On a hot summer day in the late 1960s a friend of mine asked me to go for a ride and tour the Budweiser Brewery in nearby Newark NJ. I instantly agreed to go, what better way to spend a hot summer afternoon than cooling off inside one of Americas largest breweries. We had no idea then how beer was made, in fact we had never even heard of the term 'homebrew' at the time. All we cared to know about breweries was that you got to drink free beer at the end of the tour. You just had to show up with an id that proved you were old enough to drink and you were in.
Budweiser Brewery Newark NJ
The brewery tour took about a half hour to complete and was very interesting, thanks to our tour guide rattling off little known brewing facts the entire time. I remember seeing large open vats of beer cooling in rectangular tanks and rows of huge storage tanks used to hold the beer until it was ready to be packaged. We were as floored by the massive volumes of beer produced there every day as we were the size of the brewery and its surrounding property. The Newark NJ brewery had all the things necessary to make and ship all that beer. From the deep wells that supplied the brewery with water to the rail heads that moved ingredients in and carried beer off to distant locations, it really was a sight to see.
Birravino Red Bank NJ
At the time it was said that if you were to drink a case of beer a day it would take about sixty four years to empty a single holding tank and the brewery had an incredible sixty four holding tanks back then. The brew room was immaculate with very high ceilings, tiled walls and floors and it contained two huge beautiful copper kettles that rose eight feet above the floor. The bottom of the kettles disappeared below the floor, I don't remember exactly just how far down they went, but I think it was several stories. We even got to meet the head brew master that day, he was dressed in what I thought looked like traditional brewer's clothes.
Little Dog Brewing Company Neptune City NJ
The next to last stop on the tour was the bottling room and it was massive, possibly the largest I'll ever get to see. There were two round bottling carousels each capable of filling hundreds of bottles per minute. The maximum rate that the bottles could be filled, was governed by the physical limitations that the bottles could safely be filled, any faster would result in broken glass and spilled beer. Filling cans were another story they could be filled at twice the rate of bottles and to us they looked like a white and red blur as they sped along the conveyors on their way to the packaging plant. The brewery ran one bottling carousel, and one canning carousel at any given time, keeping the other carousels in reserve in case of a breakdown. If needed the reserve carousels could be brought online quickly in order to keep production going.
Kane Brewing Company Ocean Township NJ
Parts of the brewery we toured were hot while other parts were refrigerated. Some workers had to bundle up in heavy duty cold weather clothing year round in order to work safely. But the best part came at the end of our tour when we were led into the brewery's bar room to sample the fresh cold beer on tap. Picture if you can rich wood covered walls, stately leather furniture and a lavish bar complete with brass beer taps and all the cold beer you could drink. The bartender wearing black dress pants, with a white striped shirt and red armbands holding up his sleeves, like something straight out of movie. Today's craft brewery tours follow a completely different model than their corporate counterpart's back on that hot summer day. Right now we're witnessing an era of craft brewery growth like never before, when could there be a better time to have fun taking a brewery tour.
Vince Feminella [aka: ScrewyBrewer]
www.thescrewybrewer.com
[email protected]
The brewery tour took about a half hour to complete and was very interesting, thanks to our tour guide rattling off little known brewing facts the entire time. I remember seeing large open vats of beer cooling in rectangular tanks and rows of huge storage tanks used to hold the beer until it was ready to be packaged. We were as floored by the massive volumes of beer produced there every day as we were the size of the brewery and its surrounding property. The Newark NJ brewery had all the things necessary to make and ship all that beer. From the deep wells that supplied the brewery with water to the rail heads that moved ingredients in and carried beer off to distant locations, it really was a sight to see.
Birravino Red Bank NJ
At the time it was said that if you were to drink a case of beer a day it would take about sixty four years to empty a single holding tank and the brewery had an incredible sixty four holding tanks back then. The brew room was immaculate with very high ceilings, tiled walls and floors and it contained two huge beautiful copper kettles that rose eight feet above the floor. The bottom of the kettles disappeared below the floor, I don't remember exactly just how far down they went, but I think it was several stories. We even got to meet the head brew master that day, he was dressed in what I thought looked like traditional brewer's clothes.
Little Dog Brewing Company Neptune City NJ
The next to last stop on the tour was the bottling room and it was massive, possibly the largest I'll ever get to see. There were two round bottling carousels each capable of filling hundreds of bottles per minute. The maximum rate that the bottles could be filled, was governed by the physical limitations that the bottles could safely be filled, any faster would result in broken glass and spilled beer. Filling cans were another story they could be filled at twice the rate of bottles and to us they looked like a white and red blur as they sped along the conveyors on their way to the packaging plant. The brewery ran one bottling carousel, and one canning carousel at any given time, keeping the other carousels in reserve in case of a breakdown. If needed the reserve carousels could be brought online quickly in order to keep production going.
Kane Brewing Company Ocean Township NJ
Parts of the brewery we toured were hot while other parts were refrigerated. Some workers had to bundle up in heavy duty cold weather clothing year round in order to work safely. But the best part came at the end of our tour when we were led into the brewery's bar room to sample the fresh cold beer on tap. Picture if you can rich wood covered walls, stately leather furniture and a lavish bar complete with brass beer taps and all the cold beer you could drink. The bartender wearing black dress pants, with a white striped shirt and red armbands holding up his sleeves, like something straight out of movie. Today's craft brewery tours follow a completely different model than their corporate counterpart's back on that hot summer day. Right now we're witnessing an era of craft brewery growth like never before, when could there be a better time to have fun taking a brewery tour.
Vince Feminella [aka: ScrewyBrewer]
www.thescrewybrewer.com
[email protected]
