St. Louis – Anheuser-Busch Brewery Tour

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St. Louis, Missouri may be renowned for many things including the St. Louis Cardinals MLB team, the St. Louis Zoo and of course the spectacular architectural design of the Gateway Arch but for me the most iconic reason for visiting the ‘Gateway to the West’ is the Anheuser-Busch Brewery – Home of Budweiser!

We visited the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in 2013 and everything about the landmark impressed us enough to want to revisit this on our recent trip to St. Louis. Firstly, the most impressive aspect of this location is that the tour around the brewery is absolutely FREE!

Anheuser-Busch Brewery Tour

Not only do you get to learn about the history of beer production in St. Louis but also you are taken on a scenic tour of the active brewery grounds and learn about all the various stages that go into the fermentation and brewing of those chilled beers sitting in your refrigerator.

History of Anheuser-Busch

Without giving away all the details of the introduction of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery tour, here is a brief history on how this global brand came about. In the mid 19th Century,  Eberhard Anheuser became part owner of the Bavarian Brewery despite having no previous experience in the brewing industry. He initially moved to the St. Louis area in the soap manufacturing industry but first opened the doors to the new brewing company in 1852.

Anheuser Busch Logo

His partner in crime, Adolphus Busch arrived in St. Louis and met Anheuser’s daughter and soon became married to her. Busch started working with his father-in-law, Anheuser and shortly after became a partner in the brewing company.

Over the years to come, Busch played an integral part in implementing new technologies to improve the overall brewing process and in 1879 his work was recognized when the company was renamed Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association. The brewing company became the leading US brewer in 1957 and has maintained this position to this day. The most recent change occurred in 2008 when Anheuser-Busch merged with InBev to become Anheuser-Busch InBev which is now the world’s largest brewer.

Anheuser-Busch Admission and Introduction

As I mentioned earlier, and of course why not reiterate it again, the tour of Anheuser-Busch is free! One of the issues when you first arrive is finding a parking spot though there are several parking lots available but be prepared to drive around to find a spot, especially if you are visiting during the middle of the day on a weekend as we did.

Anheuser-Busch Beer Selection

Entering the Anheuser-Busch visitor center, you are greeted by someone asking if you want to take the free tour. We immediately responded of course but were quickly warned that the next available tour started at 1:20PM. Given that it was 11:30AM, that meant quite a substantial wait but we chose to do and he gave us some snazzy looking Natty Light (for our non-US followers, Natural Light is one of the cheapest beers here in USA and honestly one of the worst I have ever tasted!) tickets.

So what can you do for almost 2 hours in the visitor center? Well, you may think about trying to skip the lines and join one of the earlier tours but you will quickly realize this isn’t going to work as each tour has a specific ‘beer’ associated with the tour and I can confirm they DO check your tickets prior to leaving for the tour.

However, there is plenty to do and explore inside the visitor center that will help pass the time. Check out the souvenir store that provides a vast array of memorabilia including t-shirts, magnets, various glasses and of course different beers for purchase.

Budweiser Delivery Truck

Throughout the visitor center are exhibits that provide more detailed history of Anheuser-Busch and of course the highlight is the old Budweiser delivery truck that is situated in the heart of the center and understandably gains a lot of visitor attention!

The time arrives when your brewery tour is about to start. Everyone congregates in the back corner of the visitor center and your tour guide gives you a brief history of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery along with a few basic guidelines and instructions of what to expect on the tour.

Anheuser-Busch Brewery Tour

After verifying your ticket is valid, you head out with the second tour guide (each tour involves two guides that interact frequently and are very knowledgeable of the brewery both in it’s current form and the history) to one of the most popular stops on the tour – the Budweiser Clydesdale horses.

Budweiser Clydesdale’s

Seeing the Clydesdale’s wandering around in their paddock is really cool especially as they are Heather’s favorite species of horse. You learn about how you can visit nearby Grant’s Farm to see many more of these horses in their natural habitat as they are groomed and nurtured into the iconic Budweiser symbol.

Primarily used for commercials and promotions, the Clydesdale’s really are an integral part of this companies history and future initiatives.

Budweiser Clydesdale

Heading beyond the paddock takes you into the the Clydesdale stables where you can see iconic carriages that these horses typically pull along with more home settings of these horses.

Budweiser Carriage

The Brewing Process

The remainder of the tour takes you through a variety of buildings showing you the various stages in the brewing process.

Anheuser-Busch Brewing Process

Learning about all the various ingredients that go into the making of your perfect Budweiser is explained in detail and the tour ends in the cooling rooms where the lager is stored and cooled until it is ready to go through the bottling/packing process.

Anheuser-Busch Mash Tanks

Free Tasting

Of course the highlight of this tour has to be the free beer tasting that is available. As you make your way through the tour, there is an opportunity to sample a free Bud Light, Budweiser, Shock Top or other beer and you also receive a free chip for a beer at the end of the tour in the Anheuser-Busch Biergarten (Beer Garden).

Anheuser-Busch Free Beer Tour

Cheers Anheuser-Busch for making this whole experience a really memorable one and definitely a part of St. Louis that I would encourage everyone to experience at least once! Trust me, you will want to go back once you have been there.

Have you taken any brewery tours around the world before?

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Chris Boothmanhttps://abritandasoutherner.com
Chris Boothman is the co-founder of A Brit and A Southerner. Born near Manchester, England, Chris moved to USA in 2006 where he soon after met his wife and travel partner in crime, Heather. They have since embarked on an amazing journey of travel as they challenge others to follow in their paths of working full-time but also being able to travel frequently! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact Chris at [email protected]

15 COMMENTS

  1. Been there! It’s a really fun tour and since I don’t drink beer hubby had my share and I enjoyed a cold frothy root beer! We were super impressed by how pristine everything was. Lots of fun and really quite interesting/impressive as well.

  2. Carlsberg in Copenhagen, Heinekenn in Amsterdam, Guinness in Dublin and Black Sheep in Yorkshire. The last was led by a “professional Yorkshireman” and was absolutely hilarious. The first involved copious free samples to a table where few liked beer, and I shall draw a veil over the consequences. It was a long time ago, I would be more responsible now! From what I remember, the middle two were “experiences” rather than actual brewery tours, but still good fun and worth doing.

    • That’s a nice collection of brewery tours you have experienced Anabel – certainly envious of the Heineken and Carlsbery tours and of course as I mentioned responding to Hannah’s comment, I would love to explore the Guinness brewery in Ireland. I am sure the free samples were extremely worthwhile and you have one or two hidden stories worth sharing about those experiences 🙂

  3. You had me at ‘free’ and then I saw the Clydesdale and got even more excited! I’ve only ever been to the Guiness Factory in Ireland in terms of brewery tours but it was pretty fun so I’d probably like this one too. Maybe just stay away from the Natural Light if it’s icky… I’ve never heard of it and I’m guessing that’s why!

    • Fortunately Natural Light isn’t even an option when it comes to the beer tasting – I think it’s fair to say that even most Americans would admit it’s a cheap man’s beer! I would really like to experience the Guinness Factory tour in Ireland as I am sure that is pretty cool. Anything free nowadays should be taken advantage of right 🙂

  4. Very cool! Being from Chicago I’m actually not all that far from St. Louis and drive out there from time to time to visit friends. I’ve never been to the Anheuser-Busch Brewery, but it looks like fun! Especially if they always have the Clydesdales! (I’ve seen them when they come on tour to Chicago though!)

    • Definitely would recommend taking a trip to the brewery next time you are in St. Louis Beth! It’s free so even if you don’t enjoy it (though I am convinced you will!) you are only losing time! We have been there twice and both times were able to see the Clydesdale’s. I would definitely also recommend heading out to Grant’s Farm to see more of the Clydesdale’s, I know that’s something high on our list next time we venture there!

  5. Did you guys get a new camera? Nice images here, they are especially clear and crisp! Looks like a great excursion at this brewery. Thanks for sharing!

  6. I guess this is the grandaddy of brewery tours. It’s good to see so many popping up around the country. I always wanted to see those Clydesdale horses in person. They look so beautiful. Chips are a nice takeaway.

  7. I’m not a beer drinker however it’s still nice they do a free tour like this. Somehow I never realized that Budweiser is from the US… I’ve been to various breweries in my life, the most recent one at Curaçao where we tasted all kinds of Curaçao liquor, the most famous one of course being Blue Curaçao. It’s always a lot of fun to try new things!

  8. Yay! Fun experience! I used to brew my own craft beers back home but have never been on a big production tour before; would love to check it out. Always realized that Anheuser-Busch offered a tour but had no clue what it entailed of (other than free beer of course!). lol Thanks for the share!

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