Anheuser-Busch's Grower Days Event Brews the Next Generation of Barley Innovation in Idaho

We call barley ‘the soul of beer' – so each year Anheuser-Busch hosts our Grower Days event  to celebrate American barley growers  and share cutting-edge technologies that are helping produce more sustainable, world-class barley.

"We work with the best barley growers in the world, and we love our barley growers. We can't do it without them,” said director of western malting operations John Drake at last week's Grower Days event in Idaho Falls.

The annual events in Idaho Falls and other barley-growing regions are part of Anheuser-Busch's long history of working side by side with our partners and communities across the country to produce the best ingredients for the best beers, from seed to sip. In fact, our agronomists work with more than 1,000 barley growers in the United States and approximately 400 in Idaho – the nation's top barley producer state.

Growers in Idaho Falls learned about initiatives like our SmartBarley program which helps growers produce the most “crop per drop” of water, the AgriMet irrigation scheduler – giving growers real-time access to weather and water data, and the latest seed research to create varieties that can withstand drought or other extreme weather. All of these innovations help growers produce the highest quality yields in the most sustainable ways.

“Our partnership with Anheuser-Busch provides us with valuable technology, like Agrimet, that boosts our water efficiency,” said barley grower, Clark Hamilton.

Last week's Grower Days event also took growers and other partners behind the scenes of our Idaho Falls Malt Plant to see how Idaho barley makes its way into almost three beers in every six-pack of Budweiser sold in America.

See the conversation on Twitter with #LoveBarleyLoveBeer and #SeedtoSip!

ABOUT ANHEUSER-BUSCH

For more than 160 years, Anheuser-Busch and its world-class brewmasters have carried a legacy of brewing America's most popular beers. Starting with the finest ingredients sourced from Anheuser-Busch's family of growers, every batch is crafted using the same exacting standards and time-honored traditions passed down through generations of proud Anheuser-Busch brewmasters and employees. Best known for its fine American-style lagers, Budweiser and Bud Light, the company's beers lead numerous beer segments. Budweiser and Bud Light Lime Lime-A-Rita were named Brands of the Year for the Beer and the Spirits, Malt Beverages and Wine categories, respectively, by Ace Metrix® in 2014. Anheuser-Busch is the U.S. arm of Anheuser-Busch InBev and operates 19 local breweries, 21 distributorships and 23 agricultural and packaging facilities across the United States. The company committed to investing more than $1.5 billion in its U.S. brewing, agriculture, packaging and distributing operations by 2018. Its flagship brewery remains in St. Louis, Mo., and is among the global company's largest and most technologically-capable breweries. Visitor and special beermaster tours are available at its St. Louis and five other Anheuser-Busch breweries. For more information, visit www.anheuser-busch.com.