Brewery tour advice.....

[Crystal_Ball]

Im planning to buy my dad a brewery tour as a birthday present which true to form i have left last minute and is in a couple of days. I live just north of London so with good transport links in, London seems the best option. Does anyone have any experience of any tours they have been on?
I have found this website which offers quite a few different tours including food pairing with beers. https://londonbrewerytour.com
I am planning on going with him so there is a vested interested from my part.

 

[terrym]

Fullers @ Chiswick
Old traditional brewery.
https://www.fullers.co.uk/
Not been myself but on the to-do list for this year.

 

[ACBEV]

I'd second a Fullers tour... https://www.fullers.co.uk/brewery/book-a-tour

 

[Druncan]

My Daughter booked us all to a trip to Woodfordes, Norfolk (Great, but a long long way from London,,, ) Top tour very informative and well presented. We then spent ages in the shop afterwards sampling and chatting once I said I brewed a bit. Then we went to their brewery pub, great grub on offer and even more ales. Luckily my daughter did not drink and also did the driving back to her place as well!!

 

[Brew_DD2]

Beavertown.

 

[fastline]

I got meantime brewery tour a few years back, that was very good.
It gets very busy now, lots of tourist, it' not too far from Greenwich O2 so good transport and lots of restaurants or if you can find it theres a small micropub opened up down the road called the river, that' nice

 

[rats_eyes]

I've been on the Fullers tour and would recommend it. The tour is interesting and you get a good (and quiet generous if I remember correctly) tasting session at the end, so well worth it if you like their beers.

 

[Bigcol49]

Fullers @ Chiswick

Hi!
I'm in Lunn'n in April for a meeting, so I'm planning on booking a late afternoon visit. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[serum]

Another vote for Fullers

 

[jceg316]

I've done Camden Town brewery tour which was good, you get a fair few beers on the way. They didn't like it when I asked whether they produce more than 60,000 hl/year though

I did the London brewery tours you linked to, did their Bermondsey one and really liked it. My friend works on the East London tour and he really enjoys taking people round, from what he says everyone who works there really enjoys their job, which usually means a better tour.

I did London Fields about 4 years ago, but they've really gone downhill since.

 

[terrym]

Just a passing thought!
There is not really much to see in some of the small micro breweries. In my view it's best to get round one of the larger older established breweries where you will get a much better feels for what's going on, and more to see. Even then I did the Black Sheep brewery tour a couple of years back and, although very interesting and I would recommend it, not a tremendous amount to see. Even less so the York Brewery visit, which again I would recommend, but was over all too quickly!

 

[Brew_DD2]

Brew York is probably the best Brewery tour I've done. Very good detail and the owner is a very generous host.

 

[-Bezza-]

If this link works, you can have a pretty heavy day out by doing all the Bermondsey breweries. Walking distance of London Bridge station. Not sure to what extent these would count as "brewery tours" as opposed to just tasting rooms as I've not done these myself.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?saf...187616!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i151!2i120!4f13.1

 

[jceg316]

Just a passing thought!
There is not really much to see in some of the small micro breweries. In my view it's best to get round one of the larger older established breweries where you will get a much better feels for what's going on, and more to see. Even then I did the Black Sheep brewery tour a couple of years back and, although very interesting and I would recommend it, not a tremendous amount to see. Even less so the York Brewery visit, which again I would recommend, but was over all too quickly!

I find when I've been on one tour, I've been on all tours no matter how big the brewery is. Beer is pretty much made the same everywhere. What I think they're good for is trying the beer fresh from the brewery and being able to speak to brewers about brewing.

 

[terrym]

Beer is pretty much made the same everywhere.

Well yes and no. Nothing like seeing the real stuff in an open fermenter (are there still squares around?) perhaps being invited to stick your head over into the head space :shock:
rather than just looking at a row of shiny enclosed SS vessels. Marstons operate the Burton Union system which is quite unique and which defies all I read on here about keeping the FV completely air tight, and their brewery tour might include a look see.
All that said there is an element of when you have been round one brewery tour the next will be a bit predictable.

 

[jceg316]

Well yes and no. Nothing like seeing the real stuff in an open fermenter (are there still squares around?) perhaps being invited to stick your head over into the head space :shock:
rather than just looking at a row of shiny enclosed SS vessels. Marstons operate the Burton Union system which is quite unique and which defies all I read on here about keeping the FV completely air tight, and their brewery tour might include a look see.
All that said there is an element of when you have been round one brewery tour the next will be a bit predictable.

That I would like to see - a brewery which is run differently, using historical brewing methods.

 

[serum]

I agree they can be much of a muchness unless there's something special about the process. Fullers still do partigyle brewing and it's interesting to hear them talk about that.

When I did the Bermondsey crawl and got there early I got chatting to one of the brewers at Brew By Numbers and that was quite interesting. He was very friendly and up for answering all my nerdy questions even though it was a busy day. It was quite a while ago so not sure if the setup is still the same.

 

[treebeard]

Well yes and no. Nothing like seeing the real stuff in an open fermenter (are there still squares around?)

Black Sheep still use slate squares, interestingly, the yeast is on a rack at the top and the wort is pumped over it.

 

[terrym]

Black Sheep still use slate squares, interestingly, the yeast is on a rack at the top and the wort is pumped over it.

Good picture:thumb:
I'd forgotten that Black Sheep use squares, even though I was there only two years ago. (doh!)
There must still be many 'traditional' breweries out there who brew ale in open fermenters, which as I said above is contrary to all the advice given to home brewers. If it hadn't worked for them due to repeated 'infected' batches they would have changed the ale brewing process many years ago.

 

[Clint]

An interesting tour if they still do it is Tucker's Maltings in Newton Abbot Devon.