For us beer lovers and connoisseurs! A few of us over in Chit Chat have been discussing good beers and breweries so I thought I'd make us a tour thread.

Please post local (NC) breweries that offer tours and if you can, a review of the tour (the content and quality of the tour). If you'd like to comment on the beers offered during the tour, feel free to do so in a constructive manner (no "This beer sucks" etc... please provide details of the beer and why you liked it or did not; keep in mind your beer tastes, if you're not a stout person and you tried a stout but didn't like it, you're probably not the best person to comment on the beer).

Hopefully we can get some groups together and take a tour once a month or so. We'll see about organizing those after the holidays.

I've never been to a NC brewery, but here are some that I'd like to tour, assuming they offer tours:

CBC
Highland
Big Boss
Lonerider
Red Oak

Please offer feedback on these and list other breweries that offer tours. I'd like to keep this in the Lounge to avoid unnecessary trolling.

12/14/2009 4:53:15 PM

As was stated previously... SIGN ME UP SIR!

12/14/2009 5:10:37 PM

I am game

12/14/2009 5:21:14 PM

CBC tours on saturdays I think. It's pretty great. Five or six free pints of beer and a tour. Free.

12/14/2009 5:24:33 PM

I can recommend Red Oak's, went in May. Tours are on Friday afternoon, 3 IIRC, cost $5, and will include a tasting of their three beers. At the time they were six months away from bottling, which, well, has begun! The facility is well-lit and better-kept than a hospital, the staff is friendly, but dammit they were out of T-shirts that day!

12/14/2009 5:24:58 PM

red oak is a really good tour. it used to be free, but now it's $5 and that gets you a red oak pint glass. the actual tour is about 45-50 minutes (small facility), but it's very informative and tells you a lot about why and how they do what they do. the beermaster is really knowledgeable and was actually born in germany and got his degree there

as for the beer, they've got humminbird, red oak, and battlefield bock on tap for you to "sample" once the tour ends, but in reality they give you as much as you could possibly want. my wife and i stayed there for over an hour just drinking and chilling with the employees. they're also bottling red oak now, and it's $20 for a case of 12 (pricey, but well worth it IMO)

they do tours once a week on fridays at 3, but you should be there around 2:50. i'll probably be going for trip number 3 in the next couple weeks.

^ damn i type too slow

[Edited on December 14, 2009 at 5:30 PM. Reason : .]

12/14/2009 5:29:00 PM

i'd definitely be interested in touring some of the NC breweries. i went on the sam adams and harpoon tours/tastings in boston and had a great time.

12/14/2009 6:11:55 PM

Quote :

"CBC tours on saturdays I think. It's pretty great. Five or six free pints of beer and a tour. Free."

confirmed, this tour is awesome and I have been going for years.

12/14/2009 6:22:48 PM

I would love to go on some tours

12/14/2009 6:41:00 PM

I've been on/to:

Yukon Brewing - Yukon terrritory
Shipyard in Maine
Sam Adams - Boston
Big Boss - Raleigh
Carolina Brewing - Holly Springs
Sierra Nevada - Chico, CA
Midnight Sun - Anchorage
Coronado - San Diego
Stone - San Diego
Allagash - Maine
New Belgium - Fort Collins CO
Aviator - Fuquay
Steamworks - Vancouver

Best that Ive ever been on has to be New Belgium. Locally Big Boss is good. Used to be free, but is now only a couple of bucks for a few cups of beer. Nice taproom to try the stuff that does not get distribution upstairs.

CBC is really good too. After so many tours, Im not too into the process, just learning the differences. They offer a good amount of free tastings as well.

Aviator is different. It takes up 1/2 of a guys airplane hanger at the local airport, but they produce some good stuff. Back in the Spring or Summer they had a big BBQ out there. They have a small 'bar' with a couple of beers out there generally.

I still have to check out Lonerider and I want to see some in Asheville

12/14/2009 9:42:17 PM

I went to Lonerider the first night they had a tour, and it was freaking packed. I don't much care for their beer (it's ok, but nothing great), but the brewery seemed pretty nice. I liked the Carolina Brewing tour in Holly Springs alright because there were less people and you got more beer.

Anyway, I'm probably game for some tours, so count me in.

12/14/2009 11:19:44 PM

CBC - lots of free beer and a very relaxed tour that never gets old, beer-wise they play it safe and stay away from gimmicks, but are extremely consistent

Big Boss - only did it once right after the Edenton -> Big Boss transition, fun tour and good beer, samples were limited to two

Aviator - cool spot with a nice tour, and a great spot to hang out after in the summertime

Highland - great beer and a very impressive facility, the level of production they maintain requires a high level of technical control, separating their tour from others in the state, got to try a special cask on the tour in addition to their standards

Wedge - small brewpub, quick tour, great beers and chill atmosphere but not particularly interesting, though cool to see what can be done with such limited space

Want to tour: Duck-Rabbit, Pisgah, and Mother Earth

Out-of-state I've been to Lake Louie and Lakefront, both in Wisconsin, with the latter particularly awesome

12/14/2009 11:47:17 PM

I live right next to CBC, last weekend we did the tour there (starts at 1pm, get there around 12:40) and then the Aviator one about 10 mins down the road in Fuquay (starts at 3:30, get there around 3:00).

Afternoon nap is a must afterwards

12/15/2009 12:11:08 AM

I went on the Carolina Beer Company tour. I went this past summer. The tour was free, but 5 bucks got you a 6 oz glass (I believe, I never did any accurate measurements, but it can take half a 12 oz beer) and I think 5 or 6 tokens where you get to sample anything they offer. The guy who gave the tour was funny and knowledgeable, and from what I could tell, really enjoyed doing the tours.

So if anyone's in Mooresville, NC with nothing to do on a Saturday afternoon, it's well worth about 2 hours of your time (to tour and taste afterwards).

12/15/2009 3:02:20 AM

i think we should do a TWW brewery tour meetup

12/15/2009 3:23:26 AM

^did you even read the OP?

12/15/2009 11:38:57 AM

I would love to take part in this. I've never been on a brewery tour, but I love beer

12/15/2009 12:14:43 PM

i'd never call myself a beer connoisseur, but i would call myself a beer lover. brewery tours are fun.

12/15/2009 12:26:03 PM

man, i miss the CBC tours

we were regulars back in the good ol days

they just turn the taps on and you get in line as many times as you can

12/15/2009 8:29:12 PM

i need to hit up the shiner & st arnolds tours out here in texas.

12/15/2009 8:46:35 PM

I went on a brewery tour in Brugge that was pretty awesome. Got to see where they used to cool the hops on the roof until Belgium passed a law against pidgeon droppings in beer

12/15/2009 8:53:22 PM

try to get a group together and schedule a date and I can most likely get a private Tdub tour at Lonerider going for you guys. I volunteer out there a couple days a week as an apprenticeship type deal since I want to open my own brewery in the future.

I'm not in charge so I cant promise but let me check with the owners, the regular tours are free, they will probably be cool with free samples for something like that too.

12/15/2009 11:30:59 PM

Carolina Beer and Beverage

Saturday's noon-3

Carolina Blonder, Low Down Brown, American Wheat, Red Wheat and Blue, there's an IPA, a blue berry and some others

They also are the only cannery in the world outside of Austria that produces Red Bull

12/16/2009 1:58:39 PM

Last time I went to the CBC tour, it was packed. Had to have been at least 200 people there. It was still fun, and we still managed to get a good 3 pints in. I'd definitely be down for checking other places out.

12/16/2009 2:05:34 PM

wow, this thread took off.

Once I'm back from my vacation I'll try to start planning a tour for January. Any suggestions on brewery or weekend are welcome

[Edited on December 21, 2009 at 5:05 PM. Reason : .]

12/21/2009 5:05:39 PM

Did the CBC tour a few years ago, it was fun and at the end it was basically all you can drink for an hour or so. Unfortunately I was the DD that day. I'd definitely be down to go again sometime, and I'd love to tour some of the other area breweries. Red Oak in particular as it's one of my favorite beers, but I'd have to take a Friday afternoon off work b/c Friday 3 PM is not too kind to the 9-5ers.

12/22/2009 5:11:32 PM

I went to the Highland Brewery in Asheville. They do tours by appointment on Friday usually. It's free with free tasting. Their setup was small and is now about mid-size. The people who work their and gave the tour are young, friendly, and fun. Lot of jokes were made. Great tour.

I tried their beers but I only enjoyed one of them. I don't see myself going out and buying a six pack of any of their microbrews but I recommend the tour and beer tasting. I See beer review below.

Gaelic Ale - Dark, mild, bitter with a mild aftertaste. Def malty.
Oatmeal Porter - Very dark, heavy, sort of bitter with a sweet aftertaste. Filled me up quick. Fairly High Alcohol content. Would recommend with a dinner but not to get drunk. My favorite of the beers I tried.
St.Terese's Pale Ale - didn't try/don't remember
Kashmir IPA - Very bitter, wasn't a fan at all.
Black Mocha Stout - Dark, heavy, bitter with some sweet. Not as good as the Oatmeal Porter.

12/23/2009 12:26:13 AM

Big Boss

Best brewery tour until they got rid of that one saturday bartender

12/23/2009 1:34:35 PM

^^ I think the Highland Gaelic and the Oatmeal Porter are both fantastic beers. I regularly get them on tap here in Durham, especially the Gaelic. I'd totally love to tour that brewery.

I also want to tour Fullsteam when it opens in the spring: http://www.fullsteam.ag/beer/plow-to-pint/
It's in my backyard, I'm really interested in the Mothervine and Hogwash they'll have going. I also like their emphasis on Southern flavor and local ingredients.

Other places I'd like to tour one day:

Vidmer in Oregon (like their Hefeweizen)
Bell's (Porter and Stout= win)

12/25/2009 10:09:38 PM