I am thinking about driving out one of these weekends but I wanted to know if the tour is worth the hour and a half trip. I had heard on this forum a while back that Ed, himself, was doing some of the tours or at least answering questions. Is this still the case? They don't make any of my favorite beers, but I haven't had a bad one. I also want to pick up some Old Abominable from the brewery since I haven't been able to find any in my area. Does anyone know how much they will cost? Thanks!
Eh, whatever. I realize there may be a few oz difference but for ease of conversation I tend to refer to all big bottles as bombers. For what it's worth, right when I posted that I was wondering if anyone would call me on it!
I live about 10 minutes from the brewery. A group of us did a tour last year in late 2010/early 2011 (can't remember exactly) and Ed was the one that did our tour. It's a fairly small brewery so there wasn't too much to see. Their new bottling line wasn't in place at the time so they didn't show that at the time but may now. Also, the Old Abominable 750 ml are $12 at the brewery. You also might find a few reserve beers on tap at any given time. I had dinner there about 3-4 weeks ago and they had their Vanilla Almond Porter and Old Abominable on tap.
I agree as to the fact it is a small brewery, but when I did it, Ed made it fun and interesting. Be forewarned, they usually do not fill growlers of reserve beers, al least they would for me when I was there.
It was very interesting. Ed is quite knowledgeable and it was fun to listen to his stories. I just like the fact him and Carol are at the brewery/pub very often. They were dining right behind us when we were there for dinner. OP, you'll have a good time.
Said by Ed on our tour of Stoudt's during the summer of 2011: "If you can't drink two cases of beer, then what the he$$ are you doing here anyway!"
Last tour I went on that Ed gave, he pointed to some barrels aging Old Abominable (ok, so it was a few years ago) and explained barrel aging as "it does nothing to improve the beer, but suckers will pay an arm and a leg for it, so we're happy to take their money" (or something to that effect). Good times.
