[vic] Living Social Deal - Cub Tour

[brettprevans]

Figured I'd post this, on the off chance that any melbourians were interested
CUB tour for 2 people - $19 instead of $50.

http://livingsocial.com/deals/29162-brewer...wo?mobile=false

Of course u can usually check out microbreweries for free but this is a megabrewery which might be interesting for gbe sake of it.

 

[Bribie G]

Wow, great splash screen of the Clifton Suspension Bridge (Isembard Kingdom Brunel) in Bristol. 10 years ago we were on holiday in Bath and got totally lost, and late at night ended up purely by chance driving back along that road under the bridge. It's all lit up like a Christmas tree, and I casually said "if you look up, folks, we are about to pass under the Clifton Suspension Bridge which was the first.. blah... blah". They were impressed. :icon_cheers:

 

[Bribie G]

No I'm not on the syrup yet .... I see that the page now shows Melbourne. When I jumped to that site initially I got this screen:



It must have known I'm a pom <_<

I'd love to go on that tour, could heckle Thirsty Boy.

 

[Fourstar]

No I'm not on the syrup yet .... I see that the page now shows Melbourne. When I jumped to that site initially I got this screen:
View attachment 44519

You're not losing your shit Bribie, i got the same splash screen too.

 

[Wolfy]

Select 'Melbourne' from the drop down list. Fill in your (or any) email address, put in other stuff it asks for, where did you hear about them, your post code (or any post code) and then, and only then will it take you to the deal that CM2 is talking about.
It's one of those timed things, and it says you have 14 more ours to order it before it expires.

Edit: Another thing to note:
Tour Times: Tours run Monday to Friday at 10am, 12 noon and 2pm. Due to private bookings, public tours may not always be available, so please check with us to ensure a tour will be running on your chosen day and time.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

No I'm not on the syrup yet .... I see that the page now shows Melbourne. When I jumped to that site initially I got this screen:

View attachment 44519

It must have known I'm a pom <_<

I'd love to go on that tour, could heckle Thirsty Boy.

If you throw dollar coins onto the roof of our cage we will do a little monkey dance for your entertainment... We will bite if you try to stick your fingers through the bars though.

Actually, its a pretty good tour from what i have heard. The "brewing" bits are stock standard for a large brewery "ogle the giant tanks, complain about the heat in the brewhouse, wonder what the hell that smell is, be told how many olympic swimming pools of beer get made every day etc etc - but I am pretty sure they still take you through the packaging area, and a lot of breweries dont do that. Packaging is heaps more fun for your average punter - bottles whizz down the line, fillers spin, cans levitate up a vertial wall - that sort of stuff. Much more fun than looking at giant stainless tanks that could be empty for all you know.

Not sure, never actually been on the tour myself - but i have heard positive things (dont know how much free booze there is either, sorry)

 

[HoppingMad]

A mate did it a year and a bit ago as he works for a company that supplies lab gear to CUB.

Feedback from him is that it's a pretty good tour.

Hopper.

 

[chadjaja]

I booked it in but might skip the 'tasting' session at the end and just walk a few blocks to a pub.

I've done the Boags tour and thats pretty decent as far as tours of the bigger brewers go.

 

[DU99]

makes me wonder why is the brewery allowing such a discount of their tour's..

 

[Mayor of Mildura]

I did the tour a couple of years ago. It was great. My favourite bit was where the vegemite truck pulls up to load up on spent yeast.

The beers were pretty good too. It was the first time i'd ever tried fosters. I was that impressed that when i returned home to mildy I bought a slab of cans for the boys to enjoy for friday arvo drinks at work. They all thought that i had lost it.... and after tasting the cans i knew why. Obviously fosters doesn't travel real well.

 

[Wolfy]

If you throw dollar coins onto the roof of our cage we will do a little monkey dance for your entertainment... We will bite if you try to stick your fingers through the bars though.

Actually, its a pretty good tour from what i have heard. The "brewing" bits are stock standard for a large brewery "ogle the giant tanks, complain about the heat in the brewhouse, wonder what the hell that smell is, be told how many olympic swimming pools of beer get made every day etc etc - but I am pretty sure they still take you through the packaging area, and a lot of breweries dont do that. Packaging is heaps more fun for your average punter - bottles whizz down the line, fillers spin, cans levitate up a vertial wall - that sort of stuff. Much more fun than looking at giant stainless tanks that could be empty for all you know.

Not sure, never actually been on the tour myself - but i have heard positive things (dont know how much free booze there is either, sorry)

I brought the LivingSocal deal as posted by CM2 and went on the tour today, unfortunately it was a waste of time and money, and I doubt anyone who visits this website would think much differently of the experience.

The 'brewery tour' consisted of a 1/2 hour 'beer information and CUB advertising session' held in the 'visitor center' where we were told the basics of how to brew beer, by a tour-guide who obviously knew nothing about making beer other than what's in the PR brochures. That was followed by a 1/2 hour look at the bottling line which likely would have been impressive and interesting wizz/spin/fill/label (~1000 bottles per min is impressive) if it had been working, however since it's winter and production is on the low-side this week's quota was finished yesterday, which left our tour guide to ineptly try to explain the grandeur of what we'd have seen when it was working. There was no mention of seeing/visiting/looking at or even being told about any of the actual beer production details or gear (other than they make 2million L per day), no big mash tuns, no filters, no large tanks, no large shiny stainless bling, big pumps or other interesting stuff to look at or be impressed by how big they were, or anything like that at all.

Having said that the 50 or so other punters - who knew nothing about brewing - appeared to be suitably impressed and also enjoyed the free beer (and dressing up in the costumes from the CUB commercials) at the end of the tour. If you know nothing about brewing, want a few samples of CUB beer and if it's a production day, it might be worth the trip, but I doubt the first two of those criteria apply to many people from this forum.

The free booze consisted of a tasting paddle of 4 beers from the CUB range (including Carlton Black and Fosters, Cascade Light, Bulmers Cider and something 'triple hopped' from Fat Yak) and either a second paddle or a pot.

 

[Mayor of Mildura]

I brought the LivingSocal deal as posted by CM2 and went on the tour today, unfortunately it was a waste of time and money, and I doubt anyone who visits this website would think much differently of the experience.

The 'brewery tour' consisted of a 1/2 hour 'beer information and CUB advertising session' held in the 'visitor center' where we were told the basics of how to brew beer, by a tour-guide who obviously knew nothing about making beer other than what's in the PR brochures. That was followed by a 1/2 hour look at the bottling line which likely would have been impressive and interesting wizz/spin/fill/label (~1000 bottles per min is impressive) if it had been working, however since it's winter and production is on the low-side this week's quota was finished yesterday, which left our tour guide to ineptly try to explain the grandeur of what we'd have seen when it was working. There was no mention of seeing/visiting/looking at or even being told about any of the actual beer production details or gear (other than they make 2million L per day), no big mash tuns, no filters, no large tanks, no large shiny stainless bling, big pumps or other interesting stuff to look at or be impressed by how big they were, or anything like that at all.

Having said that the 50 or so other punters - who knew nothing about brewing - appeared to be suitably impressed and also enjoyed the free beer (and dressing up in the costumes from the CUB commercials) at the end of the tour. If you know nothing about brewing, want a few samples of CUB beer and if it's a production day, it might be worth the trip, but I doubt the first two of those criteria apply to many people from this forum.

The free booze consisted of a tasting paddle of 4 beers from the CUB range (including Carlton Black and Fosters, Cascade Light, Bulmers Cider and something 'triple hopped' from Fat Yak) and either a second paddle or a pot.

What a shame. Sounds like it has changed a bit then. When I went the guide took us all around the place. Big kettles and tanks, we even got to see the computers where tb and his mates push the buttons to make beer

 

[Wolfy]

What a shame. Sounds like it has changed a bit then. When I went the guide took us all around the place. Big kettles and tanks, we even got to see the computers where tb and his mates push the buttons to make beer

Yeah, while the non-expert tour guides were expected, I did think we'd get to see the full plant, but none of that was even mentioned.

 

[chadjaja]

Sounds like our day a month ago Wolfy. Waste ova day and extremely disipointing to say the least. We got to see the bottling plant running at half capacity and the top of the kettles and tuns. Smelt oxidized hops and tasted stale grain to show how fresh ingredients are used. Our guide whilst nice knew little about brewing and didn't have answers to anyone that asked anything even slightly in depth. Basically we stood in the carpark as she pointed out buildings and the pipes of liquid sugar that ran beneath our feet.

The samples at the end where as expected and I nearly gagged on the Foster's. The wife commented if I made that it would end up on thelawn as a failed batch. The end with a trivia contest more about the brand rather than brewing and more of the same with dress up and pictures behind the bar. I would think that 40 mind could be better spent at the brewery. Better sending people to goat, two brothers or holgate if they want to see how real beer is made in vic. I was pretty dirty even at half price.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Hmm, unhappy campers are no good for TB's job security. Do you blokes mind if I feed some of these comments back to the guys who run the tours?

 

[chadjaja]

No problem TB. I would of thought they would provide better training to the guides. It wasn't her fault but as far as a brewery tour it pails in comparison to boags, holgate and goat that I've done. Boags would be the best comparison as its a big brewery.

Hmm, unhappy campers are no good for TB's job security. Do you blokes mind if I feed some of these comments back to the guys who run the tours?

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Best brewry tour I'v done is cascade - they have a maltworks as well, so you get a double whammy of info, and the guide i has seemed t be reasonably if not totally informed

I'll feed it back - i think they should get the operators up off the floor (ie - me) to do the bit relevant to their area.

Trying to tout how great packaging would look if only it were running today..... Thats just lame.

 

[esssee]

I'll second the Cascade Tour, and raise a Boags Tour.

Did a trip to Tassie 7 or 8 years ago, and did both. I get the feeling that there wasn't much of either brewery that you DIDN'T get to see.

Would love to see them again, from an AG Brewers perspective.