City Brew Tours offers unforgettable all-inclusive tours and beer-focused experiences in some of the best beer cities throughout North America. With over a decade of experience, City Brew Tours has created the ultimate craft beer experience that blends history, beer knowledge, transportation, and great food with unrivaled access to an area’s top breweries and their beer.
Our mission is to be the leading curator of craft beer experiences for visitors, locals, and the community as both an ambassador and an advocate for the brewing industry.
Where we began
City Brew Tours was founded in Burlington, Vermont in 2008 by Chad Brodsky, a college kid who had fallen in love with craft beer while studying in Vienna. Thirsting for more, he returned home and enrolled in the University of Vermont’s “Beer Making 101” class. Fortunately, Chad quickly realized he wasn’t cut out to brew beer. Instead he bought a used church van, put on his lederhosen, and set off to spread the gospel of craft beer.
Chad’s timing was perfect. MSNBC had recently pronounced Burlington the fourth best beer city in the world, and Americans were starting to get a taste for craft beer. Vermont Pub and Brewery founder, Greg Noonan, was the first to open his doors to the new business, and Burlington Brew Tours was born. At the tender age of 21, Chad became the first to establish a brewery tour company on the East Coast.
Burlington Brew Tours became well known for its unique tours led by beer geeks who doubled as designated drivers. By 2012 Chad had perfected his business model. He left his full-time job in finance and opened a second location in Boston. With tours running in two cities, Chad changed the company’s name to “City Brew Tours” and set off to add more locations.
By the end of 2017, Chad was juggling operations in five cities and needed help. Enter Barry Hansen, Jr., a professional brewer and part time City Brew Tours beer guide who was instrumental in launching operations in Washington, DC a couple years prior. Barry grew into the role of COO, became co-owner and used his background in leadership, biotechnology and the brewing industry to streamline logistics and expand the company.
With Barry on board, City Brew Tours grew quickly. The company opened three new locations and launched a franchising program in a span of just two years.
As of at the close of 2022, City Brew Tours operates in 17 cities and continues to expand. The year 2022 saw the launch of three new locations: Salt Lake City, UT; Jersey Shore, NJ; and Austin, TX. With more locations coming soon, don’t miss out on special announcements—sign up for the City Brew Tours newsletter.
Meet the Team
Chad Brodsky: Founder & CEO – Certified Cicerone®
Chad has always been an entrepreneur. As a child, he started businesses that ranged from convincing his peers to buy other people’s business cards to shoveling his neighbors’ driveways. Chad decided to buy his brother a Mr. Beer kit for his birthday as he thought it would be a great brother bonding experience. The first beer they ever brewed was a Nut Brown Ale, which didn’t turn out great. Between homebrewing with his brother and spending a semester studying in Austria, Chad’s passion and excitement for flavorful beer grew immensely. Still not knowing much about craft beer except that he loved drinking it, he enrolled in “Beer Making 101”, an elective which was offered at University of Vermont. After graduating, Chad took a job as a Financial Analyst at a local bank but realized his entrepreneurial spirit was stifled. In 2012, Chad decided to leave his finance job and move to Boston to focus on growing CBT full time. It was in Boston that Chad met his wife, Liana. When not beer touring, Chad enjoys taking his dog, Oliver, to the park, traveling, and trying new types of food.
Favorite Beers: Duchess de Bourgogne, Samuel Adams Boston Lager, Lost Nation Brewing – Gose, and any delicious Lactose IPA.
Kalimah Mustafa-Widberg: Administrative Specialist
Kalimah is a purebred Bostonian
with an affinity for cozying up with a warm porter on a crisp fall evening. She used to be one of the “I just don’t like the taste” beer-naysayers, but a sip of her first milk stout changed everything. Since then, she has embarked on an exciting journey through the wonderful world of craft beer, which lead her to join the City Brew Tours team in October 2017. Outside of her beer peregrination, you can always count on Kalimah for comic book recommendations and unsolicited lectures on honey bee anatomy.
Favorite Beers: Night Shift – Awake, Fishtown – The Pepper in the Rye, and pretty much everything by Dogfish Head.
Matt LaRosa: Sales & Development Specialist
Matt never met a beer he didn’t like. He developed a deep knowledge of the industry and a love for the culture and community surrounding beer while working as a sales representative for a beer distributor in the North Shore of Massachusetts. He joined the CBT team to launch our wholesale business and help clients create unforgettable moments during our craft beer experiences. In his spare time, you will find him tearing up the ski slopes, paddling on the closest body of water, or on the hunt for new beers and breweries wherever he travels.
Favorite Beers: Foam – Experimental Jet Set, Allagash – White, Founders – Breakfast Stout
Allie Popolow: Private Sales Coordinator
Allie is a proud Chicagoan, singer, pianist, classic rock enthusiast, and traveler. She used to think she never liked beers until the monumental day when the tasted her first sour beer, and is now always on the hunt to find the next best sour. With years of experience in the food and beverage industry, she is excited to bring curated craft beer experiences to clients that will create lasting memories and bring their event vision to life.
Favorite Beers: Revolution – Freedom of Speach and everything else sour
Alexa Connelly: HR Specialist
Alexa was born and raised just outside of Gettysburg, PA. Her love of beer started with West Coast IPA’s and slowly expanded overtime thanks to the amazing micro-breweries in her town. She loves connecting with people, so, decided to start her career in HR 10 years ago and never looked back. In her free time, Alexa loves to travel, hike, spend time with her kitties, and cook up the latest tiktok trending vegan food.
Favorite Beers: Mispillion River – Otter Space APA, Terrapin – Watermelon Gose, and Ecliptic Brewing – Starburst IPA
Emily Bolinger: Customer Success Manager
Emily grew up in Hollywood, FL, and her love of all things travel led her to pursuing a hospitality degree
at Boston University. From there, Emily has worked in customer service in a variety of amazing places including The Ritz Hotel in London, Disneyland, and the Biltmore Estate. She currently lives in Asheville, NC, where she’s cultivated a love of craft beer in the amazing little city known locally as Beer City, USA. When she’s not working, Emily can be found playing video games, spending time with family, listening to music, and loving on her two cats, Johnny and Moira.
Favorite beers: Hawaiian Pizza Ships – Bhramari Brewing Co., Starchaser – Highland Brewing Co., Tropical Pineapple Cider – Flat Rock Cider Co.
Brian Franzoni: Marketing Manager
Brian is a record collector, movie lover, photographer, gamer, avid Baltimore Ravens fan, and a proud husband and father. He is based out of Pittsburgh, PA. Brian fell in love with craft beer in college, hunting down desired brews and making whatever drive necessary to get them. He began curating his travels around popular brewery cities. He went to Burlington, VT on his engagement trip and Portland, OR for his Bachelor Party. You can find him drinking Hazy brews on his deck, surrounded by family and friends, playing corn hole, and listening to good music.
Favorite Beers: Anything by Helltown Brewery and Insurrection Aleworks
Thom Roholt: Chief Operations Officer
Thom fell in love with Craft Beer while on a date in 1998. The story is one to be heard while on tour with him, but in the two decades since, he’s transformed that passion into a quest, a film, and finally a career. On August 15, 2015, he was part of a five-person team that set the record of going to 77 breweries in one day. The feat was chronicled on Twitter, was later made into a documentary called PDX: Brew City, and eventually led to this job.
Thom’s favorite beer is the one in front of him. He rarely drinks the same beer twice, but if he’s going back to the well it’s usually for a Deschutes Streaking the Quad, a pFriem IPA or a Four Play from Upright Brewing.