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.

1990s – present

in 1997, jim koch returned hometown of cincinnati purchase hudepohl-schoenling brewery, father apprenticed in 1940s. important step company took reduce reliance on contract brewing.

brew kettles @ samuel adams boston brewery

the company s success occurred in conjunction u.s. craft beer movement. 1995, 500 independent breweries producing specialty beers in united states. year, boston beer company went public, selling shares of class common stock on new york stock exchange, under ticker symbol, sam . these shares, however, have no voting rights, while company controlled through class b common stock, of koch owns 100% of shares.

boston beer launched hardcore cider in 1997, , twisted tea brand in 2000. in 2007, boston beer company purchased former f. & m. schaefer brewing company brewery in breinigsville, pennsylvania, in lehigh valley. brewery had been owned diageo north america, inc. , used production of smirnoff ice malt beverages since 2001. 2012, samuel adams producing two-thirds of beer @ breinigsville facility, , has increased brewing capacity there. in 2012 boston beer company launched angry orchard hard cider company based in cincinnati, ohio.

as of 2014, company had 1,325 employees in boston, massachusetts, cincinnati, ohio , breinigsville, pennsylvania breweries.