Favorite Brewery Tour

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gundaroo

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not sure if its been done before and i cant find it on this site but i wonder how many of the worlds brewerys have been haunted by AHB members?
i have done the budweiser brewery in fort collins colorado,linenkugells in the northwoods of wisconsin,a few small brew pubs in the glenwood springs area of colorado and a whiskey distillery in scotland.
on my hit list-speights in dunedin,cascade in tassie and if i can get a shirt the gulf brewery in S.A.
i may have missed one or two,went through a blurry period when a younger gent.
gundaroo
 
I toured the Carlsberg Brewery in Denmark, Heineken in Amsterdam, Pilsner Urquell in Plsn, Czech Republic, The ORIGINAL Budweiser in Budvar, Czech Republic, but by far the best was the Eggenberg in Czesky Kromlov, also in the Czech Republic. Small brewery, fabulous beer and the homeless people are given 3 square meals a day plus accommodation to work there. Anyone else been to the Eggenberg? I think thats the correct spelling :huh:
 
The Cantillon Gueze Brewery in Brussels was interesting. Wasn't into tasty beers back then in my backpacking days but belgium was my first eye opener.

It was fun tasting them and watching SWMBO try to look pleased in front of the guide, after sampling the rather sour framboise!

Three more memorable ones are Brouwerij Gouden Boom in Brugge, and the compulsory Guinness Factory, where I "had" to finish my wife's & sister in laws complimentary half pints. What a chore. And the Strathisla distillery in Scotland. My first single malt scotch on the rocks. Heaven.

Other than that... one brewery tour turned into another distillery tour into another vineyard tour... yawn, please fill my glass now.
 
I toured the Carlsberg Brewery in Denmark, Heineken in Amsterdam, Pilsner Urquell in Plsn, Czech Republic, The ORIGINAL Budweiser in Budvar, Czech Republic, but by far the best was the Eggenberg in Czesky Kromlov, also in the Czech Republic. Small brewery, fabulous beer and the homeless people are given 3 square meals a day plus accommodation to work there. Anyone else been to the Eggenberg? I think thats the correct spelling :huh:

Yep, I've done the Czech triple as well. Had one of the best afternoons of my travels at Eggenberg sitting in the afternoon sun and drinking their beer :D

I did enjoy sampling the beer at Pilsner Urquell tapped straight from the cask though...pretty special!
 
Anyone else been to the Eggenberg? I think thats the correct spelling :huh:
Yeah, that's how you spell it and yeah I've been there. Brilliant place. I was dragged to Česk Krumlov against my will because I didn't think there'd be any good beer there - boy was I wrong! I never did do a tour, but spent a few great nights at the bar there watching ultimate fighting. Those wacky Czechs and their ultimate fighting! I particularly liked the tmavy and the kvasnice.

For the most part I think brewery tours are fairly pointless unless you get to talk to the actual brewer, but far and away the best tour I've ever had was at De Dolle Brouwers. The tours are run by Kris Herteleer's 80-something (maybe 90 now) mother and she's an absolute dynamo. She's full of multi-lingual filthy jokes and can get up a ladder in no time flat. Sensational stuff.
 
Staropramen in Prague 5.... Beautiful. :beerbang: :beer:

The ticket gets you a free pint straight from the tanks. The great part was my Wife, Daughter and Father in Law didn't want their tickets. What a shame. :rolleyes:

Warren -
 
We haven't had any time to get around to the brewery tours but that is about to change. Heading off on a roadtrip through central and western Germany with some tours arranged.

On our last trip we visited Einbecker - the birthplace of bock bier.

Not really a brewery tour, but the Guinness storehouse in Dublin is worth a look.

I am planning a trip down through Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia, Italy and Switzerland in a few weeks so I will hopefully add to the list, especially the "Czech triple" mentioned above. Missed the tour of Urquell last time we were in Plzen.

WJ
 
Murrays - Taylors arms
Brewbakers - Visalia, California
Deschutes - Bend, Oregon
Potters - Nulkabar??? Spelling sucks
Little Creatures - Perth
Lord Nelson - the rocks
Wig and Pen - Canberra.

Should of done more in the states when i was there. still haven't made continental europe to get into the old ones. American micro's are pretty sweet though. Great atmosphere
 
quote name='Whistlingjack' date='May 24 2007, 03:57 PM' post='211536']
We haven't had any time to get around to the brewery tours but that is about to change. Heading off on a roadtrip through central and western Germany with some tours arranged.

On our last trip we visited Einbecker - the birthplace of bock bier.

Not really a brewery tour, but the Guinness storehouse in Dublin is worth a look.

I am planning a trip down through Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia, Italy and Switzerland in a few weeks so I will hopefully add to the list, especially the "Czech triple" mentioned above. Missed the tour of Urquell last time we were in Plzen.

WJ
[/quote]

Yep, definitely do the Czech 'triple' The Budweiser brewery has a funny take (but genuine as you will learn purely from the meaning of the word budweiser - nobody spoil it now - if you dont already know whistling jack) on how the Americans stole the name. But do yourself a favour, get down to Czesky Kromlov, about 4 days I reckon would be enough. See the eggenberg, and if youre in a small enough group, you can beer on all afternoon for basically nothing. The freebies from the tour and the ones they 'forget' to charge you for. Good, matching meals also. Even if you have to pay for the odd beer here or there, geez, soooo cheap.
Here's a pic of Czesky Kromlov to whet the appetitie.

Czesky_Krumlov_pan.jpg
 
This one http://www.panimoravintolahuvila.fi/yritys/index_e.html in Savonlinna, Finland was great. Tiny brewery in a restaurant/pub. Friendly brewers who broke out some bottles of their special Sahti (Finnish unboiled, unhopped rye-ale, fermented with bread yeast) to share.

Monteith's brewery in Greymouth, NZ was great too. Open fermentation vessels ("don't fall in!") and whole brewery is coal-fired!
 
* Guinness brewery in Dublin. Awesome big money experience.

* Cantillon brewery in Brussels. Awesome low tech experience.

* Hall & Woodhouse brewery in Dorset, England. Brewers of Badgers beers (including Tanglefoot) and King & Barnes beers as well as Hofbrau kegged beers in the UK.

* Murrays in Taylors Arms. I caught the last 5 min of it anyway.

Also visited a hop farm with oast houses in Kent.
 
spieghts / dunedin
emersons/dunedin
beerworks/wanaka
christiansands/kristiansand ..where the locals claim the beer is good due to the unique filltration process (most of the brewery is under ground with an old cemetery above it) :huh: ...cheers...spog..
 
OK so not including places that I have worked

Carlsberg (Den)
Guinness (Ire)
Bachmeyer (Ger)
Little Creatures (WA)
Wig & Pen (ACT)
Lord Nelson (NSW)
Sail & Anchor (WA)
Feral (WA)

Bachmeyer was the best as I was quite "good friends" at the time with the owner's daughter. Nice girl. I put in a full day getting shown this brewery & trying bucket loads of beer. Long story short, I quit my job & stayed there a few weeks. Great place.

The list has gaps, this may sound weird...........I spent 8 weeks in Czech & Slovac Rep's & only had a quick look around at U'Fleku in Praha. That was it. Went through Pilzen and stopped at a hop farm, stayed just around the corner from another brewery for a couple of nights, just never made it in for the tours. Whilst I was consuming more than my share of great Czech beers, & starting the career change to brewing, I was playing too much golf on that trip.

Cheers
Gerard
 
Not a long list I must admit but two of them I wouldn't change for the world...

I have toured the now non-existent Youngs Brewery in Wandsworth.

Cantillon. To be honest I'd be happy with just those two...

Cantillon was amazing and whenever I hear of someone going to Brussels its the first place I insist they go.

The Guinness Experience... I can pour a perfect pint. It must be, because I have the certificate to prove it :D

The BrewHouse, Brisbane (that didn't take long...)

In my uni days I did the XXXX tour...

I've been to Amsterdam twice and never managed to make it to Heinekin. Once because the trip was too short with too many people and once because it was being refurbished from the brewery to the "experience" or whatever it is now called.
 
The list is not as long as I would like it to be, but there is still plenty of time to add to it!!
Carlsburg in denmark
wiskey trail in scotland (too pissed to remember which ones, though Im sure that Glenfiddich was one)
Speights in dunedin
Sail and anchor in freo
Speights in dunedin
Bootleg brewery in margaret river
Wig and pen in canberra
Speights in dunedin
Zierholz in fyshwick (act)

And the next on the hit list is the Speights brewery in Dunedin. You might be noticing a bit of a pattern emerging here,
I dont mind the nector of the gods and the draw back to those magnifficent boutique beer, timber vats in the old part of the brewery is too hard to resist when ever back in the home land.
Not to mention the great food at the Ale House restaurant.
Beers :party:
 
Visited the Carbrook Brewery yesterday, got the full tour and (like always) tasted some fantastic beers - particularly loved the NZ Hopburst. It doesn't get any better than that! :beerbang: :D
 
The ones I've done in order of best to worst.

-Speights (Dunedin), great little bearded man taking the tour and he let me drink as much as I wanted at the end!

-De Halve Mann (Brugge, Belguim), great beer and a pretty view of the famous Belgian tourist town.

-Boags (Launceston), I have a soft spot for it because it was my first ever tour.

-Little Creatures (Freo), speaks for itself. Great Beer, great location & laid back people.

-Sail & Anchor Pub (Freo), great variety of tasty beers!

-Guinness Brewhouse (Dublin), not really a brewery tour but hey it's very impressive all the same. Lots of moolah spent.

- Cascade (Hobart), the guide had a great knowledge of the brewery but was poor on beer related questions.
Great new tasting room though, and manged to drink a bit of their tasty beers.

I've been to Cesky Krumlov and Prague, but didn't do a tour :( . The beer there is fantastic though! Also didn't do Heineken in Amsterdam as we had limited time.
My girlfriend wasn't always up for them!

The beer halls on Munich are an experience in themselves, go there if you get the chance. Oktoberfest can be full of drunk wankers though (usually Aussie and Italian), get away in a small group to the Augustine or Lowanbrau for a good time!

cheers (& beers)

Griffo
 
I'll add another for the Guinness tour. If only for the fantastic view of Dublin at the top. The whole time I felt I was scaling the inside of giant pint glass. :)

The Heineken tour is a hillarious piece of Eurotrash and shouldn't be missed. You get FOUR beers throughout tour if remember correctly, which to our shame led us to be half cut when we ambled in to Anne Franks house down the way...(which was btw a very good, but obviously non beer related tour)

I have also been to CUB, for my sins.
 
* Guinness brewery in Dublin. Awesome big money experience.

* Cantillon brewery in Brussels. Awesome low tech experience.

* Hall & Woodhouse brewery in Dorset, England. Brewers of Badgers beers (including Tanglefoot) and King & Barnes beers as well as Hofbrau kegged beers in the UK.

* Murrays in Taylors Arms. I caught the last 5 min of it anyway.

Also visited a hop farm with oast houses in Kent.

I went to the Fullers brewery today. I had been cussing London Pride, but it tasted okay at the brewery (ESB is still my favourite). I'm not sure if it is mentioned elsewhere, but their ESB, London Pride and Chiswick Bitter all use the same mash. ESB comes from the first runnings, London Pride is a mixture of 1st and 2nd runnings whilst Chiswick Bitter comes from the 2nd runnings.

I was hoping to see some Munich/Aying/Bamberg breweries when I was over there (around NYE), however they were closed due to it being the Christmas/New Year's tourist low season.
 
* Guinness brewery in Dublin. Awesome big money experience.

you know I lived in Dublin for 15 years and never once went, my uncle even lived down the road from it, the smell of grains always reminds me of his place now.
 
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