Our Story
Explore the history of Boston Beer
How it started
Jim Koch discovers his great-great-grandfather's recipe for Louis Koch Lager in his family’s Cincinnati-area attic.
A test batch back in his Boston-area home stripped the wallpaper off his kitchen cabinets. Try, try again, and Jim knew he was onto something with what we now know today as Boston Lager with that very recipe.
Soon after, he establishes the company you know today: The Boston Beer Company. Every bank in Boston turns down his request for a loan, so Jim raises a couple hundred thousand dollars from family and friends.
Boston Lager debuts
April 15, Samuel Adams Boston Lager makes its public debut at about 35 restaurants and bars mostly in Back Bay and Downtown Boston.
June 1, Boston Lager is voted “Best Beer in America” at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, competing against 100 other beers from big and small breweries.
Brewery opens its doors
June, The Samuel Adams Boston Brewery opens to the public with a visitor’s center and brewery tour at the site of the historic German Haffenreffer Brewery in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood.
$SAM
November 21, We go public on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE symbol: SAM). About one third of the shares are offered earlier to Sam Adams drinkers through a novel consumer offering announced on six-packs. Talk about "initial public offering!"
Craft beer comes to coastal Delaware
Brewpubs were outlawed in Delaware until Sam Calagione wrote a bill and brought it to Governor Tom Carper.
Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats opens in Rehoboth Beach as Delaware’s first brewpub and America’s smallest commercial brewery.
Back to Jim's Roots
Jim returns to his hometown of Cincinnati to purchase Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewery, a place where his father had apprenticed in the 1940s.
The Hop Don’t Stop
Sam Calagione invents Continuous Hopping after watching a cooking show on TV and retrofitting an electronic football machine to a brew kettle.
Going Beyond Beer
We launch Hardcore Cider, marking our first foyer outside of the beer space.
Things get twisted
Bet you didn’t know that Twisted Tea was originally called "BoDeans Twisted Tea" when it first launched... We've been making real brewed tea with a kick for over two decades, so we’d say it worked out pretty well that we dropped the "BoDeans" back in '01.
Another off-centered location
Dogfish Head Milton Brewery & Distillery opens.
Something's brewing
We take ownership of a world-class brewery built by Schaefer Brewing in the 1960s with a distinguished history of brewing great beers, located in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania.
In the wake of his success, and driven by a passion to support entrepreneurs who are in the place he once was, Jim launched a philanthropic program, “Brewing the American Dream,” to provide support to food and beverage entrepreneurs with access to capital, networking and business coaching.
Hopping to the rescue
In the wake of an unprecedented worldwide hops shortage, we launch a hops-sharing program to aid other American craft brewers in need.
The pursuit of better
Hard Core Cider is struggling, so our team goes back to the drawing board and Angry Orchard was born; quickly skyrocketing to the No.1 cider in the country.
Cider finds its home
We open Angry Orchard and our Innovation Cider House in Walden, NY.
The start of a movement
We launch Truly (in clear glass bottles) as "Truly Spiked & Sparkling."
Settling down in Cincy
Samuel Adams Cincinnati Taproom opened in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, overlooking the Cincinnati brewery and a mural depicting Cincinnati’s rich brewing heritage.
A piece of history
Dogfish Head Continual Hopping Machine is acquired for the Smithsonian collection.
A match made in beer heaven
BBC and Dogfish Head join forces, bringing together each company's unrelenting passion for brewing, authenticity and innovation.
Revolutionary roots
We open Samuel Adams Boston Taproom in the shadows of Samuel Adams’ statue in Downtown Boston.
Jim said he would never forget those who helped put his beer on the map, and in March 2020, Samuel Adams was one of the first to step up and support one of the most vulnerable groups impacted by necessary Covid-19 closures: the bar and restaurant industry.
Categories come together
We partner with PepsiCo to announce Hard Mountain Dew, and with Beam Suntory for the launch of Truly Vodka, Twisted Tea Whiskey, Sauza Canned Cocktails.
Truly goes Hollywood
We open the doors of Truly LA, establishing ourselves as America’s first-ever seltzery.
