For the second year running, Birmingham's The J. Clyde has been named one of Thrillist's "33 Best Beer Bars" in the nation.

"We've reached a wonderful point in civilization where even our dingiest dive bars have at least one craft beer available," Thrillist's Andy Kryza writes. "But even as great beer becomes more and more the norm, a great beer bar is still a thing of amber-hued beauty."

The J. Clyde Tavern is praised for featuring Southern brews and for its staff, which "seems to have studied the ever-changing menu with the vigor of a grad student."

"Do you love beer, but don't walk around with a thesaurus to help you describe to an ultra-hip bartender what you want?" Thrillist writes. "The 70+ tap offerings at this old-school 'Bama beer hall are broken up into flavor profiles on the menu, organized under descriptors like "roast," "malt," and "tart and/or funk," probably because tart and funk should never be mutually exclusive."

In addition to making Thrillist's 2014 list, The J. Clyde was named among the Top 50 beer restaurants by beer connoisseurs' Web site ratebeer.com in 2010.

The Tavern, which will celebrate its eighth anniversary on April 13, has been called a "fulcrum" in Birmingham's craft beer scene.