InBev of Belgium, the world's biggest brewer, is said to be preparing a takeover of Anheuser-Busch. Anheuser-Busch is headquartered in my home, St. Louis, Missouri, and has been operating here independently for 156 years. Most of us here in St. Louis have some connection to Anheuser-Busch that goes beyond their beer and the thought of losing them has us a bit worried.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently listed just some of the Anheuser-Busch related institutions in our town:
- Baseball games at Busch stadium
- Free brewery tours
- Grant's farm, a wildlife preserve owned by Anheuser-Busch where visitors can also sample free beer
- Bevo Mill - a restaurant built by Anheuser-Busch on the eve of Prohibition to make saloon-going seem more respectable
- August A. Busch Memorial Conservation Area - a 7,000-acre park
My favorite Anheuser-Busch related St. Louis tradition is the free Christmas lights display at the brewery itself. It's beautiful. My second favorite (though if I liked the beer better it would be my first) is that its approximately 6000 St. Louis employees all get a free case of beer every month.
Of course, with a takeover we are worried about losing local jobs, but we are also worried about losing an important member of our community.
If you're concerned about caffeine in your diet, help may be on the way in the form of a dipstick-style caffeine test strip. Chemists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis say that the product would be the first of its kind, according to a story on 
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