Budweiser's Battle for Beer Market Dominance

As a child, I spent countless hours studying Budweiser beer cans. Their officious labels with the filigreed script filled me with the same wonder as the webbed mysticism of a dollar bill. Budweiser was my father’s beer of choice, and, like most children, I assiduously studied everything my father held sacred. I knew nothing about alcohol, but I knew every word on the Budweiser can. I longed to visit St. Louis, where Budweiser is brewed. I dreamed of having my own blinkered Clydesdale horses, which still tour cities throughout the United States as “ambassadors” of the brand. But mainly, I pondered how one became the “King of Beers.”

Apparently, you become king just by having your founder say it’s so. German-born Adolphus Busch began manufacturing the Bohemian-style lager in Missouri with his father-in-law, Eberhard Anheuser, in 1876, over a decade after the Civil War. He gave Budweiser its name and royal title, which mimicked a Czech beer that was founded in 1245 by King Ottokar II of Bohemia—and called itself “Beer of Kings.” As the legend goes, Ottokar became heir to the Bohemian throne when his beloved older brother died in 1247. Ottokar was