The Gateway Beer - Sam Adams

Cape Cod Craft Beer Examiner John Pomeroy does some light research
Photo by John Pomeroy

When Jim Koch founded Boston Beer Company in 1984, he brought to the table $100,000 of his own capital, a Harvard education, five years experience as a business consultant, and his genuine passion for good-tasting beer; beer that wasn’t necessarily Rocky-Mountain Cold. While some of these attributes held more sway over the family members and friends he’d convinced to loan him the other $140,000, confident in his business plan and his ability, it is the latter of these traits –his passion for beer-which continues, 25 years later, to lure new beer drinkers to his brand every day. That and possibly the George Thorogood tune “Who Do You Love?”

Now, Samuel Adams now offers around 30 assorted brews, from the modest Boston Lager, to the profoundly extreme Sam Adams Utopia. Their capacity and present buying power has allowed the Boston Beer Company to transform what was, twenty years ago, a domestic beer that cost 15% more than an import, into an affordable rendition of some of the varied beer styles which America’s burgeoning craft beer scene has to offer. While its beers may not offer the trademark Pac-man Yeast of Rogue’s, or the Off-Centered attitude of Dogfish, what they do offer is a basic, accessible “microbrew” for the uninitiated Macro-Masses to indulge in. More than a delightful glass of suds, Sam Adams is a portal through which many drinkers – young and old – might catch a glimpse of the world beyond Bud.