In times of trouble and strife, you should always remember why you got into the business of brewing. And hopefully that’s a passion for making people happy with great beer, Jim Koch, founder of The Boston Beer Company tells The Brewers Journal.

Koch celebrated his 70th birthday earlier this week, a date clearly so important that public holidays were observed either side of the pond.

But he was hardly taking it easy in the weeks and months leading up to such an important anniversary.

For starters, his Sam ’76 beer, a new addition to Boston Beer Company’s Sam Adams brand, has just been launched into the Canadian market.

Then there’s the small matter of the merger with Delaware-based Dogfish Head Brewery in a $300m deal.

Koch says the combination is the “right fit” with both Boston Beer and Dogfish Head holding a passion for brewing and innovation.

“We share the same values and we will learn a lot from each other as we continue to invest in the high-end beer category,” he says.

Speaking to The Brewers Journal, Koch says consumers are allowed to be “rightfully suspicious” during the takeover of their favourite breweries by multinational brewing giants but was proud to say the move with Dogfish Head sits at the opposite end of the spectrum.

“Sam (Calagione, founder and brewer of Dogfish Head) had more financially attractive options from those types of businesses, but he was determined not to do that,” explains Koch.

He adds: “Instead, we spoke about the possibility of doing something. Things gelled and by coming together we knew it would enable their business to remain an independent craft brewery, which was so important.

“Sam and I have been friends for many years, working on brewing beers and also industry initiatives. We’ve fought shoulder to shoulder. There was a comfort in knowing there was a cultural fit.

“Statistically, mergers fail due to cultural reasons. You bring together two different cultures and often, they simply do not work. With Dogfish Head and Boston Beer Company, we share the same culture and the same values. Global conglomerates may well be good brewers but they rarely share the same values.”

The deal with Dogfish Head is expected to close late in the second quarter of 2019, but in the more immediate future, Koch’s attentions have turned to the launch of its Sam ’76 into the Canadian market.

Available for a limited time in LCBO and year-round at The Beer Store for Ontario drinkers, the 4.7% beer will also be sold at local retailers in Alberta, BC, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Quebec. 

Initially launched into the North American market last year, Sam ’76 started life in Samuel Adams’ experimental nano brewery in Boston.

The culmination of more than a year of testing and 60 different brews, brewers began with two active fermentations – a base lager and a base ale – each with their own respective yeast strains.

The base beers were brewed, then combined during a final maturation step when both yeast depend on each other during a “tag-team fermentation”.

The combination of multiple yeast strains and dry-hopping during a late stage of fermentation creates an impressive array of flavors not possible in a typical brewing process.

The beer showcases the impact hop compound biotransformation can have on a beer. Biotransformation can be described as something of a complex chemical process. Yeast cells transform hop components into new aromatic compounds.

The combination of American Cascade, Citra, Mosaic and Simcoe hops in Sam ’76 imparts a tropical citrus aroma that gives way to a bright, juicy citrus hop flavor without overpowering the palate with a strong hop bitterness.

“We’re very proud of it,” he tells us. “Look, you’ve got something along the lines of 8000 breweries in the US, so it’s hard to do something exceptional that nobody else is doing.

“It took us 18 months of experimentation to produce something that starts as a fruity, juicy IPA in terms of aroma and flavour, then becomes something so immaculately clean.”

He adds: “I suppose you could say it’s something people nowadays call a ‘crushable’ beer. Something you could enjoy three of rather than two of your normal beer. And I think we got there.”

Despite co-founding The Boston Beer Company in 1984, Koch still has an insatiable appetite for the new, interesting and innovative.

“I feel like we’re the perfect size for a brewery. We’re large enough to have high-end technical capabilities and incredible brewers, something smaller brewers often don’t,” he explains.

Koch adds: “But we are at the size where we can still do crazy things and continue to be innovative. And we are.

“Don’t get me wrong, we won’t be silly by putting glitter in our beers, or launching French Toast IPAs or Milkshake IPAs. That’s novelty for novelty’s sake and it doesn’t interest me.

“If one of our brewer wants to make a really spicy beer here at our brewery? I tell them ‘Sure, go for it. But it’s not leaving these walls and you’re going to have to drink it!’”

While Koch has his own values of what The Boston Beer Company stands for, and the type of beer it produces, he has great admiration for the hard work and innovation taking place across the global brewing industry.

But he also knows how tough it can be, too.

“When things are challenging, remember why you got into this business,” he says. “For most of us, hopefully that’s a passion for making people happy with great beer.”

He explains: “Have pride in your brewing and the work you do. As brewers, we have a responsibility to consumers to give them a great product on a reliable basis and, you know, hopefully delight them with something unique from time-to-time, too.

“When I started in ’84, my business plan had goals I hoped would take five years to achieve. If I hit these, I could grow to 5000 barrels and hit $1m in sales. That would enable me and pay myself $75k a year.

“I’m grateful I’ve been able to grow this brewery beyond that. But I know that had I simply accomplished that, I’d be just as happy as I am now.

“I’d have probably undertaken a lot less work, travel and who knows, maybe I’d be even happier! So be sure to think about what you set out to do and don’t get distracted.

“Brewing is hard work, much harder than you think. It’s never meant to be easy. But the great thing is there’s more of us these days and we’re all in it together.”