Craft Beer Bus tours....worth it??

I prefer walking or taking cabs if places are close together. I don't like to pay people to be on their schedule and it sounds to me like $40 could be spent better at the 2 breweries you'd rather spend time at.

 

Ive done a few and usually feel at the end that my money/time would have been better spent setting up my own tour. That way I can go to the places I want and spend as little/much time as I want too at each location.

 

I do not care for such outings, but $40.00 for transportation to 4 breweries, a glass, beer and snakcs on the bus seems like fair deal

 

What would it cost you to do the same via cabs/uber if split between 2-3 friends?

 

Every BA with a driver's license and a boring job in a metropolis area is thinking the same thing as they read this.

 

I'll second this thought.

Not something I would be interested in, but if it looks cool to you, go for it. At that price point it seems like you can't go wrong.

$40 to be entertained all day, meet some new folks, and possibly try some new beers is a well spent $40.

 

Would like to do a brewery bus tour of the ones north of San Diego - shout out if you know of a group or company that does that.

 

I did one of these a couple years ago with some friends that came to town. I thought it would be a tour that got you behind the scenes at each brewery, talked to brewers, saw the brewing system, etc. It really just turned into a drink fest with everyone getting bombed over the course of 4 breweries.

We just got to the brewery, pitchers of each beer were served and we drank. I can do that on my own. At least the tour I went on, was a bit of a dissapointment. It was fun, but not a learning experience. Like other have mentioned, I would rather just go with friends and cab it or have a DD.

 

I did this in San Diego and it was fantastic....but then again, two of the breweries were Stone and Lost Abbey...

 

Avoid if you want to taste beer.
Go if you want to drink beer.

I went about 4 years ago with a bunch of friends and we all had a blast, nobody talked about hop profiles or grain bills, the words IBU and brettanomyces were never uttered.

 

I'll never do one. Bus trips are the devil to me. Ruined my first trip to Mad Tree. Went from a chill, relaxing Saturday to packed full of hammered people at their last stop.

 

a buddy and i took the tampa brew bus from ccb to peg's for their barrel aged day and it was 100% worth the money! they included a growler of nooner and road sodas to and from the peg's cantina. also had a bottle share on the bus on the way home. i think it was $40 or $50. can't remember but well worth the cost.

 

Sounds like a good time to me

 

An example of how stupid this tour is in Cincinnati:
November 29th, 2014-Ei8ht Ball Brewery, Fifty West, Moerlein Tap Room, Rhinegeist. Meets at Rock Bottom no later than 11:40 for a 12pm Start

Ei8ht Ball, Moerlein Tap Room, Rhinegeist and Rock Bottom are within 1.5 miles of the pick up location. 50 West is a bit of a drive, but not terrible.

So, I get this four brewery tour (which takes me around a 2 mile radius for most of it) for $60/person if I have between 5-8 people. The tour goes for around 5 hours according to the website. What the website fails to mention is that I could go in with 5-8 of my friends and rent a limo for 5 hours, go to these same destinations (and probably 1-2 more), drink while in the limo, etc.

The only saving grace of the Cincinnati tour is that they provide 4 pints of beer included in the price (around $20), so that takes it down to roughly $40 in transportation costs (oh, I get a plastic mug too! Make that $39.50 in transportation costs!)

 

If you can get to San Diego on the 3rd Wednesday of the month, the SD Drinkabout shuttles between 8 of the best beer bars in the country, all packed to the gills with fresh local deliciousness. You don't hit any breweries, but it's a damn good time. And free (tip your drivers).

 

Depends on what your goals are. Columbus does one but it seems to be aimed at getting wanted and not great beer and education. I'm sure there're good one out there.