Jim Koch, founder of Samuel Adams, doesn’t see it that way. For him,
being safe is boring.
"The day I want to make the same beer every day is the day I retire,”
Koch told me during Philly Beer Week. “It is as exciting today as it was in
1984 when we first started."
During the week-long celebration of all things suds in the City of
Brotherly love, Koch bounced around to various tastings and tap takeovers and
food pairing events, during which yet another array of new Samuel Adams beers
were showcased. There was Honey Queen, a braggot that will soon be released as
part of their Small Batch series, a barrel aged porter, and a load of others –
not to mention creative pairings, such as pancakes made with their Blueberry
Hill Lager. Even this year’s summer mix pack contains several new beers,
including a really tasty rye witbier called Little White Rye brewed with orange
peel, coriander, and sage.
The question is, why? When you have one of the most successful flagship
beers in craft beer history (Boston Lager) and some of the most popular seasonals on the
market, why the never-ending flow of new beers?
"A brewer always wants more beer. One of the things that continues
to motivate me is that there are some really innovative styles of beer that no
one has made yet. I want to be one of the brewers who makes them,” Koch said.
It might be easy to dismiss that as marketing speak if it wasn’t for
the fact that Samuel Adams has done exactly that for years. Way back in the
1990s they blew the lid off what beer could be with Triple Bock, a barrel-aged
brew that at the time was the strongest in the world and which was like nothing
that had ever been done before. That sort of rule-breaking and innovation
continued with beers like Millennium, a 20% ABV barrel-aged strong ale,
Infinium, their ground-breaking champagne replacement, and Utopias, which is
perhaps the most complex beer on the planet.
Meanwhile, in addition to constantly introducing new beers in their mix
packs, their Barrel Room Collection introduces big, challenging beers in
limited quantities, and their Small Batch Series has turned into a line that is
constantly doing interesting things, such as double IPAs, gingerbread stouts, bocks with chocolate and chili peppers, and Americanized versions of the elusive Gose
style of beer.
“I’ve been doing this 29 years. I don’t have anything to prove. I just
want to enjoy my job,” Koch told me.
And pushing the boundaries as if they were still the fiery little
upstart they were in 1984 is one way he does that.
Can’t say I’m inclined to argue with him.
(Photos taken from various other blogs)
(Photos taken from various other blogs)
