Bitter Brew: The Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and America's Kings of Beer by William Knoedelseder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book was a combination of business analysis, brewing history, pop culture retrospective, and gossip column. It worked. The Busch family was, for the most part, a train wreck in their personal lives and how that intersected with running one of the worlds largest and most successful companies is a fascinating tale. I found the discussions of brewing formulations, which were a small part of the book, particularly interesting. For example, to get Bud Light (which they were pushed unwillingly into by the success of Miller Lite) to have any taste at all, they had to increase the IBUs on the beer to well above the normal Budweiser levels. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in US business or brewing. I will warn you that you may get really thirsty while reading.
This book counts toward 2 of my current challenges, what's in a name 6 (an emotion) and foodies read.
another Bitter Brew fan? Ok, now I have to read it!
ReplyDeleteLiving in St. Louis, I really ought to read this!
ReplyDeleteJoy's Book Blog
How funny that we both picked this for our Weekend Review post. I too was fascinated by the book -- and not just the creation of the light beer but how the formulation for Bud was so strongly based on the personal tastes of Busch III.
ReplyDeleteOverall I was surprised by how much the personal tastes of the Busch men drove the company. I hadn't thought much about InBev buying them, but now that I know about the history of Budweiser it seems very sad.
DeleteThis sounds pretty interesting. My brother-in-law would love it!
ReplyDeleteThis book is starting to make more of an impression now that you and Beth have both reviewed it today. I'll have to make sure to order it for the library if I haven't already!
ReplyDeleteI'm not interested in beer at all, but I do like to read about families that aren't the ritzy/glitzy type. Have already added i to my list.
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