Budweiser Brewery

The Budweiser Brewery is located off of Main Street here in sunny Jacksonville, Florida. This rather large facility brews bottles and ships out various Budweiser brand beers to the southeast part of the country. Each day the brewery offers a free tour of the facility. A friendly guide will show you around and teach you about the process of how beer is brewed. He or she will also give you the history of the Budweiser Company. Much of the information on the history of the Busch family is displayed on the walls and can be done on a self-guided tour structure. There are samples of different packaging in which the beer as been sold in over the course of the company.

After you are given a history lesson on the company you are taken to an observation area where you watch the bottles move through the assembly line. You watch as the bottles are filled with the day’s brew, then the “born on” date is stamped onto the bottle and person hand checks each batch of bottles to ensure that there is no problem with the bottles. After the bottles are inspected it is mechanically boxed into a twelve pack, sealed and is sent off to be shipped to the states in the Southeast. The best part about having the brewery right here at home is we have fresh beer…always!

At the end of each tour, guests over the legal drinking age of 21 are given the opportunity to have two samples for the alcoholic beverage of their choice. The samples aren’t skimpy either. They will give you a full sized bottle of beer for ever sample. If you are not a beer fan, like myself, the nearby Bacardi plant brings in a shipment of their Malt Liquors each morning for people to sample as well. If you are traveling with people under the age of 21 they can sit back and watch old Budweiser advertisements of play with recreation games in the well decorated sampling room.

If you want to be sneaky, you can ask if you can go to the gift shop. More than likely you’ll be sent on your merry way and the sampling room is right next to the gift shop. You don’t even have to stick around for the tour. The gift shop offers a large inventory of Budweiser products ranging from T-shirts, boxer shorts, beer steins, dart boards, playing cards, keg taps, check sets, jackets, hats, and flags; if you can dream it, they’ve got it.

Photography is allowed and welcomed. Outside there are replicas of the famous Clydesdales. If you are lucky, you’ll be at the brewery when the real Clydesdales are parading around the lawn. They really are massive!

If you are unable to visit the Jacksonville location there are also tours given at the St. Louis, MO, Fairfield, CA, Fort Collins, CO and Merrimack, NH locations. The tour makes for an interesting way to spend the afternoon, especially if it’s a rainy day.