I've toured the brewery 2 times. The first time was when they had moved to the Milton location but were still running the old brewery. I was lucky to have the owner of DFH, Sam Calagione, lead the tour. The second time the tour was less interesting but still informative. The smell of the Palo Santo wood barrels alone makes it worth a trip. One of my favorite breweries. You get 4 samples of draft brews at the tour finish and a trip to the brewpub is almost mandatory, it's only 15 minutes away.

reviewed on: 2009-10-12 22:32:52

I drove from DC for a tour of the DFH brewery on July 24th and have to say I loved almost everything about this place. I got into home brewing because of their crazy beers, and this was a great treat.

They were undergoing an expansion at the time, so you had to enter by walking through the warehouse section where they store ingredients and their beer...which was cool to see as it wasn't a part of the tour.

The staff were all incredibly friendly and helpful, John the tour guide particularly. Since my first ever brewery tour was of Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis, the scale of smaller breweries aren't nearly as impressive, but the quality of their beer is far superior.

The tour was short and sweet, and you can't really hear well in the final section (where they have all the aging tanks) due to loud noise, but they gave a great overview of the brewing process.

The four tastings at the end were good and very diverse (certainly though, I would have loved more of them or more beer!), but I was surprised that they didn't have a really wide range of their beers for sale (only about 10 or so I think). Also, they have you reuse the same small plastic tasting cup...but I guess that's more environmentally friendly than using multiple cups...still though, reusable glass tasters for each sample would be better.

We had a large tour group size, but the sampling process went quickly and smoothly. I bought a few of the rarer beers, and the extremely friendly cashier told me that all employees get a free case of beer with each paycheck...now that's AWESOME!

reviewed on: 2009-08-15 16:24:55

I just finished with the tour and headed out to the brewpub which I reviewed too. This was a good tour. Our guide (I think Luke or something) was very knowlegdeable and friendly. the tour was an "extra" tour they made to accomodate people being late due to 4th of July traffic - very nice that they did that as I was one of the late ones too. Again the guide was very knowlegdeable but also enthusiastic. Seeming some of the original equipment was a bonus. I read Sam's book and so it was cool to see some of the stuff, though I would've love to have seen the "vibrating football field/continual hopper".

At the end of the tour we ended up in the merchadise/tasting room. Reading the other reviews, they must have changed their policy on how many tastings you can have. They handed out 4 little cardboard dogfish's - one for each beer on tap. So no drink as much as you want - rats!

The staff answered all the questions and were very accommodating, fun and seemingly proud to be a part of the brewery staff.

Overall, a good tour with some fun employee's. My only suggestion, either go back to the unlimited tasting or give out at least one more dogfish token so you can have one more of your favorite after tasting them all.

reviewed on: 2008-07-04 17:38:17

This is definitely a great place to visit. I unfortunately missed the beginning of the brewery tour but made it just in time for the end where they started sampling some of the various beers they have available. The staff there was really nice and the atmosphere was friendly and very reminiscent of a nice small town. They have such a interesting variety of ales but unfortunately, the only ones they had available for sampling were their 60 and 90 Minute IPAs, and their Indian Brown Ale. Of course you can consume as much as you want and this aids in purchasing all sorts of "off centered" merchandise.
I would definitely recommend visiting the brewery if you're a fan of hoppy beers and just interesting flavours. IPAs (India Pale Ales) and other hoppy beers aren't really my type but I still enjoyed their selection, I just wish they had more varieties available for sampling. My friends aren't into hoppy beers either and so the lack of a variety of samples didn't help change their minds.

reviewed on: 2008-04-21 00:42:35

I actually can't believe noone has reviewed the Dogfish Head brewery.
This place is amazing. I literally plan my vacation around when they have tours which is often, so that's good.
This place has grown each time I've been (4 years in a row). The tour is great, they take you through each step, and at the end they provide as much beer as you can handle, which of course aids in your purchase in cases of beer as well as gear (t-shirts, hats, signs, etc).
I highly recommend visiting the Dogfish Head brewery for a tour. And, it's less than 15-20 minutes from the BrewPub in Rehoboth Beach, DE.

reviewed on: 2008-03-02 15:18:33