August A. Busch Jr. purchased 130 acres of land in Tampa for $320,000
in 1957. An investment of twenty five million was spent to build the
Brewery which opened in 1959 with a small garden and a Hospitality
House.
 Brewed at Tampa other cities, St Louis, Newark and Los Angeles. |
 Opened by a "Church Key" |
 also shows 4 cities |
The brewery first started to produce Budweiser and Busch beer in Flat Top cans. These cans were marked with where they were manufactured from such as “at Tampa” or “Brewed and Canned at Tampa”. The Florida weather with sandy soils and high humidity makes the cans a little more difficult to find in mint condition than from the St. Louis cans that are preserved better up North.
 New to there time 2nd Can does not have Bar-Code 3rd Can does 4th Can has the newer sta-tab top |
 New to there time |
 Notice the red stripe around Can Tab tops were New and Convenient |
 Shows 5 Cities |
 Shows 5 cities |
 shows 5 Cities |
In 1993 they introduced Kumba the largest and fastest roller coaster in
“The hand writing on the wall”
By 1995 they were making only 2.6 million barrels of beer a year. Also in The Tampa Plant became one of the oldest (besides St. Louis) In October of 1995, Anheuser-Busch announced that it would close the
The move to close the brewery cost over 150 Million dollars but would save
In around late 1996 I was walking by the main entrance to the Brewery,
Thirty-six years of operation became a Finality.
In 1968 the main road in front of the brewery was renamed to Busch Blvd
from Temple Terrace Highway. The park was expanding in leaps and bounds.
In 1970 they started charging admission from $1.25 to $49.95 in 2002.
In the later 70’s and 80’s they pretty much separated the Park from the
Brewery. Not much was produced showing or describing the Brewery in there
advertising of the Park. In 1989 the brewery expanded by 40%. I remember
the large building that they put up with the huge stainless steel tanks,
the piping and tanks looked to be technicians Nightmare.
the southeast. After that the Brewery seemed out of place. I remember there
was a 20-year waiting list to get hired on at the brewery.
Wages for beer workers tended to be among the highest in the nation
at $48k yearly and going above $100k.
1995 the Cartersville, Georgia plant was completed with its expansion to
7 Million barrels of beer a year.
and smallest and most expensive to operate.
brewery by the end of year. About 375 workers lost their jobs.
Frank Reeves of Land O Lakes, Florida was one of them. He wrote a
dedication to his fellow Brewery Workers that was published in the
Tampa Tribune. Very inspirational. I hope to obtain permission to share it
with you here.
the company thirty three million a year after that.
which was walled off by an 8-foot plywood fence. That part of the Building
was being demolished and bricks and glass came crashing down. At the moment
I feared for my safety and those around me but it was well contained.
That eerie sound of glass shattering and bricks rumbling down soon ended
with an eerie calmness.
 AB43 Florida Lid |
 Showing race track layouts |
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More than 3 million tourists would flock to Busch Gardens within 3 years of it’s opening. Thousands of items were produced for them as souvenirs. I’ve strictly kept with collecting only items that show the brewery or describe the brewery. A recent addition to my hobby is post cards. When I first started I had only two and thought there couldn’t be much more. Now I have collected over thirty and in addition have acquired brochures showing the inside canning and Arial photos.
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