February 2, 2012
The hilltop brewery is absolutely amazing and the hard-hat tour is high recommended if you have the time. Great brewery tucked away in a small town with friendly and knowledgeable employees. The beer depot at the hilltop location is a must for those seeking newly released offerings as well as an occasional vintage release. The sampler is reasonably priced and typically offers a wide range of selections including R&D beers.

November 1, 2011
Have been to the original and hilltop brewery multiple, multiple times. The hilltop brewery is truly a marvel. Rather enjoyed the "hard hat" tour with beer and cheese sampling. Self-guided tour is, well, a self-guided tour. Nice gift shop. Samplers are nice and at a decent price. "Beer cellar" has some older Unplugged beers that you can’t find in stores any more. Dan Carey is always super nice and easy to talk to if you can catch him. One of the best breweries around.

September 5, 2011
Cool spot - gift shop/brewery site has a European feel, very nice. Brewery is large - they said they are doing about 95,000 barrels/year now. Very clean also. Self guided tours. Large gift shop with steins, glassware, clothing, etc. Sampling is 3 for $3.50, plus you keep the tasting glass. You can buy singles to-go of many of their beers as well.

August 29, 2011
The hill top brewery is absolutely beautiful. It’s a craft brewing stop the entire family can enjoy. They welcome you at the gift shop/ taproom. You can purchase a pint or taster of a number of beers to enjoy while you tour the brewery. Each comes with a souvenir glass. The tour is self guided but is open all of the tine. You can see each phase of the process and watch the workers behind glass walls. Once you have had your fill of the brewery and property you can head downstairs where you will find wall to wall cases of all of their offerings including the RD, thumbprint series, and unplugged. Last time I was there they had the unpluggeds dating back 2-4 sets. They only thing I wish they had more of were "guides" at the different phases of the brewing process to explain a bit of what was going on and to answer FAQ’s. That being said I understand they offer guided tours (which include a stop at the original brewery) a few times a week. A very nice day trip that I would do with the fam every year or so as we live about 2.5 hours away. The town of NG is a nice added feature to checking out the brewery as there are a number of neat shops and restaurants in the area.

August 14, 2011
The brewery is atop a hill and is very picturesque; absolutely gorgeous. They have a decent selection of their own stuff available; the stuff that is in season anyway. They offer three three ounce samplers and pint keep the glass deals. Once you have the glass the refills are cheaper, though the initial cost is a bit pricey. The staff is really nice and takes care of you quickly. Overall a great little brewery in a quaint little town.

August 14, 2011
This is my favorite brewery, but I’ll do my best to rate it fairly. Huge place. It was PACKED but this was the Sunday following GTMW so there were a lot of people coming here on the way out of town. It was wonderful wandering the brewery while sipping a pint of beer. Beer to go downstairs. Gift shop, tasting room and access to the brewery upstairs. Lots of cool stuff in the gift shop including a wide variety of German made steins that were way out of my budget unfortunately. Lots of shirst, glassware, other swag. Everyone was very friendly despite the crowds. Beautiful outside beer garden and grassy areas. Plenty of parking. I loved it.

August 13, 2011
I was shocked at how big this place was. It would seem that they should have the capacity to distribute nationally. Oh well. I was able to catch a guided tour by one of the co-owners and he made the brewery tour quite interesting. It was particularly interesting to me as a home brewer to see that they make thier wheat beers in open top fermenter vats. I enjoyed myself and would recommend this stop anyone.

July 27, 2011
I really like this place. Fresh NG brews on tap. Lots of nice merchandise for sale in the gift shop as well as some always tasty snacks to enjoy with your beer. Though they don’t really serve food per se. The self guided tour could have a little more info on the way, I dunno, posters or something, but you get to see a good chunk of the operation without having to go to far and the employees seem friendly and willing to converse. The beer shop may have slightly higher prices than nearby retailers, but it has all of their current offerings and usually some seasonal and unplugged stuff that I need to get caught up on. Boxes an crates are readily available to haul out larger purchases.

July 23, 2011
Visited in May of 2011 with my girlfriend and her brother. You couldn’t imagine a more picturesque location; the brewery itself is at the end of a winding mountain road, at a considerable elevation above the rest of the area. Staff is friendly enough, though there was a particularly surly-looking gent sweeping the steps when we got there. Self-guided tour is alright, but we came for the beers. Tasting is decent, though nothing that exciting when we got there: Moon Man, Spotted Cow, Fat Squirrel, and Raspberry Tart were all on tap. $3.50 for a free, high quality tasting glass and three samples was a good deal. All kinds of goodies in the shop: I picked up the Thumbprint IIPA, some Spotted Cow, Smoked Rye, and Unplugged Abt. Will definitely go again when in the area.

July 15, 2011
We visited the beautiful new brewery on the top of the hill. People were super friendly and we actually got to talk with one of the brewers on the self-guided tour. Sampling was fun with great views but limited selection. Beer store area offered cases or packs of the 12 oz stuff and of course lots of the Red and Tart. I was actually able to find some of the offerings lower priced in Madison but i guess you can’t beat the freshness.