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Bottoms up! World's top brewery tours

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International breweries
While American craft breweries are defining the trend in celebrating great beer, many European breweries long ago set the standard.

"The beer culture in Europe is unbelievable," says Brian Sudano, managing director for the Beverage Marketing Corporation, a consulting and research firm. Sudano recommends Dusseldorf, Germany for its concentration of brewpubs, but says there are countless international spots for quality beer experiences.

Though Guinness has been a large-scale brewer for nearly a century, its facilities in Dublin are a destination for beer lovers around the world. The granddaddy of breweries stopped receiving visitors in 1972 when it was closed to the public for health and safety reasons. Instead, visitors tour Guinness' storehouse, a seven-story building dedicated to different aspects of the beer-making and tasting.

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In Switzerland, Jan Lichota of the trade association Brewers of Europe suggests Monsteiner Bier. High in the Swiss Alps, this brewery offers no fewer than nine unique beer-tasting opportunities, including a train ride and Nordic walking. These excursions end with a tour of the brewery, a tasting, or both.

Chimay, a monastery of Trappist monks that has been brewing since 1850, is an excellent choice in Belgium. Though visitors can't tour the brewery, they are allowed to walk through the abbey gardens and church. Afterward, they can head to L'Auberge de Poteaupre, an old school turned restaurant-brasserie where Chimay beers are on tap.

Your choices are not limited to Europe, either. The Kiuchi brewery in Ibaraki, Japan, caters to budding beer-makers with a personal lesson in devising a recipe, measuring malts, mashing and other techniques. The final product takes three weeks to ferment and can be shipped to any address within the country. While there, you can try the brewery's White Ale, Red Rice Ale or Sweet Stout.

Look for more of these opportunities as craft brewers find bigger audiences.

"It's starting to happen in all parts of the world because people are sick of the same choices," says Sudano. "As you travel around the world, you'll find different pockets where beer is becoming a boutique industry."

© 2009 Forbes.com

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