New Belgium Brewery - no trip to Asheville is complete with a visit to New Belgium Brewery. Hear their story, tour the brewery and sample some delicious beer. An Asheville must see!
Asheville Breweries
Last week I posted about Sierra Nevada Brewery and their beer tour. Today I am back with another Asheville Brewery, New Belgium Brewery. These were the two big breweries that we toured. We did them both in one day, both in the afternoon and it was perfect. We didn't make it to Highland Brewing Company, we're saving that for our next visit.
We visited some other breweries in Asheville, you can ready my review of Green Man Brewery.
New Belgium Brewery Tour
The New Belgium Brewery Daily public tour is free, but you need to reserve your tickets online. You can reserve your time up to two months in advance. You can be any age, but only those 21 and over will be able to sample the beers. The tour lasts about 90 minutes.
If you are looking for a little more, you can book The Classic - which is a private group brewery tour. It is $250 for a group up to 25 people.
If you are looking to see more of the details of brewing, you can can book a Behind the Scenes Brewery Tour. It is $200 for up to 10 guests, with each guest over that $25 for a maximum of 15 guests. Be sure and read about it to make sure you wear closed toe shoes!
We chose the daily public tour.
New Belgium Pouring Room
The tour begins in the pouring room, or rather this is where you wait until it is time for your tour. We got there just before our tour, so we didn't have time for a beer beforehand, but we had a few after the tour!
It's a nice big room, with plenty of tables with bicycles lining the walls.
Party Grandpa and Beer Samples
Our tour guide referred to himself as "Party Grandpa" after sharing a story about how he got that nickname. He was fun and informative. I want to retire and get a job at New Belgium pouring beer and giving beer tours!
While he explained the story of the New Belgium Brewery (and it's fascinating) we stopped for beer samples 3 times during the tour. I like having the beer samples spaced out like this, better than those tours that give it to you all at the end. He used each of those times to tell us a little more.
Fun fact - each New Belgium employee gets a bike on their one year anniversary! They also get a trip to Belgium on their fifth year! Plus with a stock ownership plan, they own the company. See what I mean? I want to work there!
A Fun Brewery Tour
The tour takes you through several different areas of the brewery. A really fun part was a slide that gets you from one floor to the next. You don't have to take the slide (I didn't because I have back issues that flare up, but my husband did. If you took your photo just so, it looked like you were performing for a circus (see the artwork on the floor.)
We thoroughly enjoyed our New Belgium Brewery Tour! Such a fun and enjoyable place!
It is so close to downtown Asheville, from our Aloft Asheville Hotel it was just 1.5 miles away!
Cathy Kennedy says
Pam,
I'm familiar with Asheville somewhat but since we don't drink a brewery is last on our list of places to see. Now, if you're talking about taking a tour of a chocolate or donut factory then count us in! 😉 What's with the bicycles in their decor? That's a neat company benefit to give one-year employees a bike. 🙂 It sounds like y'all enjoyed yourselves. Have a good week, what's left of it, and I send you warm wishes for a furtastic new year!
Pam Greer says
I'm with you on chocolate and donut factory tours!! That would be even better than a brewery!