Best Brewery Tour near Boston
 

Will be in Boston for a 3 day weekend and definitely wanted to do a brewery tour. Obviously Sam Adams is the big name but is it the best brew tour or is there another more worthwhile option?

A handful of years ago I went on the Harpoon tour and it was quite good.

Yeah, Harpoon is good. There is a silver line stop right across the street.

Or take a day trip to Portland and hit up Rising Tide, Maine Beer Co, Allagash, Shipyard, and others.

Will have to save that for another trip, bug fan of Allagash though. I've only got a Thurs afternoon, Fri, and Sat. Leaving Sun morning.

Harpoon's tour used to be much more intimate when they were a smaller operation (but also had fewer tours). Now it's a well-oiled machine that runs all throughout the day, I believe. If I had any visitors in town who wanted to fun brewery tour experience, I'd definitely chose Harpoon as my top choice.

If you're looking for smaller brewies to visit (more for the craft beer and less for the tour), let us know. I'm sure we can also all chime in with our favorites. :)

Already knew about Sam Adams (and done it before but always worth another visit).

Harpoon is a new one on me so that's gone on the list so any other suggestions would be appreciated.

I'll all for more beer and less tour but we all know that the tour is the pennance we have to pay to get the beer!

I haven't been on the Sam Adams tour in a long time, but based on what I recall, you definitely get the opportunity to put down more beer on the Harpoon tour.

I arrive on a Thursday to Logan at 1pm. No checked bags to collect. Going to make a bee line for hotel. Sam Adams has a last tour at 3pm. If I arrive by 230, anyone know if I will have a problem getting on the last tour? They don't take reservations unfortunately.

Before you hop the T to go down there, call 'em up from Logan at (617) 368-5080 and see how the crowds look.

Good idea.

well I did the Harpoon tour.

Not impressed at all. Hard to hear the guide - spoke far too fast. Too many 'gags' which failed.

Managed to taste 4 beers - very small samples though - two mouthfulls and that was it.

Whole experience then marred by being totally ignored at the bar for at least 5 minutes. It was not busy (Tuesday at noon!)

I left feeling annoyed.

I only ended up doing the Sam Adams tour and really enjoyed it.