public traded as nyse sam industry alcoholic beverage founded 1984 founders jim koch rhonda kallman 1 headquarters boston ma administrative offices and brewery key people c. james koch chairman martin f. roper president and chief executive officer frank smalla chief financial officer and treasurer quincy troupe vice president of operations john c. geist chief sales officer david l. grinnell vice president of brewing products beer production output 4.1 million us beer barrels 4 800 000 hl in 2014 2 revenue us 903.007 m fy 2014 3 operating income us 146.573 m fy 2014 4 profit us 090.743 m fy 2014 3 total assets us 605.161 m fy 2014 3 total equity us 436.140 m fy 2014 3 number of employees 1 325 december 27 2014 5 website www.bostonbeer.com the boston beer company is a brewer founded in 1984 . the brand name of samuel adams often shortened to sam adams was chosen in honor of founding father samuel adams an american revolutionary patriot . adams inherited his father s brewery on king street modern day state street . based on sales in 2014 the boston beer company is the second largest craft brewery in the u.s. 6 contents 1 history 1.1 early history 1.2 1990s present 2 products 3 weihenstephan partnership 4 philanthropy 4.1 samuel adams brewing the american dream 4.2 2008 hops shortage 4.3 longshot american homebrew competition 5 controversies 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit early history edit the boston beer company was founded in 1984 by james jim koch and rhonda kallman . 7 the initial beer offering was samuel adams boston lager a 4.8 % abv amber or vienna lager . 8 koch the sixth generation first born son to follow in his family s brewing footsteps brewed his first batch of the beer in his kitchen using the original family recipe for louis koch lager . 9 at the time koch was working at boston consulting group after receiving ba mba and jd degrees from harvard university . while serving in his role as a manufacturing consultant at bcg koch developed a business plan for a locally focused beer company . he invested 100 000 of his own money and raised additional funds from investors family members and friends including former classmates and bcg colleagues . 1 7 the company was organized as a limited liability partnership which prohibited most early investors from having active management roles in the company . 10 however one early investor john b. wing held a board seat until 2002 . 11 koch named his beer after the boston patriot samuel adams who fought for american independence and who also had inherited a brewing tradition from his father . 12 in march 1985 koch introduced the beer as samuel adams boston lager over patriot s day weekend which honors the first battle of the american revolution and today is more widely known for the running of the boston marathon . six weeks later samuel adams was voted best beer in america at the great american beer festival 1 in which 93 national and regional beers competed . the beer was first put on tap at doyle s cafe in jamaica plain . 13 initially koch rented excess capacity and brewed the beer at the pittsburgh brewing company best known for their iron city brand of beer . as sales increased koch developed other contract arrangements at various brewing facilities with excess capacity ranging from stroh breweries portland s original blitz weinhard brewery shuttered in 1999 cincinnati s hudepohl schoenling brewery eventually purchased by the boston beer company in early 1997 and industry giant sabmiller . the boston beer company also has a small r & d brewery located in boston jamaica plain massachusetts where public tours and beer tastings are offered . the brewery occupies part of the premises of the old haffenreffer brewery . 14 15 1990s present edit in 1997 jim koch returned to his hometown of cincinnati to purchase the hudepohl schoenling brewery where his father apprenticed in the 1940s . this was also an important step the company took to reduce reliance on contract brewing . 16 brew kettles at the samuel adams boston brewery the company s success occurred in conjunction with the u.s. craft beer movement . by 1995 some 500 independent breweries were producing specialty beers in the united states . that year the boston beer company went public selling shares of class a common stock on the new york stock exchange under the ticker symbol sam . these shares however have no voting rights while the company is controlled through its class b common stock of which koch owns 100 % of the shares . 17 boston beer launched hardcore cider in 1997 and twisted tea brand in 2000 . in 2007 the boston beer company purchased the former f. & m. schaefer brewing company brewery in breinigsville pennsylvania in the lehigh valley . 18 19 the brewery had been owned by diageo north america inc. and used for the production of smirnoff ice malt beverages since 2001 . 19 by 2012 samuel adams was producing two thirds of all its beer at the breinigsville facility and it has increased brewing capacity there . 19 in 2012 boston beer company launched angry orchard hard cider company based in cincinnati ohio . 20 as of 2014 the company had 1 325 employees in its boston massachusetts cincinnati ohio and breinigsville pennsylvania breweries . 3 5 products edit see also samuel adams beer samuel adams boston lager following jim koch s great great grandfather s recipe samuel adams continued to use traditional brewing processes including decoction mash a four vessel process and krausening a secondary fermentation . boston lager is also dry hopped using the hallertau mittelfrueh and tettnang tettnanger hops . 21 samuel adams rebel ipa first brewed in 2014 samuel adams rebel ipa is a west coast style india pale ale . the beer is brewed with five american hops american cascade simcoe chinook centennial and amarillo . 22 in early 2015 samuel adams released rebel rouser a double india pale ale and rebel rider a session india pale ale . sam adams light introduced in 2001 sam adams light was the second light beer the company brewed . the company previously sold boston lightship which was introduced in 1993 . 23 samuel adams barrel room collection these belgian style beers are left in large wood barrels to age and pick up some of the flavors of the wood . 24 the beers in this collection are american kriek new world stony brook red thirteenth hour and tetravis . 25 samuel adams utopias a samuel adams utopias beer bottle the company followed this up in 2002 with utopias ; at 24 % abv it was marketed as the strongest commercial beer in the world a mark that has since been challenged . the company subsequently released new vintages of utopias annually increasing the alcoholic content to 27 % abv by 2007 . utopias is made with caramel vienna moravian and bavarian smoked malts and four varieties of noble hops hallertauer mittelfr h tettnanger spalter and saaz hops . the beer is matured in scotch cognac and port barrels for the better part of a year . a limited number of bottles are released each year ; in 2007 only 12 000 bottles were produced and in 2009 only 9 000 bottles were released . 26 27 sold in a ceramic bottle resembling a copper finished brewing kettle a single bottle of utopias cost 100 in 2002 and 150 in 2009 . because of legal restrictions utopias is not offered in the states of alabama georgia idaho new hampshire north carolina ohio oregon south carolina vermont or west virginia . 28 triple bock triple bock was released in 1994 1995 and 1997 . it has a black opaque color no carbonation and at 17.5 % abv it was the strongest beer brewed at the time it was introduced . 29 maple syrup was added in the brewing process . triple bock was a forerunner of later strong beers from samuel adams millennium 21 % abv released in 1999 only and utopias 24 26 % abv first released in 2002 . seasonal beers a variety of samuel adams seasonal beer in addition to year round offerings samuel adams also has four seasonal offerings . the spring seasonal beers are cold snap a witbier and escape route a k lsch . the spring seasonals are sold from january to march . the summer offerings are available from april through august and include summer ale a wheat ale and porch rocker a radler . the autumn seasonal beers are available august through october and are octoberfest a marzen and pumpkin batch a saison with pumpkin . the winter holiday seasonal beers are available november through december and are winter lager a bock and white christmas an ale . 30 samuel adams also offers seasonal variety packs which include a mix of year round and seasonal offerings . 30 31 hard cider samuel adams began offering ciders in 1995 under the angry orchard brand . the company has both year round and seasonal cider offerings . 32 weihenstephan partnership edit in october 2009 the boston beer company announced a two year project with german brewery bayerische staatsbrauerei weihenstephan to jointly produce a new craft beer named infinium to be marketed in both germany and the u.s. the brewers describe the beer which was sold in corked bottles and has alcohol content of 10.3 % abv as a champagne like crisp pale brew . 33 approximately 15 000 cases were released in north america in december 2010 at a suggested retail price of 20 per 750 ml bottle 34 marketed towards drinkers who would rather toast with beer than champagne on new years eve infinium is described by the brewers as the first new beer style created under the reinheitsgebot in over a hundred years . 33 35 philanthropy edit samuel adams brewing the american dream edit in 2008 jim koch created the brewing the american dream program . 36 as of 2015 the company has helped more than 4 000 entrepreneurs and together with their lending partner accion made close to 400 loans totaling 400 million . 36 2008 hops shortage edit in early 2008 amidst a worldwide shortage of hops a key ingredient in beer boston beer company agreed to sell 20 000 pounds of its hops at cost to craft brewers throughout the united states . the company selected 108 craft brewers to divide the 20 000 pounds they had spare . 37 38 samuel adams shared their hops again in june 2012 . 37 longshot american homebrew competition edit created in 1996 the samuel adams longshot american homebrew competition is an annual competition among amateur homebrewers . homebrewers submit their brew to a series of judging and taste tests with the chance to see their creation in larger scale production and sold on store shelves as part of a samuel adams mixed 6 pack the following year . 39 controversies edit this section may lend undue weight to certain ideas incidents or controversies . please help to create a more balanced presentation . discuss and resolve this issue before removing this message . december 2014 since 1990 the company has produced a seasonal fruit beer labeled cranberry lambic . lambic describes a spontaneously fermented beer generally produced in brussels or the nearby pajottenland region 40 and the samuel adams product is not spontaneously fermented consumers and brewers charged that cranberry lambic was mislabeled 41 and could cause consumer confusion michael jackson a leading beer critic called it a misleading name . 42 grant wood senior brewing manager at boston brewing defended the name saying i wouldn t consider it mislabeling . whenever i have served the cranberry lambic i have always been really up front about it . is it