Beer Tours

We have recently revamped out beer tours as two different breweries have extended their days and hours.   We now can offer you more options with 11 brewery tours, more breweries with over one dozen (12) breweries in all and as many as 6 breweries on a tour, and with a variety of lengths ranging from 2 to 10 hours.  We also go to breweries in Dickinson, Galveston, and Webster.


History of Our Beer Tours

We began offering brewery tours in about 2007.  At that time only one Houston brewery existed:  St. Arnold Brewing Company that offered tours and in a smaller and different location.  Now, six Houston breweries exist that offer tours.  New breweries continued to open in 2011 (Karbach), 2012 (Buffalo Bayou), 2013 (8th Wonder), and 2014 (Whole Foods).  Furthermore, after discontinuing tours in the 1980s, Anheuser-Busch began offering beer tours again, effective April 2015.  The number of breweries and beer tours may continue to grow.  Until 2014 only St. Arnold Brewing Company was open during the day Monday through Friday and nothing was open on Sunday.  Now, 4 breweries are open for tours everyday:  Anheuser-Busch, Karbach, Whole Foods, and 8th Wonder.  Thus, in the past, we had six standardized 5.5-hour tours that mixed a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 3 breweries with bars.  Additionally, more breweries have opened in Galveston including Galveston Bay Beer Company in 2014, Galveston Island Brewing in 2014, and Beerfoot Brewery in 2015.  Visit our page on Night Life Tours for bar tours.

General Information

Cost

The cost of the tour includes all admission fees, tours, tastings and souvenir glasses with some exceptions.  Whole Foods generally does not have tours and does not provide a souvenir glass.  Anheuser-Busch does not offer souvenir glasses on its general tours.  Anheuser–Busch only offers souvenir glasses on extended tours that have limited availability each day that generally have to be reserved for larger parties, and cost more money.  The Dickinson, Galveston, and Webster brewery tour only includes the transportation.  

General Information

What Do You Get?

Each brewery in the immediate Houston area (except Anheuser-Busch and Southern Star which only have 3 samples) offers 4 samples in 5 to 16 ounce souvenir glasses.  Each brewery, except Anheuser-Busch, offers larger pints, mugs, and or steins to purchase to fill instead of the smaller souvenir glasses.  Although Anheuser-Busch gives each person only two beers at its taps, the glasses can hold about 11 ounces of beer so the amount of samples is about the same.  Furthermore, you are able to have additional samples directly from a tank when on a tour so in total, you will have more beer.  Dress warmly for this tour as you will go into a chilling room that has temperatures of about 35 degrees Fahrenheit/2 degrees Celsius.  Hint:  If you trade in the glass at the other breweries and buy a larger mug or stein, you will have more free beer to drink.  This is better than going out to a pub or a tavern.  Again, as written in the cost, the Dickinson, Galveston, and Webster brew tour does not include the samples or a souvenir glass.

General Information

Time Allocation

Each brewery, except Anheuser-Busch and Southern Star, normally gives you 4 samples.  We allow 1.0 to 1.5 hours at each brewery so that you can have sufficient time to casually drink each beer (about 15 to 20 minutes per beer) and possibly time to go on a tour.  Some breweries have formal scheduled tours; some have informal talks; some breweries do not have tours.

General Information

Food

Five breweries have their own restaurants: 

  1. BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse.
  2. Karbach Brewery Company. 
  3. St. Arnold Brewing Company
  4. Karbach Brewery Company. 
  5. Whole Foods.

The other breweries, with the exception of Anheuser-Busch, usually have a food truck where you can purchase food.  We encourage everyone who goes to two or more breweries to eat something to help absorb the alcohol.

General Information

Beginning and Ending

We begin the tours at the Greater Houston Visitors Center (VC).  However, if you are going to two or more breweries and drinking eight or more beers, I recommend that you either have someone pick you up from the VC or arrange with us to pick you up and drop you off at your home.  We do not want anyone jeopardizing their lives or the lives of others because they are driving under the influence (DUI) or driving while intoxicated (DWI).  A surcharge exists for pickups and returns outside of downtown.

General Information

Minimum Age

One must be at least 21 years of age, or be with their parent or spouse with the same address and have a valid driver’s license, passport, or legitimate photo identification card to show at each brewery.

General Information

Dress

One should wear closed toe shoes with good soles for multiple reasons.  Sometimes patrons at the breweries drop glasses of beer.  Floors can be wet and shards of broken glass can be overlooked.  For safety reasons, breweries require that all people wear closed toe shoes if they desire to go on the tank farm portion of the tour while the brewery is in production.

General Information

Addional Expenses

Bring cash for lunch, and if you so choose to purchase additional beers, mugs in which you can fill more beer, shirts, and souvenirs, not necessarily in that order.  Bring money for the beers on the Dickinson, Galveston, and Webster tour.

General Information

Scheduling and Deposit

These tours are normally SCHEDULED AT LEAST TWO WEEKS IN ADVANCE with a non-refundable deposit of roughly 50% paid to reserve the tour.  Call or write us in advance to make arrangements.  This contact information can be found at the top of the page.  All tours are scheduled by appointment.

General Information

On Site Tours

  1. Anheuser-Busch offers roughly 45-minute tours plus time to drink everyday from 10:00 AM through 5:00 PM.
  2. Karbach Brewing Company offers tours on Sunday and Saturday at 1:00 and 3:00 PM and on Monday through Friday at 3:00 PM. 
  3. Galveston Island Brewing has a tour at 1:00 PM on Saturday.
  4. No Label has a tour at 1:30 PM on Saturday.
  5. St. Arnold Brewing Company offers tours at 3:30 PM on Monday through Friday and on Saturday at 12:00, 1:00, and 2:00 PM.
  6. Southern Star offers a tour at 2:00 PM on Saturday.
  7. Whole Foods offers a tour at 6:45 PM on Thursday.

General Information

Tour Options

These tours are organized by the number of hours. The start times can be flexible for the tours.

On hot days, cool yourself in fresh cold beer. You drink; we drive.

General Information

Recommendations and Advice

For the longer tours of 7, 8, 9, and 10 hours, Beer Tours G, H, I, J, and K:

  1. Pace yourself.  If you drink too much beer at the first and or second breweries, you may not be in condition to enjoy the beers or the tours at the third, fourth, and or fifth and sixth breweries.  You may only want to have 2 beers per brewery.
  2. Do not guzzle beer.  Your goal should not be to simply get drunk and or to pass out.  You do not have to drink every beer in one day.  Save the rest of your life for drinking more beer.
  3. Save your tokens from the longer tours of 7, 8, 9, and 10 hours.  As examples, just because you could have as many as 16 beers in 7 hours on Beer Tour G or 23 beers in 10 hours on Beer Tour K, does not mean you should consume that much.  Keep more than half of your beer tokens for future use.  With the exception of Anheuser-Busch, you can go back again to the breweries with your souvenir glass and use your remaining tokens.  Now that you will know where these breweries are located, go back on your own or arrange with us for a discounted second beer tour.
  4. Do not make yourself sick.  This tour is supposed to be fun and informative.
  5. Eat.  Consume food to absorb the alcohol.
  6. Drink responsibly.

General Information


Tour A – 2 Hours – 1 brewery.  Your choice of:

  1. Anheuser-Busch, Karbach. Whole Foods, or 8th Wonder everyday.
  2. St. Arnold’s Monday through Saturday.
  3. Buffalo Bayou on Saturday only.

The Tours


Tour B – 3 Hours – 1 out-of-town brewery.  On Saturday only, your choice of:

  1. No Label in Katy.  Katy is 29.5 miles/47.5 kilometers from Houston.  Allow 42 minutes to get there.
    It is open between 12:00 and 3:00 PM. 
  2. Southern Star in Conroe.  We include a 16-ounce souvenir glass at Southern Star. Conroe is 44.9 miles/72.3 kilometers from Houston.  Allow 50 minutes to get there.  It is open between 12:00 and 6:00 PM. 

The Tours


Tour C – 3 Hours – 2 breweries.  Your choice of:

  1. Anheuser-Busch, Karbach, Whole Foods, and or 8th Wonder everyday.
  2. St. Arnold’s + Anheuser-Busch, Karbach, Whole Foods, or 8th Wonder Monday through Saturday.
  3. Buffalo Bayou + Anheuser-Busch, Karbach, St. Arnold’s, Whole Foods, and or 8th Wonder on Saturday.

The Tours


Tour D – 4 Hours – 2 breweries:  one out-of-town brewery and one local brewery.  Your choice of either:

No Label in Katy or Southern Star in Conroe + 1 of the following: 

  • Anheuser-Busch
  • Buffalo Bayou
  • Karbach
  • St. Arnold’s
  • Whole Foods
  • or 8th Wonder. 

This tour is available only on Saturday.

The Tours


Tour E – 5 Hours – 3 breweries.  Your choice of:

  1. Anheuser-Busch, Karbach, Whole Foods, and or 8th Wonder everyday.
  2. Anheuser-Busch, Karbach, St. Arnold’s, Whole Foods, and or 8th Wonder on Monday through Saturday.
  3. Buffalo Bayou + Anheuser-Busch, Karbach, St. Arnold’s, Whole Foods, and or 8th Wonder on Saturday.

The Tours


Tour F – 6 Hours – 3 breweries:  one out-of-town brewery and two local breweries.  Your choice of either:

No Label in Katy or Southern Star in Conroe + 2 of the following: 

  • Anheuser-Busch
  • Buffalo Bayou
  • Karbach
  • St. Arnold’s
  • Whole Foods, and or 8th Wonder. 

This tour is available only on Saturday.

The Tours


Tour G – 7 Hours – 4 breweries.  Your choice of:

  1. Anheuser-Busch, Karbach, Whole Foods, and 8th Wonder.  This tour is available everyday.
  2. St. Arnold’s + Anheuser-Busch, Karbach, Whole Foods, and or 8th Wonder.  This tour is available on Monday through Saturday.
  3. Buffalo Bayou + Anheuser-Busch, Karbach, St. Arnold’s, Whole Foods, and or 8th Wonder.  This tour is available only on Saturday.

The Tours


Tour H – 8 Hours –3 or 4 breweries.
We go to 3 or 4 breweries in 3 cities southeast of Houston:  Dickinson, Galveston, and Webster.  This tour involves over 109 miles/176 kilometers of driving.  The number of breweries is determined by traffic construction and congestion and how much time the party is spending at each brewery.  This tour is available on Sunday and Thursday through Saturday.  The price of this tour is strictly for transportation.  It does not include the beers.

The Tours


Tour I – 8 Hours – 5 breweries.

  1. Anheuser-Busch, Karbach, St. Arnold’s, Whole Foods, and 8th Wonder.  This tour is available Monday through Saturday.
  2. Buffalo Bayou + Anheuser-Busch, Karbach, St. Arnold’s, Whole Foods, and or 8th Wonder.  This tour is available only on Saturday.

The Tours


Tour J – 9 Hours – 4 breweries:  one out-of-town brewery and three local breweries.  Your choice of either:

No Label in Katy or Southern Star in Conroe + 3 of the following: 

  • Anheuser-Busch
  • Buffalo Bayou
  • Karbach
  • St. Arnold’s
  • Whole Foods, and or 8th Wonder. 

This tour is available only on Saturday.

The Tours


Tour K – 10 Hours – 6 breweries. Anheuser-Busch, Buffalo Bayou, Karbach, St. Arnold’s, Whole Foods, and 8th Wonder.  This tour is available only on Saturday.

The Tours


For prices of these tours, Click here . Note that you will require the free Adobe Reader in order to read these pricing documents. You can download the latest version of this software by clicking this link.


St. ArnoldBrew Crew tourBrewery Tap