At this point in our relationship, I've taken the lady on roughly as many brewery tours as she's taken me to chick flicks. So as my reward for being good through "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo," she agreed to go with me on as she likes to dub it "A thirty minute long beer informercial." Which, I can't deny that's what any brewery tour is.
For Steam Whistle's part, they do a good job of selling their angle. There's a portion of the tour focused on the founding of the company--in this case after the brewers were terminated from a larger brewery. There's a portion on the tour that focuses on the purity of the beer--in this case, Steam Whistle uses only four ingredients and abides by German Purity Standards. Then there's a portion of the tour which focuses on why they brew the beer they do-- in the case the Czech brewer wanted to create the perfect Central European Pilsner in Canada. The answers changed from brewery to brewery, but the questions never do. Hence, if you've been on a brewery tour before, they all start to seem familiar after awhile and if you're not that into beer you'll bore easily.
I've never paid for a brewery tour before, but in this case you're essentially paying for the souvenir glass or six pack you're probably going to buy anyways. And if you're good to the pourer afterwards, you'll walk out the tour fairly tipsy.