July 10, 2009
My son’s teacher suggested we take him to the Eric Carle Museum in Amherst...y’know, the guy that wrote "The Very Hungry Caterpillar?" I realized that is a spectacular idea because I can work in a lunch trip with the family to one of the area’s solid beer bars. The winner is The Dirty Truth. It’s an extremely clean place with a wicked long bar and a wall full of about 40 taps. Pretty chill scene, slightly upscale but some hipster doofus mixed in. A couple of booths in the back, raised tables with barstools throughout. Our server (Benjamin I think?) was excellent. Our almost 5-year-old decided on fried chicken and a pancake and when it came out Benjamin said, "hey, we figured it might still be too hot for the little guy to eat, so here’s a fruit salad in the meantime." Well, how cool is that? He knew his beer pretty well and helped out with one I hadn’t come across before (Bear Republic End 08). All the staff we came across were mellow, helpful and attentive. The food was good for brunch; the Beautiful Bride had a breakfast vegi burrito which was good...my andouille & mussels omelette was solid (may work a little closer to the jambalaya feel with shrimp or crawfish if you ask me...I generally don’t like to mess with that stuff unless I’m pulling mussels from the shell, as Squeeze would vouch). Jr.’s fried chicken looked and tasted pretty legit. As mentioned, about 40 taps. They’re not wasting a single one, either. Quite a few from Stone, Bear Republic...hell, still Founders Breakfast (it wasn’t playing too badly, either). The Beautiful Bride had a Weihenstephaner Hefeweizen...a clean, sessionable classic. Nice bottles, too...including KBS. At $14 a pop for KBS it falls right around the 2x restaurant mark-up. Ok, maybe a C-hair above but who’s counting. Brunch entrees were between $9-11 or so. Not dirt-cheap but not ridiculous. Pints ran around $6 for the most part. Ditto. Not pricey, but not bargain-basement, either. This place is definitely worth a stop-in if you’re in the area, and is deserving of the praise I’ve seen. Something tells me that Jr. will want to go back to the museum again in a couple of months. Will be interested in the true lunch/dinner fare the next visit.

May 30, 2009
Pretty much one of the premier beer bars in the area that everyone raves about. The selection is big and the staff can make suggestions for anyone who is to intimidated by the menu. Food selection is simple but very good. The only detractors is the price and the fact that everyone knows about the place so it can get crowded and noisy

September 9, 2008
Being from Northampton I was happy to see another micro brew bar and with 40 taps who wouldn’t be happy? This might have been one of the best if not for lack of service and super loud atmosphere. The beers are great and they get hardto find stuff like Sierra. It’s all good if you like the noise.

August 17, 2008 [ Updated December 28, 2008 ]
The new manager/ bar keep is a jerk. we started off the night well 6 guys drinkin quality beer, but the new bartender ended up being very rude. I have come here multiple times and had a good experience, but after my last experience I will not go back. The moan and dove is a town over with a similar selection, same owners, but less rude staff. They fired the ruder member of their team and i happen to lovethis place now

May 22, 2008
excellent place to enjoy beers for beer lover

February 13, 2008
This is a pretty sick beer bar that I wish we had in Carrboro or anywhere in NC. Something like 40 beers on draught and 20 or so nicely picked bottles. Pretty good non-standard pub fare. Younger brother of the Moan and Dove in neighboring Amherst.

November 5, 2007
Now this is a quality tap selection. I could be in a dump of a bar and not mind really. The day I visited, they had on tap, amongst others, St. Bernardus Abt, Trois-Pistoles, Southern Tier Imperial Oatmeal, De Ranke Guldenberg, Cantillon Gueuze, Smuttynose Farmhouse Ale, Stoudt’s Double IPA, Hop Rod Rye, Old Rasputin, Victory Prima Pils, and lots of fun locals such as beers from High and Mighty, Ipswich, Offshore, Cisco, etc. Oh yeah, there is a basic food menu for the classy atmosphere. Who cares. The beer is top notch and this place is worth long detours.

March 26, 2007
Great place! We found this place by accident when walking around Northampton, a city we visit twice a month, but for some reason we never noticed this place. Probably because their "sign" on the front of the building is a beer coaster that says "The Dirty Truth". The only reason we noticed it was a big Chimay chalkboard out front telling people not to drink Bud or something. The bar is very long with over 20 seats facing shelves full of proper stemware and bottles of beer. They have about 40 taps and lots of great stuff to drink. The waitress was very knowledgable about the beers available, and the food was good too. I also have to say the music was awesome. We were tlaking with a friend about being in a bar in Paris and how they were playing Massive Attack, and just then, the exact same Massive Attack cd started playing in The Dirty Truth. Weird. We’ll definately be back.

October 15, 2006
This place has great drafts... It is pretty much the moan and dove with 5 times the space and twice as many drafts! Yummy expensive beer. I love going in this place for 1 beer because: there are better bars in northampton, I know more about beer than the yuppies who order allagash white, and I can’t stand the atmosphere. It is dark with lame depressing music. Do what I do and get one or two great beers there and then move on to play pool, hang out in the tunnel bar, catch a concert, or check out one of the great local dive bars.

July 10, 2006
Finally a good beer bar in Northampton! Spawned by the creators of Moan and Dove, beer gods of the Pioneer Valley. 40 rotating taps of deliciousness - I had two of my favorite standbys, Allagash White and Arrogant Bastard. Food is good, semi-fancyish appetizers/small entrees. Dirty Truth can be nothing but a success in this town.