In 2010 two brothers, Ron and James Holt, and a long-time family friend, James Watkins, chose to take their passion for craft beer on the road, literally. They started a beer tour business known as North Bay Brewery Tours.

Ron told me that he and his business partners did their share of bouncing around between breweries and taprooms in the past and decided that others wanting to do the same needed a trusty and reliable designated driver. With breweries so spread out the only option in the past from getting to more than one in a day was designating a driver or hiring a taxi service, which can get expensive very quickly.

“In 2010 lots of people were doing wine tours and nobody was doing beer tours. We started with one bus and are now up to seven,” said Ron Holt.

North Bay Brewery Tours offers guided tours of local beer destinations as well as trips into the San Francisco Bay Area. They will travel into the east bay as well.

A VIP tour will get you a tour guide in addition to the driver. This tour guide will offer information about the beer and locations while also serving as a beertender on the bus. Yes, the bus comes with beer on tap!

The North Bay Brewery Tours office is located in Rohnert Park, the Holt brother’s hometown. For more information, pricing and to schedule a private tour go to http://northbaybrewerytours.com/

– Peter Lopez

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