On Monday, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index added a new member to the billionaires club. Sixty-four year old Jim Koch, the creator of the renowned Samuel Adams craft beer, reached the benchmark of a billion dollars in net worth. That makes Koch the first person in America to reach billionaire status by creation, production, and distribution of craft beer. The craft beer industry in the United States has seen a growth explosion in the last seven years, with sales increasing by about ten percent per year. Koch has actively pursued a decent share of that growth, continuously marketing to new areas and expanding the Samuel Adams product line.
Maintaining Taste and Quality
The Boston Beer Company was established in 1984, with the first beer created being Samuel Adams’ trademark “Boston Lager”. The recipe for Boston Lager was a family tradition that was first invented in 1860, and was sold until prohibition. Jim Koch first made the heirloom beer in his home kitchen, and then decided to use it as his signature beer when he left his job as a consultant to start a brewery. Koch makes appearances in commercials for his products, and still claims to personally sample every single new batch of Samuel Adams. The expansion of the product line has done nothing to damper this attention to taste and quality. Many varieties of Samuel Adams have won awards over the years, including ten at the “World Beer Awards” this past year.