Brewery tours

toadette

SO's birthday coming up and I was thinking doing a brewery tour with him and some friends (followed by a meal) might make for a nice celebration. I thought about the Brooklyn Brewery, though some light googling of reviews suggests that their tour isn't very...extensive/informative or long enough to justify everyone trekking out there. Am I wrong?

Then I thought about Sixpoint, but their website, while cool-looking, makes my head hurt (I couldn't find any info about whether they do tours and if so when).

Does anyone have any experience with these tours and can recommend one over the other? I'd also be interested in hearing about tours of Blue Point, though Patchogue is a bit far for this occasion.

pitu

Sixpoint does tours, Saturdays. We went last summer.
They are great guys making great beer. It's a small place; the tour doesn't hurt your head. I've never looked at their site...
I'm married to a beer geek. I am not a beer geek.

The Good Fork is a nice restaurant nearby. Or hot dogs at IKEA!
The B77 bus stops right by the door of Rocky Sullivan's, next to Sixpoint to take your drunk arses home...

pitu

p.s. if you want to travel, go to Dogfish Head in Delaware.

sjknoll

I've been to all three and Sixpoint has the most to show out of the bunch, but it still isn't much since their facilities are small and I also haven't gone since Liberty Heights Tap Room closed down so not sure if they still do tours either (before you got a free beer at the Tap Room when the tour was over). It's been a few years since I did the Brooklyn Brewery tour, again short, just one room, but they've expanded and could have changed the tour. There is no tour at Blue Point, just a tasting room. That's small, but the beers are cheap and you can buy growlers to take home.

I realize it doesn't help much, but I'd go with the Brooklyn Brewery tour, mostly because you have more options for things to do in Williamsburg afterwards than you do in Redhook. . . and while you can walk from the train station in Patchogue to the brewery it's still a bitch to get out there and not much around the brewery itself.

new2hood

I second the brooklyn brewery. the tour isn't extensive, but you can stick around and drink beers afterwards, and it's a fun place. head to aurora for dinner afterwards.
enjoy!

carnivore

The Brooklyn Brewery tour is the only one of those I've done. I've done it many times (they used to give unlimited free beer with tours) but haven't gone in several years. The tour is less than a half-hour long and is basically one large room, but still fairly interesting. Most of their beer is actually brewed up in Utica, NY. Only kegs are brewed at the Williamsburg location.

sjknoll

They now also bottle Local One at the Williamsburg location

pitu

Sixpoint is renovating.
http://twitter.com/sixpoint

xlizellx

brooklyn's isn't too great -- i mean, i love the beer and the vibe of the people hanging out, but the tour is weak.

a good one, surprisingly, is chelsea brewery -- tours every hour on saturdays with a free beer and then 3 tickets for $4 beers for the night. the tour is actually really good.

santa

there's that bud brewery somewhere in Newark. They might let you walk around. I went to the ones at Busch gardens when I was little and they were great.