The next stop for Kelly’s birthday celebration was…Leinenkugel’s Brewery. We highly recommend this tour if you are within driving distance.

It’s not called the Leine’s Lodge for nothing- when you pull up, it really is a lodge!

The Leinengugel’s Brewery Tour is well-run tour lasting about 45 minutes. For $5 you get to taste 5 samples of beer that are in season. You get to take home a little Leinenkugel’s glass, perfect size for bloody mary chasers. The Leinie Lodge is a place to purchase souvenirs, clothing or have your picture taken in front of a green screen with your choice of three different brewery backgrounds.

The inside is part tasting room, part retail space and part museum. It’s fun to walk around Leine’s Lodge and look at everything. We spent at least an hour just looking around. Plan to get there early and take your time looking at everything.  There are big and comfy, leather chairs and couches next to the fire place so you can sit down and relax for a bit.

The tour starts by walking by a bridge with a beautiful mural painted underneath.

The grounds are beautiful. The campus is very clean. The tour only takes you to one building- the actual brewery- this is where the magic happens! The tour guide was very knowledgeable, providing us a bit of history on the brewery before we went in to watch the magic happen.

The beer tasting back in the lodge was fun. Really, what’s not fun…. it’s a weekday on a beautiful summer day and everyone is there to sample beer!

Our bartender, John, was attentive to all customers yet took the time to answer all of our questions and gave us a recommendation where to get a bite to eat afterward. This is one of the few places I can think of where it’s quite obvious that the staff members really like their jobs!

These were the beers that we were able to chose from to sample during the tasting part of the tour. Depending on when you take the tour, the seasonal beers will switch out.

Aren’t the taps pretty?

This was kind of cool- recipes for beer combinations using Leinenkugel’s Beer.

When it was all said and done, we spent a few hours at Leinenkugel’s Leine’s Lodge and it was a fun and educational beer-tasting experience. Well worth the $5 and we highly recommend it!