WHY BUDWEISER BUILT ITS SAN FERNANDO VALLEY PLANT?

"The Western Home of Budweiser - Los Angeles, California"
Postcard distributed by Anheiser Busch at the opening of its massive new brewery in 1953
Gift to the postcard collection of The Museum of the San Fernando Valley from Gary Fredburg 2007

We thought that in a week of temperatures well over 100 degrees, that the Museum Community might find it interesting to read a little about the Valley's largest manufacturing employer - Budweiser.
The postcard's caption reads: "The new home of Budweiser, King of Beers, is on a 65 acre site in the San Fernando Valley. The brewery is built to duplicated every phase of the brewing process at St. Louis. Capacity is over 1,000,000 barrels annually."

According to popular belief in the San Fernando Valley, the huge Anheuser-Busch brewery in Van Nuys is intentionally, slightly smaller than the company's facility in Saint Louis. No doubt those loyal folks at Budweiser felt that the St. Louis Cardinals would never fall to a Los Angeles baseball team either.
In 2007, the Anheuser-Busch plant in the Valley employs over 900 workers.