Here, bottles are rinsed inside and out, emerging clean and ready for the filler. The filler is a large, round, stainless steel machine where 1,100 bottles per minute are filled and instantly crowned to retain their natural carbonation. The bottles then pass by an electronic inspection device, which checks each bottle and rejects any that have not been filled properly or crowned correctly. The bottles go next to the pasteurizers. Adolphus Busch introduced pasteurization to Anheuser-Busch brewing in the 1870s, two decades before milk was pasteurized in this country.
Pasteurization allows our packaged beer to be shipped and stored without refrigeration.
It takes approximately 30 to 35 minutes for the bottles to pass through. After the bottles emerge from the pasteurizers, they continue to the labelers, where the distinctive Anheuser-Busch labels are applied. Draught beer is refrigerated at all times and does not have to be pasteurized. Our canning process follows similar steps. Click the Budweiser bottle to continue the journey of our great beers.