Brewery Tours in Calgary? - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

amorak · 01-24-2011, 12:39 PM

Hey everyone,

After finding out how many beer lovers there are on CP (quelle surprise), I thought I'd move on to the next topic - Brewery Tours!

I love beer, but have never really seen it made. I know the basics, but I'd love to do brewery tours in the same vein as my wife loves to do winery tours.

Are there any in town? Any good ones a driving trip away (Kelowna, Fernie, etc?)

I'd imagine that Big Rock would have one, and how about Wild Rose - You can see the brewing operation from the pub.... And how about Brewsters?

Any tours people suggest?

Eric Vail · 01-24-2011, 12:42 PM

I've done the Big Rock Tour and recommend it. I haven't done any others though. I doubt that Brewsters has one as their beer making operation is pretty small.

peter12 · 01-24-2011, 12:42 PM

Wild Rose does tours, and I think you get a free pint out of the deal.

Tyler · 01-24-2011, 12:43 PM

Big Rock is the best value for free booze and fun times. Stronly recommend.

amorak · 01-24-2011, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tyler

Big Rock is the best value for free booze and fun times. Stronly recommend.

Sweet! I've emailed them to see when they offer tours - Any ideas on what days/times they do?

I'd like to go this weekend with some friends and check it out!

Regular_John · 01-24-2011, 01:21 PM

I did the Wild Rose tour at a staff christmas party a few years ago. Pretty cool, one of the staff pures himself a beer and says "who wants to see the back" and walks ya through the whole thing.

Not sure what they offer day to day as far as tours go, but I'm sure if you call and ask they'll hook ya up.

chid · 01-24-2011, 09:41 PM

I've done a brewery tour at Wild Rose, its great and informative and you get a pint out of the thing. I believe they are now doing a sort of free for all, sign up sheet on Sundays (If I'm not mistaken) for tours.

HotHotHeat · 01-24-2011, 11:03 PM

Brew Brothers... My favorite new local microbrewery.

Machi · 01-26-2011, 12:18 PM

Nice.. I'm going to check out some of these local ones listed, thanks!

Has anyone done the Kokanee tour out in Creston (BC)? is it worth the drive?

Bring_Back_Shantz · 01-26-2011, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Machi

Nice.. I'm going to check out some of these local ones listed, thanks!

Has anyone done the Kokanee tour out in Creston (BC)? is it worth the drive?

I wouldn't count on it.
An industrial size brewery is probably not going to be as good as a smaller one like Big Rock, or an even smaller one like Wild Rose.
Plus, there's usually a chance to taste it at the end, and I know I'd prefer just about anything to Kokanee.

Thor · 01-26-2011, 01:04 PM

I miss the Molson's Carling brewery, that place had some really cool history and when I was working there I used to disappear for hours into dungeons and places built a hundred years ago.

Vansmack · 01-26-2011, 01:08 PM

I did a tour of the Labatt brewery in London with the chem eng club. It was pretty cool and we received ~100 mL of 6 different beers. Pretty sure it was Blue, Blue light, Bud, Bud light, 50 and something else. Nobody in the group wanted to drink their 50 so I ended up with about 5 or 6 of those as well. The tour was really cool and followed the entire process of brewing, bottling and the recycling/sterilizing.

I'm sure there are pros/cons of visiting a microbrewery versus a full scale brewery, but I really enjoyed the Labatt tour.

Pacem · 01-26-2011, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amorak

Sweet! I've emailed them to see when they offer tours - Any ideas on what days/times they do?

I'd like to go this weekend with some friends and check it out!

Tuesday to Thursday. Tours start sometime in the afternoon I forget when.

Just visited Calgary and intended on doing the tour, didn't pay attention to the days that they do it

Was pretty disapointed I missed out.

GGG · 01-26-2011, 08:02 PM

Once you have been on one brewery tour the rest are fairly similar. I don't think wild rose has a canning machine so you would miss out on that compared to a larger one but really thet are all the same.

The tasting room at the end is what mkes the smaller breweries better as you get to sample a much wider variety of beers. My favourite tours I have been on were Great Western brewing compny in saskatoon and Granville Island brewing company in Vancouver.

Kokenee isn't worth the drive on its own but if you are going to Kelowna and take the long way home it is only about an extra 3 hours to take the southern route back through Creston.

GreenLantern · 01-27-2011, 07:29 AM

I can't wait to one day tour the Guinness brewery in Ireland.

I have heard they pour you a pint then take you up an elevator to view the entire city of Dublin while you sip..

Eric Vail · 01-27-2011, 07:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreenLantern

I can't wait to one day tour the Guinness brewery in Ireland.

I have heard they pour you a pint then take you up an elevator to view the entire city of Dublin while you sip..

I've done the tour at St. James Gate in Dublin twice. It is pretty awesome. I don't remember what the view was like in their tasting room, but I do remember how great the roasted barly flavour was in their beer there. Something is lost when it is shipped overseas. I love Guiness here, but in Ireland, it is even better!

I think my favourite brewery tour was the Alexander Keith tour in Halifax. They really do a great job with people dressed up and acting as though it were the age when Alexander was just getting started. It is quite fun.

Julio · 01-27-2011, 09:06 AM

http://www.ffwdweekly.com/article/li...the-brew-6901/

jbarnes · 01-27-2011, 09:33 AM

Big Rock for sure!

tete · 01-27-2011, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreenLantern

I can't wait to one day tour the Guinness brewery in Ireland.

I have heard they pour you a pint then take you up an elevator to view the entire city of Dublin while you sip..

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eric Vail

I've done the tour at St. James Gate in Dublin twice. It is pretty awesome. I don't remember what the view was like in their tasting room, but I do remember how great the roasted barly flavour was in their beer there. Something is lost when it is shipped overseas. I love Guiness here, but in Ireland, it is even better!

I think my favourite brewery tour was the Alexander Keith tour in Halifax. They really do a great job with people dressed up and acting as though it were the age when Alexander was just getting started. It is quite fun.

The view of Dublin from the Guiness tasting room is amazing. I'm not a big Guiness fan, but the tour and the tasting room was really worth it - and I did drink my entire pint. Even though I'm not a huge fan, there was no way I was leaving beer behind!

The Keith's brewery tour is SOOOOO hokey. I thought my husband was going to KILL me when I dragged him on the tour a few years ago. (I'd been a number of years before so I knew what I was getting into). He kept muttering to me "there better be beer at the end of this".

kermitology · 01-27-2011, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreenLantern

I can't wait to one day tour the Guinness brewery in Ireland.

I have heard they pour you a pint then take you up an elevator to view the entire city of Dublin while you sip..

I hated that tour. It's self guided, and after having done a very extensive scotch distillery tour in Scotland I found St. James Gate to be an utter waste of my time. And after all that self guided walking up stairs, I got my tiny little sleeve of the worst Guinness I've ever tasted in my life. I couldn't even finish it, it was so bad. Guinness everywhere else in Ireland was fantastic, but it was utter garbage at the brewery for me.

Terrible tour in my opinion.