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The Guy That Brews Sam Adams Is Officially A Billionaire

Sep 9, 2013, 20:37 IST

BloombergThe billionaire hunters at Bloomberg have found another one - a billionaire born out of the bottom of a glass.

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Jim Koch, the founder of Boston Beer Co., brewer of Sam Adams, rode the craft beer wave to wealth with a family recipe.

When he started, though, the United States was basically a "beer wasteland." He told Bloomberg, "nobody wanted my beer."

So Koch, a Harvard graduate and sixth generation brewer, knocked on doors at bars across the country to get them to carry his beer.

He first paid himself $60,000 and hoped to sell $1 million worth of beer in five years - likely a step down from his first job at Boston Consulting Group in 1979. At the time there were only about a dozen craft brewers in the country going up against the big beer companies.

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It was at that point that Koch's family realized he was not kidding about making his brewery happen, so they brought out the big guns (from Bloomberg):

When his father realized Koch was serious about starting a brewery, they went into the attic and dug out the recipe developed in the 1860s by his great-great grandfather Louis Koch. That became the basis for Boston Lager. Within a year, his marketing scored two boosts: taking the brand name from Samuel Adams, a Revolutionary War Patriot he found had a brewing connection, and getting the beer named the country's best at a national brewing festival.

By 1990, Koch had exceeded his business plan multiple times, selling $21.2 million in beer that year. Four years later, revenue topped $128 million.

Boston Beer Co. IPO'd in 1995 and now sells 2.7 million barrels of beer a day.

Very serious stuff.

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