Cool brew experience today....

We have a local brewery here in Hampton called St. George Brewery that I recently have tried a few of the brews from. Some of our local stores and restaurants carry the beer, and I've had the chance to sample a few of the different beers. Tried a Giolden Ale last night over at Sam's when we brewed his latest, so after lunch today I stopped by the brewery. I've been meaning to stop by because I wanted to see if I could get kegged beer from them for my kegerator. Turns out it is less than 5 miles from my house. What a cool experience! First off, there was a batch being brewed, so the smell was like walking into heaven. The brewery is right there when you walk in so you could see the tanks and everything, and I started talking to the guy brewing. He happened to be the president/owner of the place. Really nice guy. He immediately asked if we wanted to see the operation, so I of course said YEAH! Got to see the whole process and the bottling /kegging equipment and all that. He let my wife and I try a brand new seasonal they just finished--straight from a keg that hasn't even hit stores yet. Its a Vienna lager that was way awesome. Awesome refreshing summer brew.
Anyway, wanted to share the experience. I was completely impressed by how nice the owner was. I hadn't ever seen a real brewery and its operations up close and personal like that. It was really neat.

If you ever see the beer, pick up a six pack. My faves so far are the pilsner, the golden ale and now the Vienna lager. The porter isn't that great (too coffee-like to me) and I sampled the IPA off draft today and really liked it as well.

Here's the website if anyone wants to check out the beers....
http://www.stgeorgebrewingco.com/

I'm enjoying their Golden Ale as we speak. Have a good night at work, suckaaaa!

I'd love to try their IPA on tap. Gotta do that soon......

That's really awesome. Sounds like a wonderful experience. Lucky you for walking in at the right time. There is a brewpub near me that makes great beer. A German lady is the head brewer. I'm thinking of tracking her down one day to talk about the process. Hopefully she will be as willing to share as your guy was.

Sam75 said:

I'm enjoying their Golden Ale as we speak. Have a good night at work, suckaaaa!

I'd love to try their IPA on tap. Gotta do that soon......

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I learned some cool stuff there today--the IPA is dry-hopped with fuggles, but it is hop oil instead of whole or pellets....I found that extremely interesting....
I picked up a sampler case--6 packs of all of thier bottled brands. That means I got more Golden Ale, the Pilsner, the IPA and the Porter....and its cheaper than buying it anywhere else locally...Wish I wouldn't have gotten the Porter but it will get consumed....
I'm torn now on which keg I'm gonna get, but that Vienna lager is really sounding like the jackpot. I like the fact that it isn't available to the general public yet, and I could have it chilling by tomorrow if I wanted to.

Finally found this thread to follow-up on this brewery.....

Sam75 and I were asked to volunteer some time to help bottle some recent batches. We spent one day last week up there and bottle over 120 cases of IPA. It was a hell of a lot of work and a cool experience. I went back the following Monday and helped case up another 90 cases of Porter.
Of course its all the free beer you want. You should see all the beer poured out at this place! UNREAL!

So, after talking with the brewmaster a bit (really good guy, BTW) I mentioned I was going to the National homebrewing conference in Baltimore and was wondering if they were sending a rep. He said they couldn't for this one, but after a bit more conversation about it, he ended up giving me and Sam a case of IPA to bring up there and give out samples at our liesure. Pretty freaking cool if you ask me. I plan on going back a few more times to help out. I really like being around the brewery. Next I wanna be around on brew day!