Best Brewery Experience

I thought Three Floyds was pretty awesome. They had good beers on tap, the merch store had some good stuff, there was rock and metal music in the tap room, and they had great food (burgers, mac and cheese). I don't have a particular story to share; I just found it to be one of my favorites.

AleSmith is also always awesome. They seem to always have at least 8 BA beers on tap.

 

My best brewery experience was likely at brown iron brewing. They had a handful of their own beers on taplist of about 65 (their own beers are good from my experience).

The taps are categorized by hoppy/dark/sour/cider ect so it's easy to find your way around. Service at the bar is usually pretty great, bartenders know the list they're working with. Saw a lot of cicerone certifications on the wall, so I'm assuming brewers and tenders are educated.

Oh, they have a nice bbq menu to order from, full kitchen. They have tap handles everywhere high on the walls as decoration (which they also use I assume)

Other michigan brewers have more home brewed stuff, but who can boast 55-60 guest taps? Not many I'm sure. Go to their web site and you can see the beers on tap and what level they are at too. Really neat place that went all in on its taproom and is killing it.

 

Mine is short and simple. Coopersmiths in Fort Collins Colorado. Always good choices for beers and some real gems for food. They hardly get any attention on the beer sites but who wouldn't enjoy their Punjabi Pale Ale on cask?!?!

 

That blows my mind. Absolutely blows my freakin mind.

 

Jester King.

Went because from what I had read about it, it sounded like it would be a cool experience (and I was already in Austin). From what I had tried from them, 4 or 5 years prior, I was never too impressed with their stuff. And they brew beer that is right in my sweetspot, so that I hadn't been impressed had me skeptical going in.

End up loving everything about the experience. The beer was nothing short of awesome. And I love a good outdoor drinking set up, which that place offered. And a solid spot to grab food. When I think "destination brewery," I think Jester King.

 

Easily Resident Culture in Charlotte. They make beers across many styles but it's their NEIPAS I've focused on, and they always have a few beers you get right from the brite tank. Big bar, lots of room, super friendly staff, dog friendly, food trucks. Parking isn't so easy but its Charlotte. Crowlers to go , and they do can occasionally and have releases.

 

There may be an identical thread from which the “worst brewery experience” was created to contrast, so it could get merged.

However, gonna say 3 Floyds as well (mainly because we get there usually within an hour of opening). Even though the place can fill up fast, service is on point, direct, and quick. It’s an atmospheric experience, plus Munster is just such an oddly fascinating little town. I’ve had some awesome experiences at 18th Street in Hammond as well.

By where I live, I gotta give a shout out to Hansa Brewing. Tremendous service, lovely staff in general, some really amazing traditionally made German style beers. There’s a whole German import store attached to it, and I’ve always had a great conversation sparked up in there. Plus tons of crazy imported beer you can’t regularly find anywhere else in the city.

 

Alchemist Pub and Brewery gave my son and I an experience that most definitely cannot be matched nor topped by any other brewery. I've told the story before, not gonna use up space to re-tell now, but hopefully this post brings some heartfelt sighs to old timers who also have wonderful memories of what was likely the finest brewpub in the history of the United States. Not a big fan of Pro Pig, but love going there as it brings back such great memories.

 

2 equal but different experiences.

First at Foley Brothers, drove up with the family and lucked into a pizza night with a duo consisting of a fiddle and guitar player.
Great brews, great pizza and a fun crowd. We did not want to leave.

Second, Lanikia brewery. Daughter said we should stop by and upon arrival met the brewmaster, was givin a private tour, talked beer brewing for over an hour and had superb brews. Nothing like having the place to yourself,lol.
Next visit there was a line around the block so got lucky the first.

 

August Schell's is my personal favorite brewery experience. Beautiful scenery and garden, a museum with tons of history, best gift shop I've ever seen, cheap informative tours with lots of free beer at the end, good prices on great beers in the bier garden, live German music, I could go on and on. Not to mention the fact that New Ulm is just a fantastic little German town, and Schell's other brewery Starkeller (where they brew their sours) is amazing as well.

 

That's so cool. I go to a local brewery pretty often and they listened to my idea about doing an Octoberfest special menu this year. I think they're gonna brew some kind of german beer, maybe not a marzen though. She mentioned a dunkelwiezen they've brewed before, pretty yummy.

 

Kern River Brewing a few years ago comes to mind, beautiful view on the patio of the mountains, live music on Fri-Sat. Pints of OG Citra and good food. What more could you want.

 

Predictably, Half Acre. 2013. The brewery that brought me back to beer (said it...what, 100 times before here?). But so it goes.

 

The two that stand out to me would be going to Brooklyn Brewing and Funky Bow brewing.

Brooklyn was a lot of fun as it was still early in my beer journey. They gave a good tour with samples and good humor. But they also had some items up at the front door with a bunch of history and being a history guy I found interesting and pretty neat. Add the wide array of beers at the tasting room (like an indoor garden really) and my brother, our friend, and I had a great time taking it all in.

Funky Bow was just welcoming. Traveling in the north east, it is in the middle of nowhere Maine and has very communal/family feel to it. Fun beers, owners were cool to give an impromptu tour of the place during a Memorial Day event. Music, nice people, good food and beer make for a good time. One of the highlights of the trip.

 

Probably Sierra Nevada in Mills River. It was fun for the family as they had an awesome self-guided tour where we didn't have to worry about our toddler injuring himself. I only drank one beer and we spent maybe just half hour but it was time well spent!

Second runner up would be New Glarus. Yes I'm bias as I only l live half hour away but its a beautiful place that also provides self-guided tours which therefore is very family friendly. And staff are extremely friendly.

 

Had a fine experience yesterday @ Big Tupper Brewing, in Tupper Lake NY -- in the Adirondack Mountains. I've been a fan of their bottled beer for some time (produced under contract by Adirondack Brewery in Lake George). This was our first time visiting their brewery/restaurant. Very attractive bar & dining area.. excellent food menu.. and great-tasting beer brewed on premises. I love visiting these small-scale brewing operations, whether they be restaurants, brewpubs or nano-breweries w/ taprooms. As I mentioned in other posts, these businesses are in the destination game as much as they are in the beer
game. Adirondack tourism no doubt a big factor in Big Tupper's business.

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As a special treat for male customers, "craft" urinals. Has anyone seen that before ?? First time for me, what a hoot.