In a new book, Family Reins, Billy Busch, one of the Anheuser-Busch heirs, gives his perspective on how the famous local family built its beer dynasty, survived Prohibition, amassed its fortune—and then sold the brewing business. Busch recounts growing up on Grant's Farm, the beloved family attraction that his father, Gussie Busch, popularized by opening to the public. But when Billy's 8-year-old sister Christina died in 1974 from injuries that she sustained in a car crash, it was the start of the fall of Camelot. In 1975, his half-brother ousted their father in a boardroom coup. In 2008, InBev launched a hostile takeover of A-B. The year 2016 saw Busch and his siblings in a well-documented fight over Grant's Farm. He says he hasn't set foot on the property since 2017. But just as things hum along on Grant's Farm, Busch is working on his own next act.
There's never been a book about the Busch family published. I had read a lot of old letters that my father left behind. My wife and I went through boxes and boxes of relics. There was one book about the company that really stood out—it wasn't a published book but written more for the employees. It was called . I read that book, and I came to a realization that this is such incredible history and that my ancestors worked so hard to build a dynasty. My grandfather kept the company going during 13 years of Prohibition, and he kept all 2,000 employees working. My father ran the brewery when I was a kid, and it was probably the time of the brewery's greatest growth. I saw the principles he used to make the company successful. I then got a better understanding of where he got these principles—from his father, whom I never knew.
