quote: Originally posted by fargingbastige6 Right now, I think I'd rather sample than tour.

Never done one. No real interest in changing that statistic.

Well, I don't know if the following will help or hurt my reputation on this site, but what the heck, here goes: Brewery tours are AWESOME good fun and I will gladly take a long-assed tour as a fair price for a small sample. I will go out of my way to get a tour and no two are even remotely similar. Doesn't everybody feel this way? The brewing process is not overly complex, but breweries differ because there are a thousand decision points and a thousand solutions at each point. I find the industrial engineering aspects of putting together an efficient brew house within the constraints of time, space, and money to be worthy of study. The guys who start out in their garage or with some salvaged dairy equipment and craft some tasty brews really have my admiration and respect. I've toured these breweries: Budweiser Shenandoah (RIP) Blue & Gray (before) Old Dominion << most fun! (RIP) Coors << most impressive Dogfish Head (Milton--wish I could have seen the cobbled-together start-up brew-house at Lewes) St George Triumph Blue & Gray (after) << good layout at the new place Port City (state of the art and room to expand) DC Brau My Frickin' Kitchen (the bottle line in that place is a mess!) Hands-down favorite is Coors! That is an impressive operation. The canning line alone is a marvel of modern science. You don't have to love the beer to admire the brewery and you know what? Keystone Premium right out of the Enzinger filter is pretty damn refreshing. Top on my list of breweries to tour: New Belgium. They spent some money on a really nice-looking and efficient and "green" brewhouse. I also want to hit Heavy Seas in Baltimore and I am looking forward to 3 Stars and Chocolate City coming soon to DC. Brewery tours ROCK!

quote: Originally posted by FoamDome Brewery tours are AWESOME good fun and I will gladly take a long-assed tour as a fair price for a small sample. I will go out of my way to get a tour and no two are even remotely similar.

The canning line at Coors is simply astounding. If you cold slow it down, you would see a single-file stream of aluminum cylinders rolling forward, a nozzle fills each cylinder with 12 oz of the flavor of the moment, then a disk slides down atop the cylinder and a circular crimper curls the cylinder around the disk tightly. The completed can rolls on and gets packaged into cases or whatever. Aside from how the crimper works, it's all pretty simple. Simple, that is, until you watch it in real time. In full rate production, the process I described takes place 10 times per second. You cannot even keep your eyes on a single can, they are moving so fast. Not a drop of beer is spilled. The stack of disks is held in a long feeder tube that is at least 20 yards long. Six hundred cans a minute, all day long. It's mesmerizing.

It is indeed an impressive operation.

quote: Originally posted by FoamDome The canning line at Coors is simply astounding. If you cold slow it down, you would see a single-file stream of aluminum cylinders rolling forward, a nozzle fills each cylinder with 12 oz of the flavor of the moment, then a disk slides down atop the cylinder and a circular crimper curls the cylinder around the disk tightly. The completed can rolls on and gets packaged into cases or whatever. Aside from how the crimper works, it's all pretty simple. Simple, that is, until you watch it in real time. In full rate production, the process I described takes place 10 times per second. You cannot even keep your eyes on a single can, they are moving so fast. Not a drop of beer is spilled. The stack of disks is held in a long feeder tube that is at least 20 yards long. Six hundred cans a minute, all day long. It's mesmerizing.

quote: Originally posted by FoamDome The canning line at Coors is simply astounding. If you cold slow it down, you would see a single-file stream of aluminum cylinders rolling forward, a nozzle fills each cylinder with 12 oz of the flavor of the moment, then a disk slides down atop the cylinder and a circular crimper curls the cylinder around the disk tightly. The completed can rolls on and gets packaged into cases or whatever. Aside from how the crimper works, it's all pretty simple. Simple, that is, until you watch it in real time. In full rate production, the process I described takes place 10 times per second. You cannot even keep your eyes on a single can, they are moving so fast. Not a drop of beer is spilled. The stack of disks is held in a long feeder tube that is at least 20 yards long. Six hundred cans a minute, all day long. It's mesmerizing.

Do you know who I am? [;)]

I have enjoyed the ones I have been on. Usually learned a few things, even if just about that particular brewer. Sampling is always fun.

I've been on quite a few and I have to agree with Foamdome, many are very good, with all kinds of tidbits of info, sampling throughout the tour (different stages of the beer), freebees on labels, crowns etc, good beer during and after, large ones are industrial wonders, small are innovative marvels. Midwest best imo are Sprecher, Lakefront, Tyrennena, Penn, AB, Great Lakes. Central Waters had some great, non-bottled brewer only stuff. Weasel Boy and Jackie O's in Ohio were great about the odd samples. Distihl's in Ill. was very friendly. Square One in St. Loius was beyond nice about it. If you ask nicely in the small ones, you get a private tour and generally a better sampling. 20 or 30 minutes of tour to get better beer? count me in.