Budweiser Plant

Day 34 - Jacksonville, FL - Cloudy Mid-50's:

Today we headed out of Savannah and made our way to Jacksonville, FL. It wasn't too bad of a trip, about 2 hours. When we arrived we headed to the Anheuser-Busch Brewery to tour the factory. When we arrived we had planned to do the FREE tour however once Ben heard Beermaster Tour which allows you to go into the factory, there was no turning back. We met our tour leader Jack and he guided us through the 1 million square foot facility. He told us that the jobs at the factory are the most sought after in Jacksonville and are very difficult to come by as once people are hired they very rarely leave.

The tour was very interesting, and we learned a great deal about Adolphus Busch and Eberhard Anheuser.

History (a great deal of this is from the website...it was a lot to take in):

Anheuser had no experience in the brewing business, but his son-in-law did. Adolphus Busch, a successful German businessman, joined his father-in-law in the business in the 1860s...a little of the if you can't beat them join them here as Busch married Anheuser's daughter!!

In the early 1870s, Adolphus Busch became the first American brewer to use pasteurization (he pasteurized beer long before we pasteurized milk), this allowed beer to be shipped long distances without spoiling. By the mid 1870s and early 1880s, he introduced artificial refrigeration, refrigerated rail-cars and rail-side ice houses. He built cars with ice chambers on the side and the beer was stored in the middle and he was able to determine based on the time of year how long the ice would last. He then would build rail-side ice houses (many of these still exist as national historic sights) so the cars would stop and refill. Eventually these ice houses became the first distributors of beer. It's incredible to think that all of these were created for the use of shipping beer. It's also amazing that this man had such great innovation during his time. These technological innovations allowed the company to grow – now, it could distribute beer across the country. Oh and another thing. The Busch-Sulzer Bros. Deisel Engine Company was another of the enterprises founded by Adolphus Busch and carried on independently of the brewery operation. In 1897 Busch obtained the American rights to build Diesels. He retained the inventor as a consultant, and the company's first engine was installed in the Anheuser-Busch power plant in 1898. He retained the production for 12 years.

The brewery’s bleakest period began at midnight on Jan. 16, 1920, when national Prohibition became law. Rather than close its doors, as more than half of the nation’s breweries did, Anheuser-Busch diversified and remained in business. They actually stopped production of beer in 1918 so as to get a head start on creating their new entities.

Under the leadership of August Sr., the company marketed more than 25 different non-alcoholic products such as soft drinks, truck bodies and ice cream. In preparation for Prohibition, Anheuser-Busch released Bevo, a non-alcoholic cereal beverage, in 1916. On April 7, 1933, beer was re-legalized. The first trip by those famous Clydesdale's was taken within days of the legalization. It carried a wagon full of Bud directly to the White House!!

Recovery from Prohibition was slow but steady under Adolphus Busch III, who became president of the company in 1934, upon the death of his father, August Sr. In 1946, August A. Busch, Jr. became president of the company following the death of his brother, Adolphus III. Beginning with the opening of the Newark, N.J. facility in 1951, August Jr. created a national network of nine breweries.

Under his leadership, beer sales increased from 3 million barrels to more than 34 million barrels, and corporate diversification was extended to include family entertainment, industrial products, real estate and can manufacturing. In 1957, Anheuser-Busch became the leading U.S. brewer, a position it retains today.

August A. Busch III was elected president of Anheuser-Busch, Inc. in 1974, and the next year succeeded his father, August Jr., as chief executive officer, becoming the fourth generation of the family to lead Anheuser-Busch. August III led the company to build four additional breweries, expand the family entertainment business, and significantly strengthen the company’s horizontal and vertical integration.

In 2008, Anheuser-Busch and InBev combined to become Anheuser-Busch InBev. The new company is the world’s largest brewer and one of the top 5 consumer goods companies in the world.

Side Note: People wonder what Budweiser means...NOTHING. It was a word made up by Busch. He wanted something easy for Americans to say but that sounded German.

Once we had the history we were able to go down on the "kitchen" floor. This is where all the ingredients for the beer are put together. Beer is 90% water, beyond that it includes barley (there are two types used), rice (Anheuser-Busch is the only brewery that still uses rice...it is only used in Budweiser and Bud Light) or corn, and different combination of hops. First the barley and rice are added to the water and heated to 180˚ to create wort, it is heated in large tanks (each holds 20 thousand gallons...the average amount of water in a swimming pool) creating a specific amount of sugar from the barley and rice. This is then strained removing the rice and barley particles. At this point the special combination of hops (this is what gives the beer it's flavor) is added. This combination called wort-hops is again heated to the 180˚ temperature and mixed.

From there it is sent to be cooled. The cooling tanks each hold enough beer for 400,000 bottles...they have 372 of these tanks!!) The liquid is first cooled to 48˚ once this temperature is reached they add the yeast. This is what turns the sugars into alcohol. Regardless of how much yeast they add or how long they let it sit, the alcohol content will never rise above what it is predetermined because they have created the precise amount of sugar in the previous step. From here the beer goes into maturation tanks where they add more wort and beechwood (yes real wood but only in Bud and Bud Light) for a second fermentation. Once this is done the beer is moved into a final tank for bottling. Ben (as you can see in the pics) was able to drink beer directly from these holding tanks. The beer in the Bud tank was actually being used as he was filling his cup in the rooms below to fill cans that were being shipped that day.

After the beer drinking we headed to the bottling and packaging plant. Here we were able to see the pallets of empty bottles being prepared for filling. We were able to see cans being filled (with that beer Ben had been drinking). We watched the incredible speed with which a 24 pack is created and see it traverse the plant on its way to be shipped. We were also able to visit the keg area. They weren't working today but it was still neat to see all the machines that work to fill the kegs. From the time the truck pulls up with empty keg to the time the truck leaves no human hands will ever touch it!!

Interesting to note, the plant is incredibly conscious of their waste. All of their water that is not used in the final beer is filtered and used to water their fields in two locations. It is run by a network of pipes underground to these farms. All the barley and rice remains that are collected following the wort creation are taken to feed cows. Almost 166,000 tons a year. All packaging material and other scraps are recycled and reused. They use both solar power and methane gas from abandoned landfills to help power the plant. They are currently working with the University of Florida to try and find a way to use grass to produce ethanol!!

This concluded our tour and we were taken to the "Hospitality Suite" otherwise known as free beer tasting. Here we were given our certificates as Honorary Beermasters, a glass, a photo, and of course we were able to keep our hats!

It was only a 2 hour tour but we learned a great deal about the beer making process and Ben sure loved the tasting. Tomorrow we're off to St. Augustine!