budweiser tour williamsburg va

Anheuser-Busch Brewery in Williamsburg now is…

Share this:.

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on X (Opens in new window)

e-Pilot Evening Edition

• Things to do

Things To Do

Anheuser-busch brewery in williamsburg now is open for tours.

The Eagle ONE monorail that used to run between Busch Gardens and the Anheuser-Busch Brewery is long gone.

So are those wild weekends when William & Mary (and other local college kids) would converge on Williamsburg for the free beer samples during the old brewery tours.

Then the tours stopped nearly 20 years ago. Hearts were broken. No more air-conditioned rides on Eagle One. Frat boys had to find cheap beer elsewhere.

But now the tours have returned, less sloshy and more interesting.

Anheuser-Busch is open for brewery tours this summer. These Beermaster peeks go behind the scenes to the noisy, aroma-filled areas of brewing, lagering, finishing cellars and packaging. Samples are available along the way for grown folks.

Jeff Scott, general manager of the Williamsburg brewery, said he isn’t sure why the tours stopped years ago, but he’s glad that they are back on tap.

“We’re very proud of what we do, and we really want to share that with the community,” he said.

“We think it will be great for the community to see how the beer is made. Making beer is the best job in the world.”

Popping the top

The beginning of the tour begins with the beginning: an overview of how the beer that goes back to the mid-1800s now claims 46 percent of the market and is responsible for more than 100 brands in the United States.

German immigrants settled in St. Louis during the midcentury and brought along their trade of brewing beer, particularly the light, crisp lager. Among the immigrants was Eberhard Anheuser, whose skills were in soap and candlemaking, but he invested in one of the new breweries. By 1860, he bought out the investors and named the company after himself.

Meanwhile, a man named Adolphus Busch had gotten into the brewing supply business, where he crossed paths with Anheuser. He later married Anheuser’s daughter and joined the family business. Busch and a friend created the recipe that would become Budweiser. They came up with the name because it would appeal to German immigrants but would be easy enough for other Americans to pronounce.

That catapults us to standing outside the Williamsburg brewery, the sixth largest of the company’s 22 breweries. It opened in 1972 and at one point owned the neighboring Busch Gardens park. The company sold its amusement division in 2009.

Standing outside of the silos that hold the 1 million to 1?1/2 million pounds of grain the brewery uses each day is a reminder of how the beer company permeates society.

There are the actual beverages, of course, that include Bud Light, Busch, Michelob, Stella Artois, Land Shark, Shock Top and its line of fruity “Ritas,” as in Mang-O-Rita and Lime-A-Rita.

Then there are the cultural touchstones that even nondrinkers can relate to – the Clydesdale holiday commercials, the hilarious and annoying “Wazzup!” commercials that ran from 1999 to 2002, and now the company’s viral “Dilly, Dilly” campaign.

Jumping into the brew

The bulk of the tour takes the group inside the brewing facility and shows how the beer is made. It is science and foodiness at its best.

The tour will appeal to beer lovers who appreciate the pungent smell of barley and rice as they are mashed and steeped in massive vats that look like shiny, round flying saucers.

Cooks and science-lovers will appreciate the chemistry of how starch turns into sugars that will become the food for the yeast that will be added later. Barley becomes the malt that is known as the “soul” or spine of the beer. Hops, according to brewmaster Jennifer Logan, gives each beer its “spice” or personality.

The brewery uses 16 varieties of hops for its various beers.

The tour moves through the second floor where beechwood chips are added to the floors of the tanks, but not for flavor. As the liquid moves into the lagering phase, its second stage of fermenting, the loosely piled pieces of wood allow the yeast to circulate, Logan said, instead of settling on the bottom of the tanks. Nature then does its job as the beer matures for the next 21 days.

Bring a jacket. The floor is chilly; the thermostat kept in the 50s. The group then moves to a cold floor, the fifth, where the beer is finished in coolers and the room hovers in the 40s.

Here, visitors can get a taste of beer straight from a lagering tank. It hasn’t gone through its final filtering process to remove all the yeast, so the beverage is cloudy. But it is good.

Beer samples are also taken to a quality control lab where they are tested before moving to the final step.

The final stages of the beer – and the tour – flow through the packaging department, which has four can lines that fill 2,000 cans per minute. Other machines pump out glass bottles and kegs.

Another quality control team checks batches of cans to make sure the beer tabs are sealed and won’t leak as the beer is shipped along the East Coast. Bottle tops are checked to make sure they aren’t too tight.

Visitors 21 and older can sample beer from the finishing tanks, where it is crisp and light and the golden hue familiar to beer drinkers.

Test panels of employees are held at 3 p.m. each day with 30 to 50 samples to examine.

The sipping takes place in the afternoon because tasters should have no lingering leftover flavors from lunch, Logan said. It is also close enough to the dinner hour for people’s taste buds to start revving up.

This is when “off-aromas” are detected and can be traced back and corrected; several people are used because some people are more sensitive to certain tastes than others.

Visitors are then deposited where they can go through a kiosk that has Virginia-specific beer gear, such as shirts with state motto: “Thus always to tyrants.”

And, finally, in the beer garden, to sip some brews.

The Beermaster tours will take place on select Saturdays and Sundays from now until Sept. 2.

The tours are available on a first-come, first-served basis, so guests are encouraged to book in advance by visiting www.budweisertours.com .

The tour lasts 60-90 minutes.

The tours cost $25 for those 21 and older, and $10 for ages 13-20. Guests under the age of 13 will not be permitted on the tour.

Closed toe shoes are required for safety.

Denise M. Watson, 757-446-2504, [email protected]

More in Things To Do

Entertainment | Busch Gardens to unveil new roller coaster in 2025 — and you can help pick the name

Music and Concerts | Something in the Water festival postponed; it ‘isn’t ready,’ Pharrell says

Travel | My travel secret for not overpacking? The 10-$10 rule

Travel | The best new hotels in Manhattan, from $300 to $900 a night

Trending nationally.

• Judge wipes away 5-year prison sentence for paramedic in Elijah McClain’s death
• Denver to shut down migrant shelters and turn them into 24/7 cold weather shelters for homeless
• Officer in Tyreek Hill handcuffing was suspended 6 times and had complaints of force violations, record shows
• Virginia Boar’s Head plant linked to listeria outbreaks will close indefinitely
• Pair of rare Amur tiger cubs debuting at Minnesota Zoo are raising hopes for the endangered species

« 14-year-old driver killed in crash, 4 passengers injured A look at Republicans running for Senate in Virginia »

Cheers: Busch brewery in Williamsburg reopens to tourists

WFIR - Mel Wheeler, Inc.

Anheuser-Busch Williamsburg brewery opens for limited pop-up tours this summer

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – If you ever wanted to see what its like for those who make Bud-Light and other Anheuser-Busch products, you may get the chance this summer.

The St. Louis based company announced that its Williamsburg brewery, located at 7801 Pocahontas Trail, will be opening its doors for public tours this summer for the first time in nearly 20 years on a limited basis.

Tours will start on June 1, and will continue through September 2 on select Saturdays and Sundays during that period.

Tours will cost $25 for guest ages 21 and older and $10 for guests ages 13-20.  Guests under the age of 13 will not be permitted to join the tour.

The Anheuser-Busch Williamsburg Brewery opened in 1972 and brews beer enjoyed by residents in Virginia, District of Columbia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, Kentucky and Georgia.

To learn more about the Anheuser-Busch Williamsburg Brewery, click here.

Limited public tours   are available on the select weekends below at:

·         June 1

·         June 2 – June 3

·         July 7 – 8

·         August 4 – 5

·         September 1 – September 2

Fridays: 10 a.m., 12 p.m., 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.

Saturdays and Sundays: 10 a.m., 12 p.m., 2 p.m., 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Sign up for the Headlines Newsletter and receive up to date information.

Now signed up to receive the headlines newsletter..

If you give a child a book... 📚

Anheuser-Busch opening Williamsburg-area…

Share this:.

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on X (Opens in new window)

Evening Edition

• Things to do

Anheuser-Busch opening Williamsburg-area brewery for tours

“Although not regularly open for tours, our Williamsburg brewery is the location that receives the most requests for tours,” Williamsburg brewery general manager Jeffrey Scott said.

Six of Anheuser-Busch’s 12 breweries across the country have been hosting tours year-round. Part of the decision to open up the Williamsburg brewery was the success of its Budweiser open house last summer, Scott said.

The company anticipates about 900 or more visitors will visit the brewery in pop-up tours on June 1 and select Saturdays and Sundays June 2 through Sept. 2, Scott said. Tours can be booked in advance and are on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Tours last 60 to 90 minutes and are limited to 15 people per tour so visitors can see the brewing process up close, Scott said. Participants also will see the lagering and finishing cellars, the packaging line in action and will conclude the tour with a sample of Budweiser directly from a finishing tank for those at least 21 years old.

Tour-goers also can purchase merchandise and beer from a pop-up gift shop, he said.

Additionally, the brewery is hosting an open house for the public with tours, live music, local food trucks and the Budweiser Clydesdales 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. July 7, Scott said.

The Williamsburg area brewery in James City County near Busch Gardens stopped regular brewery tours when it closed its hospitality center in late 1998 because it wasn’t cost-effective, according to a past Daily Press story. There was a monorail that ran between Busch Gardens and the hospitality center. The center opened in 1974 a couple years after the brewery began operations in 1972. Busch Gardens Williamsburg, now owned by SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment, opened in 1975.

In 2008, Anheuser-Busch was acquired by Belgian brewer InBev to create a global brewing giant called Anheuser-Busch InBev, keeping its North American headquarters in St. Louis.

Over the past several years, Virginia — like the rest of the country — has seen a renaissance in smaller, craft brewing with evolving tastes and demand. In particular, a Virginia law passed in 2012 allowing micro-breweries to sell beers by the glass at on-site tasting rooms fueled the growth of craft breweries across the Peninsula and state.

Local ordinances and rules adapted to allow craft breweries to host live entertainment, music and food trucks and the proliferation of breweries in the region has created a destination attracting visitors seeking out local breweries, tourism officials have said.

Anheuser-Busch caught on to the trend and has acquired multiple craft brewers, including Virginia’s Devil’s Backbone in Roseland in 2016.

The Williamsburg-area brewery at 7801 Pocahontas Trail employs about 600 full-time and part-time workers, the company said.

Tours are available 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m,. and 4 p.m. June 1 and 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m., 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. June 2-3, July 7-8, Aug. 4-5 and Sept. 1-2. The cost is $25 for ages 21 and older and $10 for ages 13-20. Those younger than 13 will be allowed on a tour, the company said. Book tours online at budweisertours.com .

More in Business

Business | Borrowing money from your home to pay for your child’s college

SUBSCRIBER ONLY

Business | virginia boar’s head plant linked to listeria outbreaks will close indefinitely.

Business calendar for the week of Sept. 16

National News | Striking Boeing factory workers say they are ready to hold out for a better contract

Trending nationally.

• Judge wipes away 5-year prison sentence for paramedic in Elijah McClain’s death
• Denver to shut down migrant shelters and turn them into 24/7 cold weather shelters for homeless
• Officer in Tyreek Hill handcuffing was suspended 6 times and had complaints of force violations, record shows
• Virginia Boar’s Head plant linked to listeria outbreaks will close indefinitely
• Pair of rare Amur tiger cubs debuting at Minnesota Zoo are raising hopes for the endangered species

Brewery Experiences

There is no other brewery experience in the world quite like Anheuser-Busch

Our Locations

St. Louis, MO

Merrimack, NH

Join our Team

Become part of the Anheuser-Busch Team. Some of the hiring positions available include Sous Chef, Tour Guides & Brewery Ambassadors. Our company provides flexible scheduling and career advancement opportunities available.

Clydesdales

The Budweiser Clydesdales are America’s best-known symbol of quality, pride and craftsmanship. Representing our commitment to brewing the finest beers and producing a better product, the Clydesdales are the icon of the Budweiser brand and beloved by millions around the world.

Community Impact

Anheuser-Busch always dreams big.​ It’s our culture and our heritage.​ But more than that, it’s our future.​ A future where we dream to provide opportunity for our people, to lift up our communities, and to make a meaningful impact on the world.

Newsletter Sign-Up

Get exclusive content from Anheuser-Busch and the Clydesdales!

Summer beer: Busch brewery in Virginia reopens to tourists

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) - After a 20-year hiatus, visitors can again tour the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Virginia.

The company is bringing back tours of the Williamsburg facility on weekends this summer. Adults must pay $25 for the tour, which takes about 90 minutes.

The Virginian-Pilot reports visitors will be able to sample fresh beer straight from the brewery's finishing tanks. Samples are also provided at the lagering tanks, where the yeast has not yet been filtered.

The brewery tour was once a highlight of a visit to the nearby Busch Gardens theme park. A monorail connected the brewery and the park, which at the time was owned by the brewer.

The Williamsburg facility is the sixth-largest of the company's 22 breweries.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Hanover Sheriff’s Office says schools on ‘hit list’ are in Georgia, not Virginia

13-year-old faces felony charge after online threats in Chesterfield

Aldi is raising its starting pay amid a hiring surge

Chad McQueen, son of Steve McQueen and ‘The Karate Kid’ star, dies at 63

Fire causes over $500k in damages to Henrico church

Driver suffered medical emergency before deadly Courthouse Road crash

‘We just don’t need it:’ Community members voice concerns about construction, growth in Westhampton

Arson arrest made in Chesterfield house fire