Anyone else find it amusing they came out with American Ale right around the time they were being bought out by a foreign company?

I guess it is limited... to people 21 and up.

That is somewhat a limited appeal. :P

Shit! If I had know Busch Gardens offered free beer I would have taken all my friend when I was still in college.

I wonder how the InBev acquisition will impact Grant's Farm. They used to have free beer tasting also.

Damn....when I was 21-27, we'd always go to Cedar Point and then go to Louie's, a dive bar with very, very cheap (but not free) beer - something like $1 or $1.50 32-oz cups of Busch.

Much hilarity ensued.

If you are going to the one in Tampa and want free beer the Yuengling brewery that is just up the road has a great tour with 2 free beers (not to mention it's better beer anyway) and the english woman who gives the tour is a doll.

Only the makers of Budweiser could claim free beer had limited appeal.

"King of Beers" my ass.

So their beer is so bad that even free people don't want it? That's just sad.

where did they have free beer? just if you took the brewery tour which was separate from the busch gardens park right?

oh the brewmanity!

The eradication of free beer in the theme parks isn't about "family appeal." It's about the fact that InBev intends to sell off Bush Entertainment Corporation (the theme park arm of Anheuser-Busch). As a result, if the parks want to continue to sample beer or if they want to continue giving the employees a monthly free beer allotment, they would have to pay for it. No way they're going to pay for it. It would just make their numbers look worse to prospective buyers.

There are other signs for the preparation for the sale of the parks. Previously, SeaWorld had the Clydesdales pull the beer wagon hitch every day. That is over now. Current plans are to keep a few horses on site for now, but no more hitch. Guest relations is taking some heat for that already. I would not want to be working in guest relations after the beer sampling is gone, too.

Shit I didnt know they had free beer till now, and I have gone there a few times since becoming legal.

That sucks!

"The hospitality centers had pretty limited appeal because it was for patrons who were of legal drinking age who wanted beer," he said. "We were looking for something that had a broader age appeal."

Does this imply that they'll be replacing the free beer with something that appeals to underage drinkers as well? Sounds like free Purple Drank for everyone!

Was the free beer near the wacky animal show or near the 8 foot wolf demonstration?

@APFPilot: Plus, Yuengling is still American. Yeah!

as having patronized their Williamsburg park since I was old enough to walk and having worked at Water Country USA for the 3 years (and Kingsmill Resort for 1 year) I would think that I would have known about this. And I did not. And they discontinued the in-park tram-to-brewery tour years ago so you couldn't get beer that way either...

I honestly have no clue what they are talking about.

@jumpo64:
Don't get too excited. There was indeed free beer, but it was just a few tastings and you could only go once every 6 hours or something.

Crud I never went but if maybe they advertised a bit more that there was free beer then I would've.

@BigPapaCherry and the Snowtunes: Actually, to be precise, the makers of Budweiser were the ones who started giving away free beer. It was the makers of Stella Artois and Labatts that claim that free beer has limited appeal. And given their product line prior to buying AB, they are probably right.

@APFPilot: If by "amusing" you mean "somewhat enraging and completely obvious," then yes, it is. I took this buyout pretty hard, and no amount of silly "American Ale" billboards are going to distract from the fact that they are now run by slimy belgian a-holes. Don't tell me it's just a 'nod to the style of the beer.'

Good thing I live near Sweetwater's brewery. They aren't stopping the free beer events. Also, their beer names involve quality phrases like "Motor Boat" and "Hummer" and "Donkey Punch."

I get where ABIB is coming from. We stumbled upon the hospitality center at SeaWorld San Diego on a dead offseason Thursday, and MisterTheExit was interested in tasting the beer but not so interested in ditching me and TheLittleExits for however long. If they'd had something for the rest of us to do while he tasted beer, that would've been fine, but it was more like "Sorry ma'am, the kids can't come past this line."

We had fun looking at the Clydesdales and moved on.

Well I've been to SeaWorld and saw the signs for free beer, but instead they were offering Budweiser.

@HeyYouGuyss: also, "American Ale" tastes more like "American Ass". I tried some at a bar because the bartender was adamant at trying to stop people from paying for this nasty ass beer. I can see why.

I'll tell you what has even more limited appeal.Watery ,tasteless beer steeped with beechwood chips to kill the oily smell. It's time to face a hard ,cold reality- Budweiser is crappy,non descript beer made for the auteur of bland. A-B needs to stop worrying about their other little ventures and brew something that doesn't taste like it is processed through one of their Clydesdales...

@Jordan Martin: When I was in college in the 70's we'd hit the Williamsburg hospitality center on a regular basis. You could get in without going in the park, or taking the tour and they would give you three free beers. They watched like a hawk, and it was almost impossible to get more than the three. It may have been urban legend, but we had always heard that at one time they had unlimited beers, but some frat trashed the place.

Silly commenters. Of course 'free beer' has limited appeal. Especially with slimy belgian management types.

Ditto the 'American Ass' comment. But there's a big difference. I've tasted much better American Ass :)

@MissedTheExit: It's not like you sit down and sample beers, at not at SW Orlando. You get in one of the multiple lines (which move very fast), you tell them which beer you want and they give you a cup and off you go. We usually stop by for a free beer on the way to another show or attraction.

It was definitely a nice perk but now that it's gone it's one less reason to renew my annual pass.

So this merger was a good idea because?

'This has limited appeal to our legions of accountants.'

I guess it's true, though, in that people don't really pay the admission fee so they can take advantage of the free beer.

I'm sorry. Bud should not be called "beer". It should be "alcohol flavoured water" having limited appeal.

@Jim Topoleski: Not missing much. If you have more than a 2 beer tolerance going to the boring ass beer tour was a waste of life. And 25% of that free beer was skanked beer to inform the consumer what bad beer tasted like.

@SanyaktaCrassus:I grew up in Newport News. They closed the hospitality center and the mono-rail in mid 90's I recall. The hospitality center was awesome even when I was in my tweens. It was an amazing place and I missed the monorail ever since. Never heard the legend of the unlimited beers, but with W&M so close wouldn't have been a good business decision.

@Jordan Martin: Me as well. Worked only 1 summer of my life at BG in Italy as a cook. Best summer of my life all because of this amazing Polish girl. Miss the mono-rail, the hospitality center, and honestly wish the Ireland portion of the park did better. But God I love Germany...

@ldavis480: I see what you did there...

@doctor_cos: All but 1 experience I have had has been American ass. And something like 90 to 95 percent of American ass Ive had has been quite lacking and pathetic. But I dont think we're talking about beer are we?

I think the limited appeal was the fact that the free "beer" was Budweiser or Busch.

@ldavis480: I had Budweiser once in my life. It was one of the worst bottled waters I have ever had.

The KING of BEERS has limited appeal? When Free?

Sounds more like a desperate cost cutting measure to me to help pay for the merger during this recession, kind of like when GM decided to not plow their upper level parking lot and switching from mechanical pencils to regular wooden ones.

.

I'm frankly dumbfounded by the amount of people who claim to go to the parks regularly and do not know about this. So, at the risk of appearing to be an alcoholic, here's some food for thought. The free beer at the Busch Gardens parks was dispensed through the "Brewmaster's Club", which was a demonstration approx 30 min long. The demonstration heavily leaned towards tasting beers paired with foods, and exposing people to new flavors. Frequently new products were used as well, to gauge response and build interest. In BG Williamsburg, there were 2 Brewmaster's Club locations - one in Ireland next to the indoor bar/restaurant (near Corkscrew Hill) and one inside the Oktoberfest building. In Tampa, there is one and it is located between Gwazi and the flamingo area.

At Sea World, they also did the Club demonstrations but ALSO had a hospitality center. The Center would pour you 2 free beers, about 12 oz. each, with no time consuming demo involved. The Orlando Center was located up and right from Shamu Stadium. I forget where the San Diego one was offhand.

Regardless, they were all very nice features - to take a load off in the middle of a hot day and drink a free beer in an air conditioned room was a great respite. The Sea World ones, with the free full beer right next to a deli counter, made for an awesome combo. I tried many beers I never would have ordered at each of the stands, and found some new favorites. Red Bridge, Wild Blue, Budweiser American Ale, Shock Top - none of those would have been even slightly interesting if the first cup wasn't free, but now I drink them all the time. So I'll miss this.

I'd feel really sick if I was drinking beer and then riding rollercoasters. Still, free beer is free beer. Maybe it's just because I'm 19, but I would've took it.

@mechfluff: Budweiser has always tasted like Ass.

If anything, the people who actually know how to make BEER will put something besides watered down urine in the bottles from now on. Seriously, why do you think its $4?

@HeyYouGuyss:

Except that AB makes crap beer. Being owned by a Belgian company can't do anything but make it better.

@mechfluff: American Ale is just the bastard child of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. 'Cascade hops' my ass.

Since they're selling the theme parks, maybe the new owners will allow free beer.

@jasonof2000: You're upset because you can no longer get free beer from places you've never been to?

@VOIDMunashii: +1

Say what you will about Budweiser quality, but Busch Gardens usually had a couple of beers that I never saw on the shelves and only saw at the park...and they were shockingly palatable (must be why they never sold at my local Publix).

I'll be sad to see the free beer go. It was the only thing that made the kiddie play area bearable.

@Dan W: I know in Busch Gardens Tampa they has a building called 'The Hospitality House' I believe. It was a big building, that had a gorgeous bar with taps, usually had 3 people serving. In the building there were all kinds of nostalgic items about the history of AB and most were always mentioning about it being American owned, and oldest American owned brewery etc. Very neat place, and was always busy everytime I went.. and I'm no beer drinker.