This Berkeley bar serves 10-cent beer, every single day

Inflation may be making everything unbearable, but there’s still one great bargain in the Bay Area: a glass of 10-cent beer in Berkeley, poured every single day.

The last time America saw a deal like this might’ve been the notorious “10-cent Beer Night” at the 1974 Cleveland Indians/Texas Rangers baseball game. That promotion ended in a riot with drunken fans storming the field, some naked, forcing players to retreat while swinging fists and baseball bats.

But on a recent evening at Triple Rock Brewery & Taphouse on Berkeley’s Shattuck Ave., things were pretty quiet — and the clothes remained on — as the clock ticked past 5 p.m. A bartender poured half-pint glasses of “Go Beers! West Coast IPA” and lined them up on a bar mat. At 5:10 p.m. exactly, he rang a bell and yelled, “Get your dimes!”

“The bell rings at 5:10 p.m., and for 10 minutes only, it’s one dime for a half-pint of your choice, one per customer, with some exceptions like no barrel-aged sour beers or ciders,” said Dave Rowe, director of retail operations for Triple Rock.

“You pay with one dime. You must have a dime, you can’t give us a dollar to make change,” he said. You also can’t pay with a nickel and five pennies, or with 10 pennies you might’ve scrounged up off the floor. “Must have one dime only.”

Triple Rock calls itself the fifth brewpub in the United States, and the oldest run by its original founders. ““It all started in 1985 when brothers John and Reid Martin decided Berkeley could use a little more beer in its life,” the website states. “On March 14th, 1986, Triple Rock opened its doors, and for the last 39 years, we’ve been keeping the taps flowing with the freshest handcrafted brews in town — paired with some seriously mouth-watering food!”

The brewery quietly kicked off the promotion a few months ago as sort of a thought experiment.

“It’s been one of those fun things for us to do,” Rowe said. “In the beginning we were like, ‘Will this take off at all?’ And to some extent it has. Every week, it seems to pick up traction.”

Taking advantage of the deal this particular evening was a customer at the bar who already had a full pint of beer he was nursing. You can always use a back-up beer, after all? Another guy sidled up and ordered four glasses of 10-cent beers, carrying them on a teetering platter to his group at a nearby table.

That guy, who said he lived in Berkeley and identified himself as “Jeff… uh, Jeff Berkeley,” said he’s quite familiar with this promotion.

“It’s not my first time here,” said Jeff Berkeley, speaking slowly but happily. “You think to yourself: ‘Why not come in for a 10-ouncer?’”

Details: Triple Rock Brewery & Taphouse is open daily at 1920 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley; triplerock.com