Sonya's Blog - Day 18 - July 10th - Learning About Budweiser and Clydesdales

Sonya’s Blog - Day 18 - July 10th - Learning about Budweiser and Clydesdales

Today we went to the Anheuser-Busch Brewery and learned about making Budweiser and their storied history in St. Louis. It is a massive brewery and they offer free tours with a free sampling along the tour and a free glass of your choice at the end - they have 18 beers on tap in their Biergarten. I did not partake as Johnny Appleseed Hard Apple Cider was not on tap and the beer is just not my thing. The Brewery tour, however was fantastic. Our first stop was to the stables to check out the iconic Budweiser Clydesdales. There were two being washed down, two or three were in the pasture having a roam around and there were 6 in the stables eating and resting. They also have a Dalmation named Clyde (took Blake quite awhile to make a connection with his name and his stable dog status). Clyde roamed around and checked everything out, but he didn’t really want to be pet or to visit with us. The horses are fantastic and so huge! We saw their harnesses, each one is custom made to the horse so that it has a perfect fit and is comfortable when they are hitched up. The Clydesdales are a symbol for Budweiser because they were given as a gift from son's to the father when Prohibition was repealed in 1933. The horses were hitched up and put on a train and the first delivery of Busweiser (post prohibition) was made to the President, FDR. Since then they have been a symbol for Anheuser-Busch. Each Clydesdale that is chosen for the hitch must meet strict requirements: Should stand 18 hands (about 6 ft) at the shouder and weigh between 2000 and 2300 pounds. The ideal horse is bay in colour, has a blaze of white on its face, a black mane and a black tail, with white feathering on all four hooves. All hitch horses are geldings, characterized by their even temperment and stronger, more natural draft horse appearance.

We then moved onto the brewery and learned what it takes to make Budweiser. They take 2 kinds of barley, rice, hops water and yeast and make a concoction that is called wort. Then they ferment it and let it sit in these huge vessels for 21 days or so with beechwood chips. It gets all beery and tasty (for those who like that) and they bottle it. There is a ton of quality control mixed in there with that process. Each vessel can hold 3600 barrels (7200 Kegs) and a whole lot of bottles. They have about 60 of these vessels on site, just a lot of beer. The guides were good, one guy was better than the other guy. Each employee is paid, but also gets 2 cases of beer a month. I guess some employees use this as a bartering tool within the city of St. Louis to get other things they desire. One employee saved up his cases and traded them for a jersey down at Busch Stadium. We had snacks at the end while Blake drank his free beer (he got a kind that was beer and the cider mixed together, because he doesn’t like beer either) and the kids enjoyed their complimentary soft drink.

We then headed over to Grant’s Farm which is where the Clydesdales are raised. We did not get to see a baby Clydesdale, unfortunately. We did take the tram tour and it is like a mini zoo/nature reserve over there. They had endangered deer from China and these Chinese Cows that look like oreo cookies. They were all black, except for a white stripe in the centre of their bodies. They also had wild mustangs, wild turkeys and lots of other animals. In the zoo part they had Elephants, goats, lots of birds, camels, zebras, etc. We watched the animal encounters show, which was pretty good. The kids fed the goats, road the carousel and got a snow cone (it was the deal they had on, otherwise I am pretty sure they would have skipped the carousel). Grant’s Farm is one of the Homesteads of the Busch Family, but is named after Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States. Grant worked part of that land prior to being President. It was an interesting tour and we know tons about the Busch Family now.

We headed back to the RV to walk Kizmet and have a break for a couple of hours. The boys headed to the pool and Tash and I read our books. I have moved onto Snow Job by William Deverell, a Canadian. Madam Bovary couldn’t hold my interest.

After our break and Kizmet was fed and exercised we headed downtown to check out BB’s Jazz, Blues and Soups as Blake had read that this is a great place to hear St. Louis Blues and get a decent meal. We had called ahead to make sure we could take our kids in. Well it was quite the adventure getting there because Herbalife Convention let out and there were thousands of people spilling out of the Convention Centre and blocking the streets, it was like ants spilling out of an ant hill. They just went everywhere and traffic was at a standstill. We finally made it through there by being a little pushy and making some of them stop so we could get on our road - not a huge fan of Herbalife and I don’t really know what it is, but don’t try and sell it to me after that experience. Perhaps if they had some manners when crossing the road and didn’t cross against the lights I would be more amenable. Who knew it was so huge.

We finally made it to our destination. I was surprised they allowed kids because it really was a bar and not a restaurant. They had a live band so we had to pay a cover charge. The band was very good, very bluesy with lots of sax playing. We had a table upstairs, but it was super loud in there. The ladies were very dressed up, we were quite underdressed. We listened for about 2 hours and had some fried catfish, gumbo and sweet potato fries and then called it a night. It was an experience and the real deal that is for sure.

More adventures tomorrow on Route 66 which goes right through St. Louis.

Sonya