Day 9: St. Louis and the Budweiser Tour

Tornado Alley

We woke up early in Chicago and said our goodbyes.  After some confusion with TomTom we got on the road for St. Louis. The drive through rural Illinois was covered in massive corn and soybean farms but we had a few surprises. To the east of us on our travels down I-55, there was a wind farm that had more turbines than we could count. It was one of those moments where we both started to realize that we weren’t in New York (or anywhere close to it) anymore.

The Lou

 

The King of Beers

Once we arrived in St. Louis, we headed straight for the Budweiser Factory Tour. Upon arrival, the both of us quickly found out that for a small fee the two of us could take part in a beer school taught by one of the employees of the plant.  Seeing a great opportunity, we “enrolled” in the small class where we sampled different types of beer that Anheuser Busch produces in the plant. Our “professor”, Rob, was excellent and he walked us through how beer is made, what raw materials are used in each type of beer and how they create different types of the ales and lagers. Upon completion of our class and our beers, the two of us joined a larger group for the tour of the grounds.   

Breathtaking View.

Shlameil! Shlamazel!

We started out in the horse stables where the world famous Budweiser Clydesdales made famous by numerous television commercials are housed. From there, the tour took us to the beech wood aging facility, a climate controlled building that holds 66 large drums of fermenting beer with 1 ½ ft. of beechwood chips on the bottom of the tank.  The tour guide notified us that to drink the beer in just one tank, a person would have to drink one beer an hour for over one hundred years. The tour went on to the packaging facility which was not in operation due to the brewhouse (which was omitted from the tour) being fumigated.  

That's a lot of beer

What a day

 Unperturbed by the circumstances surrounding the shortening of the tour, we headed to the best part of the tour:  the hospitality room.   

The lonely RAV4 in the Budweiser parking lot

After finishing two delicious, freshly brewed (and free) beers, the two of us walked out into the parking lot to find that we indeed were the last two people to leave the tour. We departed the Bud grounds and headed to the only logical place one can go after the Budweiser tour; to drink more beer.

While walking out of the beer school, our teacher Rob noticed that we were “beer guys” and suggested the local craft brewery for some after-tour drinks and dinner. Our dinner at the tap room at the Schlafly Brewery that night was fantastic (as well as the beer sampler of their finest brews). After dinner, we headed to a local Motel 6 for some much needed rest and of course, some much needed HBO television.