In 1876, Adolphus collaborated with his close friend, Carl Conrad, to create Budweiser, a new beer brand which now outsells all other beers in the world. Twenty years later, Busch developed another beer—Michelob—that soon became the pre-eminent superpremium U.S. beer, a position it retains to this day.

Several successive generations of Busch family leadership have contributed to the company’s present-day success.

August A. Busch, Sr. (1865-1934) guided the company through three major crises in succession—World War, Prohibition and the Great Depression—by innovating and diversifying the company into several new areas, including the production of corn products, baker’s yeast, ice cream, soft drinks and commercial refrigeration units. (Many of these operations were discontinued after Prohibition ended in 1933.)

Adolphus Busch III (1891-1946) built the company’s baker’s yeast operations into the nation’s leader, a position it held until the subsidiary was sold in 1988.

Through the leadership of August A. Busch Jr. (1899-1989), the company built eight regional breweries, increased its annual sales from 3 million barrels in 1946 to more than 34 million in 1974, and began diversifying into family entertainment, real estate, can manufacturing and transportation.

Under the leadership of August A. Busch III (1937-), the company opened three breweries and acquired one, introduced numerous beer products to meet changing consumer preferences, and acquired SeaWorld, making A-B one of the largest theme-park operators in the country. The company also launched the largest brewery expansion projects in company history and diversified into international brewing and marketing, container recovery, metalized label printing and creative services.

In 2002, Patrick Stokes, became the first non-family member head of the company.

[http://www.anheuser-busch.com/history/default.htm]