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(p. C9) The first King of Beers was a German immigrant who came to America just before the Civil War. Adolphus Busch set down roots in heavily Germanic St. Louis, used an inheritance to buy a brewery-supply business and married into the Anheuser family, which owned a struggling brewery of its own. Installed as president of the family business (re-christened Anheuser-Busch), Adolphus purchased a beer recipe–you have to love this–used by monks in a Bohemian village named Budweis. The crisp, pale lager was known as Budweiser.
. . .
Adolphus certainly knew how to sell beer. He was the first American brewer to pasteurize his product, meaning that he could store it longer and ship it greater distances. He bought his own rail-car company and glass bottler; in the age of trusts he was a one-man conglomerate. Anticipating the family taste for luxury, Adolphus maintained baronial mansions in St. Louis, Cooperstown, N.Y., and Pasadena, Calif. His style was grand or, as Mr. Knoedelseder puts it, “over-the-top gauche.”
For the full review, see:
Roger Lowenstein. “BOOKSHELF; Fall of the House of Busch.” The Wall Street Journal (Sat., December 1, 2012): C9.
(Note: ellipsis added.)
(Note: the online version of the review has the date November 30, 2012.)
Book under review:
Knoedelseder, William. Bitter Brew: The Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and America’s Kings of Beer. New York: HarperBusiness, 2012.