“Fanatical attention to quality”: On the resilience of Anheuser-Busch’s brewing traditions
Lager Heads will be uncharacteristically quiet on Wednesday morning. We will actually be driving out I-70 to beautiful Boonville, Mo. We’re going to visit (and photograph) Cooper, the first Budweiser Clydesdale born at the horses’ new breeding farm in Cooper County. Should be fun…and a fascinating look at the care that Anheuser-Busch puts into its four-legged corporate symbols.
In the meantime, enjoy our latest story for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It is about Anheuser-Busch’s attention to detail as it brews and tests its beer. What, if anything, will the InBev takeover do to that admirably obsessive brewing culture?
One thing is clear: Anheuser-Busch finds itself in uncharted waters as a wholly-owned subsidiary of InBev. It also recently sustained (to our knowledge) the most dramatic cuts since Prohibition. Whither Budweiser now? The story has some upbeat commentary from A-B executives, who argue that InBev supports A-B’s processes. They say that the St. Louis company’s attention to quality will endure.
“They have to talk about the quality, and they have to live up to the heritage of the brands,” Peter Reid of Modern Brewery Age told Lager Heads. “I think they’re putting a good face on a tough situation. … It would be very hard to match the fanatical attention to quality that the Busch family had.”
The final chapter (blog posting?) has yet to be written on the durability of Anheuser-Busch’s tradition, now that InBev is master of the house. We have said it before: Only time will tell.
(2 votes, average: 3.5 out of 5)
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Jeremiah McWilliams is a native Virginian who came to the Post-Dispatch in early 2007 to cover beer and other consumer products. He previously covered manufacturing for the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, Va. He is a graduate of Washington and Lee University. 
Their attention to quality is second to none. Too bad their end products are high quality tasteless beverages.
Is it true that A&B is switching to hop extracts instead of whole hops?
that is correct -b, there quality was second to non, then the buy out, we will see what it is like 1 year from now. They need that time to slowley change what they are doing.
They think the beer drinkers will not notice a slight change and then wait a month or so and then another small change. It will go to the tasteless beverage you refer to…. Just like there Managment….Tasteless
When InBev took over they fired many of the Quality Control folks. This talk about fanatical attention to quality is all BS. Not sure how you can be committed to quality when you got rid of many of the folks that conducted the quality testing. A bunch of A.B. legends-in-their-own-minds standing around sipping samples is not a substitute for scientific testing. When AAB III attended the sample tasting, if he liked it everybody liked it. His flunkys couldn’t wait to agree with him even if the taste was below standard.
Just read another article that AB InBev reported $61 million in profit compared to $1.1 billion a year earlier - down 95%. Carlos was quoted saying no bonuses for executives because company failed to meet its expansion targets. Gee, there’s a surprise. Article states that Carlos will turn his attention to reducing the massive debt for the purchase of AB. Interesting timing on this quality article, which I think is pure BS. Wonder where all the cost cuts will come from now that the employees have been and will continue to be cut to the bone.
Not True about same attention to quality at A-B. They may be doing it the same way in the brewing process, but NOT in the packaging process. They have already greatly reduced the quality checks during the packaging which is the beginning of the end of quality A-B products. Now it is more about getting more product out quicker than it is making a quality product.
Budweiser is no longer ‘beechwood aged’.
PATR-
Anheuser-Busch beer is still beechwood aged. There is no change to the process. Please do not post what you do not know to be a valid fact.
PATR-
I apologize if my last post was a bit harsh. I just want to make sure everyone knows that our process has not changed and that we still believe in quality and making the best product possible. Actually, Beechwood aging is a very labor intensive process that is more expensive than some of the newer processes other brewers are using these days, but, the results from Beechwood aging are wqrth the time and expense to make a superior product. I hope you will try some of our different beers and enjoy them as much as we do! Cheers!
AB employee says “Beechwood aging is a very labor intensive process that is more expensive than some of the newer processes other brewers are using these days”. And that is why beechwood aging will be gone in two years or less. If you work there you know that many of AB’s beers are krausend without chips. Krausening with chips does enhance the flavor a bit (but just a tiny little bit), the primary reason for adding chips years ago was to get the yeast to settle out to reduce the load on the k-filters. Today AB runs everything through yeast separaters. Chips are not necessary. They will go by the wayside–it is only a matter of time. They just have to figure out a way to get past the “budweiser creed”. Maybe they will just throw a beechwood 2X4 into each lagering tank and be able to maintain the “exclusive beechwood aging” claim. BIG-BIG COST REDUCTION. BYE-BYE BEECHWOOD AGING.