My kids have experienced several winery and brewery tours over the years. I tend to think of it as a science or technology lesson! But a family friendly tour has just become available which introduces families to the production of locally made bottled soda.
Abita Brewing Company has bottling beer in our area since 1986 and grew to expand their facilities in 1994 to a state of the art larger facility in order to keep up with demand. In addition, the privately owned and operated by local shareholders has been creating soda (root beer is their 1st and my personal favorite) as well.
My son and I went to Abita Brewing Company’s inaugural family friendly tour which occurs for a limited time every Wednesday at 3:30p.m We didn’t know what to expect but we anticipated having a “sweet” time! To sweeten the deal, for a limited time guests will receive a 6-pack of soda to bring home!
The tour costs $2.50 a person and is a great value especially since you’re receiving a 6pack of soda (for a limited time) to bring home and recoup some of your tour fee. We had a group of about 14 which included parents and children which ranged from 1 year to my son who is almost 12 years old.
I paid online and arrived early to visit the gift shop prior to the start of our tour. My son and I browsed and also played a quick game of checkers before our tour began.
Once the tour began, our tour guide taught us about some of the key ingredients to making their popular sodas and got an inside look at equipment used and learned about their sugar kettles. The behind the scenes tour was roughly about 15 minutes long, if that. Due to the temperature back in the brewing area (it’s super warm back there) 15 minutes is probably all young children can handle in my opinion.
Once we left the brewing area, we made our way back to the sample area to learn about the various Abita Brewing Company soda flavors . Each guests received a sample glass of each of the 4 soda varieties:
Abita Root Beer
Vanilla Cream Soda
King Cake Soda
Bananas Foster Soda
Guests made their way to the tap room and went over each flavor and the ingredients used to create each variety. Guests also ranked each flavor to determine which flavor was a tour favorite. For our tour, guests chose Vanilla Cream Soda as their favorite by a landslide followed Abita Root Beer.
Each family friendly soda tour lasts roughly 45 minutes from beginning to end which is the exact amount of time some little ones can handle. In my opinion the tour is short, sweet and very affordable! For more information visit the Abita Brewing Company website.
Brewery Location
166 Barbee Road
Covington, LA 70433
(985) 893-3143
Tap Room
Visitor Center Hours
Sun – Thurs: 11am-7pm
Fri & Sat: 10am-8pm
Tour Hours
Guided Tour Hours
(Every Half Hour)
Wed & Thu: 2pm – 3pm
Fri: 1pm – 3pm
Sat: 10:30am – 3pm
Sun: 2 – 3pm
Self-Guided Tours
Sun: 11am – 1pm
Mon & Tues: 10am – 2pm
Wed & Thurs: 10am – 1pm
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