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Guest Column - Sam Adams
by Jim Koch
Proud To Be Part Of Project Greenlight
I used to carry Sam Adams with me wherever I went. I kept a bottle opener in my wallet, and I usually had two or three beers in my briefcase. I never wanted to risk running into a bar manager or chef without a sample to pour.
I've found it's also good planning to have a Sam Adams in my suit pocket in case I'm stranded someplace without a beer. Like at a business breakfast or some place with people who were eager to learn how to taste great beer. I never want to miss a chance to introduce someone to world-class American beer. I know some people thought I was crazy or obsessive, and frankly, I have to agree. I was, and I still am, crazy and obsessive about Sam Adams.
When I started Sam Adams in 1984, people told me there would be no market for a really flavorful American beer. First, business people and bankers told me I was crazy to brew a beer for which there was no known market. I come from six generations of brewers, and I had tasted great beers that my father brewed over the years. That brewing tradition had disappeared. So, I went ahead and brewed up a batch in my kitchen at home from a one hundred year old family recipe. It tasted so good that I knew in my heart people would like it. Besides, if I wanted to drink great American beer, I had to brew it myself because no one else was making it. I made up a sample brew and talked to beer distributors. The distributor takes the beer from the brewer and sells it to a restaurant, bar or grocery store. Without a distributor, beer can't reach the drinker. They turned me down, told me I was nuts, and said that my plan made David and Goliath look like equals.
I kept going. I started my own distributorship, which was also unheard of. I went door-to-door to bars and restaurants in Boston, talking directly to the people who serve beer. Some of them gave Sam Adams a chance. That's really all I needed: an opportunity. I knew what I was doing was a longshot. But I believed that Sam Adams was a whole lot better beer than anything on the market in 1984, and I believed that if people tried it, they'd agree.
Cut to today. Sam Adams is the seventh biggest brewery in America. Now, that's a little bit like being the seventh biggest car maker in America. After the Big Three, the rest hardly count. I'm proud of the beers we make, and I'm proud of the influence we've had in the industry because we've started a revolution in American brewing and given America's beer drinkers greater choice.
There are people all over this country (and all over this world) who have great ideas for projects and products for which there is now no known market. Many of them just need a chance, a leg up, an opportunity. People write to me all the time and say, I want to do for (fill in the blank) what you did for the beer industry. God bless'em. They are the innovators and the risk takers. They may be crazy and obsessive, and one may be the next genius who changes the way we live or think or feel.
There are few industries in America today where people have a broader opportunity to change the way we live and think and feel than the movie business. And yet, making a movie costs a fortune, and a few huge companies dominate the industry. So, when the founders of LivePlanet called me and asked Sam Adams to partner with them, I jumped at the chance. Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Chris Moore explained what Project Greenlight was all about, and I loved that they were willing to leverage their success and relationships to help undiscovered talent get a fair shot in Hollywood. They wanted talent to count as much as connections. They believe that there's an audience for movies from unknown screenwriters, just as surely as I believed there was a market for Sam Adams.
While we all love a winner, I think there is something deep in the American psyche that can't help rooting for the underdog. (How else can you explain so many Boston Red Sox fans all over the country?) Do you remember how you felt, how ecstatic you were for them, watching the Academy Awards when Ben and Matt won the Oscar for Best Screenplay for "Good Will Hunting"? It was an incredibly magic moment. Even if you hadn't seen the movie yet, you knew what was going on. It was their first movie. You knew what they had accomplished. It was a great, spontaneous moment that we all got to share. They were the underdogs. And they were winners.
When you've had a moment like that, of succeeding against all odds, you want to share that. You want other people to have a shot at winning something they want more than anything in the world. I will never forget the moment in June of 1985 when Sam Adams was named Best Beer In America, beating out every other American beer there was. For me, time simply stopped. To this day, if I'm having my picture taken, and I'm distracted or just don't feel like smiling, I just think about that moment, and a big smile appears.
It's important to every person at Sam Adams to support Project Greenlight, and to enable somebody else to get a shot at the big time. Our first winner, Pete Jones, is a great and talented guy. I loved seeing the big smile on his face the day he won the Project Greenlight contest. "Stolen Summer" is going to be a great movie, and we are proud to be a small part of his success.
Cheers!
Jim Koch
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