Brewery tours?

[dcHokie]

Visiting my girlfriends' family over the holidays and they mentioned doing a brewery tour. I'm guessing they meant Boston Beer (Sam Adams), but maybe they were thinking Harpoon. Anyone done the brewery tours here? How do they compare, and are there other small breweries that have tours or the like?

[I-Hop]

I've done a tour at Harpoon. Not much of a tour, but you go to their tasting room which overlooks their fermentation vessels. They let you taste whatever you like while there, not a bad time at all. They are great people over there and I definitely recommend it. I've been to the Sam Adams brewery for a homebrewer's open house. Again, I didn't get an official tour, but I would like to go back for one. They are also great people over there and definitely worth a trip.

[Strangebird]

I second Harpoon. Also if you want to take a bit of a ride, the Wachusett Brewing tour is pretty good and the beers are quite good.

[sgrandpre]

The Harpoon tastings are awesome - all you can drink for an hour or two for free. Head over to the next pier and hit up the No Name Restaurant afterwards.

[doctorrobert]

Harpoon is fun. Its real close to the city too. Sam Adams is kind of in a sketchy place but that's also fun.

[hoss75]

Harpoon is better. THere they acknowledge that you might now something about beer going in. The Sam tour is 20 minutes explaining beer is made of malt, water, hops and yeast. But they are nice and give you a tasing glass when you leave.
I've actually had great impromptu tours at the Boston Beer Company.

[doctorrobert]

Originally Posted by hoss75

Harpoon is better. THere they acknowledge that you might now something about beer going in. The Sam tour is 20 minutes explaining beer is made of malt, water, hops and yeast. But they are nice and give you a tasing glass when you leave.
I've actually had great impromptu tours at the Boston Beer Company.

I had the exact opposite experience. Harpoon was standard language. I asked if they bottle conditioned or dry hopped, they didnt know what those terms meant, and told me that I was wrong, nobody adds hops post fermentation. They do have dry hopped beer i'm sure of it.

Maybe I got lucky at Sams as I had a lengthy convo about beer with the guy, but he also homebrewed, but Sams buys each employee a homebrew kit so maybe thats why.

[hoss75]

Originally Posted by doctorrobert

I had the exact opposite experience. Harpoon was standard language. I asked if they bottle conditioned or dry hopped, they didnt know what those terms meant, and told me that I was wrong, nobody adds hops post fermentation. They do have dry hopped beer i'm sure of it.

Maybe I got lucky at Sams as I had a lengthy convo about beer with the guy, but he also homebrewed, but Sams buys each employee a homebrew kit so maybe thats why.

I can see that. Just luck ofthe draw. The homebrew kit thing is funny though. I'm friends w a lot of employees there and none of them have ever opened one.

[starsailor]

I can vouch for the Harpoon tour being excellent. Also they're having their annual St. Pats day celebration this coming Fri. and Sat. That's their biggest bash of the year and I highly recommend it.

[backbaybrewing]

I agree with the above posters who recommended Sam Adams. It's a pretty decent tour.

Also check out Cambridge Brewing Company. Not a tour, but a great brewpub with good cheap food.