Brewmaster Blog: Beechwood Aging

[caption id="attachment_240493" align="alignnone" width="457"] Brewmaster Bryan Derr holds a beechwood chip, an essential component in the Budweiser brewing process[/caption]

Hi, I'm Bryan Derr, a brewmaster at the Anheuser-Busch St. Louis Brewery. Today we're sending one of our 6,000-barrel fermentors of Budweiser to our beechwood chip tanks to begin maturation. Beechwood is a very fibrous material that provides a nice comfortable resting place for the yeast as it finishes the work of creating Budweiser. Nurturing our yeast is critical to ensure we have just the right flavor for Budweiser, so the beechwood is like the lawn-chair for yeast after a nice day at work. Twenty-one more days and this beer will be ready to be enjoyed by a group of friends!