Abita Brewery Tour

Do you like beer and/or root beer? How about if it's free for 2 hours? If the answer is yes, then you should check out the Abita Brewery's free tour.

The brewery was founded in 1986. The little St. Tammany Parish town of Abita Springs, Louisiana has been known for its pure spring waters for over a century. The water from the deep artisian wells to give its beverages a distinctive flavor.

Free tours of the facility, with all the beverages you can drink during the one hour tour is a delightful way for the beer lovers in the family to spend a Tuesday, Wednesday or Saturday. Abita also makes an excellent non-alcoholic root-beer.

The springs of the area were once known as a place of healing and were used by Native Americans and others for soaking and relaxation.

All photographs are by Y.L. Bordelon

We took the tour with a group of friends and enjoyed it thoroughly so we thought we'd share the fun with you. We wish that we could also share the beer, but... you'll have to settle for the visual part of the tour.

We begin in Abita Springs, Louisiana on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. The Abita Brewery is located off of Highway 36 in Abita Springs, LA.

If you have a group of 20 or more please contact kathy@abita.com to schedule an alternate tour time.

Hours & Tour Times

Wed,Thurs & Fri: 2pm - 3pm

Tour Time: 2pm

Sat: 10am - 3pm

Tour Times: 11am, 12pm, 1pm & 2pm

Saturday morning, we met Richard's family and others for a trip to the hospitality room of the Abita Beer Brewery for some free samples of their products and to tour the facility. It was a great learning experience and fun for all.

Some great Louisiana recipes using Abita beer.

We entered through the French Quarter style patio and through the French Doors.

All the adults get a purple or gold colored bracelet to mark the free tour that they took so that they can't drink any longer than they are supposed to.

Upon entering, most of the group rushed to the taps to begin sampling each of the available beers or root beer.

Here I am at the front of the line... hmmm, so many to choose from, decisions, decisions. Will it be Purple Haze or Amber or...?

A guide to some of the best breweries and Abita is one that's in there.

St. Tammany Parish is in LSU Tiger Country. In fact one of their most famous beverages, Purple Haze, sports the purple and gold colors.

After embibing in the delicious ales and for Yvonne, root-beer, the tour began with a talk about the history of the brewery. The original facility was established in 1986 at the location of what is now the Abita Brew Pub.

The original brewery was housed in this small building for the first 8 years. It is now the Abita Brew Pub.

Abita Springs was chosen because of the many pure spring fed artisian wells that are located in the area. The water is drawn from a deep artesian well in the Southern Hills aquifer system. Over 3,000 feet deep in some areas, it contains fresh water kept pristine in underground structures that are more than five million years old. The Choctaws used it for medicinal purposes and stories are told about its healing properties.

An attractive arrangement of some of the special ingredients.

A mini-keg system for the home. How cool is this?

We heard about some of the special processes used to make the delicious beverages. There are only four main ingredients: Water, Barley, Yeast, and Hops.

They recommend that you wear closed toe shoes, but those of us who forgot were issued the special blue "Katrina" booties. They are nicknamed for Hurricane Katrina because they are the same blue color as the thousands of tarps that covered the damaged roofs after the storm.

Finally we went on the tour, which was really interesting.

First stop was the cellar, where the giant vats of fermenting ingredients are stored.

Each vat holds many gallons of liquid. Yeast is added to cooled liquid and fermentation occurs.

Mash Tun: Warm Water and Barley Mash

Lauter Tun: The Mash is transferred to the Lauter Tun. The sweet liquid, called the First Wort is drained from the mash and collected.

Merlin: boils the liquid (the wort) from the mash. Hops are introduced into the wort at three different stages in the boiling process.

The beer ages in the cold, dark stainless steel tanks for a minimum of 14 days up to three months. During the aging process the yeast settles and separates from the beer.

At the end of the aging period it is filtered, using a two part filtration process.

Testing the temperature and taking a sample of the finished product.

After the beverage has aged it is ready to be bottled.

It is pumped from the vats into the bottles, then packaged as 6 packs.

Some of the product is put into kegs.

They said we could have some free samples, but the keg was to heavy to carry to our van.

Soap made with some of the fruit flavors of Abita Beer.

After the product is packaged it goes into one of the refrigerated trucks for delivery.

The new Abbey Ale donates part of its sales to St. Joseph's Abbey near Covington.

.....and after the tour.....they brought us back to the hospitality room.....and we practiced mixing "Turbo dog" and "Purple Haze"...............to make "Hound dog". :)

You may enjoy this mp3 by Bobby Lounge.

"Hound Dog.....good...........hic.......hic Just kidding. I like to ham it up for the camera.

Richard liked his blue booties so much that he wore them home.

They ran us out to make room for the next group. Being good citizens, we finished our beer before getting in the car with our designated driver.