Albany's Forgotten Beer Bar?

Sure, we've been to Valentine's Music Hall and Beer Joint. Once. It was to see a last minute Camper Van Beethoven show. We arrived quite early, the better to squeeze in a couple of pre-concert libations, and remember being pretty surprised by their beer selection. Valentine's is a grungy little two story club on New Scotland Avenue, near Washington Park. The first floor is mostly a bar, a dirty floor and a small stage. There is a slightly smaller bar, an equally dirty floor and slightly larger stage upstairs. The slogan on their web site is "blow it out your ass", so it seems a safe assumption that they aren't catering to an upscale clientele or competing with Mahar's for beer snob customers. We enjoyed the place, but haven't been back in a few years. No particular reason for this absence comes to mind, other than the fact that most of their acts tend to be the angry, aggressive rock of the disaffected youth. We're plenty angry, but hardly aggressive, disaffected or youthful. Anyway, Valentine's has a pretty sweet happy hour. The details:

Sure we carry Bud, Coors Light, Heineken, etc., etc., this is America, we have to.

But we also offer up excellent micro brews, seasonals on tap and in a bottle and regional specialties. We have a happy hour every Thursday and Friday that stretches from 3pm-8pm and every tap is $2.50. You can't beat that I can't repeat that. Here's a partial list of the goods:

-Red Hook
-Anchor
-Sierra Nevada
-Brooklyn
-Smithwicks
-Samuel Adams
-Sam Smith
-Brewery Ommegang
-Blue Moon
-Lindemans
-Magic Hat
-Cooperstown Brewery
-Pilsner Urquell
-Yuengling
-Paulaner
-Red Stripe
-Harpoon
-Magners
-Rheingold

..and in cans Pabst Blue Ribbon and of course Schaefer, the official beer of The Valentines.

Apparently, it's also a Met's bar. How very intriguing - gotta like the attitude, and a solid beer list to boot. We plan on checking it out and (of course) reporting our findings, soon.