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Exit Beer. When Prohibition came, President August said: "We'll make shoelaces if we have to, but I'll never close this plant." Anheuser-Busch never had to make shoelaces, but it made "Bevo" (an unfermented, nonalcoholic drink that was supposed to taste like beer), near-beer, ginger ale, Grape Bouquet, root beer, "Kaffo" (a syrup for iced coffee), Busch "Tee," Carcho (a chocolate drink), starch, dextrine, corn products, malt syrup (for home brewing), and even refrigerator truck bodies and ice cream freezing units. In the end, it was yeast that pulled the company through, and today its yeast production is second only to that of Standard Brand's Fleischmann.
When Prohibition ended, Anheuser-Busch was ready: the day after Repeal, more than 3,500 barrels of beer rolled out of its St. Louis plant. Two months later, President August, long in poor health, shot himself.
Families & Fermentation. Present boss of the company is August Jr., who started as a worker in a malt house in 1921 and reached the top four years ago when his older brother, Adolphus, the company president, died of cancer. A barrel-chested World War II colonel, "Gussie" Busch, now 51, is a throwback to Grandfather Adolphus. He has a shrewd eye for horses, a nose that can sniff the quality of hops, and he likes nothing better than the periodic Schlachtfeste at which the family, clad in Bavarian costumes, consumes quantities of sausages, pork cuts and ribs washed down with Budweiser.
Gussie does not lack for family help around the brewery: there are no less than eleven Anheusers and Busches who are now officers, directors, or otherwise active in the company. Between them, the two families own 85% of the 4,500,000 shares of common stock, which sells at around $25 and pays $1 a year. Last year, on net sales of $135 million, Anheuser-Busch had net earnings totaling $14,500,000, up 7% from 1948.
Gussie Busch, who still refers to good beer as "the workingman's champagne," attributes much of Budweiser's success to its lengthy and more costly brewing process, in which it is fermented twice. Although the company has spent $64 million since Repeal to expand plants and boost production, Gussie Busch says it is still a race between the architect and the brew-master—and the brewmaster is in the lead.
* Though exact production figures are secret, industry estimates put Schlitz first in output, followed by Anheuser-Busch, Ballantine and Pabst. If Pabst's production of another brand by a Los Angeles subsidiary company were included, Pabst would top them all.