Beverage Barn — Local services in Houston

For the most part my experience there was good right up to the end. I had (2) five pound co2 cylinders filled. They asked me to park in the back because it was going to take a few minutes. I parked and waited for the cylinders to be filled. The nice attendant brought the first cylinder out and said it would be a few more minutes. As I was waiting, one of their vans pulls up next to me and the guy driving opens his door striking my passenger side fender. I get out and confront him about it and he calls me a liar. Like I didn't just hear the thud of the door as it struck my car. He begins to go on the offensive and starts telling me how he's going to kick my rectal region. What's worse is that the people inside blew it off like nothing happened. It was the first time I have shopped there and it will also be the last. I would drive for an hour to get my co2 before I drive the 10 minutes to beverage barn. If I could give negative stars I would. If the management had tried to rectify the wrong it would have been different. Nope, took the liars side over a person looking to have a long term relationship with their business. Not that wise of a choice beverage barn.. not that...

So, I made the mistake of trying to get a CO2 refill from these guys. They can only provide refill capacity based on how much is in their CO2 tank, in the back room. If their tank is nearly empty, you won't be able to get a reasonable CO2 refill. They say "only refill by pressure", not by the weight of CO2 going into your tank. I have a 5lb tank and wanted a 5lb refill.

They could only provide a 1lb refill (equalizing the pressure between their nearly empty tank and my tank) which is dishonestly inequitable for the fee. They won't tell you their available capacity up front, even though I specifically asked for 5lbs.

I had to came back with a scale to show them they only provided one lb. Initially they offered a 50% refund. I told them, I only received one lb. which isn't even half. So, they purged the tank (into the air) of the one lb they did provide and refunded the entire amount to me, returning my tank empty.

The moral to the story is don't get a refill from these guys. Go to a supplier that will pump the CO2 into your tank - not through recharging by pressure...

This is a very interesting concept, and coming from the land of drive-thru Daiquiri places (southern Louisiana) I had to give this place a shot. So it wins on novelty -- two-lane drive thru with employees running your selection of liquor, wine or beer to you, so all you do is sit in your car. However, it loses in most other categories unfortunately. Half of their inventory is dusty (I guess that can't be surprising in an open air location and idling cars) and you pay convenient store prices for most (i.e. about a 10-15% mark-up from your Specs or grocery store). To put it in perspective, we bought a 6-pack of St. Arnold's, a bottle of Republic Tequila and a pack of cigarettes, and the total came to just shy of $60.

This would be a great place to go in a pinch for a wider selection of beer than you would find in a gas station, but if you can make it to Specs, go...