The concept is amazing; their delivery: leaves much to be desired. Upon arriving 3 mins before…read moretheir 4:15pm start time, we walked into the downstairs of Capital to see the rest of the tour folks taking a drink of the 2nd beer sample. I politely ask the tour guide, "What beers were sampled today?" His response was a look of confusion, and he didn't know the beers that were sampled. Better yet, we were not even offered the samples. Strike 1.
Everything seemed a little disorganized and that was made evident when the owner, not giving the tour this past Saturday, asks "Who hasn't purchased tickets yet?" We were immediately looked at and given the look, you're not going on the tour because you walked in last; regardless of the fact that we purchased our tickets over a month beforehand. Evidently, the company could not count the number of people on their own tour list to see that we had 2 people too many. A couple that was there on their anniversary date were asked/told they would not be going and they would be given an extra two tickets. Strike 2.
Upon getting on the bus and rolling over to Legends the group we were with was a solid group. We were all joking and having a good time. At Legends everything was a little chaotic and not organized at all (definitely not a shock after our start). It was nothing beyond the standard Legend flight, that was poured and half the time the tour guide pouring didn't know what was in the pitcher (Pale or IPA, he did not know). Really? Also, we were told nothing about the beers that were being poured, were given no tour or description how they brew there, nothing. Strike 3.
Next up was Midnight Brewery. We arrive and find out there is some beer festival going on; interesting. We get inside and the guide has no idea what is going on. 5-10 mins later he walks around and hands us all a $5 beer coupon and says, "They are not doing samples due to the event." Ok. So my group and myself proceed up to the pouring area and talk to the bartender. Super nice and points out that most of the small brewery owners were there hanging out. So, the bartender knows more than our guide, awesome! We get introduced to the owner and was ask him to give us a tour. He was very welcoming and then introduced us to Neil Burton, the founder of Strangeways (where we were heading next). A huge thumbs ups for Midnight! Tour company: strike 4.
We get to Strangeways and everything was. . . . unorganized/chaotic. Surprised? Me either. They give us a few samples to taste, and were nice. We again, heard nothing about their brewing process, did not see the brewing room, nothing. The beer was tasty, no question. Strike 5.
This tour needs a major overhaul for it to be worth it. At $65 a ticket, this was one of the biggest wastes of $130 we had spent on a night out ever. I'm not one to bash a company, but for the 3 places we went (I'm not counting Capital since we didn't get any samples there) we could have gone and asked for a tour, had a few samples and spent half what we did.