Best Brewery Tour you've done

[elninbo]

Only tour I've ever been on was at Harpoon at their satellite in Windsor, VT. It was an excellent tour, extensive, in-depth, interactive, and fun. We were able to sample straight out of the tanks and then free reign over the taps at the end of the tour. Good stuff.

 

[tootal]

Last April a friend and I did a Euro Beer Tour. Eleven cities in four countries. Our favorite tours were Cantillon and Pilsner Urquell. As previously mentioned, at Pilsner Urquell you tour the lagering caves that took 100 years to carve out. You get to see the open barrel fermentation but at a certain temperature it's transferred to a closed barrel and bunged. This allows carbonation in the closed vessel. You get to sample from these barrels and it is a wonderful thing. If you find the Brewing Museum there is a pub behind it that serves the same beer and it was a half block away from our Pension!!

Cantillon was wonderful because the tour is self guided and starts off with a glass of one year old Lambic fresh out of the barrel. The equipment is still run by a line shaft with leather belts. The tour book gives you the ingredients and mash temps. One sign ask you not to kill any spiders, they keep the bugs from getting in the open fermentation vats!! The whole place was open to us as once you get past the antique brewing equipment you go through the stacks and stacks of wooden barrels aging some of the best beers around! We were able to talk to the owner and he was a very pleasant gentleman and even gave us a taste of a special beer he made for his sons birthday! What a classy operation! Now to transfer the tour book specs into my ProMash!!

 

[smiffbrewing]

The most beautiful brewery was New Glarus hands down! My favorite brewery to visit on earth is Lagunitas Chicago. We have to go everytime were in the area and we love it! the staff is awesome, the taproom is bitchin and the general vibe of the whole place is so positive and fun. I really want to check out the Petaluma brewery.

 

[riceral]

Visiting the Trappist breweries in Belgian was a lot of fun and informative.

Going to Belgium in May on a Trappist Tour.

Very much looking forward to the beers and the new adventure.

 

[bobeer]

Sierra Nevada in Chico CA. Great place, good food, good beer and a great town. I've gone off in another thread how great Chico is to visit so I wont do it again here.

For me, locally atm, back in the day, Flying Dog. Before MD was stupid about brewery tours and consumption on the property. You'd pay $5 and get a pint glass with 5 or so unpressed bottle caps in it which was your currency. You could get 6oz samples in your pint glass for a cap but people would leave their caps laying around so you could really drink from open to close for $5. Our tour guide also handed out caps at the end of the tour. It was a good time, indeed.

 

[Spartan1979]

Going to Belgium in May on a Trappist Tour.

Very much looking forward to the beers and the new adventure.

What tour are you going on?

 

[corkybstewart]

I liked Caracole in Belgium best. The guides were 2 very lovely young women who spoke perfect English and understood the brewing process well enough to give good answers to my questions. I rarely do brewery tours because most of the guides have no real knowledge of brewing and can't give a decent answer to any but the most basic question. And honestly, as a long time homebrewer touring another brewery and looking at big kettles, big mash tun and big fermenters is kind of boring, just show me to the taproom and let me sample your beer please.

 

[MrFeltimo]

I recently had a tour of Rebellion Brewery in Marlow, UK.
The tour was SO-SO but the atmosphere was great.
On the second Tuesday of every month they have a members night, where you are allowed freedom of every part of the brewery, its like the 5 o-clock quitting bell rang and they left everything where it was.
every corner you turn the were furkins and pins to help yourself to.
They also had this bloody great big grill fired up with all sorts of meat to eat.
The place is on an old farm, all the barns were stuffed with fermenters, hoppers and coppers, really relaxed and no one was rushed.
I had a great time.

 

[jason1973]

STEAM WHISTLE, Toronto, you get a beer to drink durring tour if you get good guide, they hand you another beer every time you pass a staff lounge.

 

[riceral]

What tour are you going on?

Belgian Beer Me.

http://www.belgianbeerme.com Click on the Trappist Tour

 

[Spartan1979]

Belgian Beer Me.

http://www.belgianbeerme.com Click on the Trappist Tour

That's what I was guessing. We are supposed to go on Stu's Bamberg tour right after yours, but it's probably going to be cancelled. We'll just tour on our own. We may do that Trappist Tour one day.

Have fun!

 

[Wrangled13]

Ellicottville Brewing Company, Ellicotville, NY

http://www.ellicottvillebrewing.com/

 

[SupervisingChildren]

Ellicottville Brewing Company, Ellicotville, NY

http://www.ellicottvillebrewing.com/

Despite driving past there god knows how many times, I've never had the chance to stop in there. Maybe over the summer on the way back from camping I'll get the chance.

 

[SevenOaks]

Kona Brewing in Hawaii. Small groups, quick tour and then the group sits at a table outside at the pub and they bring pitchers of several beers and tell you about them as you taste them.
And you are in Hawaii ;-)

 

[zach976]

Lagunitas was a great brewery tour. I would love to go back.

 

[Snicklefritz]

I don't know what it is (I was high) but the Heineken in Amsterdam at the brewery tasted amazing. I drank a lot of Heineken while there and it tastes SO much different than what we get here.

 

[hezagenius]

Coolest one I've done is Stone in Escondido. The food was legit and the tour guide was very cool and knowledgeable.

 

[fj605]

Caution Brewery, Denver, CO.

First time there was with a bus full of partiers. They were cool as hell and gave us a tour of their operation.

 

[broncosmoker]

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

Great little brewery. We just had our monthly meeting there last week. Very relaxed and they answer a ton of technical questions. Got to sample new beers that hadn't hit the market and get great insight of their future plans.

Almost all the breweries here in the Treasure Valley give great tours.

In Hood River I enjoyed Pfriem as the guys gave a good behind the scenes tour and great samples.

Full Sail was good as the tour we got, I got to push the button to move 600 bbl over to a bite tank. Really cool bottling machines and interesting moves my them as they are going more towards PET kegs.

Logsdon Farmhouse was awesome as it is a really small sour brewery and those guys are very laid back and willing to give insight. They were even brewing and got to help them a bit (carried grains to get crushed lol) which was awesome and got to climb over cases of year + beers to find some extra cellar beers to bring home.

 

[Spartan1979]

The tour of the AB brewery here in St. Louis used to be very good. A beautiful historic brewery with gleaming copper kettles with wrought iron everywhere. I took the tour this past fall for the first time in years and the copper kettles were gone, replaced with stainless. Just not the same.

They used to take you to a number of buildings, but now you have to pay for an extended tour.

 

[singybrue]

I don't know what it is (I was high) but the Heineken in Amsterdam at the brewery tasted amazing. I drank a lot of Heineken while there and it tastes SO much different than what we get here.

I'm guessing that bud light would have been amazing as well under those conditions! ✌

 

[singybrue]

I don't know what it is (I was high) but the Heineken in Amsterdam at the brewery tasted amazing. I drank a lot of Heineken while there and it tastes SO much different than what we get here.

I'm guessing that bud light would have been amazing as well under those conditions! And the peanut butter!
Have you ever looked at your hand? No, I mean really looked at your hand? ✌

 

[singybrue]

I don't know what it is (I was high) but the Heineken in Amsterdam at the brewery tasted amazing. I drank a lot of Heineken while there and it tastes SO much different than what we get here.

I'm guessing that bud light would have been amazing as well under those conditions! And the peanut butter!
Have you ever looked at your hand? No, I mean really looked at your hand?

 

[singybrue]

Damn smartyphone!

 

[SupervisingChildren]

Damn smartyphone!

Your multiple responses make me of that "because I was high" song for some odd reason.

 

[Roadliner]

Hands down.. Smithwicks in Kilkenny, Ireland.

Really neat tour, The people are friendly as can be, and the smokin hot tour girl helped as well lol.

 

[Sailingeric]

Kona Brewing in Hawaii. Small groups, quick tour and then the group sits at a table outside at the pub and they bring pitchers of several beers and tell you about them as you taste them.
And you are in Hawaii ;-)

I was going to say that! Very fun and low key and very personal. Would do it again next time I am on the Big Island

 

[jcoxen]

I've been on 3...well, 2 and 1/2.

Yeungling...if you have a chance, DO THIS!!!! The history alone makes it worth the trip. "Here's the remains of the wall we knocked down after Prohibition to get to the lagering caves we hand-cut into the hillside..." You get the idea.

Southern Tier...kind of a brief tour when I did it but good all the same.

Sam Adams...this is the 1/2. SWMBO and I were on vacation in Boston and went over to the brewery but they weren't doing the full tour because of renovations. So most of it was just the tasting. <shucks, darn, rats>

One of these days I have to drive the hour south to go to Straub brewery and the hour and a little bit north to the Ellicottville Brewery.

 

[lpdjshaw]

Anchor - just gotta book a month or two out!

 

[cyberbackpacker]

Domestically I'd put New Holland in West Michigan up against any I've done in CA, PA, FL, CO, and MI.

I hate to name drop, but I was completely underwhelmed by Cigar City-- it truly was a waste of time. The guide was a ****** , not much info, and only got to taste one beer. This was last April. That said, their tasting room/bar and bartender were great though. My time would've been better hanging out there the whole time, vs. doing the tour!

Yuengling was cool because the brewery is so old. You get to see the old lagering caves, and Dick Yuengling himself hung out and talked to us for about 15 minutes.