Alt Platz Brewing Company

No Longer In Business

My family loves this place. We’ve never had bad service, beer, or food (no smoking is a plus). Great beer, great pizza, and wonderful friendly staff. So what if the pizza takes a little time (one oven, one cook (maybe there are orders ahead of yours)), what better to do with your time than to relax and have some conversation with family/friends. Props Tom - keep up the good work.

All of the beers we tried were infected. Some with diacetyl producing bacteria, some with phenols from wild yeast. None of the styles were Belgian. After posting poor reviews of the infected dreck he calls beer, several I know have received vulgar, abusive and even threatening e-mails. Said e-mails even made obscene comments about posters wives, who has never been there. The owner apparently has serious inferiority issues, and probable manhood issues. IMHO, everyone should STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE FOR YOUR OWN GOOD!

Attention potential patrons of Alt Platz Brewery in Portsmouth, Virginia! The owner of this establishment is known to yell and rant at anyone caught taking notes in his brewpub. If the offending party admits to using any beer rating web site, he will likely expel the person from his business, “banning him for life.” In addition, the owner has sent vulgar, offensive and even threatening e-mails to those who post negative comments about his establishment. He has even sent what may be libelous e-mails to distribution lists regarding negative posters. It is my opinion that this establishment should be avoided at all costs, for both peace-of-mind and personal safety concerns. This person has no business being in the public service/hospitality business and exemplifies everything that someone in that business should not be.

all the beers have a similar cheap-extract taste now. they were better at first, but obviously some corners are being cut. owner has a sense of entitlement and seems to think of customers as distractions. he does not open for more than 4 hours a day. i would not recommend this place to anyone i liked. go to the bier garden down the street.

Small place. I liked the wall of WWII recruiting and war bond posters. I was surprised that there was no TV. This is not a place where you can go for a quick bite. You need to stay awhile. The beer is good, the food is bar food. They will give you a shot glass of their beer before you buy one. I liked that you could get the beer in 12, 16 or 20 oz mugs. I also like that there’s no smoking.

My experience is similar to Braudog’s, and I will not visit again. If you check out their website, they are openly hostile to the Ratebeer concept. I have been there a couple of times and everyone has been very nice and friendly to me. On the other hand, they don’t seem to take criticism very well. I have had a couple of truly outstanding brews there and some not so good ones too. The coup de grace, however, is the nasty e-mail I just received from them asking me not to come back. I don’t know if this is their brand of snark or military sarcasm but I don’t appreciate it. They purport to be gung-ho for the military, but I’m a vet too. Even though they have been nice to my face, I have always sensed a little hostility when I have been there. Giving Tom the benefit of the doubt, I believe he takes his craft very seriously, perhaps too much so. I can understand being a little sensitive about his work. I admire him for his ability. He really is pretty good. Then again, I think he should be more open to criticism Agree or not, but don’t lash out at paying customers, especially the ones that like you.

Went there on a late Sat. afternoon. Tom and staff were awesome. The beer was excellent, will definitely be back. I recommend Alt Platz to anyone who is looking for a nice quiet lunch or dinner with super friendly staff. I will definitely be back many times over...Come in October and November to try the astounding pumpkin ale. Beats Biergarden hands down.

Always has three brews on tap all made by the owner (Tom). Is always rotating beers, so he is providing a good sampling of beers. Pretzel sticks are very good. This is pretty much a one man show and Tom has provided excellent service everytime I’ve been in. Support your local brewer.

After my original post I received an obscenity-laced note from the owner, complete with juvenile references to my wife, letting me know I’m not welcome in his place. No worries – I have no intention to return. Not sure what I did to disrespect the owner’s wife -- but I apologize if I unintentionally did. Anyway, of the 3 beers I tried at Alt Platz, 1 was good. I appreciated the pro-military decor, but little failings detract greatly. What really blew it: we ordered the much-touted homemade pretzels ... after ~30 minutes of not hearing a peep about our food, we asked on their progress and were told that it would be at least an hour! There were only about 10 people in the place, so I wasn’t real sure of what the problem was & most importantly no one offered an explanation before or after we raised the question. So we diverted our inbound friends and walked the 2 blocks down to the Biergarden, where the beer list is breath-taking, they actually seem to care, and the food comes out hot in less than an hour! I respect the opinions of other area raters here and although they don’t jive with my experience at all, I’m 100% behind small local brewers, and other raters seem to like Tom’s place, so don’t let my comments deter you from checking it out.

The place is just getting started and seems bound for greatness. At the moment menu is minimal, more of a lunch joint but the food quality is top notch. Fresh ingredients and amazing flavor. An extremely casual setting, seat yourself, owner waits on you, prepares your food, serves you great brew and chews the fat with you. So don’t come here looking for fast food but do anticipate leaving feeling satisfied. The Patriotic theme of the joint is tastful, respectful and fits well into the historic district of Portsmouth VA. The 3 beers available at the moment were excellent and went well with the homemade pretzels. I’ll be going back and so should you.