Taste-Testing Brews at Ye Olde Falcon Pub

Night Watch is a regularly occurring bar review with nightlife columnist Tara Nieuwesteeg.
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Liquor is a cruel, messy mistress, and she doesn't love me. The last time I saw her, she left me with a hangover that lasted for three days. So, as I do every time she leaves me aching, I swore her off. It won't last, of course -- but it will give me ample time to make her jealous by experimenting with her smart, sexy, multilayered cousin, Miss Beer.

Early in life, my parents impressed upon me the beauty of beer. Beer is the answer to hot summer days; beer is the answer to a long day at work; good times come straight from the brewery. South Florida might be overrun with more people who enjoy consorting with Miss Liquor than those who love soaking up the thick, foamy, imported flavor of Miss Beer, but I was determined to find the beer-loving hot spots scattered throughout the region. They're out there, and, as I discovered, they're worth looking for.

My first stop was Ye Olde Falcon Pub (2867 S. University Drive, Davie; 954-424-0300, or click here).

Stepping inside this dark, wooden pub is like happening upon an ancient, sacrosanct ritual ground for a tribe of beer worshipers. It is low-lit, with scuffed floors, wooden tables, booths, and a huge oval-shaped bar smack-dab in the middle of the joint. A mounted warthog head hangs over a doorway, wearing a Santa hat (clearly some kind of sacrifice to their heathen beer god). Blackboards mounted over the bar tick off all the available brews (the alcohol percentages are conveniently there as well).

My friends Beard and Fancy had already found a spot at the bar and were peppering the blond, bored beer guardian with questions. In the middle of the space behind the bar sits the true gold: Illuminated by overhead lights, the beer taps glowed with heavenly glory.

"How many beers do y'all have?" I asked the bartender.

"Forty-nine," she said with a small smile. "Soon to be 50."

"What's the general patron favorite?" I pestered.

"Right now, it's our pumpkin ale," she said. She suggested we each purchase four small samples for $8.

"Which has the highest alcohol content?" I demanded. She and Beard laughed at my question: She thought I was kidding; he knew I wasn't.  

"It's the Delirium, at 9 percent -- we don't give samples of that, though," she said, teasing.

Was she insinuating we couldn't handle it?  We'd show her.

She recommended the Holy Mackerel -- a close 8.5 percent. Done.

Beard and I agreed on the Holy Mackerel, the Falcon house brew (5 percent), Brooklyn Lager (5.2 percent), and Purple Haze (4.2 percent). Fancy decided to go balls-out and order a romantic, wheaty brew called "The Love" -- a beer aficionado's creamy wet dream. She served us our four samples on a Leinenkugel wooden paddle, and we threw back, swapping glasses among the three of us.

Of the four, Beard and Fancy both gagged on the dark, bitter Holy Mackerel, and I got a buzz just from sniffing it. Fancy found the Purple Haze -- a soft, light brew -- to be boring, so I drank it all. Beard relished the Brooklyn, which had a sharp, tangy taste; all three of us agreed that the Falcon house beer -- a rich taste reminiscent of Newcastle -- was the best.