Anheuser- Busch Homebrewers Group?

frailn · Dec 10, 2011

Has anyone heard of the Anheuser-Busch Homebrewers Group? I just received an email from Missouri Malt Supply (based in St Louis) with an invite to this:

Attention Home Brewers come join us for the Great Hop Give-Away!
Saturday Dec 17th
1:00pm till 4:00pm
AB Tour Center
(2nd floor Bud Café)
Free Hallertau & Saaz hops, brewery tours, gift shop

The invite says to bring your own container for free hops. If I lived in St. Louis, I would be there with one of my buckets!

Never heard of this homebrewers group.

JonM · Dec 10, 2011

Huh. Interesting. I live in Milwaukee and if Miller did something like that, I'd probably check it out.

passedpawn · Dec 10, 2011

If AB (aka InBex) is supporting a homebrew group, good for them. After all the gufaws die down from the obvious jokes, I'd bet they would be a great sponsor and resource.

OK, with that out of the way, queue the BMC jokes!

Zamial · Dec 10, 2011

The things I want to type into this thread are horrible. I will simply just wish anyone that enters good luck instead of posting up what I really think...

Lucky_Chicken · Dec 10, 2011

that much brewing power and experience could only benefit homebrewers even if they just make yellow swirl. after all that's the hardest style to not get off flavors in!

windbreaker123 · Dec 10, 2011

They should have plenty to give away since they use little in their beer.

BTW I do drink some of their products.

Revvy · Dec 10, 2011

A quick GOOGLE search (hint hint) nets the info that it is one of the many groups/programs sponsored by the company for it's employees. It's on the employee resources page.

They call them ERGs, Employee Resource Group

Great People Make a Company Great

Home » Our Company » Our People » Employee Resource Groups

To further our commitment to diversity and support the company’s business objectives, we have established Anheuser-Busch Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). The ERGs provide education, awareness, and professional growth and development opportunities for employees. The groups are:

Creating Real Opportunities for Women’s Networking (CROWN) – Women’s ERG
Hispanic and Latino (HoLa) – Hispanic and Latino ERG
Black Leaders Achieving Diversity through Engagement (BLADE) – African American ERG
Asian Pacific Islander (PAC-ASIA) – Asian and Pacific Islander ERG
Employee Alliance Group of Leadership and Engagement (EAGLE) – gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and friends ERG
Community Action Project (CAP) – Community Service ERG
BUD employees Supporting Armed forces & Veterans Everywhere (BUDSAVE) – military support ERG
Home Brewers ERG

Billybrewer09 · Dec 10, 2011

I received an email from my brew club president who was sent an email from a group that is sponcered by AB. Its seems the free hops are from the 2008 season and are whole cone. I'm guessing that's why they giving them away.

tootal · Dec 12, 2011

Greetings everybody. I received a link to this forum from Joseph. Thanks by the way. He had inquired about the free hops and sent a note to our Chairman at the AB Home Brewers Group. It is true and we did this last year too and it was a great success. The hops are whole cone Saaz and Hallertau from 2008. You are right, we don't use whole hops anymore which is a shame. The hop room use to smell much better!!
The ABHBG was started two years ago and we have had two national competitions between brewery employees with over 40 beers last year. It has been an informative group and we've all learned a few things over the years.
I personally have been home brewing for over 10 years and started out as an all grain brewer. My brewing partner had already done the extract stuff and was ready to try all grain when I entered the picture.
I have been with Anheuser Busch for 30 years now and have worked every department except brewing!
I hope those in the St. Louis area can make it down Saturday, looking forward to seeing everyone.

Greg
Vice chairman and
Chief bottle washer,
AB Home Brewers Group

bjohnson29 · Dec 12, 2011

Received this email too...I'll be there for sure!

Hugh_Jass · Dec 12, 2011

tootal said:
Greetings everybody. I received a link to this forum from Joseph. Thanks by the way. He had inquired about the free hops and sent a note to our Chairman at the AB Home Brewers Group. It is true and we did this last year too and it was a great success. The hops are whole cone Saaz and Hallertau from 2008. You are right, we don't use whole hops anymore which is a shame. The hop room use to smell much better!!
The ABHBG was started two years ago and we have had two national competitions between brewery employees with over 40 beers last year. It has been an informative group and we've all learned a few things over the years.
I personally have been home brewing for over 10 years and started out as an all grain brewer. My brewing partner had already done the extract stuff and was ready to try all grain when I entered the picture.
I have been with Anheuser Busch for 30 years now and have worked every department except brewing!
I hope those in the St. Louis area can make it down Saturday, looking forward to seeing everyone.

Greg
Vice chairman and
Chief bottle washer,
AB Home Brewers Group

Welcome, Greg.

Hope you pull up a chair and stay a while. Your experience and perspective in the brewing industry would be cool.

turkeyjerky214 · Dec 12, 2011

The hops are super old. From what I've heard, they're from '08. I know some people that got some from there last year.

My biggest worry would be, how do you know what the alpha acid% is?

DragonOrta · Dec 12, 2011

Sounds like a great batch of hops to make lambic with.

Qhrumphf · Dec 12, 2011

DragonOrta said:
Sounds like a great batch of hops to make lambic with.

Was just thinking that myself.

TomSD · Dec 12, 2011

Love or hate the company itself you have to admit that the resources and experience a company like that could bring to a home brew setting would be impressive.

tootal · Dec 12, 2011

The hops last year were still good. A few brown ones here and there but the majority were still good. They have been in the basement of the hop house which is quite cool. I know, I work on the equipment that keeps it that way! :mug:

The AA is roughly 3AA for the Saaz and 4AA for the Hallertau. Back when we used whole hops they were all low AA aroma hops. We even had Alsace from France which were 1.9 AA! With Inbev we are seeing some major AA hops. 20 AA Magnums etc. are becoming common. As far as not using any in our beer I must agree. When August llll took over briefly, he actually raised the IBU's on Bud and Michelob. They actually balanced Bud and I could drink it again but Inbev has slowly lowered it from 11 to 9. Back to sugar water. Oh well, I'll brew my own Bud, just like I did last year!

usfmikeb · Dec 12, 2011

All jokes aside, its good to see AB doing this.

Brew_Force · Dec 13, 2011

Well, I think this is pretty cool. I wish I was closer, because if I were, I'd definitely be attending.

tootal · Dec 14, 2011

One more thing, anyone attending please bring your own bags! We don't have any here. On a funny note, last year the pitchers we were using to scoop the hops were full of wonderful lupilin. One of the guy went and filled the pitcher with Michelob. Talk about dry hopped!

Chia · Dec 17, 2011

so this is open to the public right? was thinking of driving up there from the southland today

BrewMU · Dec 17, 2011

Alright, here goes. I apologize in advance.
There is a catch: the hops are used. They drive a pound past the line in a golf cart three times a day, whether they need it or not.

Brew_Force · Dec 18, 2011

BrewMU said:
Alright, here goes. I apologize in advance.
There is a catch: the hops are used. They drive a pound past the line in a golf cart three times a day, whether they need it or not.

Used? Seriously?

tootal · Dec 19, 2011

Hey, it was great to see everybody that made it out to the hop give a way. Last year we went through 25 bags, this year we did 28 bags! Those are 35 gal. bags! I'm afraid those that were to get us the hops had no idea how much we needed so we ended up having to make runs to the hop house. As soon as I would get there I had to run for more, just amazing. I would have liked to meet more folks but ended up just running around hauling hops! While in the hop house I found some 2010 Hallertau which we will give out next year. Thanks again for coming out and good brewing!

tootal · Dec 19, 2011

Here's some cell phone photo's of the event:

We said bags but the laundry basket is fine too!

Fill er up please!

Notice all the lupilin in the empty barrel!

Mike Amad explains everything about brewing! He's an AB Brewmaster and one heck of a nice guy. The guy getting an education is none other than Craig Hammel who is currently the "Underlord" of the East Side Brewers.

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