Road Dog’s Seattle Distillery Tour

Thanks Tosh, we had a good time!
Learned how whiskey, gin, rum, and vodka was distilled! And, the sampling was delicious at 3 Howls, Copperworks, and Batch 206. Great info on sights around town too. Highly recommend!

It was a Friday night. We met when his Rod Dog van pulled up to the curb of the Four Seasons. He got out of the van and that’s when we first met. We shook hands; he introduced himself as Andrew and I introduced myself as Rana. I eventually found out that he was engaged to be married; his wedding was two and a half months away. I was a little heart broken, but decided we could still be best friends. The only problem is that I was visiting from West Hartford, CT.
Andrew was our tour guide for the Road Dog Brewery Tours, which we found through Google. He was attentive, and was too good to our group of 12, filled with drunk asses and a Seattle Seahawks player trying to make the 53-​man roster. He took us to Bad Jimmy’s, Hillyard’s and Outlanders. I was impressed by all! He explained the beer making process at Hillyard’s and gave us a tour of the brewery. If anything; Andrew knew his shit; he had his beer facts together. He took into consideration our preferences and drunkeness when serving us the beer.
At the end of the day, I was as heart broken when finding out Russell Wilson was with Ciara when I found out Andrew was engaged to be married. But his attentiveness and beer knowledge mindedness still won me over. He was simply the best.
P. S. Yes, I am writing this review while still slightly inebriated post tour, with rosy-​colored beer glasses on.

We bought passes on Groupon for $ 39. We had a super fun time on the tour. We went to Von’s for 2 cocktails, then Letterpress for some limoncello, Sound Spirits for a whole slew of various liquors/​liqueurs including their new whiskey which just came out. After that we went to Batch 206 for vodka, gin, some flavored moonshines and the Barrel Raider Whiskey. We got to taste a ton of stuff, learned a lot, and it was nice to be driven around and not worry about driving and parking. I’d recommend taking a cab to and from the pick-​up/​drop-​off spot. There were only 6 of us on the bus and it was very comfortable.

Tour was awesome. Had a variety of liquor and took away some knowledge and some bottles. Ps Brian was great, he was informative and personable. Highly recommended.

I bought a Groupon and was not disappointed. The first place we went was a bar and the amount of alchol in the mixed drinks was about HALF the glass! This was great (if you like that) on an empty stomach. Lol.
It’s a nice tour to take while you’re on vacation and/​or like myself, not one to get out much and want something to do plus get a bit of education about certain things. The distilleries we visited ppl giving the tours were very helpful and answered the questions very well. All in all: fun tour!

The tour was everything that was expected. Brian the driver was friendly and knowledgable and put up with van full of tipsy customers. I would recommend the tour.

Had a great time, our tour guy was fun and informative, the distilleries were neat (and quite alcoholic…). Great time all around: D

Great time! Super great tour guide!!! Awesome value/​experience!

We had a great tour with Cliff as our guide. We learned a lot from the distillers about the process. Really enjoyed the selection of whiskers and gins at 3 Howls. Especially enjoyed learning about the limoncello at Letterpress. The distillers were generous with their time and tasting, including a barrel tasting at Batch 206.

We had an awesome time on this tour today. It’s a weekday so the tour itself was just me and my husband and another couple. We started at a bar near pike place market and tried two small servings of cocktails serving liquors from local distilleries. One was a negroni featuring gin from Copperworks and the other was a Moscow mule using hopped whisky from Three Howls.
Next we drove to Copperworks where we got an in depth tour from one of the owners of their beautiful still. We tried four different liquors they make. Pours were pretty generous. Next up we went to another distillery that was also very nice and pleasant and last up was three howls that was awesome. Everyone we met was clearly really passionate about their craft and excited to have us come through. Our tour guide Jason told us a lot about the history and process of washington’s distilleries. Id definitely go back on this tour or another with this group.

I was overall very pleased with the tour. I stumbled upon it thanks to a Groupon, and found at least the Groupon price to be a very good value.
The three distilleries we visited were very interesting. I was surprised at how very small operations they were — one or two stills each, small batches, etc. The shochu distillery was fascinating and opened my eyes to a new liquor. The second distillery was the least impressive — vodka and limoncello. The limoncello was delicious, but the warehouse smelled of animal urine — likely fermenting grains, but hardly a pleasant experience. The third distillery — 3 Howls — made the entire trip worth it! They do vodka, gin, whiskey and rum, all of which were delicious. The tour guide was by far the most passionate and generous with samples, and I ended up buying two bottles of their delicious vodkas. Even though the whiskeys were young, like one of the posters above complained, I found them to be quite delicious regardless of age declaration. Three thumbs up for Three Howls!
The only reason I marked this down a star were the logistics — cramming 15 people into a 12-​person van was less than legal and very uncomfortable, especially on an 85-​degree day.

It was super fun! A great group activity!

My friend and bought the Groupon for this tour for $ 39 per person. It advertised a tour of three local distilleries, learning about the history of distilling and the process behind the creation of various spirits, and two tastings of vodka, gin, whiskey, or other drinks at each distillery.
The tour guide was nice and very accommodating and the distilleries were fun and informative. However, the three distilleries we visited on our tour were each under one year old. So, we didn’t get to try any whiskey because whiskey takes 2 years to distill. We tasted one gin at one distillery and the rest were vodka and vodka variations. I was disappointed because I was looking forward to learning about and tasting all three spirits.
To make matters worse, two guys inquired about and then joined our tour at the first distillery. My friend watched them the whole time and said they didn’t pay. That is not fair for everyone who did pay. I feel like we overpaid, even with the Groupon discount. We got a nice shot glass and t-​shirt at the end of the tour, but I don’t want to advertise for them.
I suggest you forget the tour and visit the distilleries on your own. If you don’t have a designated driver, just walk or take public transportation. The samples are pretty small anyway.

The tour was disappointing. I learned less and drank less than I expected. The tour guide was nice, but not exceptionally knowledgable. There was no bus, but instead it was a fourteen passenger van. We were packed in like sardines. All in all it just wasn’t a good deal for the money I paid.