Adolphus Busch

As craft beer lovers, we often make fun of Anheuser-Busch beers.  But, we owe a great deal to their founder Adolphus Busch.

I learned the following from the Beer Page A Day calendar.

1) Adolphus Busch was the first American brewer to pasteurize beer in the 1870's, which allowed him to pursue national distribution ahead of the competition.

2) The Anheuser-Busch brewing process was revolutionized when they installed cutting-edge technology of "refrigerators" at their brewery.  Before that, most beer brewing took place during the winter.  Anheuser-Busch then quickly moved to use (and later produce) refrigerated train cars.

3) Adolphus Busch built a national system of ice warehouses next to train stations so that his refrigerated train cars could quickly restock before taking off for the next destination.

Next time you are drinking a beer from a brewery across the country or the world, raise your glass and give a toast to Adolphus Busch for his vision and creations that allow you to drink a beer from such a far place.