Anyone ever brew their own beer at Vine Park? Just curious to hear thoughts/experiences from people who have done it. Thanks!
My Dad and I did that maybe 11 years ago as a birthday present I got him. The beer was decent, but I don't think you get the full experience since you just pour the ingredients into their boilers, then a couple weeks later you come bottle off of some machines....Unless it has changed. We did the one where we were with a group of other people and did 6 beers, 2 light, 2 medium, and 2 dark. Ended up with 4 bombers of each at the end per person if I remember correctly. It was a good introduction to the process, but back then it was more "dump this into here", where I would have liked to know more about what we were really doing and why. It could have easily changed, but since I homebrew now I haven't been back.
On a couple of occasions I have had friends share the beer they brewed there. Each time it was a let down. I was under impressed with the beer. YMMV
I did it with the next-door neighbor 3 or 4 years back. If you don't get all beer-geeked out about it, the process is fun & the beer is decent, but don't think you'll be brewing a Heady or Everett clone. If you can arrange it, bottle along with some other parties, so if you brew all of one style you can swap for some other stuff. Overall? Fun, but not sure I'd do it again.
My wife bought it for me once for my birthday. At the time I was still new to my beer obsession. I brewed a Belgian double. I did the whole session by myself. So I ended up with a lot of beer. In fact, I ended up with so much beer, we bought a new refrigerator. At the time I really enjoyed it, and I really enjoyed drinking the beer. But, I confess... I'm hesitant to do it again, because I'm unsure if my progression in beer will alter my enjoyment. So I haven't done it again, in order to keep it a fond memory.
I have a growler card I bought last year. Beer's decent, price is good and the staff friendly. Can't speak to the brew on premises part since I last did that 11+ years ago when they were where Burger Moe's is now.
Brewed a DIPA with a buddy and took home about 22 bombers. I drank about 2 and gave the rest away. It tasted like a Belgian to me. Didn't care for the beer but not a bad time.
Thanks for all of the feedback! It matches what I assumed to be the case. This was info for a coworker who wanted to buy it for her boyfriend who is just getting into beer, so might be worthwhile if he's not as fanatical as the rest of us
I'll just echo what everyone else seems to be saying. It's good for folks just making the jump from macro to craft but you don't seem to learn much from the process. Most people will probably end up doing it once or twice. For me the biggest highlight both times was grabbing drinks and a bite to eat at Bennett's across the street while we killed time until the next round of ingredients needed to be added.
One additional piece I enjoyed about the process was I got a whole bunch of nice, consistent 22 oz bottles, which I later used as a homebrewer. Otherwise, I would echo the others. Good time, but really paint by numbers. Beer was decent.
