Early history Boston Beer Company

boston beer company ca. 1880

the boston beer company founded in 1984 james jim koch , rhonda kallman. initial beer offering samuel adams boston lager, 4.8% abv amber or vienna lager. koch, sixth-generation, first-born son follow in family s brewing footsteps, brewed first batch of beer in kitchen, using original family recipe louis koch lager. @ time, koch working @ boston consulting group after receiving ba, mba , jd degrees harvard university. while serving in role manufacturing consultant @ bcg, koch developed business plan locally focused beer company. invested $100,000 of own money , raised additional funds investors, family members, , friends including former classmates , bcg colleagues. company organized limited liability partnership; investors did not have active roles in company. however, 1 investor, john b. wing, held board seat until 2002.

koch named beer after boston patriot samuel adams, fought american independence, , had inherited brewing tradition father. in march 1985, koch introduced beer samuel adams boston lager, on patriot s day weekend honors first battle of american revolution , today more known running of boston marathon. 6 weeks later, samuel adams voted best beer in america @ great american beer festival, in 93 national , regional beers competed. beer first put on tap @ doyle s cafe in jamaica plain.

initially, koch rented excess capacity , brewed beer @ pittsburgh brewing company, best known iron city brand of beer. sales increased koch developed other contract arrangements @ various brewing facilities excess capacity, ranging stroh breweries, portland s original blitz-weinhard brewery (shuttered in 1999), cincinnati s hudepohl-schoenling brewery (eventually purchased boston beer company in 1997), , industry giant sabmiller. boston beer company has small r&d brewery located in boston (jamaica plain), massachusetts, public tours , beer tastings offered. brewery occupies part of premises of old haffenreffer brewery.