Worst Brewery Experience?

Let me preface this by saying my experience was not a “worst experience EVER!!” scenario, but more like when your Dad says “I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed...”

I was visiting St. Louis last year and decided to do a brewery tour at a brewery that I really like, but will remain nameless. They do tours only Saturday morning so I show up early and wait with about a dozen people or so for the tour to begin.

A tour guy shows up and says a few thing about the brewery for a couple minutes then leads the group to the back of the brewery where all the magic happens. Once in the back he waves his hand across the room and says “this is where we brew beer, any questions?” He then stated that we weren’t allowed to get too close to the brewery equipment for liability reasons.

That was it! It was a 4-5 minute tour in total. It was a complete waste of time. Like I said, I wasn’t so mad as I was disappointed in the effort. Not sure if the guy was filling in for the regular tour guide or if he was hungover and didn’t want to be there or what his reason was for literally not caring at all.

 

Damn right we hit 12 Bones! But no we didn't get the collard greens, I would have if I read this comment before eating there. We ended up getting the mac and cheese and smoked potato salad with the ribs. And I had a Biere De Garde from Wedge Brewing while eating there - oh man that was good beer!

 

My worst experience happens to have been at my favorite brewery-Finback. They had a can/bottle release, and the #linelyfe people took it over (fortunately this doesn't really occur there anymore). I went just to drink at the bar, not to wait 2 hours for cans, but the bar was slammed, and they had 4 bartenders working, all of whom had no hustle or care in the world whatsoever. It was probably 5 people deep at all points of the bar, and literally took everyone about 20 minutes to get a drink. I know this happens to everyone everywhere from time to time, but it's the worst experience I could think of. I guess not too bad overall, and like I stated Finback is actually my favorite brewery at the moment.

 

So your problem is with other people, not the brewery.

 

My biggest disappointment was driving from Vegas to Northern CA where my family has a cabin. We had made great time and decided to take a half hour detour and hit up a brewery that I had heard great things about. Ordered two crowlers of a specific beer that the brewery was well known for. Was told it was one per person. Ok no problem one for me one for my wife. Was told it was one per purchase, no problem my wife would pay for hers. Was told that they knew we were a couple and thus could not sell us two as the defeated the one per person rule. I can understand that they want to ensure enough people get to try the beer but seemed strange that because my wife walked in with me that they would not sell it to her yet if she came in five minutes behind me no problem. Needless to say I have never gone back to that brewery.

 

Yeah, I understand them not wanting people to come in with their non drinking friends and just hoard the goodies... but I assume she was having a beer with you. They should have figured out "Hey, maybe she isn't muling for him. She might just want beer."

Either way, one per person is one per person. I assume your wife remained her own person after you married her. They gotta work on their math.

 

Coors Brewing in Golden, Colorado, circa 1973. I've mentioned this episode several times around here through the years. Le's just say we had long hair and the Coors people were somehow offended. They said we had dirty jeans and tried to escort us out. It didn't really work, The tour group rebelled and laughed at the two young thugs. They looked like the fools that they were. It was instant karma!

 

Ah. I read the title as 'worst experience at a brewery,' not 'experience at worst brewery.' Please disregard.

 

This I do not understand, and yet I've seen it myself. This is '90's thinking, and I have to wonder who's running the show. - - - The opposite of this is small breweries who never brew the same beer again which is also a little weird.

And I'm only talking about the U.S. here, in Germany and multiple other countries I understand that they're still a little bit on the same system we had here in the U.S. during the '90's.

 

I hate to call them out but I think it's deserved, Wissahickon Brewing Co. in Philadelphia, PA charges $6 to $8 for pints and sells their 32 oz. growlers for $20!!! - that's more than the cost of two pints at the bar.

 

First one for me was last October at New Belgium in Ft Collins. Went in on a Friday night, wasn't quite sure what to expect. Nice atmosphere, tons of college kids, to be expected, whatever. Walk up to the bar and it's pretty empty. 2 bar tenders, young, didn't even look our direction. Kids keep piling in, they all get served first. Yada yada, 20 minutes later when the bar dies down my group finally gets served. One and done.

Second was just the other day. Ended up in Minneapolis Sunday night. Hit up several breweries that day. Forager, Dangerous Man, Fulton, Modist and Indeed. Roll into Indeed, one guy sitting at the bar to the left, 3 people at the bar to the right and a line in the middle for everyone else. I sit down towards the middle of the bar. 2 bar tenders, both wrapped up in the 4 person line at the bar. I sit for 5 minutes, nothing. I then get up to stand in line. Maybe there's no service at the bar? Little heads up woulda been nice. I get in line behind the 2 people that just walked in. Grab a beer list, 5 people walk in, cut in line right at the bar and immediately get served. That's it, I walk out.

I try and have patience everywhere I go, especially after working behind the bar for 10 years but those 2 places I'd never visit again.

 

It doesn't matter to me either way, but just out of curiosity, were the crowlers for only you, for you and your wife to share, or for other people?

 

Yes, "one per person" means one per person, not one per couple.

 

That is a fair question. I ordered 6 crowlers total (4 different beers and 2 of the more special one) as we were going to be in the mountains away from civilization I like to stock up. They were to go and to be honest the majority of the beers would be drank by me. My wife at best would have drank a few oz. However the brewery would not have known that at the time. In addition to the beers I bought 2 t shirts and two glasses as I was excited to visit the brewery. But the brewery had no idea if my wife liked beer or not when they refused to sell the 2nd crowler as it violated their one per person policy (so if my buddy and I came in together would they have told them no). I realize this is not a horrible brewery experience but it is my worst brewery experience and I have been to lots.

 

Commonwealth Brewing Co. is my favorite Virginia Beach brewery but I did have this happen: I asked for four crowlers to go, and they were filled seemingly with care and in a timely manner, but as I was paying I said "Ooops, I have a problem with this one, it's leaking" - one of the crowlers was crimped a bit at the top and had a tiny leak on it. The server then pulled it away from me and said "Well you can't get that one then" rather than just filling another crowler for me. I was surprised but I didn't argue, and then it was only after I'd left that I'd realized the amount of disrespect that I'd received.

 

Here's another one, directly from my review here on BA regarding Round Guys Brewing in Lansdale, PA: FIRST OFF: be sure to check your "Square" bar tab on their iPad closely before you sign for it - I was overcharged for "Desserts" ($4.24) and an extra "Beer Draft" ($4.72) - - - - - - - Round Guys, if you'd like to contact me about this please do!!!

I've never heard from them and don't expect to.

 

When's the last time you were at Ommegang? I had dinner there as far back as 2016.

I have to pile onto Ommegang as well. At 8PM on a Friday night the staff was eager to close up shop and there was no one there to stop them. May I repeat, this was a Friday night. The beer menu featured a surprisingly small selection of their own brews, having been taken hold of by their overlords to a disproportionate degree. The food menu sounded satisfying after a long day, but everything came out cold, stale and disappointing. In anticipation of that hard close at 9PM, the staff put up every single empty chair and wrapped up cleaning the entire restaurant by 8:45PM, while people were still drinking and finishing their meals. What the hell, seriously? The restaurant is a completely separate entity from operations, there's no reason to run it like a production brewery or taproom. My younger self pictured this as a bucket list sort of visit, the next best thing to actually visiting Belgium--a beautiful countryside experience where the beer flowed freely and the atmosphere was easygoing. I haven't bought a single Ommegang beer since.

Here are two other interesting experiences that may or may not be worth sharing...

In the middle of a long road trip we made a pit stop in Richmond because why wouldn't we. We were only staying a day until moving onto the next leg of the journey, so we were looking for a therapeutic, long stay at a brewery that evening before hitting the sack at our hotel. Finding parking in the business parkway that Hardywood Park rests in is a unique experience in itself, but they also don't make it easy to know which part of their business is open and which isn't, especially at night. Whatever, there's always a learning experience the first time you go anywhere in this car-centric country of ours. But after we actually find the entrance that's open to the public on this particular evening, we're met with this shrill, deafening screeching and wailing from the next room totally filling the entire space. Apparently some girl punk show is on, and the small bar in this particular room is closed in favor of the bar located in the garage-like space next door where the band is playing. What we thought was going to be a quaint, down to earth brewery was a wannabe music venue, and the only place you could order beer was completely crowded with college kids trying to watch the show, not buying beer or drinking. You had to snake the line through the crowd in order to simply order a beer, and the 'bartenders' couldn't hear you without screaming directly into their ear. After all this struggle, the beer was lame. Needless to say, we happily left that shitshow behind, not even finishing our beers and throwing away the notion of a relaxing evening in order hit up The Veil and The Answer, which were much more enjoyable, despite the silly, separately unique approaches to hipster culture they both come with. The Answer's food alone saved the day.

Finally, Collision Bend is a hard pass on all counts. I'm not even remotely able to classify it as a brewery to anyone looking for recommendations. They're trying to act like a fine dining establishment, where you can't be seated without reservations and can't even walk up to the bar and get a beer without interrupting someone's romantic sea bass dinner. Oh, and their beer is atrocious, where multiple styles all taste of the same, identically depressing blandness.

 

I would have been pretty unhappy, i go places with friends and one per person is one per person so if me and a buddy went in together (or even my wife who loves beer) I would want mine and they could have theirs. They may be doing it to prevent someone muling but I would be unhappy if I could not get my one crowler and had to split one since the to go beers we usually drink separately.

 

Can't really call it a bad experience but Aslin offers NO experience. You can only buy cans to go, cannot sample anything, and you can't even go inside. For a brewery who produces pretty much one offs and a dozen or so rotating beers, it sucks being forced to buy a $20ish 4-pack to try something you may not enjoy.

 

Least favorable brewery experiences (in order):
- Harpoon - Boston, MA
- Three Floyds - Munster, IL
- Ommegang - Cooperstown, NY

Most favorable Brewery experiences (NOT ranked in order...but, sort of):
- New Belgium - Fort Collins, CO
- Harpoon - Windsor, VT
- Brouwerij Het Anker - Mechelen, Belgium
- Duvel - Puurs, Belgium
- Bierkasteel Van Honsebrouck - Ingelmunster, Belgium
- Brouwerij De Halve Maan - Brugge, Belgium
- Odell - Fort Collins, CO
- Weyerbacher - Easton, PA

Honorable Mentions (for best):
Boston Beer Co. - Boston, MA