largest selections on tap in The Ham.

April 1, 2012
Tucked out of the way in downtown Birminham is this jewel. Laid back bar with very good food. Great local tap selection backed by an extensive bottle menu.

February 21, 2012
Extensive beer selection with lots of seasonals and special guests. Nice pub feel. They were out of brats and the "famous" burger I had was good but not exceptional. Build your own flight (pricing based on ABV) is very welcome. Will definitely return when in town.

April 23, 2011
Very cool bar. Great beer selection: bottles and on tap. Food was good enough for a bar. The bartender working when I was there was Amber (...I think): very cool, knew the beers very well, super nice, easy on the eyes. If you want a good beer bar in Birmingham, this is the place to go.

February 7, 2011
Fantastic beer selection right here in Birmingham. Very small front room so get there early, no smoking. Back patio is large and enclosed, they do allow smoking back there. Food is great! Service can be a little lacking when they get really busy. I’m glad that I found this place. Would highly recommend.

January 19, 2011
Been here twice, always go when I am in town visiting my sister. Really nice to finally see a good beer pub in Birmingham! They have all of the local stuff on tap (good people etc) and many other great craft brews. They have a great import selection as well. Service is great even when they are really busy and the atmosphere is warm and cozy. The food is as you would expect from a pub, burgers, pizza etc. Just a great place to go if you are in Birmingham and are looking for a cool place to try some of the local and regional brews!!

October 1, 2010
Parking was sort of a pain with no clearly marked lots that were ’ok’. Rightfully listed as probably the best stop in Birmingham. A very nice tap list with sample flights available, an extensive bottle list, great help, knowledgable service, didn’t eat but the menu looked pretty good. Maybe a touch pricy.

April 8, 2010
Best beer selection in birmingham. Very reasonable pricing, especially on half price draft days. They even have a few sours. However, it is located in Southside which is yuppy central. It’s great for weekdays, but I don’t really wanna go on Friday or Satuday nights... Food is above average bar food, but not by any means great.

October 30, 2009
Nice place. Unless I missed something though, I counted 43 taps (not 80 as listed here). All the taps were great selections though: Old Rasputin, Chimay white, 4-5 local brews, 10-12 regional micros, and other well-selected US micros and European imports. Three half-fridges stacked with good bottle selections as well. Cheese plate appetizer and pizza entree were very good. Pricing was surprisingly fair considering the monopoly they have on good beer in the state. Service was very friendly and knowledgeable at the bar, but a bit short-handed due to also servicing a Sweetwater beer-and-food pairing dinner on the patio that I would have loved to participate in!

August 21, 2009 [ Updated January 10, 2012 ]
Cool little bar in an alley. Relegated to the funky back bar with the taps and locals. Now that Alabama is getting stronger beers, this place seems to have taken the torch for better beers. Nice 30 taps and 100 or so bottles. Nice neighborhood local. I wouldn’t mind having this type of bar near my house.