Amherst Brewing Company

Amherst Brewing Company was awsome however the location has been taken over by another awsome restaurant The Hanger. There great beer line will continue but the restaurant is now gone.

Good beer selection, mediocre service, mediocre food, poor to mediocre atmosphere (large strip mall space, little decoration, some big TVs)) and very little character.

This is a sports bar. It’s gross due to the nature of it being a sports bar. Too many bros. Way too many bros. Beer flight was fine, slightly overpriced. Fried jalapeños were weird but okay. All in all, nothing was worth the environment.

PROS:
Ample parking.
Clean bathrooms.
Ample seating areas.
Lots of beer /​/​sampler available.
Merchandise available for purchase.
CONS:
Boring menu.
Bottom line:
No frills kid friendly brewery.

I went here last Friday with a group of friends to check out the changes to abc since the hangar took over management. The interior looks almost the same with a few hangar you touches (ie giant beer menu).
The menu takes the wings section from hangar and the rest is the pub menu from abc (only one page front & back). We order beers, soda, sweet potato fries, onion rings, salad, and wings (bone in and boneless) to split between a group of 6. Although our waitress was attentive with getting us our food, everything was a bit off. The drinks were a little flat, the fries & onion rings were cold, and the wings did not have enough to sauce. Someone needs to help them with their quality control. Overall, does not compare to the hangar

I have the honor of saying I was one of the first to work there. I also have the honor of having Greg Noonan ask me to come down and help get them started. John is a First Class Brewer and even if you do not like his Recipe’s, you can count on the best ingredients available in the Brewing World and that he is creating a Traditional Beer with his signature. I was last there… At his new location last fall and so enjoyed his October Fest. Malty, yeasty and all the tones you would expect from a World Class Brewery!!! If your only complaint is the Sweet Fries were cold… Than you would not be happy at any Brew Pub and you should go to Applebee’s. If you love World Class Beer… Brewed by a Brew Master and you want it straight from the Tap… Then you’ll love ABC… Rock on Johnnie!!!

I’ve been there two times with my family and the staff has always been super friendly. My dad loves that the beers change, since he loves trying all the new beers. The menu is traditional, but they have a lot of great options. Their burgers are fantastic. They aren’t very expensive, when my dad saw the bill he was blown away by how cheap it was, considering he had gotten alcohol. I recommend, but you do get no cell phone service (which is actually pretty nice)

This bar blows. Empty on a Saturday night in Amherst where nothing else good is going on. Why? I don’t know. My friend seemed to like the Diva drink with no alcohol in it. Don’t come here… ever. In fact don’t come to Amherst at all. By the way I’m writing this as I’m sitting at the empty bar.

I’ve been her probably a total of 3 times, and honestly it keeps getting better. Each experience trumps the last. (To the point where I am now considering this spot for my BIG ROUND birthday coming up.)
This most recent time I picked a friend up and brought her here after we both wanted a comfort food and beer kind of night.
We started with the cheese sticks and two beers. I was hoping for the Chocolate Porter, but it was kicked, so I went with the Half in the Bagpipe, while she had a Toasted Coconut Porter. We each had a burger (Mine garden, hers real… During which I shared the anecdote that whenever I order out with someone female presenting and they order meat and I get a vegetarian dish invariably they get it served to them. Because men cannot be vegetarian. Clearly.) she got the sweet potato fries and I got the regular. Both fries were good. The sweet potato fries came with honey mustard, which was nice.
After I killed off my first drink, the bartender asked if I wanted a taste of their cask. I said «Of couse» and he brought me a taste of the Flack Briday… Oh my god this was amazing. We got a pint to split of it, and that was our dessert.
Appetizer, two burgers with fries, 3 pints and a good tip were about $ 56.

While this place has decent pub food, it’s nothing to write home about and the service is problematic.
While the waitstaff is friendly, this restaurant is in what used to be a gym and before that, a grocery store. It’s huge, and tables often get ignored or forgotten. Plates have to travel a huge distance to get to their destination from the kitchen. Each time I’ve been there, food has taken a long time to arrive, even when the restaurant didn’t seem that busy.
Because this restaurant is so huge, the atmosphere is weird and sterile. It’s not a chain, but it feels like it is because it’s so bland.
Again, the food is decent, but there’s much better in the area for similar prices (such as the High Horse, which also has more interesting brews and a much better atmosphere).
Amherst Brewing Company is good for big groups, however. Because it’s so spacious, a huge group can feel quite comfortable. I’ve been with huge groups twice there.
I was also excited to receive a cool free pint glass with my «graduation ale» after graduating, but that really isn’t worth having a meal there.

Usually when boyfriend and I go to western Mass for family stuff, we make a stop across the street at the Hangar, but he remembered this place being pretty good, and hoped they still had deep fried Oreos, so we decided to change it up.
We started with the pierogi. Maybe growing up in Pennsylvania raised my standards for pierogi too high, but these were underwhelming. There wasn’t much filling, they were pretty plain, and the onions on top were both burnt and undercooked, which tells me someone in the kitchen doesn’t even have a handle on sauteeing onions.
The salad I got was gross; the lettuce was old, soft, and clearly came from a bag.
But the salad dressing, holy shit. I asked for vinaigrette. I got something that literally looked like fucking chocolate pudding. I am seriously not exaggerating when I say this was like pudding: it was thick and greyish-​brown, and totally gross. While it tasted vaguely like vinegar, I can’t even imagine how the fuck it was made or where. I can’t even picture it coming out of a bottle since it was so thick. How the hell do you mess up vinaigrette? It’s literally just oil, vinegar, and some seasoning. Can this place seriously not put together their own vinaigrette? Whatever, moving on.
I got the shepherd’s pie, which the menu claimed was ‘simmered with peas, carrots, and corn.’ I didn’t find a single pea. I found a few tiny orange slivers that may have been carrots once. There was corn, but it was shriveled and dry. In fact, the whole thing was dry. The very thin layer of beef didn’t have a trace of moisture to it. The potatoes on top were okay, but nothing special.
Boyfriend ordered the cowboy burger, and after a few bites realized he had gotten a completely different burger. He hates sending food back even more than I do, and he said it wasn’t bad so he just ate it. Their fries were good, no complaints there.
After a bunch of disappointment we had pretty much no hope they were still serving fried Oreos, but thankfully they do, buuuut… Apparently the serving size has gone down quite a bit. I thought they were okay, but I didn’t really taste much Oreo flavor. I’ve never had them before so I have nothing to compare them to.
The real kicker about this experience? It took over an hour and a half. 90 minutes for an appetizer, two entrees, and a dessert, and the place was not that busy. The waitress hardly came by and would forget to fill our water glasses (even after asking). Boyfriend was really disappointed in their drop in quality, and we both wished we’d just gone to the Hangar again instead.

We have been to ABC a few times, the beer is always good. One time I had the 12=beer sampler and thoroughly enjoyed that. The food and service on this trip however was sub-​par. First thing was that they were out of giant pretzels. Next the waitress said there would be no marinara sauce for the mozz sticks. Then came the dreaded «Is Pepsi OK?». Urgh. (although that doesn’t really factor into this review)
Looked around/​waited for waitress a few times. The orders that came out just lacked a certain pizzazz on this visit. Although the bill for 8 people was very reasonable.

I would give 4 stars for the beers and 3 stars for the food. Basic sandwich foods, burgers, and apps are pretty good, but the few full meals that I had were less than desirable. The german sausage platter was good (except I was what was supposed to be reheated mashed potatoes that were refrigerator cold). If you can’t at least reheat potatoes, you shouldn’t be serving them. The shepards pie was pretty disappointing as well. It just didn’t have the flavor a good shepards pie should. On a good note, the buffalo wings are tasty.
As far as the brews, they are pretty darn good. Their IPA’s are tasty, the brown ales and stouts are all made in the brewery and are good. They also have plenty of seasonals, and two cask ales. I have not had a bad beer from this place.
The bar in here is HUGE, and plenty of seating in a comfortable, casual atmosphere. Great place for a beer and apps and a burger, but I am not impressed with the full dinner menu for quality of food.

Fantastic!
Best beers, service, and food! Thanks Tom!

This is a fine place to meet friends or colleagues for some socializing because the interior is HUGE! You can spend time with your group and not be too bothered by the many other groups of people around. There are several large tables spread around as well as many smaller tables for people eating lunch or dinner. They can even accommodate huge groups of people. My employer often has a late lunch here once a year — there are about 60 of us that attend.
The service is quite slow — no matter how busy they are or aren’t.
The food is not great. I will grab appetizers or something when meeting friends there. That is usually fine. But, ordering a whole meal here is always a disappointment, and something I don’t do unless my arm is twisted.

Went to ABC over the weekend for the first time with my boyfriend and another friend. We went mainly for the beer, but did order some food too. The beer: awesome! We all got a 12 sampler (see my photo attached to this review). You get six 3oz beers from their regular tap and six 3oz seasonals. And the price? $ 9! AMAZING! How can you not order it? They were all very good. My personal favorite was the pumpkin ale… yum! The food was alright. My boyfriend and I split nachos, which were decent. Nothing spectacular. The beer totally tops the food. We will definitely be back!

I had fun here. I can’t say the food was amazing, though served in plentiful portions. The beer was pretty decent. The space is comically large (have to wonder what the decision was on that…). Service was stellar.
Went here with some friends while visiting from the West Coast and made an evening of it: drank beer, ordered tons of apps and played pool. Nothing to complain about.

Pro: good selection of beers. Awesome guest taps, and lots if IPA selections. I was really pleased with the double IPA. If I went back it would be ONLY for beer
Cons: service– it was a disgrace! We were standing at the entrance waiting for a hostess for over 5 min. It was 1 pm! The bartender clearly saw us and made no attempt to come over or even greet us. It was extremely uncomfortable. We asked to sit outside, and we were told that high chairs were not allowed outside. The restaurant was so dead and there was plenty of room. Finally the waitress told the hostess it was ok. Lame!
The food!!! Horrible!!! Beyond horrible! The burger my husband ordered was over cooked and clearly a frozen patty. Barf!!! My pub grilled cheese was bland and the bread seemed heavily processed. For amherst this place should be ashamed!
I will never eat there again.

Absolutely horrible service. We came on a Sunday with a group of six. It took 30 minutes to get drinks. Another 30 minutes to get our apps. We waited another 30 minutes before canceling all our orders and asking for the check. Everyone around us was like wtf? They were out of mashed potatoes, monster pretzels, and toasted coconut porter. How does a restaurant run out of mashed potatoes? All our beers were flat and watery. Seriously, this was ABC’s last chance. If the beer at the brewery source is flat there is something major wrong.

Pulled pork sandwich and potato salad were excellent, as was the bloody mary.
Just a note: This place is HUGE!