Sam Adams Founder Turned a Kitchen Recipe Into a Billion-Dollar Brand

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Speaker B: Show up with an ingredient and we'd make a beer from it. And he wouldn't, you know, we wouldn't have any notice what the ingredient was. I think one time he showed up with 40 pounds of beef heart. Uh, yeah. So it was the first non vegan beer.

Speaker C: Did you like it?

Speaker B: Yeah, it was really good. They sold it out at Blooming Now. They didn't tell everybody that this has 40 pounds of beef heart. Foreign.

Speaker C: Welcome to how Success Happens. I'm Dan Bova, writer and editor@entrepreneur.com. so America is about to celebrate its 250th birthday. And besides Superman, I can't think of a person who better embodies the American spirit than today's guest. He's fiercely independent and built something from nothing and has relentlessly helped us all in our collective pursuit of happiness. So please welcome the founder of Sam Adams Beer Company, Jim Cook. Jim, how are you?

Speaker B: Uh, I'm doing great, but I make beer for a living. If I'm not doing great, then life really sucks.

Speaker C: Awesome. So, Jim, you and I, I've had the pleasure of speaking to you a couple of times over the years. And I want to go back to the first time that I spoke to you. Uh, I was an editor at Maxim magazine and we were having a home brewing contest and you were our judge and you had the excellent taste and you picked me as the winner. And my prize was this.

Speaker B: Oh, yes, yes.

Speaker C: Official 2009, still unopened. It's got the little sliding doors. Sits beautiful on my, uh, on my mantle here.

Speaker B: Well, you earned that prize, Dan. You had a really nice beer.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker B: Brewer.

Speaker C: Thank you. Now, you've taken brewing a little farther than I have, but, uh, you know, uh, there's still time for me, Right?

Speaker B: Yeah. You're young. Yeah.

Speaker C: Well, actually, I want to start off with, uh. A lot of people are familiar with the brand story, but it's always just so awesome to hear it because this wasn't something you started doing when you were 18 years old. This involved a career pivot for you. Can you talk to us about your decision to leave what I believe was a pretty cushy consulting career to go about your own thing.

Speaker B: Yeah, um, it was kind of one of those game changing decisions, I guess. I was 34 years old, uh, and I'd been a management consultant for a pretty good consulting firm called, uh, Boston Consulting Group, which was small then, but it's now like 30,000 people. I think it was 300 people when I was there. And I liked it, but, uh, I didn't want to do it for the rest of my life. And, you know, I'd been there six or seven years and it was a time when you kind of had to make that decision. And, um, it was a little bit scary. But one of the things I learned from that is, you know, things that are scary are not necessarily dangerous in retrospect. You know, uh, the safe sort of secure thing to do was the most dangerous, which was to stay there in a job that was okay, but not, uh, great, and get to like 65 years old and look back and say, damn, I wasted my life. You know, I should have started that brewery. So the thing that, uh, looked a little scary really wasn't that dangerous because I had a good education. I could have, you know, I wasn't going to go homeless. Um, I was just going to, you know, lose some money. Um, so when I got to that realization of the really dangerous thing here is to not do the scary thing, um, that put me at peace. Uh, I raised a little bit of money from friends and family. It was. Took me a weekend to raise it and raised it in $10,000, you know, bits, and, uh, got 14 people. And, uh, with that I started what has become. Uh, I started Bring Sam Adams. I started in my kitchen. I had a business plan, which is embarrassing, uh, to look back on, um, because, you know, I was, uh, management consultant, I suppose, you know, how to do business plans and stuff like that. My business plan was it would take five years, but we would eventually get to about 1 million, uh, $200,000 in revenue. That was going to be. It, uh, could be eight people, um, and I could pay myself $75,000 a year. And it was totally wrong. But, uh, luckily it was wrong in the right direction. So, you know, we got to 5,000 barrels of beer not in five years, but in five months. Uh, we got picked as the best beer in America. Six, uh, weeks after we hit the market at the Great American Beer Festival, which is still the biggest beer festival in the United States.

Speaker C: So you failed the business plan, but, uh, in a Good way. So that. That's great. Um, and I remember talking to you, and, um, Although, obviously you did really well right out of the gate. I mean, you were scrappy. And I love the story that you tell about what you would leave outside at night as an offering for people in your neighborhood to maybe. To maybe take care of the place where you guys weren't there.

Speaker B: Well, that was our community relations. So, yeah, I, you know, beginning. I didn't have money for rent in a nice place. Um, I didn't even have money for an office. So we didn't have an office. Uh, we couldn't get a distributor to carry our beer. Nobody, um, wanted it. So the only way I could get it, you know, into bars and restaurants was sell it myself. Um, and I couldn't afford six packs, so I could only sell the bars and restaurants. And every morning I would put cold beer in my briefcase. I could get seven bottles of Sam Adams in there, two blue cold packs and a sleeve of cups. And I would just cold call on bars and try to get them to taste the beer. And generally do that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. And since I didn't have a distributor, I had to deliver it myself as well. So we had this warehouse. It was 1,000 square feet in a bad neighborhood of Boston. Uh, you know, burned out houses around us, crack epidemic back in the mid-1980s. I mean, serious stuff, like half a dozen murders within a mile of the brewery. But the rent was great. The rent was a dollar a, uh, year per square foot. So I had, uh, a thousand square feet. My rent check was $88. It wasn't a great neighborhood. And, you know, we. We just had this one truck at night, and one of our local gangs came, and we locked the truck, and they try to pry it open and bang on it with crowbars and generally mess it up. Um, and it happened like three or four times. And luckily, uh, at that point, we had a driver, an employee who was from the neighborhood. He explained, well, you know, that's, uh, the gang. That's, uh, the X Men. Um, and I didn't know there were X Men, you know, in Boston, Massachusetts. But, yes, there were. So we. I decided, you know, let's do some community outreach. Uh, let's treat them like our neighbors. Um, and so we had, like a big pow wow. And the five of them came, and, uh, they had their colors and everything. And I explained to them, well, you know, I'm just a little local guy here. We employ your cousin Juan, um, and we're part of your neighborhood and you guys come and you eff up my truck. Um, and there's no beer in it. So there's no point in just screwing up the truck, banging on it and trying to pry it open. I got a better idea. How about I do this every Thursday night. I'll leave five cases of beer in the back of the truck and I won't lock it. And I'd like you to do me a favor. I'd like you to make sure that when I come in on Friday morning, there's no beer left in the truck. Can you help me out with that? And they were like, you know, seriously nodded. That was our community relations.

Speaker C: That's amazing. So are you an honorary X man?

Speaker B: I guess so. I'm the personal brewer. This is 40 years ago. There's still one or two of them that try to shake down businesses.

Speaker C: Well, you've grown quite a bit since those early days. Um, and I want to ask you, I mean, what's the spectrum of beers that you have? And then we'll get into the other brands that you have.

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Speaker B: Well, um, to me, you know, beer is not just beer. Beer is like food. Beer can be many, many, many different things. Um, and you know, sometimes, I mean, if you, uh, if you, if you can imagine it, you can brew it. Uh, so we've made some crazy beers, uh, over the years, many of them really groundbreaking beers that took beer where it had never been before. Like that bottle of Utopia that you have. Um, we still made it. We had a release last year. Yeah. It's in a porcelain bottle that is a replica of our brew kettle, even to the doors. The current version of it is the strongest beer ever made. It weighs in at 60 proof. Um, but it's a beer, it's fermented, it's not distilled. It, ah, has, uh, the flavor profile in between like a vintage port and an old sherry and a three fine cognac. That's kind of at one end of the spectrum. I could tell you there's some like, crazy beers that we've made. Uh, one with a chef From New York, David Burke, uh, one of the best chefs down there. He would come, we had a thing with him, he'd come show up with an ingredient and we'd make a beer from it and he wouldn't, you know, we wouldn't have any notice what the ingredient was. I think one time he showed up with 40 pounds of beef heart. Uh, yeah. So it was the first non vegan beer and they actually sold it at Bloomingdale's, which was. We made a nice brown ale because it, it had some, you know, the broth like characteristics. Wow. The beef hearts, uh, fit nicely into a classic English nut brown.

Speaker C: Alex, how did it, did you like it?

Speaker B: Yeah, it was really good. They sold it out at Blooming. Now, they didn't tell everybody that this has 40 pounds of beef hearts. I think they just said it has the, uh, ingredients chosen by Chef Burke.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker C: So when you are in experimental mode, because you have a huge array of beers that, ah, Sam, uh, Adams beers that I could go to the store and buy, how, what's that decision process like to saying, I like the way this tastes and I also think millions of people are going to like the way this tastes.

Speaker B: Well, we luckily are, you know, still, uh, a relatively small beer within the, uh, you know, in the US Beer market. We're uh, Sam Adams is, uh, about a half a percent of the market, so we don't have to brew for the masses. Even today. We get to make things that we like, um, and things that we believe, you know, taste good. Uh, so that's, we're willing to take chances with beers. We don't have to sell a ton of them, um, for it to be successful and maybe more to the point, um, it's uh, it's who we are. I mean, and I've been doing this for 42 years now and Sam Adams has really been the leader of the craft brewing movement. And you know, I want to make sure that that success, um, is not a constraint. Um, that success came from being creative, pushing boundaries, using new ingredients, inventing brewing techniques, imagining, you know, crazy stuff that nobody ever thought could even exist. You know, 60 proof beer. Um, and that's been the foundation of our identity, our independence, and ultimately our success.

Speaker C: That's awesome. That's, uh, amazing. And you are not just, uh, you're not just saying things. I mean, for, I think since 2008, you have this brewing the American Dream program where it's not just about your success. You are doing so much to help the little guy succeed and rise. Uh, to the top. Can you talk about why that has been so important to you? Because, uh, if you look at business, sometimes you're like, I don't want to help someone that might one day be my competitor. But you don't look at it that way.

Speaker B: No, we never have. I realized very early on that if we were going to be truly successful, it would not be just as Boston Beer company that we had to create a wave, a cultural wave of, uh, respect for beer, of, uh, an appreciation of the drinking experience, of, uh, you know, a revolution literally in American brewing. Um, and that could carry us to places that just, you know, being the only, you know, microbrewery in the United States, uh, could not get us there. So I realized very early that this was, uh, not only making beer, but creating a beer culture. It's nice to have people doing the same thing you're doing that you like and, you know, respect and our friends. And so that made this, creating this movement so much more enjoyable because I genuinely liked my fellow craft brewers, and they're people I love hanging out with and vice versa. So we learned very early that we were going to succeed together or not at all. Um, so, um, even before the Bringing American dream program in 2008, there was a hop shortage. And we always knew that hops are a natural crop. You have good years and bad years, and, you know, if you have two bad years in a row, there's not going to be enough hops to go around. So we always bought ahead and carried a good inventory of hops. So when the, uh, hop shortage came and there were other craft brewers who literally were shutting their breweries down because they couldn't get hops to brew with, we dug into our, uh, our inventory and decided, well, we're covered. We're not going to have a third bad year we can carve out. At the time, I think it was £250,000 of hops that we can share with our fellow craft brewers. And I asked him to write in and tell me, you know, how much do you really need? Because we're going to sell you these hops for what we paid for them, which was $5. And at that point the market price was like 20, 25. And I didn't want them reselling them. I just wanted to ask them. And everybody was honest. Everybody, uh, told us what they needed. They didn't ask for more. We were able to share our hops with hundreds of craft brewers or otherwise might have had to shut down. That has helped our industry because we're not trying to kill each other.

Speaker C: It's so amazing that you do that. And it's obviously comes from such a genuine place. Anyone hearing you talk about it, you could tell how much You've been doing this for a long time, and you're still so fired up about it. It's beautiful. Uh, I won.

Speaker B: I'm not doing sober, Dan, so. Yeah, I realize I'm very boring when I'm not drinking. I hope you'll forgive me.

Speaker C: I was going to ask you, do you still walk around with your. Your beer opener that's labeled, uh, owner?

Speaker B: Oh, yeah, it's in my wallet.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker B: Super glue the damn thing back together multiple times. It's like 30 years old, but. Yeah. I mean, think of the tragedy if I had a beer in front of me without an opener. Yeah.

Speaker C: Uh, uh. Oh, we pray that never happens. We pray. Um, and I love that with the loans, you know, when it comes time to collect, you've got the X Men waiting for you. So.

Speaker B: Yeah, they're on Social Security now. But,

Speaker C: um, so I did want to ask you because it's been in the news a lot about, um, trends of Americans drinking less. Have you kind of experienced that and how has that affected you or has it not?

Speaker B: Um, yes, it is a real trend, um, and it does affect us, but what we've really been able to do, uh, for 40 years is, uh, invent, innovate, create new opportunities. So, um, yes, beer is going down, but there are pockets of growth, um, and people, you know, they're still, I mean, Americans. There's a lot of us, and we drink a lot of beer. It's, you know, hundreds, uh, of millions of cases of beer. So there's still a, you know, and a disastrous year for the beer business is if things are down like 2 or 3%.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: It's very slow. Some of it is migrated to other, uh, beverages, um, several of which, you know, we created. So we've been able to innovate out of, you know, an industry decline by coming up with new delicious beverages that, uh, people enjoy drinking beyond just craft beer.

Speaker C: Well, I want you to know, Jim, that I am not part of that trend. I am working every day to keep you in business. So, um, well, you're welcome.

Speaker B: Thanks you, Dan, I hope you had more than just that one son. I hope you had many children.

Speaker C: And you mentioned these other brands. Uh, I didn't even know this. You guys, uh, own. Truly.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker C: Yeah, I didn't know that.

Speaker B: Ten years ago, we made the first hard cider m. Hard Seltzer in the United States. It was we. And again, it was kind of one of those things where we totally misestimated it. I thought it was going to be, uh, small, maybe sell a million cases. It was going to be mostly female, upscale. Uh, it blew up hard. Seltzer became, uh, one of the biggest, you know, innovations in, um. Yes. Career in the beer. Just, you know, it. One of the things I've learned is if you make something delicious that's really a pleasure to drink, you might surprise yourself with how many people out there enjoy drinking it.

Speaker C: That's great. I. Yeah, I remember you telling me once, uh, you had this theory about you either have to make a product that's better, cheaper, or.

Speaker B: I forget what the word better or cheaper. Dan. It's simple. And you remember that. That's, uh, when I was, you know, uh, thinking about what we could talk about. I hope we'd get there. Because for, I think, an entrepreneur, that is a very, very good filter. And you gotta be really honest with yourself. Is my product really better? Um, it's not just that my friends like it and everybody thinks, you know, oh, this is a great idea. Is it genuinely better? Uh, higher quality is really the most effective parameter, uh, to go after. And if it's not better, then it has to be cheaper than what's out there. And consumers, no matter what category, they have lots of options. And if you're not making an option that's better or cheaper, keep thinking.

Speaker C: So, Jim, I, uh, know you're a busy man, so I want to jump into the speed round of our conversation. Um, and I want to start by asking you, what is a daily habit that you are happy to have, and what is a habit that you wish you could ditch?

Speaker B: Um, daily habit. I write down three things that I want to accomplish that day, uh, and I don't knock it off, uh, on that day until I've accomplished them. So be realistic, but make sure, uh, you get them done. M. A habit that I wish I didn't have, I guess, drinking too little. But I'm working on it.

Speaker C: Yeah, you'll get there someday.

Speaker B: Yeah. Uh, that's great. Just crowding out my beer tasting. I still taste a sample of every Sam Adams we make, but I don't have time for the other things.

Speaker C: That's amazing. Uh, so give us your business. Hot. Take something that drives you crazy about the business world, about the way people operate. Something you wish that would just stop.

Speaker B: Oh, gosh. Well, I wish they'd stop talking about A.I. uh, I know it's a big deal. I know it's going to change everything, but, um, you know, uh, business is way too focused on that. We make products that people buy, and I don't want to lose focus on that.

Speaker C: So I can't just type into chat. GPT, make me a delicious, uh, beer and put it in this beautiful bottle. That's not going to get.

Speaker B: I think that would probably overload the circuits.

Speaker C: Yeah. Okay.

Speaker B: That is way too anchored to what exists. And, you know, I think we all need to use it as a tool, but we need to unmoor from it and, you know, realize there's things out there. In my world, there's great, delicious, amazing beers that have not yet been made. And they're not going to come from chat. They're going to come from, you know, the wacky brains that we all carry on our necks.

Speaker C: And finally, you can sit at a bar, high top, and share a bear, uh, and share a beer with three people, living or dead. Who do you pick?

Speaker B: Well, I'd start with Sam Adams. Um, you know, he was such a colorful, uh, half crazy, full of passion, character. Um, he was sort of lost to history, but he was the revolutionary, the revolutionary of the revolution. Thomas Jefferson said Sam Adams was the man. Maybe my second might be Steve Jobs, um, just, uh, to get to soak in whatever, uh, he was drinking that made him, um, creative in such a wonderful way. Our lives are just better because of him.

Speaker C: Third,

Speaker B: my great, great grandfather, who came up with the recipe for Sam Adams. I would love to sit there, have a beer with him. M. The beer he invented was able to take to new places and have him tell me the story of its creation.

Speaker C: That's amazing. Uh, that's. That's incredible. Well, maybe. Maybe I can figure out a way to make that, that happen.

Speaker B: Who knows?

Speaker C: Well, so great talking to you as always. Uh, what should people. What flavors out there right now? July 4th weekend. What do you hope people, uh, pick up at the store?

Speaker B: I hope they pick up the beer named for that day. Samuel, uh, Adams was the first of the founding fathers to commit passionately to the idea of American independence. This was not taxation without representation. We didn't want representation. He believed that Americans, uh, have their own independent destiny, uh, not only as a country, but as individuals. So no better beer than Sam Adams to raise a glass to American independence.

Speaker C: Amen. Amen. God bless.

Speaker B: I'll drink for that. Dan,

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