First Class Trip to Annheuser Busch

Our class took a trip to the Annheuser Busch Brewery in Cartersville, GA. This was an eye opener to me because I had only been to local micro-breweries, like Monday Night, Reformation, Sweet Water, etc., so touring a macro-brewery facility was a new experience. We walked through the entire facility from the brewing tanks, to where the wort is mashed, to where the beer is canned.

One of my favorite parts about this trip is learning how the beer is canned. This is a complex process that involves a lot of steps and knowledge about the equipment.

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The is the mashing tank (on the left). After the milling process is finished, the barley and malt are mixed with water. the natural malt enzymes break down the starch from the grains into fermentable sugars. The mash is then transferred and strained which then creates wort.

This is at the top of the facility where we got an exceptional view of the fermentation tanks. Before the wort enters the fermentation tanks it enters the brewkettle where hops are added to the boiling wort. The wort then enters primary fermentation where it is cooled and clarified, and the yeast is added. The yeast remains for six days and ferments the wort creating beer.

This is the beechwood lagering stage. The beer is almost done here! In these tanks the beer is Kraeusened (method of carbonation used for beer crafting in Germany), and beechwood chips are used here for lagering. This process takes several weeks to allow time for the flavor of beer to mature.

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After the beer has gone through this intense process, the beer is finally finished and ready to be packaged. Before the beer is packaged in the cans, it is chill proofed and filtered to clarify the beer.

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Visiting this macro-brewery helped me to understand the brewery process more and on a larger scale than how a micro-brewery brews their beer. There are a lot more steps and factors to consider at a micro-brewery.