Best Brewery Tour Experiences

The best part of the Pilsner Urquell tour was easily going into the old cellar area and tasting the barrel aged pilsner!

 

I'm lucky in that I usually get shown around by a brewer.

 

The best trip was to Shipstone's, we were taken on the tour and then went back to the hospitality suite which was the restored interior of the Dolphin. We were given a pint glass and invited to help ourselves from rows of casks from different brewing dates. There was a table of superb food where we helped ourselves and we were invited to stay as long as we wanted.
All for no charge whatsoever.

 

I went around Shippos with Newark CAMRA and had a very similar experience. Dead interesting to see what a couple of day's difference could make to a beer.

 

It's been a while on the tour front but:

* Tours at both Harpoon breweries were great, probably preferred the VT brewery. My Boston tour was before the expanded beer hall, when the only way to get draft beer was at the end of a tour or 4-5pm on Fridays.

* I saw Sam Adams ranked highly and was like ???? I went during their last renovation maybe 4-5 years ago and pretty much looked around some displays in a lobby area and then went into a tasting room. Good session, but not much of a tour. Maybe that has changed.

* The old Jack's Abby brewery tour in their original location was informal and well done, my particular Saturday one of the Hendler brothers was running it. Haven't been on a tour at their latest location but looking through the windows at the brew floor it must be a great experience.

* The two PA brewery tours I've done (Troegs and Yuengling) were excellent as has been echoed above. Driving up to Yuengling and seeing the box trucks struggle I'm like why in the hell was putting a brewery on the side of this freaking mountain a good idea? Then you go down into the caves, get into an 1800s low tech mind set and it all makes sense.

 

My best tour ever was Sam Adams. It is surely not the same now.
This was in the late '88 or '89, and our tour guide was Jim Koch. After the tour we were drinking a pint on picnic tables listening to Jim talk about a new beer that was not for sale yet, but he had a six pack that he was pretty proud of sitting on the table for us to see. My buddy and I pulled out 2 bottles, opened them, and started drinking (we were 21 at the time). Jim had this look of shock on his face, clearly he wasn't planning on having people drink this, but he recovered amazingly and offered the other few people on the tour if they wanted to try it.

 

And that beer was...Utopias? Jim realized before public release he needed to change the packaging from a 6-pack of longnecks and make a high price point. Imagine if that was the case! lol

 

Cantillon, 3F, and Boulevard are stand outs. Locally for me in the Seattle area it’s fun to hit several breweries during a Washington Beer open house weekend that offers tours.

 

Yep. I love the Allagash one.

 

A million years ago, (well, 40?) my parents werevisiting friends in New Hampshire and we all went on the tour of the Bud facility there. I was probably 4, maybe 5, so I don't remember much, but I remember getting to drink a soda in the tasting room, which overlooked the bottling line, so I could see thousands of bottles zipping past on the rails. I also remember seeing the stables with the Clydesdales. They kind of scared me because they were so big (I didn't mind horses in general, but those things were HUGE,) but I liked the Dalmatian dog that was hanging out there.

A friend of mine went there. He knew roughly where it was, so he was walking around the square there, and a local sees him, asks, "are you looking for the brewery?" and points him to it.
Went around and Jean Van Roy was around at the end and poured him a few samples.


Whoever it was who was disappointed in the Sam Adams tour, that's not the usual. You said you went during a renovation, so I'm sure that's why the whole thing wasn't there. As of the several times I've been, usually you get a little video in the lobby, then go through the various stages - the brewing facility there (test kitchen, plus the big beers, Utopias etc) they talk about the grains and hops, I peeked in the barrel room last time I was there, and a few other things before the tasting room. Then of course the shop...

 

I’d recommend Allagash in Portland, Maine. They really explain what goes into making the beer and are generous with the tastings. There are also a lot of special brewery only beers at the brewery that you can have after the tour.

 

Ommegang comes to mind.

We stopped touring breweries a bunch of years ago, after it became fashionable. I'm too sophisticated to be seen with the peasant class. Now that tours are a marketing solution the experience has sadly been dumbed down to the comical.

Back around 2000 the Ommegang tour was nuts. I think the staff was well lubed. The tour guide brings the group into the warming room, where bottles are conditioned. And grabs hold of an empty bottle, proceeds to slam it into the concrete floor. The bottle bounces across the room. This is the demonstration of how robust the bottles need to be to hold the pressure. Like I said. Nuts.

We did the tour again a few years after the first time. No smashing of the bottle took place. I asked the tour guide about this and with no smile, he explains they changed bottles... perhaps that smashing the bottle exercise was ill advised.

I only wish to have witnessed the first and last time the bottle exploded in front of a crowd. They have a good time at that place. Great beer too.
Cheers

 

Allagash circa 1998 was plenty of fun. There was a time if you showed up at a brewery tasting room and showed some knowledge and an interest, the staff would take you around and talk shop. No planning, just beer nerds. Rob Tod shared with us openly, answered any question. Generally a really great guy. The whole operation was fantastic. I learned more about brewing a wit that day then all of the books I have read since. The guy just knew what to do and did it.

Across the parking lot is Geary's. Not my favorite brew, but to each there own. Now at this brewery (I am pretty sure it was the brewery at the time) the legendary David Geary was working. Suffice it to say he was not all that thrilled to have visitors. Maybe he was having a bad day, but his enthusiasm for giving time to visiting beer geeks was less than impressive. I think the poor guy was already underwhelmed with the direction the business was heading by the late 90s He was already over a decade into it and the novelty had clearly worn off. At least on that particular day.

Bonus-
Steðji Flókada, Borgarnes, Iceland.
Because Iceland. And the fact that the brewer did not get the memo about brewery tours being a marketing thing. So we had a great time. A whole other planet out there.
We missed the actual brewery and walked into their home. There's shoes in front, TV on. Oh shit! This is their house! Got back in the car, drove around back and there it is, a complete DIY project with very good beer. We noted that they would need to discontinue the Beer With Whale Testicle if they ever planned to make a showing in the US.

Cheers

 

My last tour was La Brasserie Artisanale de Nice. I contacted the brewer/owner before our arrival in France and asked him if he had a tap or tasting room. The answer was no, but please stop by for a quick tour. We were there about 4 hours and had as many samples of his beer as we wanted. he filled us in the craft scene in Nice and surrounding areas, his use of local ingredients (chick peas in one), how/why he became a brewer (a visit to CO and the USPNW) , etc.. Just really memorable day.

Next one was Cantillion, the history and beer are amazing. Wish I knew how to post photos as I have some incredible ones as we were there on a brewing day.

Last but not least is Half Acre's first brewery on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago. We are on our annual German Pub Crawl (miss that) and we had contacted them about the possibility of tour. They were still getting situated but agreed to host the 40+ folks on the crawl. Fresh Daisy Cutter out of the tanks was incredible after the steady diet of lagers that we were drinking that day.

 

I've been on a bunch of them but my favorites were:

Casey in Colorado
Allagash in Portland
De Haave Maan in Bruges
New Belgium in Colorado and NC

 

Allagash was fun. Wish I had time to chill outside. We got 4 free samples of non bottled beer but you could not buy a pint,only bottles to go. Ask to see the cool ship. It was not part of the tour but when I asked the girl leading the tour was excited to give us a personal tour.

AB in Colorado was interesting and the Horses were there that day. We also had a lot of samples after the tour.

I heard Lakefront was a blast by a bunch of co-workers that went, it was fish fry Friday, a huge thing in Milwaukee.

I did the Pabst Best house tour and it was really fun, informative and beers were given away on the tour. I got to sit at the captains Desk in his chair.

No others pop up as memorable. I will go to any tour I can get to while I am visiting someplace. The plague has changed this, at least for a while.

Enjoy

 

I'd guess I did Ommegang somewhere around that period (give or take a few years, either way). It was kinda dull but I chalked some of that up to the fact that the rest of tour group were more "tourists" ("Hall of Fame"- check, "Farmer's Museum (Cardiff Giant)" - check, Hey, look, Marge, here's a brewery tour right outside of town. Free beer!) than "beer tourists". I was a bit surprised/disappointed when the beer served at the end was not only not draught but poured from previously opened bottles.

But pretty sure it was my first "in person" view of open fermentation (through the window of the door). Other than that, I most remember dodging forklifts. Funny, but I bet I've consumed a LOT less Ommegang since then than I did previously.

 

Been to Cooperstown maybe a dozen times. Been to Hall of Fame exactly zero (angry Dad's. We are going to have fun son, like it or not!) You can spot them at Ommegang. Could not agree more.

Ommegang is very bottle focused. They do of course have draft but not nearly to the extent of any other sane brewery. The bottle conditioning is a feature after all.

We were fortunate enough to have been invited to the BCTC Friday evening invite only Industry dinner a few times. The beer needless to say flows free. Literally hundreds of bottles uncorked, one after the other. Cave aged. Rare aged. Anything and everything. Handed out like candy. People with access to good beer were amazed at this extravagant display of bottles. The wait staff did not hesitate to uncork a bottle for one glass. Then uncork another, and another, and another. Black limos waiting after the event for anyone who needed a ride. The stretch kind. Just get in and go. I'm still amazed.

Those people are nuts.
Cheers

 

Conan tour of Sam Adams' looked fun

 

Not in the NHRA. There it's "Go on Yello."

Prosit!