Premises Description
Anheuser-Busch Companies has been named as a premises defendant in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation for alleged asbestos exposure at its St. Louis, Missouri headquarters brewery and its national network of breweries, malt houses, rice mills, and packaging plants.
The flagship Anheuser-Busch brewery complex on the south St. Louis riverfront — with its brewhouse towers, malt storage silos, rice unloading and cook systems, refrigerated lager cellars, bottling and canning halls, and central steam and refrigeration plants — is a heavy industrial site. Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that pre-1980 construction and maintenance at Anheuser-Busch St. Louis and other AB plants involved asbestos across multiple systems:
- Asbestos pipe covering on brewhouse steam headers, hot-liquor loops, wort transfer lines, and pasteurizer feed piping
- Asbestos block, cork, and mag insulation on ammonia refrigeration compressors, chillers, brine lines, and lager cellar cold rooms
- Asbestos sheet gaskets and rope packing at brew kettle, mash tun, lauter tun, wort chiller, fermenter, and bright-tank flanges and manways
- Asbestos-containing refractory, boiler insulation, and gaskets at the powerhouse steam generators supplying the brewhouse and packaging lines
- Asbestos-lined tunnel pasteurizers and bottle-wash and can-warmer ovens along the packaging lines
- Asbestos sprayed fireproofing on structural steel in newer brewhouse, packaging, and warehouse buildings
- Asbestos electrical arc chutes, panel millboard, and cable insulation in brewery motor control centers
The St. Louis brewery sits within the City of St. Louis, where asbestos premises-liability claims are filed in the 22nd Judicial Circuit.
Documented Boiler Equipment — St. Louis Plant
Per public records, the City of St. Louis boiler inspection list records fourteen Anheuser-Busch boiler installations across the south St. Louis plant complex, by address and by maker:
| Address | Boilers recorded | Makers listed |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Busch Place | 3 | Babcock & Wilcox; Superior |
| 721 Pestalozzi Street | 5 | B&W Sterling 24in; Steelrite (×3); Brasch |
| 721 Pestalozzi, Building 66 | 1 | Weil-McLain |
| 1127 Pestalozzi (Tour Center) | 1 | Brasch |
| 2700 S Broadway | 1 | Ray Pack |
| 2800 S 3rd Street | 1 | Com-Boiler |
| 2600 and 2827 S 7th Street | 2 | Brasch |
These are the named makers of record for the plant’s steam equipment. Boiler settings, breeching and steam headers of this era were routinely insulated with asbestos-containing refractory, block and pipe covering, and that insulation was disturbed during outage and re-tube work.
Workers Exposed
Plaintiffs allegedly worked at Anheuser-Busch St. Louis MO, Newark NJ, Houston TX, Los Angeles CA, Tampa FL, Jacksonville FL, Columbus OH, Merrimack NH, and Williamsburg VA breweries — plus company malt houses and rice mills — in trades including:
- Insulators (HFIAW) applying and removing asbestos pipe covering, block, cork, and cement on brewhouse and refrigeration piping
- Pipefitters (UA) breaking asbestos-gasketed flanges on brew kettles, wort lines, and steam and ammonia headers
- Boilermakers and boiler operators servicing asbestos-refractory-lined powerhouse boilers and economizers
- Millwrights and brewery mechanics rebuilding pumps, agitators, filters, and centrifuges with asbestos packing
- Refrigeration mechanics working on ammonia compressors, condensers, and cold-room panels with cork and asbestos insulation
- Bottling- and canning-line maintenance workers on pasteurizers, warmers, and labelers with asbestos-lined ovens
- Electricians pulling cable in fireproofed brewery halls and servicing asbestos-arc-chute switchgear
- Sheet-metal workers fabricating brewhouse ductwork and cold-room panel assemblies
Union brewery-worker locals, HFIAW insulator locals (including Local 1 St. Louis), UA pipefitter locals, and IBEW electrical locals dispatched workers into A-B breweries throughout the asbestos era.
If You Worked at Anheuser-Busch
If you or a family member worked at the Anheuser-Busch St. Louis MO brewery or any Anheuser-Busch brewery, malt house, rice mill, or packaging plant before 1980 and have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis, or other asbestos-related disease, you may have a legal claim. Anheuser-Busch has been named as a premises defendant in publicly filed asbestos litigation.
Free, confidential case evaluation: Speak with O’Brien Law Firm — (314) 207-2823