From Barley to Beer: Inside the Idaho Falls Budweiser plant

IDAHO FALLS -- Did you know that Idaho barley is used to brew nearly three Budweisers in every American six-pack?

That's according to Anheuser-Busch, one of the world's largest producers of alcoholic beverages.

Barley is the main ingredient in beer and 300,000 metric tons are processed through the Idaho Falls Anheuser-Busch malt plant every year.

"This is the best barley growing region in the world," John Drake, director of Western Malting Operations, tells EastIdahoNews.com. "What makes this the best region in the world is the climate. We have nice hot days and cool nights. We also have really great soil here as well."

The company recently invited EastIdahoNews.com inside the plant for a rare look at how barley in the ground goes to beer in your glass.

"There is a lot happening in our facility every day," Drake says. "We are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year."

A lot of the malt barley processed through the plant is harvested from the 200 acres surrounding the facility.

It gets loaded into grain elevators and carried all the way to the top of the 250 foot buildings.

"It falls down through our cleaners and we're able to clean out stones, dirt, sticks - anything that may have come in from the field," Drake says.

Once the barley is clean, it’s transferred to a conveyer belt and moved into large steeping tanks full of water where it soaks for 38 hours.

"We watch and see when the end of the kernel starts to chit. That means white nubs will appear on the end of the kernel and it's ready to move to the germination phase," Drake says.

In germination, the malt barley is dumped into large temperature-controlled rooms where it sits for about four days. It's always 65 degrees and 100 percent humidity.

"The magic happens in germination," Drake says. "We’re forming enzymes that we’re after as brewers. We’ll provide lots of fresh air to the grain that goes down through the bottom of the germination beds."

After a few days in germination, the barley is moved to large kilns.

"It will be in the kiln about 12 hours," Drake says. "The barley goes from 12 percent moisture to four percent moisture and will get up to temperatures of 185 degrees."

From start to finish, the entire process takes five to seven days. Some of the best barley in the world is then loaded into rail cars and sent to 12 Anheuser-Busch breweries across America.

All of it originating in our own back yard.