SOMETHING MORE THAN BEER

Year Published: 1943

Creator: Jam Handy Organization

Format: 16mm

Description: This 1943 Jam Handy Productions film takes viewers on a tour of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in St. Louis, MO where Budweiser is brewed and bottled. The film’s stated purpose is to "give you an iron-clad answer to any questioner who asks why he should pay more for Budweiser." The film opens with a father and his adult daughter climbing out of a car and heading into a restaurant for dinner—a black tie affair. They sit down at their table and order food. The man orders a Budweiser then explains to his daughter why he chooses to drink that specific beer. A band sings a song about Anheuser-Busch (03:28), then there is a close-up shot of the glass of Budweiser. Viewers get a good panoramic shot of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in St. Louis (04:57), which encompasses a number of city blocks. The film shows fields of barley (05:45), a horticulturist examining barley in the field, and men in a laboratory studying the content of the barley. The grain is unloaded at the barley house (06:40) and is moved on elevators and conveyer belts to the malting process building. There is a good shot of the brewery’s silos. Barley is screened as it moves on a conveyer belt to weed out other grains and impurities (07:30), and it ends up in giant steeping tanks. Men work at the steeping tanks (08:44). Stop-motion photography is used to show the malting process of the barley (09:08). A man checks barley in a malting tank. Another man opens a door on the malting tank and allows some of the barley to fall into a hopper (10:19). The barley is automatically stirred in a kiln (10:53); the dried malt is moved to storage bins. The film shows the exterior of the Brew House (11:31). Malt is ground in a small mill in a laboratory. The film shows test mashing tanks in a lab and the actual mashing tanks in the brew house. Rice is added to the commercial mashing tanks (12:30). The wort passes through the tanks and then is strained into brewing kettles (13:22). Men open a canvas bag of hops and dump them into the brew kettles. Men use a dolly to move a bale of hops. A.A. Busch, Jr. tests hops by hand in his office (14:30). More hops are dumped into the brew kettle. A brew master checks the temperature of the kettles. The wort moves through cooling coils prior to fermenting (15:27). A man examines a strain of yeast under a microscope (16:01). Wort is pumped into a fermenting tank (16:55). A man walks down an aisle of fermenting vats. A man opens a valve to draw off trub (18:19). In a lab, a man tests the gravity of new batch of beer. A.A. Busch, Jr. tests beer samples in the office. Next, the film takes viewers to the bottling plant (19:40), where beer is poured into bottles, and as bottles move along conveyer belts, they are capped, pasteurized, and labeled. A train pulls away from the Anheuser-Busch Brewery. Clydesdales pull a wagon of Budweiser beer (21:35). The film concludes with a shot of the father and daughter back at the restaurant.

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