I lucked out last week by being able to tag along with the X Winery holiday party, which consisted of a behind the scenes VIP tour of the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Fairfield, just up I-80 from Napa.

While I had taken the free tour a few years ago, I jumped at the chance to take the VIP “Brewmaster” tours as these take the visitor deep into the bowls of the behemoth brewery as well as a sampling from a finishing tank. Super fresh Budweiser tastes like, well, Budweiser but it’s still pretty cool. And I do mean “cool.” The storage cellar is kept at around 36 degrees and the fun of the special tasting was diminished a bit when I was shaking and my hands were turning blue.

We got some swell swag, including a hat and beer glasses, and some great first-hand knowledge of production on such a massive scale it’s just amazing.

I thought I’d just post up a gallery of pics from the day’s tour:

(You can read more about the tour by going here: http://www.budweisertours.com/toursBeermaster_fairfield.htm)