#25 Tour the Budweiser factory

Road trip (to Fairfield)!!!!!! I love road trips...especially ones involving beer, bellys and burritos. 

Did not manage to get the camera upright before taking the picture however this is the only non-blurry pic of the Budweiser wind turbine I had soooo it made the blog

Bonnie and Rebecca joined me in checking off #25 on Saturday aka Budbelly day. Even though I went to school at Davis, I never made it over to Fairfield to go on a tour of the factory....soooo un-American of me.  

Posing with the big ol' sign and Clyde...per the sign's suggestion I did not jump on him for a ride...bummer

Ohh yea...legit guest pass

They kicked things off in the bar where you got two free beers of your choosing...free beers on a free tour, how did I not do this in college?!!? I love free things. Anyways, between us we tried the Shock Top (favorite by far), Stella (my usual go-to) and the Leffe (smokey but I liked it).

Note the eagle in the background

American pride!

Mmmmm beer

Bonnie's beer = foamtastic

After our first sample they played a video to give us some background on the company and how they make Budweiser..."Our fourth ingredient is Water! water! water!'...they loved to repeat for effect...or maybe for the dude busy chugging his beer and not paying attention. Not the finest quality video but I can forgive a lot when I'm drinking free beer (did I mention its FREE!! ok I'll stop now). We also learned that they brew Natural Ice in this facility...hmm now why does that sound so familiar?? Ahhh yes, Natural Ice is the classy name for the un-classy and totally college kid affordable Natty Ice...sigh oh the blurry memories :-). Before we left to start the tour they also had us sample their Wild Blue which is a blueberry lager...it was way too sweet for an entire bottle but not bad to sip on.

After all that tasting we got started with the tour. Mainly consisted of walking by machines that weren't on and/or dismantled (due to the economy they stopped producing bottles and now focus on cans and kegs), watching a short video, hearing about their environmental efforts (see wind turbine above) and going into a freezing cold room to look at the giant kegs. 

Yea flag!! Supes American

Posing next to one of the 124 giant kegs...do we look cold? It was 50 degrees inside and I was in flip flops. 

Safety is always rewarding

The tour was over pretty quick which was kind of a letdown since I wanted to see the machines in action filling up 1400 cans per minute. My disappointment quickly disappeared when I was let loose in the gift shop. Budweiser oven mitts, Budweiser glasses, Budweiser slippers, Budweiser bbq apron with insulated pocket for beer etc etc etc.

Want to wear a sweatshirt AND have a beer?? No probs! This hoodie has its very own beer pocket.

Classy

Now I was tempted to buy this jacket since I want to go to NASCAR (!!! excited!!!) but unfortunately $110 is not in my 'buying stuff to look ridiculously, stereotypically American' budget...however I modeled it for full effect.

I did however leave the store with a pretty amazing purchase...get ready to see lots of this on the blog:

When we left the factory, the sun was shining and it was time to say goodbye to Clyde...

...and hello to part 2 of the trip- the Jelly Belly factory!!!

Yea!!! Jelly belly man! 

The Jelly Belly tour was, dare I say it, even MORE American than the Budweiser tour...they have some serious pride up in that building. Starting as you enter....

...all the way to their jelly belly artwork of American stuff and Presidents. 

They didn't allow pictures inside the tour (which was way too long and quite boring considering they don't make jelly bellys on the weekend) so I had to settle with taking pics of the belly artwork...Harry Potter was my fav:

Also, these carrots and peas bags make me laugh...actual flavors are orange sherbet and green apple.

After buying some belly flops, we drove back to the city and grabbed dinner at Little Chihuahua..best burrito ever (after the Hotsy Totsy Taco truck). Big thanks to Bonnie and Rebecca for joining Budbelly day (Rebecca came up with the awesome name)...another one crossed off the list!

And now I'm excitedly gearing up to go snowboarding!!!