Sat May 01 2010, 23:32 by 
KSDK -- The label on a bottle of Budweiser extols the high quality beer that comes from using beechwood chips in the brewing tanks. Last year, August Busch IV told an advertising magazine that beechwood was a major marketing tool for the brewery.
But the chips, created by a Tennessee inventor, will no longer come from the company the inventor founded in 1947.
For 62 years, Beechwood Corporation of Millington Tennessee sold beechwood chips to A-B, but earlier this year, A-B cancelled the contract, saying the company wanted to consolidate it's purchasing of the chips, which aren't really chips at all.
Instead, the beechwood, a hardwood tree that generally grows east of the Mississippi River, except around the Missouri Bootheel, is turned into small planks, about 18 inches long and an eighth of an inch thick. The planks are curled, and sit at the bottom of a brewing tank. The chips encourage the brewing process, and don't impart any flavor.
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But the chips, created by a Tennessee inventor, will no longer come from the company the inventor founded in 1947.
For 62 years, Beechwood Corporation of Millington Tennessee sold beechwood chips to A-B, but earlier this year, A-B cancelled the contract, saying the company wanted to consolidate it's purchasing of the chips, which aren't really chips at all.
Instead, the beechwood, a hardwood tree that generally grows east of the Mississippi River, except around the Missouri Bootheel, is turned into small planks, about 18 inches long and an eighth of an inch thick. The planks are curled, and sit at the bottom of a brewing tank. The chips encourage the brewing process, and don't impart any flavor.
Read More
