Beer Clydesdales
Today we get to meet Budweiser Clydesdales, yay! We set out for the Anheuser-Busch brewery first thing this morning, so at like 10:30am for our complementary tour of the site. It started out with the wonderful Bryan giving us a rundown of the history of Budweiser. I can’t remember all that much because we didn’t get there right at the beginning, but I do remember that Anheuser had twenty-two childrens. Too many childrens in my opinion. The first stop on our tour was to see the Clydesdales. The original Budweiser Clydesdale was a gift to Busch for some reason and they’ve stuck with the company ever since. All the horses have to have a distinguished look; lighter brown, four white socks, darker brown mane and tale and white star on the face. They have to be at full maturity, four years old, before they can be put on a hitch, and all horses are rotated out occasionally, to give them breaks. Once they reach a certain age, they’re retired to Grant’s Farm, which is also where the colts are stabled. After the other lovely tour guide, Dane, introduced us to some horses, the Dalmatian, Clyde and showed us some of the wagons and the horses rigs, we continued on our way. The first actual step of the brewing process we saw was the last step, when they put the beer in giant containers on top of beechwood chips. The beer sits for twenty-one days, and
the beechwood keeps it from going flat. Each container, or vessel, holds 3600 barrels, equal to 7200 kegs. Next stop was the first taste testing stop out of two. Well, as I’m 14 I couldn’t have any beer, what a shock! Dad was the only one who tried any, because Mum didn’t have picture ID and she doesn’t like beer anyways. While everybody was drinking and a child was screaming, Dane explained a little about the production of their beer. They use two types of barley, rice (which isn’t really needed but it does something good), hops (which make it bitter), fermented yeast (that makes the alcohol) and other such products. They mash the barley and stuff, which makes wort. Wort tastes like sugary water. Then they add the yeast and hops, to make the alcohol and the bitter taste. Once they’ve finished all that comes the point when they put the beer in the vessels. After this brief explanation everyone had to chug the rest of their beer so we could go upstairs. I don’t actually know what they do upstairs because I couldn’t hear anything and it was also fires of hell hot, so I wasn’t exactly concentrating. I was first out the doors to a more bearable temperature after we were told to move on. The second to last stop was in front of the second most photographed building in St. Louis, after the Arch, and Dane told us about the effects of prohibition on the Anheuser-Busch factory. They refused to close their doors during those thirteen years, as so many companies did during that time. Instead of producing beer, they produced whatever they could: baker’s yeast (their most popular product), car parts, toys. Then we finished at the Biergarten for the second and final beer sample and soft drinks for the under 21s and the adults who didn’t want any beer. We stayed for a little longer and had some
appetizers before we got going on our way to Grant’s Farm. The farm was owned by the Busch family, but was named after Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the States. Look at me, all knowledgable and stuff. The first animals we saw were the retired Clydesdales they have at the farm right now. There were three of them in the stables, two of which had their butts on full display for the humans to pet. Inside the main area of the park we had to take a tram further in, after taking a picture with a bald eagle and her trainer. The trolley took us through the area where the bigger animals can roam. We saw turkeys, mountain goats, yaks, deer, cows and an ostrich. We caught a glimpse of the Busch mansion through the trees and let me tell you, it was freaking massive, all made out of red brick. In the middle area I like to think of as a little oasis on the property, Mum bought me and Isaac some tickets that were good for two bottles of feed for the goats, one snow cone and one ride on the carousel. We spent some time with the baby goats, who tried to eat our clothes and such, and took the ride on the carousel. We were walking around past the bird cages and saw a tent with the sign Animal Encounters. Mum decided to get us seats, as it was starting in a couple minutes, us children went to get our snow cones and Dad
ran to get snacks. The show was pretty good. The first part was about snakes and we saw the ball python, Lucille (get it, Lucille Ball) and a twelve-foot albino something snake. Then there was a stork, who’s favourite movie is Jurassic Park, who came in to the into music from that movie. Then there was an owl, who entered to Hedwig’s Theme from Harry Potter. A rat race happened on the arms of some kids, one of the girls tried to steal the rats and a hedgehog visited, with his best friend, a porcupine. Personally, my favourite part was when a pig did an obstacle course to the Pirates of the Caribbean theme. Because anything is possible when that song is playing in the background. We stayed for a while longer after the show, visited the llamas and the camels, before getting back on the tram for the journey back home to Kizzy. We relaxed for a while in the trailer and it was time for dinner. We decided to go to the blues bar BB’s, which really was a bar but, even so, they aloud kids in. It was extremely loud, but the food was pretty good and the music was awesome, so it was worth it. By the time we got out it was already dark and past 9:00pm, so Isaac and I had to go right off to bed when we got back. Well at least Isaac did, I read for a while while he fell asleep. Peace out m8s.
