June 2001. Average brewpub type-place in downtown.

Big place, felt okay in there but it was a little dead. The beers - one was all right but the other was a butter bomb. That’s not cool. Service was good.

Urban/industrial vibe, high ceilings, lots of metal. Lacking coziness but a decent pit stop.

Reasonable pub in mid-town touristy area. Beer was so-so, and bartender, though just after luchtime, had no ideas of the beer. But staff was friendly, and young and assertive. They spend time of the hard stuff and wine, and from what I understand, the restaurant. Reasonable prices for the location. Interesting that they tried a barleywine, but they aim to not offend, as apposed to experimenting here. A bit of room, but felt crowded, even though the place was empty, compared to the Pub Store and 5 Seasons, and even Rock Bottom.

I was not expecting much from Max Lagers at all and my expectations were lowered when I was greeted with a very strong soured grain aroma upon entering the building. I must say in all fairness, the beers I had were pretty darn good. The atmosphere is open and factory-esque with two or three stories and brick walls. The place wasn’t too crowded at 5 pm on a Friday. Service was good. The menu had mostly entrees and pizzas, it seemed a step closer to finer dining than the average pub. I had a good time sitting at the bar and I will most likely come back.

Well located from the business hotels area. Big old casern-like building. Inside is nice, very open, high-ceilings, lots of bricks, lots of wood. A few large tv screens on sports channels but not too intrusive. They had 7 home beers on tap and a not so exciting list of about 50 bottles. I had an imperial stout that is not on ratebeer yet and it was actually pretty good. As usual the girlfriend went for the pils. I took a sip and thought it was a very poor example of the style. So based on my limited experience I’d say the beer can be hit or miss. Food has some greasy pub fare but also a pizza speciality and expensive steaks and such. We ate there and I was pleased with my relatively cheap meal. Bottom line, this is a place worth visiting if you want a good pizza and a beer. I wouldn’t spend more than one hour there since it had a basic restaurant atmosphere and on a lucky day I don’t think I’d find more than two interesting homebrews.

Visited here in October ’05. Much more of an urban feel to the place than their counterpart out in the burbs at the Georgia Mall. Only had about five on tap and the barkeep did not seem to know much about them. Food was serviceable, Has a pool table and plenty of floor space upstairs. Not worth going out of your way for - but if in the downtown ATL - drop on by.

Downtown location with crappy parking. Brewery equipment is open into the restaurant and very visable. The place was very crowded and busy with a good restaurant decor. The staff was knowledgeable and friendly about their beers but seemed too busy to focus on their customers. The selection of beers was good and the food was very good. Overall this was a nice place, better than some of the other Atlanta brewpubs but nowhere near the quality of 5 seasons.

Every seven years or so, I’m at a convention in Atlanta and it’s a treat to hit Max Lagers for decent brews near the big hotels. A pleasant environment, conventional brewpub with mahogany and copper tanks, two floors and plenty of seating. Food is above average for this sort of place, even if well short of gastropub fare. And the beer menu is nice too, with plenty of domestic craft in bottles and on tap, in addition to the solid offerings brewed on site. Over the several days of conference madness, I ended up here three different times with different folks and enjoyed it each time (ended up getting a good sampling of the brews as well). Friendly, inviting, a good place.

April 17, 2013 Review:
I just revisited this place, and I thought my review could use an update for sure. First off, the draft list was significantly more interesting. The bartender that I had was excellent. The food was a bit slow (they were very crowded due to a convention being in town), but it was very good. Lastly, but certainly importantly, the beers were all tasty. I had the IPA, Black IPA, and Vienna, and I found all of them to be solid or better, which differs quite a bit from my original review. They also had a solid selection of other beers in bottles. I’m glad I revisited this place.
78: 4/9/10/8/6/16

April 30, 2009 Review:
Thought this place was mediocre. The lay-out was that typical industrial look you see in many brewpubs. Our server was pretty good, we split a few apps and a pizza. The pizza was solid, the chicken tenders not so good.
As for the beer: They had 4 on tap when I was there (pretty weak selection if you ask me) - APA, Lager, Brown, and Stout. Beers were OK, but not worth going from too far away. Our hotel was 2 blocks away, I’d say it was worth that walk, but not much more!
46: 3/7/3/6/5/10