Your first brewery visit as a corporate employee: what to look for

Before you go

Read a short overview of how beer is made so the stages make sense when you see them. Our guide to how beer is made is a good start. Keep a glossary handy too: the beer glossary for new joiners covers the words you will hear.

Bring three questions from your own work. A planner might ask how long a lager stays in tanks. An analyst might ask where volume is measured. A marketer might ask what makes the flagship beer taste the way it does. You will learn more by chasing your own questions than by following the tour.

Safety comes first

A brewery is a working factory with real hazards. Expect a safety briefing and follow it exactly.

• Wear the closed shoes, safety glasses, hearing protection or hi-vis you are given.
• Stay with your guide and on marked walkways. Floors are often wet.
• Do not touch valves, pipes or equipment. Some carry hot liquid, caustic or acid.
• Carbon dioxide from fermentation can collect in low or enclosed areas. Never enter a tank or a confined space.
• Packaging halls are loud and fast. Keep clear of moving lines.

The way a brewery handles visitors says a lot about its safety culture.

What to look for at each stage

• Malt intake and milling. Look at the malt. Taste a grain if offered. Ask where it comes from and how it is stored in heat and humidity.
• The brewhouse. Mash tun, lauter tun, kettle and whirlpool. Notice the smell of sweet wort and hops. Ask how many brews a day the brewhouse can do.
• Fermentation and lager tanks. Tall vessels, often outdoors at large breweries. Ask how long beer stays here. This is where capacity really sits.
• Filtration and bright beer tanks. Where beer becomes clear and ready to pack.
• Packaging. Bottle washer, filler, crowner, pasteuriser, labeller. Watch how fast it runs and what gets rejected.
• Quality lab. Where samples are tested against the specification. Ask what gets measured on every batch.
• Utilities. Boiler, refrigeration, water treatment and effluent treatment. Unglamorous and essential.

Questions that get good answers

• What is the hardest thing to get right here in summer?
• Where do you lose the most beer?
• What happens when a batch fails a test?
• Which numbers do you look at first each morning?
• What would you change if you could?

Brewers and operators are usually happy to talk about their work to someone who is genuinely curious. Listen more than you speak. Note the words they use. Those words will help you read reports later.

One detail worth watching

If you get the chance, stand by the filler for a few minutes. Watch the fill heights in the bottles or cans as they pass the level inspector. Ask what happens to the ones that are rejected and how many that is in a shift. That one machine connects quality, losses, cost and excise records in a way you will see in your data for the rest of your career.

Tasting, if it is offered

Many visits end with a tasting. It is optional and should be within your company's policy. Take small pours, use the spit cup if you like and drink water. Colleagues who do not drink can join by smelling and discussing. No one should feel pressure either way. Nobody should drive after drinking.

Ask the brewer to point out what to notice: malt, hop aroma, bitterness, carbonation. Tasting with a professional teaches you more in ten minutes than a month of reading.

After the visit

Write down what surprised you within a day, while it is fresh. Then look at one report you use regularly and mark each number with where it comes from on the floor. Share that with your team. One visit, written up well, can change how a whole team reads its dashboards.

If your role is commercial, ask to sit in on a quality meeting or a morning production call during a later visit. Hearing brewers, packaging leads and lab staff decide what to release, what to hold and what to fix is the closest you will get to seeing the business think. Most teams welcome a quiet observer who asks good questions afterwards.

Common questions

What should I wear to a brewery visit?

Closed, flat shoes with good grip and comfortable clothes. The brewery will usually provide safety glasses, hearing protection and hi-vis.

Do I have to drink on a brewery visit?

No. Tastings are optional and should follow company policy. You can smell and discuss the beer without drinking.

How long does a brewery visit take?

Usually a few hours, depending on the size of the site and how much time you spend in each area.