Best Beer List: The Hay Merchant

Perusing a beer list should be like counting sheep. There should be multitudes to tally, but each should be interesting enough to earn more than a passing glance. And, as long as you’re not driving, they should be potent enough to put you to sleep, too. The Hay Merchant passes the sheep test on all counts. Start with the 80 taps and dozens more on the bottle list. There are compelling selections from the draft and bottle lists, goodies like aged barley wines so strong they’re offered in two-ounce pours, and several cask selections. For the record, if you’re in a beer bar and as many as five of the taps are reserved for cask engines, (the customary number on The Hay Merchant’s beer menu) you’re in the right place.

Stockpiling beers of various styles from well-known and obscure breweries is one thing, but knowing how to deliver them is where The Hay Merchant truly excels. The bar goes to painstaking lengths to ensure the suds are properly preserved until they're tapped; it renovated its beer cooler last spring to help meet those goals. Each beer is poured at its optimal temperature and into glassware designed for consumers to experience the full glory of their selections. Attention to the details is the reason Houston's beer aficionados keep flocking like sheep to the Montrose craft beer bar.

1100 Westheimer, Houston
713-528-9805
haymerchant.com

Readers' Choice: Flying Saucer Draught Emporium

Flying Saucer Houston
705 Main, Houston
713-228-9472
beerknurd.com/locations/houston-flying-saucer

Flying Saucer Sugar Land
15929 City Walk, Sugar Land
281-242-7468
beerknurd.com/locations/sugar-land-flying-saucer