January 28, 2009
Great tour ! the best beer tasting set up that i have seen you get five three-ounce samples and one 12-ounce glass of your favorite brew for $1. this brewery also makes most of the energy drinks under contract.

June 17, 2008
Ok, as the top City rater, I feel like I have a little authority here. I walked in and was initially ignored as lights weren’t even on in the bar area. So I strolled the gift shop area for a while so I could get myself a shirt. A few guys showed up at the bar, so I had to belly up and try a few of the $1 plastic cups of beers. I did this while enjoying the Christmas light decorations and glass cases including all of City’s contract brews. Once I got the attention of the employees, the ones I talked to were very knowledgeable, both about beer and the business. Eventually, I was able to chat up the head brewer. Nice guy and he knows the business. A great place to visit for a little bit of a hokey feeling, while still knowing they are a relatively large brewer.

August 27, 2007
Visited on a Friday afternoon at 1 PM. There were only about ten people in our tour group. The building was nice enough to look at, and the inside was set up for a wedding reception. The tour itself was good. There is a $1 tour where you get five three-ounce samples and one 12-ounce draw of your favorite of the five, or a $5 tour where you get five five-ounce samples, two 12-ounce draws of your choosing, and a tasting glass. The tour starts with a 15-minute video that is kinda boring. Our tour guide was nice enough, although not that interesting. Pretty standard stuff. The beers at the end were a little underwhelming. Three light lagers, one regular lager, and one pale ale. The Golden Leaf Pale Ale was the best. If you’re in La Crosse, might be worth the stop to see the United State’s fifth largest brewery.

August 14, 2007
Tour begins with a 15 minute movie presentation that essentially introduces you to seemingly every person that works at the brewery. This was a waste of time, but the subsequent walking tour wasn’t bad. They take you through some of the old brewery, including the Bier Stube and a view of the old copper kettles. There’s not much in the way of describing the process of making beer (what is there is done very quickly, and it seems as though the tour guide isn’t looking for many questions), and they could do more to tell some stories of the old brewery and its role in LaCrosse’s livelihood. But the tour is something to do when in LaCrosse. Lastly, they seem a bit ashamed that so much of what they do is contract brewing. The movie says nothing about it, and the tour guides comments on the visit to the store room with cans reflect a bit of hesitancy. They’d be smart to say straight out, "We’re a microbrewery in a macrobrewery’s facility, and to make ends meet, we brew beer and energy drinks and Arizona ice tea!" The 1 dollar tour (don’t pay for the $5 dollar -- it’s the same thing with a sample glass) ends with six 2 oz samples and one 12 oz sample. The Pale Ale was solid, although the rest were forgettable.

July 5, 2007
Pretty tacky industrial film promoting the brewery with a pretty fair tour. GIven that it is an industrial facility, its tour isn’t anything spectacular, however, it’s not bad. The end of the tour concluded with a tasting of 6 of their beers, which, for $1, was pretty worthwhile. Not all that great of beers, but not bad for the price.

February 23, 2007
In their hospitality room which has a lot of nice breweriana and a nice bar. Tables are just basic formica square seating 4. Beer is the current stuff the brew for sale in Wisconsin. Very friendly.