Alexander Keith’s Brewery

What a joke. If you are a brewery and/​or beer person this is NOT the place for you. I decided to check it out a little before I decided if I wanted to do the tour or not and after my observations decided it would be a waste of my time. I sat in the bar to try the beers first and they only had two of their own on tap, the IPA and the Red Amber Ale. I got a pint of the Red Amber and it was super boring and tasteless. Between the lack of choices and the not tasty beer I decided to look elsewhere to get my beer fix. Maybe the tour could have been fun, I will never know, but the beer was not good and that is the most important part.

It’s $ 25, you get two 16 oz mugs of beer at the end. I think they should offer an actual tour of the real brewery as I find those are more interesting as you are really seeing how they make their beer.
This tour is theatrical and is more of a history lesson on how the company was formed in the 19^th century and early 20^th century. One thing I found contradicting was when the tour group was sat down in front of a TV in an old style room to watch a video on Alexander Keith… when just moments before we were told we were stepping back in time and should not have our cell phones out/​on as to not confuse the people of the 1800’s (employees dressed up).
I don’t think I would recommend this tour based on the $ 25 entry fee. It felt very rushed and systematic so that they could get as many people in and out in groups during the time blocks.

Don’t go to this expecting to learn anything of substance concerning Keith’s beers, their brewing process or the history of the brewery. What you will see is a group of actors I feel sorry for. Their cheesy, exaggerated portrayals of 19^th century characters destroys the potential that this beautiful heritage building has. The two sample size beer you are given isn’t enough given the song and dance (yes… song and dance) you have to sit through as part of the «brewery» tour. Congratulations Anheuser Busch on making a mockery of what may have once been a great beer. Save your $ 25 admission fee and go to one of the nearby microbreweries.

This brewery has tremendous history and potential. Instead of providing any of that, we saw people dance and sing in periodic costumes. Make sure you down your sample– they kick you after the tune.

(This is too the bar, not the Brewery tours)
Dear servers,
when there is someone sitting at the bar slurring their words, continually spilling their drinks over themselves and the people around them, and is a lot louder then needed… please cut them off.
From a concerned by stander.

Most awkward brewery tour ever. I WANTED to like this so much! Such a cool building with amazing history. I even like the concept of the tour — but everyone in costume was just so frantic. It seemed like they were trying to catch their breath to get quickly through their scripts the whole time. Never bothered to read the crowd or play to the group, or even warm us up into the concept — just bam, in your face. And might I add, the most expensive brewery tour I’ve ever been on as well. Yikes!

If you like a silly, campy experience with overacting and beer at the end, it’s a good time. Just don’t expect to ask any serious questions about beer. But we enjoyed ourselves.

Great fun, ignore the hater reviews, if you know how to enjoy a fun light hearted time then you will like.

Just in the keiths bar having a drink. Always a relaxed atmosphere and a great place to grab a drink while visiting the old farmers market on a sat. Enjoy the atmosphere, cesars are great and prices arnt bad. The bartenders are always friendly which makes the visit that much more enjoyable.

I’ve been to a lot of Brewery Tours and this is by far the most entertaining tour I have ever been to. At first I thought was OMG are you serious??? With all that over theatrical drama???
LOL it’s awesome really. These guys have have made it so while you’re learning about the history of the beer they are doing their best to entertain you as well.
I heard that the Brewery is haunted so here I was waiting and looking around for a glimpse of some kind of ghost.
The best part is the beer tasting. The guys doing the tour was dancing and singing while we enjoy our beer, I mean come on they were fun to watch and they seriously put a lot of effort into entertaining everyone.
Overall it was great time and I would definitely come back. The only criticism I have is that the girls in the cashier should share the same enthusiasm as the tour guides.

Much like the other reviews, I was not expecting a theatrical performance, but I tried to keep an open mind. As I waited patiently for the tour to get better, it just kept bombing. You literally learn nothing about the brewing process, the acting is over-​the-​top, and you don’t really get to enjoy the beer they give you because they’re rushing you. Then there’s the ongoing gag that we’re supposed to meet Alexander Keith, but the actors keep giving us excuses that he’s in a meeting or he’s busy, and to me it made no sense why they would lead us on like that. I expected him to come out and go into more detail about the real Alexander Keith and how he brewed the beer, but no it was one excuse after another. I guess they wanted to give the impression that he’s some legend or mythical kind of figure. I don’t know. The information they did share with us all came off as propaganda, at one point we were told to hold up our pints and put our hands over our chests and pledge that we would forever drink Alexander Keith’s beer. For $ 25, this was a total waste of money.

I don’t even know how to begin to rate this place. I was expecting a brewery tour… I ended up getting a high school version of a musical beer tour. This brewery tour is to Alexander Keith’s what the movie Team America is to… well America.
The show is OK but had I known what this was at the start of the tour, I would have skipped it. The people doing the tour are pretty cool though!

Terrible, just absolutely terrible.
I can understand people rating this tour as 4’s or 5’s, etc. But not me, and I’ll admit, it’s a personal rating. My problem with the tour is that it’s not based on how beer is made, which is what my expectations were going in. Maybe that was my fault. But when I heard ‘beer tour’ that’s what I thought.
Instead, what you get is a full advertisement of Keith’s beer. I guess that’s okay. To top it off, it’s filled with awkward acting, cringe moments and 2 rushed pints. Again, I’m sure there are people who went to the brewery thinking it was fantastic, unfortunately, I’m not one of those people. I wanted to learn about how beer is made from inception to completion.

I am so surprized to see the negative reviews of this tour. I have been on several brewery tours in my life and I’d have to say the Alexander Keith’s is quite unique. Yes the guides are in costume, yes they act in period of the brewery’s founding, yes they sing but I found it all very interesting and entertaining! And what brewery tour does NOT include self promotion? What do you think the free beer at the end is for anyway?
Its not meant to be the run of the mill «here’s the copper kettles, and these are the types of hops we use, blah, blah, blah» No this is acted out which in my book makes this tour unique, not bad.
We brought one of our daughters here the night she became drinking age and so enjoyed the included beers at the end of the tour listening to the singing of period songs, she was thrilled and what a memorable way to have your first legal beer?
Alexander Keith’s beer is outstanding by the way, best IPA ever, hoppy yet smooth and not overly filling like most. Highly recommend others to give it a try!

If you’re looking to learn about how a well known brewery operates, how the brewing process works, about some of the different style beers that the brewery produces or just to simply get a feel for the culture of Alexander Keith’s, this is NOT your brewery to visit.
If, on the other hand, you’re looking to experience one of the most awkward live drama/​musical renditions of a beer commercial set in 19^th century period costume, this is absolutely the place to go! For the low price of $ 20 per head, you can enjoy this spectacular docu-​mmercial every half hour, 7 days a week.
The shameless promotion of the great Alexander Keith as a master brewer, statesman, family man and pioneer of Halifax will leave you warm and feeling happy about the one and perhaps two rushed beers you gulped in between the song and dance routines. Don’t worry about learning details such as the facts and figures that would support these claims. Instead there’ll be plenty of intrigue provided in the form of rumors of unnamed British governors that frequented Keith’s alehouse or of buxom maidens that came to the new world in search of adventure and of Alexander Keith’s exquisite India Pale Ale.
Enjoy at your own peril, matey’s.

This is by far the most delightful brewery tour I’ve ever experienced. All future brewery tours will undoubtedly pale in comparison.
Now, OK, you’re not going to get totally hammered. If you do brewery tours for all-​you-​can-​drink beer, you would probably be better served elsewhere. What you do get is 1 – 2 mugs of tasty beer, depending on how fast you drink them. If you’re going for an in-​depth look at the beer-​making process, you may be better off surfing YouTube. You’ll learn a little, but this is really more about the show than the learning experience.
But if you want an entertaining and whimsical experience, a peek into the way breweries operated in the 1800s, a refreshing drink, and a nice show, this is a wonderful way to spend an hour. Tour guides are dressed in 1800s clothing. They speak in the 1800s manner. And they join the guests in a cozy little room to tell jokes, play cards, sing, and dance. The woman who spoke to us was completely adorable. More than a week later, I’m still smiling as I recall this experience. Such a great time.

Im going to start off by saying, I was NOT expecting the whole acting and singing bit.
The first beer was nice, the second was good, a third would have been great! And if they started the tour off with beer it would have been even better!
The acting was OK. Not great but I guess you have to be overexcited and full of piss and vinegar to be able to make a brewery tour exciting! Just give me the beer!

I can’t believe that I’ve never been since I moved to Halifax 10 years ago! And I am a sucker for cheesy tours like that!
On Saturday, my friends decided to do the tour since it was pouring rain and there was nothing else to do. So the 7 of us went and had a blast.
I loved the actors in their period costumes (the time-​traveller/​sci-​fi geek in me pretty much digs that!)
I will be doing this again when my cousins are in town from Boston!

This afternoon, as part of our sales conference, we did a tour of the Alexander Keith’s Brewery. There were about 55 of us so we were broken up into two groups.
Actors in period costumes take you back to 1863 (Alexander’s time).
We were given an explanation of how beer is made. Then we were led into the Stag’s Head Tavern for some sampling of their IPA, premium white, red amber ale and/​or dark ale. Keith’s IPA is my beer of choice so I tried their premium white … I liked it.
We had some time before our dinner reservations so we had a drink in the Red Stag Tavern, which is attached to the brewery.
It was a fun tour … I’d done it years ago. I still found it entertaining yet again.

Being Canadians and enjoying our beer, me and my husband had to check out the Keith’s brewery tour on our visit to Halifax. We were pretty excited about it, and afterwards, pretty disappointed. Note that the ‘2’ rating is for the tour, not the beer itself.
Halifax is a beautiful, lively city and this brewery is one of the oldest in North America. The backstory is an interesting one. We’ve done a couple of brewery tours in our day and were looking forward to this one.
I can honestly say that I didn’t learn a heck of a lot on this tour. All of the «tour guides» were in period costumes and COULD NOT break character. Now, it’s not their fault, but I just can’t stand period acting like that. When I go on a brewery tour I want to sample a couple of the beers and learn about it, too. We didn’t hear much at all about the actual brewing process. A few minutes at the beginning, that’s it. They are very generous with their samples (everyone got two full pints), but I didn’t learn a thing. It was all stories and old-​timey singing (shudder) and 1800s poker. Whatever. Speaking of the two pints, that was sweet, but we were not given enough time to finish them. I had to gulp down my second one and spilled all over the place. I’d like to enjoy my beer, thank you.
The tour is $ 15.95 for adults and runs every half hour in the summer from noon til 8pm (less frequently otherwise). They have a decent gift shop, though.
Go if you consider period acting to be mildly entertaining and think the price is worth it for two «free» pints. Otherwise, grab a Keith’s or any other Nova Scotian beer anywhere else on Water Street.

Die Brauerei des leckeren Keith’s Indian Pale Ale ist auf jeden Fall einen Besuch wert!
Es werden Führungen durch die Brauerei angeboten. Dabei bekommt man zunächst in einem kurzen Film alles Wissenswerte über die Geschichte der Brauerei vermittelt. Anschließend wird man von Mr. Keith persönlich durch die Brauerei geführt. Ein paar üppige Bier-​Kostproben dürfen dabei natürlich nicht fehlen!
Abgerundet wird der Ausflug durch einen Besuch im Shop, dort gibt es u.a. wirklich sehr schöné Biergläser und –krüge, die ein tolles und praktisches Souvenir sind!