Anheuser-Busch tour

A few weeks ago, JC (I'm gonna use people's initials since I'm not sure if everyone I talk about will actually want their names in these blogs), YC, and I all went on a tour of Anheuser-Busch brewery. It was this behind the scenes tour with a small group. We got to see a lot of pretty cool stuff that people don't get to see on the normal tour.

The first place we went to was one of the facilities for fermenting. There were huge 3-4 story tall tanks. There were probably about 20-30 of them, where the yeast mixes with the beer and carries on fermentation. The impressive part was the sheer size of the tanks. Interestingly, on the set of Startrek...one of the scenes that was supposed to be the belly of one of the battle ships was actually shot in a beer brewery. It also smelled like yeast, which was not very pleasant.

But the next place we went to smelled very pleasant. At least to me. It was where the wheat gets mixed into the beer for the actual flavor. It smelled very heavily of bratwurst. And from that point on, I was very hungry. The tour guide showed us where the tanks were, and how they went way deep into the ground. These tanks still had to be hand operated.

Then we walked over to a few other places where there were more huge gigantic tanks, all the while the tour guide was giving us the statistics of how much water, waste, materials the entire brewery consumed and produced.

Then eventually we got to the bottling center. We went onto one of the floors. At that point, one of the machines was down. (For 5 min that each of these machines is down, the company loses 1 million dollars.) But they got it fixed and we actually got to see them in action standing right by the lines. It was actually exhilarating. The floor was already pretty loud from all the machines. But as the bottling machine we were staring at started up, the whirling of the machine got even louder. Then we heard bottles starting to clank together, and all of a sudden this long line of clear bottle beer just rushes by us. And it just kept going...and going...and going to the point where all the bottles just blurred together in front of our eyes.

After the bottling plant, we stopped by the stable where the Clydesdale horses were kept. The horses were very majestic. Tall, broad, and weighing a ton. Some were just chilling in the field outside. Others were resting inside the stable, which I have to admit, was incredibly nice...like a 5 star hotel. The cutest thing was the two Dalmatians were sleeping in these dugged out wholes in the hay right next to the Clydesdales. Then at one point, there was a lound sound, and the two dogs both raises their heads to look around. You could see their two heads, but not their bodies cuz they were still engulfed by the hay.

After that we got to taste the very fresh beer kept in the holding tanks. The beer was about 10 hours old, as opposed to days old when you buy them from a supermarket. There was absolutely no bitter after taste. It was refreshingly cold. Basically, the best beer I have ever tasted lol.

And that ended the tour. It was actually one of the best tours I have ever been on. Interactive, interesting, and fun. And you get to drink beer.