Summit Brewing Company

February 25, 2008
Very clean, new-looking building. Tour was given by Doug Hoverson, author of a book about the history of Minnesota brewing called Land of Amber Waters. He was a great tour guide given his near encyclopedic knowledge of all things beer. The tour was free and came with three wooden coins for 1 free drink each. The sampling glasses were 10 oz or so. 30 oz of beer for free is a steal no matter how you cut it. They had their rare Oatmeal Stout on tap (great!) I would do this tour again the next time I’m in town simply for the fantastic Summit beers.

January 25, 2008
I don’t know how I have forgotten to rate this. I have been on the tour four times now! The front end of the tour is very information based and after you’ve heard it all before it gets kind of boring. The tour itself is very short. At the end you get three drinks from tap so it is usually fun to go when a new seasonal comes out.

July 15, 2007
Industrial estate location. Went on the brewery tour, which was fairly standard. This is a pretty big facility and there is a very large drinking space but you can only consume here in conjunction with the tour. Seven beers on tap when we visited. You get three drinks tokens at the end of the tour, and they were pretty strict about that. However, as we had a designated driver who wasn’t drinking and I had tried one of the beers already, I managed to try all the ones I needed, including the limited availability oatmeal stout. These guys have a pretty sizeable capacity and are really looking to be a regional rather than a micro. The beers rather reflect that - solid but mainly unspectacular. Nice that the company owner found time to come over and have a chat. Most of the beers are available in bottles or on tap round the region, so this is not really an essential stop, but an enjoyble way to pass a couple of hours.

June 22, 2007
The people at Summit were very nice. Even the President came to our table and introduced himself while we tasted the beer. For a tour, the options for tasting were very good and included more than one half of their products. I have been on better brewery tours. Summit’s tour begins with the guide giving an interesting lecture on the history of the company and their beer, rather than explaining as you tour the facility. The tour itself is quite short, only two rooms, and both are quite loud. The tour and 3 beers were free.