Free Beer at SeaWorld Ends February 1

The tap will run dry on the free beer provided at SeaWorld Orlando’s hospitality centers as of February 1, 2009. The hospitality centers will be temporarily shut down and replaced by restaurants or cafeteria-style eateries. According to a recent article in the Orlando Sentinel, Anheuser Busch In Bev announced that it will shutter the popular hospitality centers and "brewmaster clubs" in its SeaWorld and Busch Gardens theme parks starting later this month. There will be beer sales in other areas of SeaWorld, but the days of Shamu buying a round of drinks are numbered.

For Busch Gardens in Tampa, the end of the free beer samples marks the end of a 50 year tradition. Busch Gardens opened in 1959 as a small park offering tours of a nearby Anheuser-Busch brewery. Recent news reports have indicated that Belgian brewer InBev, which recently purchased Anheuser-Busch, might sell off the company’s theme park division and shutting down the hospitality centers is a way to make the parks more appealing to potential buyers.