Saint Arnold Brewery &
Mrs Baird's Bakery
- January 23, 2008
On January 23
exactly 23 members and guests had a full day of trip
activities. First stop was St. Arnold's (micro) Brewing
Company where brewing production manager Bev Blackwood gave us a first
class tour and education on brewing. His discussion ranged
from malts, hops, barley seeds, flavor and color, mixing vats, CO2
venting, ales and lagers, yeast, fermentation and filtration, alcoholic
content, bottling and kegs. Lastly, we received souvenir
glasses and "tasted" once or twice the various brews, each
with great flavor, not to exclude a fabulous root
beer for non-drinkers.
For lunch we traveled to Larry's Bar-B-Q &
Smokehouse, a buffet line where we feasted on smoky ribs, beef
slices, chopped beef, spicy sausage, tender chicken, salad and
desserts. Talk about full!
Next, a 'surprise' jaunt to the renowned Beer Can
House, a creation of the late John Milkovisch. Ripley's
Believe It or Not estimated that over 50,000 beer cans adorn this
monument to recycling. The Orange Show Center is restoring
the site.
With a little time to kill, we visited the home base of Houston
sculptor David Adickes, father of the Texas' renowned Sam
Houston statue, a full 67 feet of concrete, just
outside of Huntsville. In 2004 he created the "President's
Park" located in Lead, South Dakota, very near Mount
Rushmore. On a visit you would see 20 foot busts of all 43
American presidents. But WE SAW right there in north
Houston 20 busts of Presidents and others
from Texas history--a Beatles statue off to the
rear. An unplanned treat for the eyes!
Our last stop was Mrs Baird's Bakery (part of Grupo Bimbo, a huge
baking conglomerate). Inside, tour guide Angela Ainsworth
showed us two (promotional) videos and walked
us station-to-station through the (very
loud) manufacturing area. Required was over the ears, mesh
hair nets that made us look rather silly.
We saw up close all aspects of bread production from raw
mixing, twisting, baking, cooling racks, slicing,
packaging and stacking. We each had a slice (out
of a loaf) pulled from the production line--hot and
yummy. Angela gave each of us an Apple Cinnamon Roll, a
treat for later. From beer to BBQ to baking....we
fed our stomachs and our minds. Great Day! as they say.
