Bitter Brew : The Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and America's Kings of Beer by William Knoedelseder.

 Bitter Brew : The Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and America's Kings of Beer by William Knoedelseder. 396 pages.

We discussed this at our January book group meeting. Many of the participants were native St Louisians, who were familiar with the story. One complaint about the book was that there was little contained here that could not be found in Post-Dispatch articles, that there was no evidence that the book brought anything new to the story of Anheuser-Busch, or the sale to Inbev. I found it to be a nice, if gossipy, overview of the whole story. All of the Busch heirs to the throne, Gussie, August Busch III, and August Busch IV are portrayed as womanizing heavy-drinkers. IV is cast as a pathetic alcoholic, and not really capable of running, or saving the company. It seemed to me, after reading this, that if IV's plans to keep the sale from happening, if he had saved the company (and other Busch family members and shareholders bear a lot of the responsibility for tanking IV's plans and selling the company), he would be seen in a different light (and maybe Adrienne Martin wouldn't have died in his bedroom). More firearms, accidental deaths, and suicides than I had expected. A quick and lively read.

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