Boston Beer Company, Inc. - Samuel Adams Beer Brand - 1998 dated Brewery Stock Certificate

Stock printed by Northern Bank Note Co. Great Graphics and Color!

Samuel Adams beer’s history began when founder Jim Koch used the Samuel Adams Official Website to share his family’s 19th-century recipe. This move launched the American craft beer movement in 1984.

In 1984, Jim Koch, a sixth-generation brewer, discovered a recipe from his great-great-grandfather in his father’s attic. He brewed the first batch of Samuel Adams Boston Lager in his kitchen. At that time, the American market was dominated by mass-produced, light industrial beers, leaving few small independent options. To honor the historic Boston patriot and brewer Samuel Adams, Koch named his new full-bodied brew after him. He then took his cold bottles door-to-door to skeptical local bars on Patriots’ Day in 1985. Just weeks later, Boston Lager won first place at the Great American Beer Festival, surprising the industry and demonstrating that consumers craved rich, flavorful beer.

Over the next four decades, the Boston Beer Company transformed from a two-person kitchen startup into a significant force in American craft brewing. The company expanded its operations to traditional facilities in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood, Cincinnati, and Pennsylvania. It also pioneered seasonal rotations, specialty barrel-aged releases like Utopias, and popular alternative lines such as Angry Orchard and Truly. Through continuous recipe refinement, dedicated ingredient sourcing in Bavaria, and community support programs like Brewing the American Dream, Samuel Adams permanently reshaped the national beer landscape.