Monday Mug Shot

Budweiser Brewery Tour
St. Louis, Missouri

This mug is NOT about the Super Bowl, but since it was selected because it’s the dat after the Super Bowl, I'll mention a couple things about the Super Bowl. First, it was a very entertaining game, right up until the end this year. True, the team I wanted to win was the one who suffered the final blow instead of delivering it, but it was a really great game to watch. That was wonderful since I didn’t expect there to be much entertainment in the commercials this year and for the most part, they didn't’t make me look wrong! I was disappointed with the Budweiser commercials. Bud’s commercials have always been entertaining with other mascots and stars. The Budweiser Clydesdales have always been the company's dignity, they made it more than beer. I really dislike the current series of commercials that makes the Clydesdales nothing more than cheap company caricatures. I liked them better left alone as the silent pride of the company. What, with the economy they can’t afford to pay frogs, lizards or Dalmatians union scale for their appearance??

Okay, now about that mug...

My Mom and I went to Bud World when we were in St. Louis in 1996. Touring Bud World is free and you don’t have to be a beer drinker to experience it. Mom was definitely NOT a beer drinker!

The Budweiser complex in St. Louis is pretty big. We went with a guided group through different buildings, following the distilling and flavoring process and seeing the process as beer was being made in mass production quantities. There were the buildings that even the heartiest of the beer drinkers said smelled foul as the fermentation was taking place and other where you could start to really smell that what was there would eventually be beer. Mom said those ones STILL smelled foul!

About half way through the tour was the horse stables where we got to see the noble Budweiser Clydesdales. we also got to check out the carriages and as I recall, a vintage beer carriage as well. Then the tour went on to the final peroration and packaging and a discussion about the different types of beer Bud actually makes. I was impressed that Budweiser represents so many brands and types of beer.

When the tour was over, it was on to the last stop, which in this case is NOT the gift shop. That was across the hall and an option! The last stop is the tasting room! Now remember, I said the tour was free? Well, the cost of tasting is included - FREE BEER! Everyone from the tour got three plastic glasses to try three beers of their choice. I tried and really liked the Michelob Dark Bock Beer. I guess that wasn’t such a surprise because I do like brown beer. But my most cherished souvenir from Bud World is not that there is an American beer that I like and not even the cool mug with the Clydesdales, but I have a picture of my Mom drinking beer!

Now Mom was not an immigrant. She was a second generation American on my grandfather’s side and mixed heritage American from many generations back on Grandma's side, even to the point of that drop of Naive American blood that I say a prayer of thanks for every time I look at my legs and say “No, they don’t need shaved today, either.” in the summer! But Mom married into an immigrant family and she leaned form my paternal grandfather some things about spirits and being polite. Nono and many of the Italian immigrants in the neighborhood made their own wine at home. When you were a guest in any of their homes, you were offered a glass of wine. They were very proud of their home brew and it was considered insulting to not have a glass. This was the reason Mm gave for trying the beer at Bud World. She didn’t want to be insulting.

She agreed that the Michelob Dark Bock was good...for beer. But I don’t recall that I ever saw her drink beer again!