Boston Beer Co. co-founder and chairman Jim Koch grew up in Cincinnati. Although he doesn’t get to visit his hometown too often, the Queen City and Oktoberfest Zinzinnati both hold a special place in his heart.
Koch, the descendant of five generations of beer brewers, saw his beer journey begin in 1984 when his father gave him his great-great-grandfather’s recipe for Louis Koch Lager, which was tucked away in his family’s home attic in Cincinnati.
Koch made his first test batch in his Boston-area home before the brew made its official public debut April 15, 1985. About six weeks later, on June 1, the Boston Lager was voted the Best Beer in America at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver.
The rest is history.
The Enquirer sat down with the craft beer connoisseur, who discussed his love for Cincinnati and Oktoberfest, whether or not the Queen City is the birthplace of Boston beer, his favorite beer memories, “The Summer I Turned Pretty” and more.
These excerpts have been edited for length and clarity.
Jim Koch talks his Cincinnati Roots, the first time he tried a beer, ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ and more
You’re from Cincinnati, so what does the Queen City and Oktoberfest Zinzinnati mean to you?
Koch: They mean the essence of beer. They are, to me, a word you’ve probably never heard: Gemütlichkeit. Gemütlichkeit is a somewhat untranslated German word that means the warm, friendly coziness of beer. This, to me, is great. I get to come back to my hometown and make the beer for the biggest party the city has and share it with half a million friends.
Do you like to party?
Koch: Oh yeah. I like it because it’s fun (and) I get to eat some of the food I can’t get in Boston. There’s no goetta, there’s no Cincinnati chili, there’s no Izzy Kadetz and all the foods I had growing up.
If you could choose any food, what is the best food at Oktoberfest to pair with Samuel Adams?
Koch: I would have to say a bratwurst. A good Cincinnati bratwurst with the sweet mustard and a nice bun from Busken Bakery. That’s about as good as it gets.
Sloan: Do you remember trying your first beer? What did you think about it?
Koch: Yeah. I was 4. It was a Wiedemann’s, and I thought it was cool that I was drinking what my dad drank.
What would you say is the most challenging part about the brewery scene in Cincinnati?
Koch: Well, there are a lot of really good breweries. They’re almost all making good beer. So, in a way, that’s challenging in the best sense of the word because if you’re going to appeal to a beer drinker in Cincinnati, you got to show up with a great product. So, that’s a good challenge.
In 2011, you said your idea was to make “the best beer in America.” Do you think you accomplished that? What’s the best beer you’ve ever had?
Koch: We did accomplish it because we’ve got the awards to prove it. Six weeks after I introduced Sam Adams (Boston Lager), we got picked as the Best Beer in America (at the Great American Beer Festival). That was very cool. And we won that award for four years running, and then they stopped giving it out, so we retired undefeated because sooner or later, we weren’t going to win. There are many other good beers out there.
And it demonstrated something really important to me because we were two people. This teeny little company, probably, at that point, the smallest brewery in America, and yet we made the best beer in America and we built on that foundation to be the most successful of all the 10,000 craft brewers, which to me is proof that the quality of your product and the care and attention and the passion you put into it matters. It matters a whole lot.
In your opinion, what is the best beer at Oktoberfest?
Koch: In my opinion, it’s Sam Adams Octoberfest. I mean, it’s Oktoberfest. The weather and this is the time for a complex, elegant, malty beer, and Sam Adams Octoberfest is now the largest-selling Oktoberfest beer in the world. And it has won gold medals at the German Beer Competition in Munich for the best Oktoberfest in the world.
That’s really special!
Koch: That was very special and you could’ve heard a pin drop when they said, “And the best Oktoberfest beer is…Sam Adams Octoberfest?” It was great.
So, I wanted to ask. I know it’s a Boston lager, but is it safe to say Cincinnati is the birthplace of Boston beer since you’re from here?
Koch: I think it’s safe to say that. There are a lot of people who claim to be the first Samuel Adams in some way or another, and they’re all right. But let’s say the “moment of conception”: When my father handed the recipe to me and said, “This is the best beer we have in our family.” That was the moment of conception, of ensoulment.
What’s your favorite restaurant in Cincinnati?
Koch: Well, I love Cincinnati chili. So, any Gold Star and Skyline will do.
What do you get from there? What’s your go-to order?
I get a veggie Five Way. I stopped eating red meat like 35 years ago. Before that, it would’ve been Ted Gregory’s Montgomery ribs (from Montgomery Inn). I can still taste that tangy sauce.
Christopher Briney, a.k.a. Conrad Fisher from “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” is in a new Samuel Adams ad, so I have to ask: Are you Team Conrad or Team Jeremiah?
Koch: Team Conrad, absolutely. And I have to say I’m puzzled by the fact they even fought over Belly. It’s like Jeremiah is the lucky one because he doesn’t have to deal with her, but I know how the show ends and I enjoyed watching it.
There was Sam Adams all over the show and my daughter had pointed it out and I called our marketing team and said, “We need to get on this.”
Did you see they’re coming out with a “Summer I Turned Pretty” movie?
Koch: No!
Yep. They haven’t said when it comes out, but hopefully we’ll see some more Samuel Adams in it.
Koch: I hope so, too!
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Sam Adams founder Jim Koch on Cincinnati beer and why he was Team Conrad this summer
Reporting by Kaycee Sloan, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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