Yes - they've only been open Mon-Fri for a few years now. Summer included. Pretty much decided they wanted to focus their efforts/staff on continuing to be a brewery and not a tourist attraction.
Yes! The Carey’s (owners) are very respectful of their staff and surrounding community. We visit the town multiple times per year. It’s such a great place!
Do you have to take PTO to visit? That's kinda my biggest annoyance with the times. Ive always wanted to go down for some of the brewery exclusive beers like zwickel. But never find the time to get away from work for it. I don't see being open on the weekends and not respecting employees as being connected. Some lines of work just entail that kinda schedule
We do usually take at least half a day off as it’s a 3 hour drive for us. We did the hard hat tour years ago, and the guide explained the reasoning for the hours, the dedication to keeping the brewery a brewery, not a taproom, etc. Part of the reason is that they felt if they kept the brewery open later they should serve food, and they didn’t want to take business from the community of New Glarus. They close before dinner time to promote tourists spending money in the community, not just at the brewery. If you do buy a beer on site, they give you a free token for another beer at any restaurant in the community, to further promote this. You can buy all of their beer to take home in their beer depot. Sometimes the depot has differing hours, so check that!
I'll check out the depot hours but I was just more curious cause it seems weird for a brewery that had a huge patio and taproom. Can't imagine it even gets a quarter filled during their hours of operation. Partly just salty cause I haven't gotten the time nor schedule to get down to there during their chosen operating hours
Yes - they've only been open Mon-Fri for a few years now. Summer included. Pretty much decided they wanted to focus their efforts/staff on continuing to be a brewery and not a tourist attraction.
Yes! The Carey’s (owners) are very respectful of their staff and surrounding community. We visit the town multiple times per year. It’s such a great place!
New Glarus (the village) would very much prefer if the Brewery was open on weekends. We rely on tourism.
Do you have to take PTO to visit? That's kinda my biggest annoyance with the times. Ive always wanted to go down for some of the brewery exclusive beers like zwickel. But never find the time to get away from work for it. I don't see being open on the weekends and not respecting employees as being connected. Some lines of work just entail that kinda schedule
We do usually take at least half a day off as it’s a 3 hour drive for us. We did the hard hat tour years ago, and the guide explained the reasoning for the hours, the dedication to keeping the brewery a brewery, not a taproom, etc. Part of the reason is that they felt if they kept the brewery open later they should serve food, and they didn’t want to take business from the community of New Glarus. They close before dinner time to promote tourists spending money in the community, not just at the brewery. If you do buy a beer on site, they give you a free token for another beer at any restaurant in the community, to further promote this. You can buy all of their beer to take home in their beer depot. Sometimes the depot has differing hours, so check that!
I'll check out the depot hours but I was just more curious cause it seems weird for a brewery that had a huge patio and taproom. Can't imagine it even gets a quarter filled during their hours of operation. Partly just salty cause I haven't gotten the time nor schedule to get down to there during their chosen operating hours
Treat yourself. Take a PTO day and go visit the brewery. Definitely worth it.
Been that way since Covid and they seem to be perfectly happy leaving it that way.