With three Budweiser brewery tours under our belt, we just about know the company's history by heart: In 1876, German immigrant Eberhard Anheuser and Adolphus Busch introduced Budweiser, a lager they hoped would stand apart from all the other American beers of the time. There were two innovations: (1) the use of rice to create a "clean" taste (German law stipulated that beer could only contain barley malt, hops, water, and yeast; but this was America); and (2) pasteurization to keep beer fresh (milk wasn't even pasteurized at the time). This pasteurization allowed Anheuser and Busch to sell their beers across America and create the first truly national beer. Until then, all beer was local.
As the story goes, Eberhard Anheuser liked Adolphus Busch so much that he married him off to his daughter. And thus, "every good love story starts with a beer."
The brew house pictured below was built in 1891.
My favorite part of the company's history is the beginning of the Clydesdale tradition. When Prohibition was finally repealed in 1933, August Busch gave his father Clydesdales in honor of the repeal. These horses brought the first beers to President Rockefeller in the White House after Prohibition, leading to the tradition of Clydesdale-drawn wagon beer deliveries. We saw the company's largest Clydesdale, who looked simply regal and enormous: seven feet tall at the shoulder.
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