Anheuser-Busch Brewery

Tuesday, Sept. 11, the 6th anniversary for a day of remembrance and patriotism....we hung our flag from the RV, then headed out for a tour of the world headquarters of Anheuser-Busch Brewery, one of the oldest breweries in the U.S. Anheuser-Busch traces its origins back to the Bavarian brewery which was established in 1852. Eberhard Anheuser acquired the Bavarian brewery in 1860 and renamed it E. Anheuser & Co. In 1864, his son-in-law, Adolphus Busch, joined the company that would later become Anheuser-Busch.

During the tour we visited a couple of the buildings which are designated historic landmarks dating back to the 1800s. In the Brew House there are huge stainless steel vats full of beer stacked 4 high being beechwood aged. The beechwood aging process is actually a traditional European brewing process Budweiser uses to ensure the quality and consistency of all their beers. The beechwood chips are actually layered in the bottom of the tank 1-1/2 feet thick before the tank is filled with beer. The approximate time it takes to brew a Budweiser beer is 30 days. Our tour guide said that to drink all the beer in one vat you would have to drink one 12 ounce beer per hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 137 years!! Anyone willing to give that a try?!?!

Other fascinating facts are that at this particular location 1,300 bottles are filled per minute, 2,000 12-ounce cans are filled per minute, and the equivalent of 16,000,000 12-ounce cans of beer are processed each day!

We also toured the Clydesdale stables. These magnificent horses stand approximately 6 feet and weigh roughly 2,000 lbs. when fully matured. Only those born with the blaze of white on their face, black mane and tail, and white feathers around their legs and feet are selected to pull the famous 8-hitch Budweiser carriage. There are 12 that are kept at the brewery on a rotating basis with about 40-50 kept at nearby Grant's Farm.

The Bevo Fox graces Anheuser-Busch’s Bevo Plant built in 1918, which was originally constructed to bottle, package, store and ship “Bevo.” Bevo was a non-alcoholic malt beverage (or near beer) brewed in the U.S. especially during prohibition. Advertising for this beverage was a popular storybook character, Renard the Fox, depicted with a chicken leg in one hand and a mug of "Bevo" in the other.

Of course, the tour would not be complete without visiting the Hospitality Room! A trolley picked us all up at the Bevo Plant and drove us there (7 blocks of walking was evidently enough!) Each visitor over the age of 21 gets two FREE samples of whichever brew they'd like to taste, and we're not talking tiny samples....we're talking full glasses! Russ and I chose to have only one each since we still had a full day ahead of us.

From there we traveled to part of my old stomping grounds in South St. Louis. We drove past where my house had been and was no more. Not sure what happened to it, but the lot has evidently been taken over by the neighbors and is now part of their yard. We drove a little further down on Gravois Avenue, and there still stands the Bevo Mill, long a St. Louis tradition. Prior to World War I, August A. Busch, Sr. and his architects studied Flemish architectural styles with the intention of building an authentic windmill in St. Louis. In 1915 he chose a spot exactly halfway between the brewery and Grant's Farm, his home. From the beginning, the Bevo Mill became a favorite family restaurant, boasting of several unique architectural details. The exterior is finished with stones personally gathered by Mr. Busch from Grant's Farm. Open to the public, authentic German dishes are still prepared at the Bevo Mill today.

Since we were down in this neck of the woods, we decided to drive by the church where we were married over 24 years ago, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, truly a memorable day! Now it was time to head up to the north area of town to Memorial Park Cemetery to visit the graves of Russ' dad, his grandparents, a couple cousins, and his Uncle Ken, Aunt Dori's husband. And to honor his dad we decided the only appropriate thing to do was to have lunch at Lombardo's again! We were fortunate enough to find both Angelo and Carmen working, and had another nice visit while enjoying "our usuals"...calzone, toasted ravioli, and another pizza (along with a couple more beers of course!)












That's all for now...until tomorrow with a report on Grant's Farm!