Brewery Tours and Visits

[Lesinge]

Not sure if this is the best place for this but I thought it might be worth noting what Breweries you have visited and anything that you learnt from them.

We have toured Adnams, Bateman's, Camden, St Peters and this week went to Elgoods. At Elgoods they had these Copper cooling "trays" which I hadn't seen before and had a beer made by leaving the wort open to the elements to allow natural yeast growth. The beer it made was a bit challenging and similar to the Belgium "flat" beers that we tried over there on a trip. My wife, who also likes Cider, prefers beers made in this method to normal controlled beers.

 

[Norfolk79]

Only done Adnams myself. Going to be doing the Woodfordes one with my dad at some point over the summer.

 

[-Bezza-]

This thread was started a few months back but it didn't really take off unfortunately: https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...ocal-home-brew-shop-and-brewery-thread.76058/

 

[RichieBeer]

Yes,

Done St. Peter's too, although many years back now. Toured my local brewery, Shepherd Neame in Faversham. Also Wadworths in Devizes, Halls and Woodhouse in Dorset, Jennings in Cockermouth, and York brewery in err, York. Possibly some more but I can't remember now. Also done a few distilleries in Scotland

tbh, I found the commercial brewery tours pretty much the same, there's usually some chap on the tour who thinks he knows everything and ends up looking a tit when he asks a daft question. If it wasn't for the free tasters at the end I doubt I'd bother do any more.

 

[Zee]

went to Elgoods. At Elgoods they had these Copper cooling "trays" which I hadn't seen before and had a beer made by leaving the wort open to the elements to allow natural yeast growth.

The "trays" you are referring to is a Coolship I believe. Its becoming popular again with the sour beer revolution.

If you want to get information from brewery tours I would suggest the small/craft breweries. They are usually more than happy to discuss techniques as many of them have come from homebrewing originally. Brewery tours from the bigger beer companies tend to use volunteers or a member of the sales team.

The best piece of advice I got on a brewery tour was "don't open a brewery".

 

[Chippy_Tea]

This thread was started a few months back but it didn't really take off unfortunately: https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...ocal-home-brew-shop-and-brewery-thread.76058/

This thread is probably better as it encourages discussion where as the other was more about getting it on a map. :thumba:

.

 

[MickDundee]

I went to 71 Brewing in Dundee 3 weeks ago. The tour itself wasn’t that informative, but they do some lovely beers.

One thing that surprised me is that they buy their grain in ready-crushed because a grain mill is too expensive (and outsource their bottling to Williams Bros) but have just installed an in-house canning line.

 

[Braindead]

Heres an interesting one. I went to Buxton brewery. You don't get any tour at all, just get to sit in the tap room overlooking the brewery via a glass partition. Still worth £7 as you get 3 drinks and lots of omnipollo on tap

 

[Sandimas]

The Hook Norton brewery tour was excellent when I did it a few years ago, a really historic old site with the original old steam engine and Victorian tower, finishing off in the tap room
https://www.hooky.co.uk/visit-us/

 

[Leon103]

I went to 71 Brewing in Dundee 3 weeks ago. The tour itself wasn’t that informative, but they do some lovely beers.

One thing that surprised me is that they buy their grain in ready-crushed because a grain mill is too expensive (and outsource their bottling to Williams Bros) but have just installed an in-house canning line.

From following a number of breweries on the socials it appears a lot used crushed grain. Outsourcing bottling etc makes sense when dealing with low numbers. In fact if I still lived along the m4 corridor I would look at it as a viable business. Bottling/canning plant.

 

[Lesinge]

I also went to the Wadsworth one which was great as it was a tower brewery and went to the Hook Norton but didn’t do the tour. The “tit” on the tour was me this time at the Elgoods Brew, Tour Guide “what is the main ingredient in beer” Me: “barley” ...over 160 brews and forgot that water is the biggest thing I use!

 

[Lesinge]

Heres an interesting one. I went to Buxton brewery. You don't get any tour at all, just get to sit in the tap room overlooking the brewery via a glass partition. Still worth £7 as you get 3 drinks and lots of omnipollo on tap

I went to one in Hertfordshire somewhere which did the same. The young girl pouring the 3rds was more than generous...I had popped in to have a look and my wife had to come and find me only to discover that I had necked nearly three pints in about 20 mins..

 

[cushyno]

Castle Eden brewery my first. However, back in 1991 as an 18 yr old and given the option to have the brewery tour or drink the free ale in the brewery bar, I didn't see much brewery. Though did end up with some great stories to tell about graveyards, free rides on trains, cardboard boxes and my mate having his stomach pumped.

Newcastle Brewery was the best. I was in awe of the old bottles they brought out with aged labels and dark and mysterious versions of brown ale dating back 100 years. Sadly we didn't get to taste those prized bottles. That was in the days when they had begun to can Fosters and other generic lagers up on the 2nd or 3rd floor of the Newcastle Brewery - in the last throes of S&N. (As an aside, a S&N mechanic lived down the road from us and occasionally parked up a truck or tractor on our street when I was about 5. That was a real neighbourhood curtain twitcher!). The giant open vats of Brown Ale with floating krausen were the size of swimming pools!

A few years back I visited the Cain's Brewery in Liverpool before they closed. Learned more there about the importance of process control but it was almost too big to see what they were doing. Quirky building made their production line quite unique.

 

[-Bezza-]

I went to the Stella brewery in Belgium, I assume Leuven, as part of a college trip. Wasn't into brewing at that point in my life so can't remember a whole deal about the brewing process or tour but remember the tasting room at the end. I'd never seen a bar without a till before and we were given 40 mins or so to drink as much beer as we could - great for a bunch of 17-18 year olds. At the end, they wanted to sell us some merch so took us into the shop. I recall it being a shop full of glassware with lots of glass panels, glass shelves and mirrored walls which, in hindsight, was a bad design for the end of a brewery tour, which they learnt when a mate managed to walk straight into one of the shelving units.

We also did the Heineken brewery in Strasbourg as part of the same trip. Their tasting room wasn't anywhere near as good.

 

[Horners]

I remember going on a 6th form economics trip ( i didnt even do economics) to the Mitchells brewery in Lancaster. Dont think the school minibus ever recovered from the trip back up the M6 to Carlisle - plenty of vomit from 17 year olds overindulging.

 

[ridgepaddler]

Went to the Blacks Brewery in Kinsale, Ireland a few weeks ago. Highly recommended!

 

[Dads_Ale]

From following a number of breweries on the socials it appears a lot used crushed grain. Outsourcing bottling etc makes sense when dealing with low numbers. In fact if I still lived along the m4 corridor I would look at it as a viable business. Bottling/canning plant.

Unfortunately West Berkshire Brewey have beaten you to it with a state of the art bottling a canning line as part of their brewey revamp :)

 

[MickDundee]

I remember going on a 6th form economics trip ( i didnt even do economics) to the Mitchells brewery in Lancaster. Dont think the school minibus ever recovered from the trip back up the M6 to Carlisle - plenty of vomit from 17 year olds overindulging.

You’re allowed to say if you did, we are all friends here! Nobody will judge you.

 

[stz]

On the flip side I offered a brewery tour at £5 a head with any 3 pints or 6 halves from the tap room. I had samples of malts and hops out and ready, prettied up the brewery, stuck fairy lights over the worst of the black mould. Nobody took me up on it because the world cup was on. Occasionally somebody would drag a group of confused people through the flaps to talk me to, but they'd quickly make their excuses and get back to the game.

We've hosted local political types for meetings and some business groups think it is a fantastic hilarious idea to hold their meetings at an actual brewery. Usually ends up with a media type in hoopy tights pointing at the spend grain and asking if these are the yeast.

 

[Leon103]

Unfortunately West Berkshire Brewey have beaten you to it with a state of the art bottling a canning line as part of their brewey revamp :)

I meant the Welsh side of the bridge