Got Beer? Return to Your Roots, Jim!

Recently I read an article where Boston Beer Company founder Jim Koch received rather a nasty shock when out at a beer bar. Apparently, while the establishment carried a vast array of craft beer that would send a beer nerd like myself into fanboy palpitations, none of the Boston Beers made their exclusive list.

He reacted badly.

Far be it from me to hold that against the man, though. One of the problems with the craft beer industry is that it’s a demanding mistress. Tastes change, trends come and go, and sometimes you can be so busy plugging along in one direction that you completely miss when the rest of the herd turns off.

It’s not unexpected. One of the problems with beer snobs is, well, we’re a little snobby. It’s hard not to be. We want a little more from our bubbly beverage than sweetness and alcohol. We want tangy hops, complex malt backgrounds, exotic ingredients, things that tickle our brains as well as our palates.

Many of the craft beer aficionados in the world give due respect to Jim Koch for leading the revolution, however they rarely have much praise for his brews.

I’m not too snobby to say that I enjoy Samuel Adams. The variety of flavors is always a welcome sight, and the fact that they keep experimenting and releasing new beers is a good sign. However, since most of the last half-dozen or so new beers they released were variations on white ales, possibly to lure in the Blue Moon drinking demographic, it feels like the creativity of the big company has been stunted. There’s a feeling that a marketing executive is giving orders to brewers, an equation that has rarely resulted in flavorful beer.

To hear Jim Koch talk about the Rebel IPA, you’d think he’d lost something by releasing it. Jim doesn’t like IPAs, and doesn’t want to make them. I can respect a man so passionate about his craft that he wants that personal taste to come through in the brand, but Boston Beer Co. is a big company now, having fought valiantly against the “Big Three” for decades, paving the way for the rest of us. One wonders if Jim feels that the rest of us are ungrateful.

But, honestly, Samuel Adams isn’t guilty of anything that other microbreweries haven’t done before. They change the recipes of their winning beers every year, but so does Magic Hat. They come out with a series of white ales to compete with Blue Moon, but so does Harpoon. Their flagship is a very basic, non-offensive amber lager, but so is Newport Storm’s.

It wasn’t that long ago that Samuel Adams was still wowing us all with releases like the Brewer Patriot collection. They’re still keeping homebrewers excited with their BJCP-sanctioned contests that sold the winner’s beer in stores. Samuel Adams even uses their money and influence to help smaller startup breweries get going. They’re still champions of craft beer, and worthy of respect. They haven’t totally sold out, man! They’re still cool!

I think the biggest issue is that Jim Koch took his eye off the ball for a minute. When the recipe for the Summer Ale, the Octoberfest, and the Winter Lager changed, despite the resounding success of their sales, I think that’s when he looked away. He let his people take over and start changing things. Maybe he listened to advertisers, or PR people, or God help us, focus groups. I don’t know why it changed, I just know that when it did, a lot of the beers coming out of Jamaica Plain started to feel underwhelming.

I remember the original Irish Red, the original Noble Pils, the original Summer Ale as all beloved beers that warmed my heart as they quenched my thirst. But the recipes keep changing, and it feels like the magic that went into those brews has been lost, watered down, thinned. It’s not that variety isn’t good, but even from a sales point of view, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

I can only hope his experience was a wake-up call, and not a personal insult. It’s easy to get those confused in the heat of the moment. In my opinion, Jim needs to take the reigns back. He needs to kick out the sales people, the consultants, and walk into his brewery at Jamaica Plain, roll up his sleeves, and make beer again. The spirit behind the Honey Porter, the Cream Stout, and the Old Fezziwig is badly missing from these new brews. He needs to do something experimental, even, dare I say, insane! We know Jim Koch can make an excellent beer. He’s done it before, and that beer, appropriate to the name, started a revolution. All he needs to do to put himself back in the race is make one more. Just one.

And if he wants help, I’d be absolutely thrilled to share some of my homebrew recipes. I make a delicious Scottish Ale!