A-B Christmas with the Fam

I figured after getting the lay of the land at last year's Anheuser-Busch Christmas party that this year it was time to share the wealth, so we invited our parents to join in the beer-soaked family fun!

Many shrimps and beers did not make it out of this party alive.

These chainsaw carving guys are my favorite.

They had the Old Schoolhouse unlocked so we poked around in the museum there.

Even Adolphus Busch was lively, and he's been dead since 1913.

"The above piece was presented by the Directors of Waterford Crystal of Ireland to Anheuser-Busch in recognition of the company's involvement in the Budweiser Irish Derby."

I can't believe I've been drinking normal Budweiser this whole time like a chump when there's been Budweiser Supreme somewhere out there all along!

Budweiser Light breweriana from before they changed the name to Bud Light.

"For over 30 years, this ® symbol was part of the 150-ft Budweiser sign that stood atop the Bevo Bottling Plant and welcomed visitors to the brewery. The entire sign was replaced with a new LED sign in 2013. At two feet wide, the ® is the smallest piece of this sign - the largest is the letter "B", which is eighteen feet tall and weighs 2,400 pounds. The "B" now marks the entrance to the Biergarten."

I thought that the Bevo Boatcar was pretty amusing.

"To assist the military effort in World War I, Anheuser-Busch's vehicle department developed a special land cruiser for use by the Army as a reconnaissance vehicle. This "boatcar" was capable of travel on both land and water, but before it could be put into production the war ended. The prototype did see service in several Liberty Bond drive appearances.

Anheuser-Busch decided the Boatcar could be used as a promotional piece for Bevo and it was sent touring around the country to state and county fairs, auto races, trade shows and other special events as well as being made available to Anheuser-Busch distributors of Bevo to assist them with sales activities. A total of four Boatcars were ultimately produced with three being used to promote New Brew Budweiser (Budweiser that was dealcoholized to less than one half of one percent alcohol) during the remainder of the Prohibition years. With the return of legal beer on April 7, 1933, the boatcars were discontinued and sold."

"The Michelon Tavern

When Adolphus Busch introduced Michelob in 1896 he intended for distribution of this "connoisseur's" beer to be limited to only those outlets willing to adopt special handling procedures to guarantee that the brand's unique taste be protected. To help ensure this goal, Adolphus established the Michelob tavern in downtown St. Louis. The Michelob was not only an operative retail outlet, but also a "beer school" where owners and employees of other restaurants, clubs and taverns could be brought in and instructed on how to draft, handle and serve Michelob."

Give Santa a few beers and naughty quickly turns to nice.

Hurray beer! Hurray Christmas!

A White Elephant Christmas Party

Well the day of our Christmas party had arrived and I wanted to add a little extra fun to it. I like there to be a little something new and exciting at our parties so that people don't get bored.

Well as I wrote about recently Anheuser-Busch recently unveiled Drinkworks Home Bar. My work buddy Keith actually won one in a drawing that same day, and was kind enough to let me borrow it.

I bought a few of the tubes full of cocktail pods and we were all set!

Someone will die. Of fun!

One of our friends brought over a giant chocolate bar. 

We did a white elephant gift exchange which was a hoot. One girl got a wine suitcase thing but instead of wine inside there was just a row of apples. The card read "how do you like them apples?" I thought that was witty.

One of the other amusing gifts was a Chinese pirated copy of Sex in the City.

I borrowed a couple few cases of beer from a dock at the office... It came in cool cans for internal use only.

I like cleaning up the next morning because the giant pile of trash leftover is life proof that a good time was had.

All of my drink pods got slurped up as well. Hurray!

Prohibition Day at Anheuser-Busch

Anheuser-Busch likes to make references to Prohibition, and the brewery tour and visitor center have many references to the diesel engines and the ice cream and everything else that the company made during Prohibition to stay afloat. Well now the people behind the Budweiser brand are trying to push Prohibition Day as a holiday and of course another occasion for people to have a beer.

I’m a history nerd in general and I’m particularly interested in Prohibition so… fake holiday away AB! Whatever it takes to have a happy hour on the 8th floor, I’m in.

Both of the entrances of the building had these "we want beer" signs posted.

The were reminiscent of Prohibition protest signs.

The constitutional amendment that repealed Prohibition was ratified on December 5, 1933.

As you would expect they had twinkies on sticks and a chocolate fountain, just like in the 1920s!

I liked the old tap handles that they dug up for the event.

Some of the sales team were even dressed in old timey clothes.

Budweiser was also sponsoring some Prohibition Day events out in the real world. One of them was fittingly hosted at the downtown Thaxton Speakeasy. It’s a really nice space and like two blocks from our apartment so you know that was a yes for me. 

There was free beer, there was free food. It was fun.

Extreme Wrestling at the Casa Loma

I don’t remember if we’d planned to attend Extreme Midget Wrestling at the Casa Loma ahead of time or if the gravity of the crowd outside the place pulled us in. 

At any rate when we got to the front door there was a large “SOLD OUT” sign posted. I took this sign at face value but my friends showed some admirable perseverance. The people at the ticket table did in fact have tickets left, and they asked face value. The show had already started so this set off a round of negotiation. I have no idea how much money changed hands but soon I found myself watching little people body slamming each other. It was a good night.