What you will see when taking a tour at Harpoon Brewery?
I attended my first Net Impact event at Harpoon Brewery a few weeks ago. I was especially excited to attend since Audrey and I started working on the Boston Brewery Broads Tour. I have never been on a brewery tour before so I approached the evening with new eyes. A few observations upon arrival:
- You could only park in the Harpoon Brewery lot for free after 5pm which meant that if you wanted to tour earlier, you had to either pay for parking at a lot or look for a metered spot.
- The Harpoon Brewery entrance was difficult to locate and once you did, signage wasn't great in directing you where to go.
- The check-in area and where you pay area where the same and confusing to find.
- Once you checked-in and paid, you waited in a second line where you were greeted by a member of Harpoon, read the rules of the tour and grabbed a pair of safety glasses.
The video above shows our tour guide talking about the history and success of Harpoon Brewery. It's an interesting story about three friends who shared a passion for beer (sound familiar, Audrey?) but couldn't find what they were looking for. So like any entrepreneur, they decided to brew their own and Harpoon was created. They own brewing permit #001 in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
The tour of the brewery itself was very informative and you got to touch
and smell the very products that go into making beer. Here are some of
our classmates doing just that:
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| Lacey |
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| Audrey |
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| Caroline |
Part of what made this experience so memorable was the experiential aspect of it. You really got to interact with the tour guides, ask questions, and smell and touch the products which create Harpoon beer.
Additionally, when in the tasting room for Harpoon, you were able to taste any of the beers and ask questions about how the beer was made, why it tasted the way it did, what food was recommended for the type of beer you were tasting and who brewed the beer. Here is a photo of what the tasting room looked like and a small demonstration by the guide who also served as our bartender:
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| Beer Tasting Room |
One can taste as many beers as they like in the tasting room. Because I drove, I didn't partake in as many tastings as I would have liked and think that this is a definite plus to the tour Audrey and I are creating. This will be a definite benefit to those taking our tour!
After the tour was finished (it lasted only 45 minutes), we were brought out to the Beer Hall where we were welcomed to have a seat, get a pint and some pretzels (for a fee, of course!) and listen to a brewer talk about Harpoon sustainability. The pretzels were actually made from Harpoon's own ingredients - they don't like to throw away a lot and make use of the wheat for their pretzels.
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| Two beers and an almost finished pretzel |
As the brewery tour experience came to an end, I had a better idea of what Audrey and I were trying to create as well as what we could do to offer a fun and safe experience to our customers. For one, there would be no drinking and driving! Leave that up to to Audrey and I. Second, we must include an experience with a brewer, after all, this is what people want to learn about (well that and drinking beer!). Third, transportation from brewery to brewery is a must in order to have this experience be easy. Parking was definitely not convenient.
Market research is a definite requirement when creating an experience such as this and I am so excited that my research included taking a brewery tour. I wouldn't be able to contribute to the success of the Boston's Brewery Broads Tour without it. Also, I hope all of you were able to take our survey. We need all the feedback we can get in order to create a successful tour that shares our passion with others!
Until next time,
Deb
