Best Brewery Tour you've done

With small breweries popping up like weeds it seems here in Dallas/Ft Worth, you can't throw a rock on any Saturday without hitting a brewery tour.

My favorite?

Franconia Brewery in McKinney TX.

It's a small, regional brewery that's almost 100% "Green" in every aspect. You can sample (and I mean REALLY sample....no tickets or wristband-tabs) the beers while the tour is going. They also do a great job educating the folks on the history and the processes.

Rahr Brewing in Fort Worth is one of the older breweries in the area and do 2 tours a week. The Saturday tour gets PACKED but they've expanded the area so space isn't too much of an issue. They usually have a band playing, food trucks set up in the back lot and plenty of port-a-potties!

One I kick myself in the ass for missing? Yuengling. I grew up in Central PA and never did a tour up in Pottsville, even though it was only 90 minutes or so away.

If you ever get down to Austin, check out Jester King. Pretty cool place.

http://jesterkingbrewery.com/01-home/

The Lagunitas tour was a blast. Lots of samples, funny stories about the start of the brewery and just all around good atmosphere.

Southern Tier Brewery in Lakewood, New York!

Dragonmead Brewery in Warren Michigan. Our homebrew club was given an awesome tour.

Hmm let me think of the ones I've been to: Heineken in Amsterdam (not really brewery but fun), Climax Brewery in Roselle NJ, Flying Fish in NJ, and Sierra Nevada in Chico CA.

Sierra Nevada was an amazing experience, spectacular tour and learned alot. Worth the 2 hour drive up from SF if ever in the area. Climax was great to since it was just me and the Brewer Dave. If ever in Amsterdam def gotta goto Heineworld, more like a museum but just alot of fun. Flying fish was eh. Lol.

Monday Night Brewing Very low key, very informative, and really cool atmosphere. Atlanta, GA

Great Divide Brewing Building was built in the 20's and it isn't a very efficient brewery, but the staff was a blast. Denver, CO

Saya Beer Tour in La Paz, Bolivia, especially since I convinced them to add the zwickle shots. If you ever make it to La Paz, you can do the tour from either the Adventure Brew Hostel (thurs/sat) or get on the party micro from Loki (fridays).

This is the most irresponsible beer tour in the world.

For a big brewery, New Belgium in Fort Collins. They do a nice job. Very professional and they provide good info for folks that don't know brewing.

For a small brewery, Country Boy in Lexington KY. One of the owners took three homebrewers through and answered all our questions.

Yuengling's tour is the sh*t. I grew up in Pottsville.

Cigar City

The Lagunitas tour is the best one I've been on. I actually went on it twice. Once with SWMBO and again with a group of golfing buddies. The first tour was great. The second one we got to see a lot more of the brewery but the guy giving that one didn't know what he was talking about. He told us that wet hopping is when you use pellets and dry hopping is when you use whole leaf hops.

Not so much of a tour, but Harpoon definitely wins out for most samples given. Their approach was pretty much "you've all seen a brewery before and we know you are just here to try beer, so here it is." They had about 15 beers on tap and would talk about the first couple, then you could sample whatever you wanted for 20 minutes or so, talk about the next couple, then more sample time, etc. If you really wanted to see the brewery portion they would let you, but everybody that was there when I went was there for beer.

MKE Brewing Co in Milwaukee WI, Hands down the best brewery tour on the planet! Is $8 to get in and when you walk in the door they give you a really nice glass (which you get to keep) and you go to the bar and pick what ever you want as many times as you want, Oh and they grind fresh hops on your beer if you want. So that goes on for about an hour. Now the tour starts after about 10 min the tour guide sends you back to the bar for more beer, this goes back and forth from Learning to bar about 5 times. The tour is now over but you don't have to leave, oh no you still get another hour or so to drink to your hearts content! You will not leave disappointed or sober! My favorite beer of there's is Polish Moon www.mkebrewing.com

WI_Brew_boy said:

MKE Brewing Co in Milwaukee WI, Hands down the best brewery tour on the planet! Is $8 to get in and when you walk in the door they give you a really nice glass (which you get to keep) and you go to the bar and pick what ever you want as many times as you want, Oh and they grind fresh hops on your beer if you want. So that goes on for about an hour. Now the tour starts after about 10 min the tour guide sends you back to the bar for more beer, this goes back and forth from Learning to bar about 5 times. The tour is now over but you don't have to leave, oh no you still get another hour or so to drink to your hearts content! You will not leave disappointed or sober! My favorite beer of there's is Polish Moon www.mkebrewing.com

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that sounds fantastic!

+1 on Jester King. They are out in the beautiful Texas Hill Country and that have about 10 beers available along with a few guest taps. A handful of the beers are their seasonal and rare beers too. They also have a local pizza place serving fresh food. And since the brewery can't sell directly to consumers (for now), the pizza place sells their beers to take home.

Fuchschen in Dusseldorf (altbier). Once-in-a-lifetime great time. I dumped a bunch of pics and video and stuff here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/dusseldorf-altbier-brewery-visit-fuchschen-pics-youtube-282538/

Sockeye in Boise, ID. Those guys treated us to a great tour and many samples of their work.

Several years ago my brother was in Pittsburgh and tried to go on a tour of the Rolling Rock brewery in Latrobe. They told him they no longer gave tours but had a DVD if he wanted.

What a gip...

FX Matts. Its a mid sized brewery in Utica (upstate) NY. They make Saranak beers which are not great but not bad.

They are the major sponsor for a "tier 2" 15k race that is held in town every year. Its the kind of race that is won by someone like the third guy on the Kenyan National team. Elite athletes who are just below superstar status. They cap the entrants at 15,000 and it sells out every year. It is by FAR the biggest thing that happens in this town of probably 60,000 people. The race ends at the brewery parking lot where they pour free beer for anyone who shows up for hours. Seriously, there has to be 20,000 people packed into this giant parking lot drinking for free all day.

Anyways... I was there because SWMBO was running the race and the day before we decided to take the brewery tour, It cost $2 I think. The tour was really cool giving the history for the company and all the stuff every brewery tour gives and all that but at the end is where it got interesting. It ends in their tasting room where they encourage you to relax and have a few beers on the house. SWMBO and I as well as the couple we went with sat in that room for 4 hours easy and got wrecked. They just kept bring us more beer. Never asked for a dime and refused our attempts to tip. We must have had 30 beers between the 4 of us. It was just crazy. I have no idea how the brewery can possibly not lose a fortune over the course of the event. the amount of free beer they were pouring over that weekend was staggering.

Weltenburger Kloster in Kelheim, Germany. We got a tour of the brewery from the braumeister then at the end he poured us some Asam Bock right out of the lagering tank. It was fantastic.

The self-guided tour of Cantillon was pretty cool too!

+1 Cigar City

Unguide weekday tour....Riverhorse Labertville. The let you go anywhere you want...need I say more.

FastAndy said:

The Lagunitas tour was a blast. Lots of samples, funny stories about the start of the brewery and just all around good atmosphere.

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I would absolutely love to go on a tour there (hence my handle). A bucket list item for me for sure

cosmatics said:

and Sierra Nevada in Chico CA.

Sierra Nevada was an amazing experience, spectacular tour and learned alot. Worth the 2 hour drive up from SF if ever in the area.

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I'll echo this. One of the best brew tours I've been on. Beautiful brewery also.

Stone is also pretty amazing. Surprised to not see it mentioned.

I don't give bonus points to everyone because they don't charge or hurt them because they do charge. I know some states have different laws.

I will rate them on the tours I received, not in an order just some of my favorites

1. Heavy Seas - Baltimore, MD. Almost always a fun tour. It's never been intimate (usually 20+ people there) but the guides are always high energy and they show you the whole brewery. It's not an elevated tour like Magic Hat. They show you the hopback they use for Loose Cannon if you're lucky enough.

2. Cooperstown Brewery - Cooperstown, NY, now this one was intimate, it can vary depending on who was there but when we went it was only 2 couples. We didn't quite get access to everything (they had their fermenters behind glass because something they did was open brewing IIRC) but they took you to their bottling line, you could see the kettle, mashtun, etc. They give you pretty healthy tastes of their beer as well. Also outside of the brewery they have a hop trellis where they grow the hops for their backyard IPA.

3. Flying Fish - Somerdale NJ. Now I haven't toured the new brewery yet (don't think tours are open to the public yet but could be wrong) but I toured their old one twice and hopefully the new one will be as good. First things first the first tour I got to go on was Private because I was interviewing for a sales position so it was epic. I was beer nerded out. Second tour we went down when they were selling their cellered exit beers (and I needed Exit 4 for my bottle collection) and we decided to hop on a tour. Their brewer gave us the tour which is always nice cause he went really in depth with it.

4. Carton - Atlantic Highlands, NJ. Another tour where the brewer gave us the tour. We went right before their first anniversary and got to try their SS 2012 when it was still in the tippy, which is their experimental batches. And he was great with his tour.

Abita. They give you a cup and say "there's the taps, help yourself".

Been on four:

Lagunitas
Anchor
Russian River (Kind of Unofficial)
Budweiser

Can’t really complain about any of them.

This isn't the typical tour that most people are going to experience while there, but it's the best one I've been on:

A buddy of mine won a private tour for 15 folks at the Avery brewery a few years back. They picked us up in a party bus, fed us beer and played Beerfest for us on the trip from southeast Denver to Boulder, fed us beer through the tour of the brew/bottling facility (during which the guide allowed me to nerd out and be pedantic), then gave us more or less free reign over the taproom. They had their entire Demon Series on tap at the time, which we tried blended all sorts of different ways. Our guide even dipped in to some of their reserved bottles when he saw how much of a beer geek some of us were.

After all was said and done, we spent about 4-5 hours there and left with some great beers that were only available at the brewery. We were driven home, and luckily the floor in the party bus wasn't upholstered because it had to be hosed out when we got to our destination. I was surrounded by the 3 biggest dudes in the party (who all had less to drink than I did and were the only ones to get queasy), and so I got a nice surround-sound effect of sickness.

I can list mine as well
In order of most recant.
Guinness Dublin, Ireland
MKE brewing Co milwaukee, WI
Lake front brewing Co Milwaukee, WI
I think that it.

Yuengling...because its old
Victory....because of the attached restaurant.
Weyerbacher...because the tour was 15 min and the sampling lasted long enough to get a good buzz

Whenever we go on vacation, SWMBO and I try to visit at least one local brewery. Our top two favorites thus far are Flying Dog in Frederick, MD and Maui Brewing in, well, Maui. Flying Dog does a solid tour with knowledgeable tour guides, great history, and a tasting room after the tour with some "brewery only" beers to try. That, and they make you yell profanity at various points during the tour, just because it makes the tour guides laugh. Seriously. At Maui Brewing, even though the tour is just okay, you can't beat it for the setting.

boortzie said:

Whenever we go on vacation, SWMBO and I try to visit at least one local brewery. Our top two favorites thus far are Flying Dog in Frederick, MD and Maui Brewing in, well, Maui. Flying Dog does a solid tour with knowledgeable tour guides, great history, and a tasting room after the tour with some "brewery only" beers to try. That, and they make you yell profanity at various points during the tour, just because it makes the tour guides laugh. Seriously. At Maui Brewing, even though the tour is just okay, you can't beat it for the setting.

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I wish I had gotten to see the Flying Dog brewery before they moved from Denver to MD. Although the distillery that moved in after them also does tours, and has a really good restaurant attached. But if I ever find myself in the MD area, I'll have to check out their new digs. Thanks for the tip.

I've been to some really cool brewery tours.
In Prague I was able to watch a batch being brewed at U Medvidku.. It's a small brew pub. The brewer didn't speak that much English, but we could communicate.
This past fall I did the Pilsner Urquell brew tour in Pilzn, Czech Republic. Great tour. Went down in the caves were they used to lager their beer. Drank unfiltered Pilsner Urquell, right from open vats..

I did the Weihenstephan brew tour in Freising Germany. This is the oldest brewery in the world. Amazing beer. Did this tour twice.
While in Munich I went to the Andechs monastery and walked there tour. Not a huge brewery, but I love their beer.
Sam Adams test brewery in Boston. Kinda cool. Especially since it's in my back yard.

optaka said:

Not so much of a tour, but Harpoon definitely wins out for most samples given. Their approach was pretty much "you've all seen a brewery before and we know you are just here to try beer, so here it is." They had about 15 beers on tap and would talk about the first couple, then you could sample whatever you wanted for 20 minutes or so, talk about the next couple, then more sample time, etc. If you really wanted to see the brewery portion they would let you, but everybody that was there when I went was there for beer.

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+1 on Harpoon.

nukonamo said:

Yuengling...because its old
Victory....because of the attached restaurant.
Weyerbacher...because the tour was 15 min and the sampling lasted long enough to get a good buzz

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The Victory Brew Pub is awesome. For starters the negative was they had a server outage or something like that that caused a super long wait time. First cool thing was they walked out cause of their Storm King Crunch ice cream. Which is awesome. Then we got the Trice Fries which were awesome. Then I got the Prime and Cheese and that was awesome. Not to mention I had like 3 or 4 Hop Wallops from cask.

nukonamo said:

Weyerbacher...because the tour was 15 min and the sampling lasted long enough to get a good buzz

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Weyerbacher is a great little tour. Not much to the place, but the tour guide is knowledgeable and funny. But the draw is definitely the tasting room. You can sample one of everything they have on tap, which is usually a decently selection. On top of it, most of their beers are over 7% abv, so you do get a nice buzz.

That aside, I've been to Magic Hat, which was kind of a letdown for me being that it was an elevated tour. Informative, but not what I expected.

Brouwer ij Henri Maes in Bruges, Belgium. I didn't matter where I went in Belgium, I was offered fantastic beers (and candy) at every stop!

+1 on Abita near New Orleans, great tour.

4X in Brisbane, Australia was awesome. It starts out in a little movie theater where they show you clips of their TV commercials over the years. Being an American, I found some if them to be hilarious, some pretty risque and others down right strange, but cool. The tour was good but standard and it ended in a bar where they gave 5 beers. Overall a great time.

Tenaya Creek. They do private tours and if they know you are a home brewer they give a lot of technical information and tricks to use.