Why does the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company sell more beer than any other? The tongue-in-cheek answer:  because people like it. But the question remains—why the heck is A-B so successful? Let me tell you a story that'll help show you why. It'll also explain how a partnership between the world's largest brewer and one if its smallest came about.

In 1986 I bought a small, run-down pub on an out-of-the-way side street in Santa Monica, California called "Father's Office". I began to look around for something new, something no one else was doing. All I really knew at that point was that draft beer would be part of this new idea.

In the same year, I discovered the craft beers of Oregon and Washington. These draft beers were not available in California, because state law requires all out of state beers be bought through a licensed beer distributor, not directly from a brewery. I went to all the major distributors but no one was interested in carrying any of these almost unknown beers. I was peeved, brother. Here was what had become to me the Holy Grail, and like all others before me I was destined not to obtain it!

In early 1987 was rescued by Paul Quackenbush, owner of Shamrock Distributing. Paul was importing beer through Portland, a port-of-entry to the U.S. After I talked a tiny Portland start-up brewery into shipping their beer so far away, it was a go—Paul picked up a keg of Widmer Hefeweizen and brought it to me. I had begun a shift to craft beer, and to draft beer in particular, that would eventually lead me to sell only microbrewery draft beer and no bottled beer at all.

As I transitioned to craft beer, A-B took notice. It was like the proverbial “one tiny bird falling in the forest”, and A-B heard it. At this point they didn't know much about this area, as it was very early in the craft beer movement, and after all Anheuser-Busch is so big, and these breweries so small.

Someone in the organization was very much on the ball, however, and sent three different managers to interview me in the space of three weeks about my decision to move to craft beer, the last from headquarters in St. Louis. By now I had 11 taps devoted to microbrewery beers of the West Coast, and A-B wanted to know why I had made this decision. I was just a little 49-seat pub in a small town 2,000 miles from St. Louis. What did they know that I didn't?

I didn't give it much thought afterwards, but Anheuser-Busch clearly did. After studying the market for some time, in 1997 Anheuser-Busch purchased an interest in the Widmer Brewing Company and gained distribution rights to Widmer products for the entire country!

How's that for a surprise ending?

That's how I learned one of the reasons for AB's staying power—they reacted instantly to a market change and developed a successful strategy to increase the company's prosperity. Budweiser claims to be the King of Beers. While that may be true, it certainly is the King of Beer companies.