Must see breweries before you die!

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Beer_me_plz

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Thought this would make a good topic of conversation. Plus, since I've never been to one other than my own this will be a good reference. Ready, GO!
 
Abita(In Abita Springs Louisiana) has the best tour ive ever been on. 2 hours of unlimited beer...only allow 20 people on each tour. Stone is beautiful. Im personally a big fan of the really tiny little ones where you can talk to the master brewer for hours. Went to one in San Diego called Hess brewing. Great beer brewed out of what looked like a public storage unit.
 
I live in Shreveport, Louisiana. I drink Abita regularly. That one is definitely on my list. I really like turbodog and the restoration ale.
 
The St. James Gate Guinness Brewery. There's nothing else quite like it anywhere.
 
Pilsner Urquell in Czech Republic. It's interesting for the miles of caves tunneled under the city for storage.
 
If you want to see an ultra modern brewery, check out Southern Tier in Lakewood, NY. It's packed to the gills with technology.
 
Stiegl brewery in Salzburg Austria. There is a museum that has the history of the brewery and technologies used over time. You also get to sample all the beer with entrance fee. This is what got me interested in homebrewing.
 
Looks like I'm going to need a passport and a lot of extra dough to see most of these! The wife and I plan on taking a gap year and traveling over seas sometime within the next year. That'll be the perfect opportunity. Imagine Dublin on St. Pat's day!
 
Looks like I'm going to need a passport and a lot of extra dough to see most of these! The wife and I plan on taking a gap year and traveling over seas sometime within the next year. That'll be the perfect opportunity. Imagine Dublin on St. Pat's day!

FYI St. Patricks day is more of a religious holiday in Ireland than a excuse to get drunk, and eat corned beef and cabbage while dying the river green.

However I will second touring The St. James Gate.
 
Even though it is an evil corp. Anheiser in St Louis is amazing for shear scale...and they have clydesdales onsite!
 
FYI St. Patricks day is more of a religious holiday in Ireland than a excuse to get drunk, and eat corned beef and cabbage while dying the river green.

However I will second touring The St. James Gate.

Since when did the Irish need an excuse to get drunk? :drunk:

(I've been to London during St. Patty's Day (unfortunately not Dublin). Let's just say that the Guinness was flowing quite liberally even amongst the English.)
 
evrose said:
Since when did the Irish need an excuse to get drunk? :drunk:

(I've been to London during St. Patty's Day (unfortunately not Dublin). Let's just say that the Guinness was flowing quite liberally even amongst the English.)

That's what I thought :)
 
Lagunitas is a ton of fun. They have some munchies and live music to go with the beer. Good times.
 
Sam Adams is a great place. Their passion for beer can be seen through the while tour. As for the tasting, they always have an experiment or two on tap that they don't commercially sell.
 
I was at 3F not too long ago.. would like to go to Cigar City.
 
Sam Adams was great, the party trolly was my favorite part.

I would LOVE to see the Guiness Brewery. I fly often but I have a hard time with it so that long of a flight worries me. Maybe I'll go to my doctor and try to get some pills. I have family in Ireland so that would be a great trip.

Does anyone know where Smiddy's is brewed? It's in Ireland correct?
 
Sam Adams is a great place. Their passion for beer can be seen through the while tour. As for the tasting, they always have an experiment or two on tap that they don't commercially sell.

That'd be a good one. Not only one of the best major commercial beers, but one of the best beers hands down. Sam Adams has some amazing beers.
 
Allagash was a great tour. Fairly standard but you get to see the barrel room and if you ask nicely the coolship. Plus they are super friendly.

Maine Beer Co. is across the street, not that they aren't impressive brewery wise, but stop in for the beer as its amazing.
 
Not very well know outside of new England but Berkshire brewing in Massachusetts was an amazing tour. We ended up talking to the brewer for an hour after and he showed use the barrel room and hop and grain storage room. I can still smell those hops!!!
 
I really enjoyed my tour of the Brouwerji de Halve Maan (Brewery of the Half Moon) in Bruges, Belgium. Sadly, it is the only brewery I got the opportunity to tour when I was there and it is only partially active. Brewing has been going on on the same premises for over a hundred years and the brewery has been licensed for several hundred. I believe they only mash there now and then move the wort to a newer brewery outside of the city center for the rest of the process. However the old brewery is still mostly intact with the chilling system, open fermenting tanks and conditioning room. They still have a lot of the old copper brewing equipment up in the upper floors. Definitely not a tour for the mobility impaired. Afterward there is tasting of the Bruges Zot (Bruges Fool) beer and they also make Straffe Hendrik beers as well. Both are very nice if not top notch. I'm a fan of Straffe Hendrik Quadrupple.
 
Mongrel said:
While not a huge fan of Tequiña, I'd love to get back to Bolivia. There's a brewery/hostel in La Paz I want to check out.

Not the greatest beer but the adventure of getting there and the location are the real perks not to mention the brewery itself which is definitely old school. I might add I drove there from South Dakota so the journey was quite fun. In fact, I just drove the Land Rover I used back to WI from TX with two cases of homebrew in the back. hehehe.
 
saw sam adams a few weeks ago and its not that i was disappointed but i was a little unimpressed. very small brewery in boston ( i know most of their brewing is done in ohio or somewhere around there now) but when it came to the tasting you were given 3 difference samples. one being boston lager (of course) the other being sam summer (the seasonal) which is all great but being from the area i have over consumed so much boston lager and sam summer that i didnt really want it. i wanted to try something new. they did have a third on they called 26.2 it was brewed for the boston marathon and could only be had in bars along the routes of the boston marathon that had just taken place that week. it was a beer with some salt adjunct in it that tasted ok for what it was, but i didnt think it was a great beer.

not that its anything spectacular, but if you are in the area to do the Sam Adams tour, head out from there and book it cross town to the sea port out by the silver line on the T and check out the Harpoon brewery. Again, nothing great, but they do have an awesome 2 hour tasting session. get your tickets early because it fills really fast. its not exactly a tour but they do have a causeway you can walk out onto and look at the brewery.
 
Lagunitas is a ton of fun. They have some munchies and live music to go with the beer. Good times.

Agree wholeheartedly with this. Lagunitas is in my opinion what a brewpub should be. It's a laid back atmosphere with great beers and great food. Plus you can bring your dogs to the patio.
 
DFH has a fun tour with plenty of beer at the end. We got to meet Sam and the crew while they were dressed up as the village people playing bocce ball out front.

My favorite so far was Saranac, they have tons of antiques and old beer stuff and a beautiful old bar room at the end where you get to pick 2 pints of anything they make. Well worth $5 to get in.

Ithaca should be really good when they finish the new place. Supposed to have a beer garden and brick pizza oven.
 
saw sam adams a few weeks ago and its not that i was disappointed but i was a little unimpressed. very small brewery in boston ( i know most of their brewing is done in ohio or somewhere around there now) but when it came to the tasting you were given 3 difference samples. one being boston lager (of course) the other being sam summer (the seasonal) which is all great but being from the area i have over consumed so much boston lager and sam summer that i didnt really want it. i wanted to try something new. they did have a third on they called 26.2 it was brewed for the boston marathon and could only be had in bars along the routes of the boston marathon that had just taken place that week. it was a beer with some salt adjunct in it that tasted ok for what it was, but i didnt think it was a great beer.

not that its anything spectacular, but if you are in the area to do the Sam Adams tour, head out from there and book it cross town to the sea port out by the silver line on the T and check out the Harpoon brewery. Again, nothing great, but they do have an awesome 2 hour tasting session. get your tickets early because it fills really fast. its not exactly a tour but they do have a causeway you can walk out onto and look at the brewery.

I know what you mean but it was still worth doing as you mentioned. I would have liked to see the Harpoon Brewery but I only had a week in Boston. I'm from Arkansas so the whole experience was a lot for me to take in. Riding the T was the worst part! I missed my truck so much.
 
Lake Front Brewrey in Milwaukee does a great tour of their facilities. Its a great place because its not some shiny, brand new place, its been built up over the past 2 decades and it has a lot of character.

Three Floyds in Indiana is another great one. Great food at the brewery's restaurant.
 
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