Jim Koch and Sam Adams: Good Guy, Great Beer!

I read a great article by Mike Hoffman at INC. Magazine in this month’s issue about small time brewers getting their asses handed to them because the price of hops went from $3 per pound all the way up to $24 dollars. Of course there were the typical excuses why a 700% increase was justified by the growers; bad weather and crop rotation being the main culprits.

But the gist of the story was about Jim Koch and the solid he did for the little guys in the craft beer industry. You see, Jim’s company makes Sam Adams and is the largest craft brewer in the U.S. with over $340 million in sales in 2007. Being that big gives Boston Beer a huge buying advantage along with futures contracts that locked in their price of hops for years to come.

So, with more hops than he could use, Jim Koch offered them up at cost to anyone that needed them. He found a home for 20,000 pounds in 528 pound blocks. 132 breweries who would have been SOL got Jim’s hops. Now, somehow 20,000 pounds of hops makes around 10 million pints of beer, which sounds like a lot but what the hell do I know.

The point is

You don’t find many people these days that are willing to step out and help others; much less those in their own industry so my hat is off to you Jim Koch and that great beer of yours Sam Adams.