Beer Marketer's Insights - Craft May Not Be All Comin' Up Roses, But Jim Koch, Citing "Gemütlichkeit," Optimistic at Throwback Boston Beer GABF Brunch

What year is it anyway? At Boston Beer's annual GABF brunch this morning, it felt like a throwback to the heady days of early craft, an optimism that might've seemed defiant if it hadn't had receipts from the night before. BA prexy Bart Watson opened the event by noting that despite the "gloom and doom" in craft, Thurs night's crowd had produced a "lively festival" with "not a phone in sight." Bart said "that's the spirit we need to find - people connecting over great beer." Boston Beer prexy Jim Koch echoed Bart, saying GABF's opening "was an illustration of the creativity and vibrancy of the craft beer movement and our ability to evolve, change, add more layers to what we do." He said it evoked "Gem&uuml;tlichkeit," a German word used to convey warmth, friendliness and good cheer: "That's the core of what beer is all about." Return of Savor Flowers, the World's "First Epistolary Beer" The whole event was a blast from the past, and Jim and Dogfish Head Founder Sam Calagione brought it back to 2011 with the re-introduction of Savor Flowers, previously a one-off pre-merger production between the companies. At the time, the BA held the high-end food & beer pairing event SAVOR in Washington, DC, and Sam reached out to Jim with hopes of creating, as Jim recalled, "something that is unique and special" that would "never" be available again. As it turns out, "never say never," Jim said, as Boston has recreated the rosewater-based brew, which Sam dubbed the world's first "epistolary beer" - or, in layman's terms, ones created from a series of handwritten letters, copies of which were distributed to the guests.Originally attached in a small pamphlet to the 2011 edition of Savor, the letters are a trip down memory lane and deliberate artifact of craft production at a specific place in time. "For decades," Sam wrote early on, "craft brewers have been doing amazing creative stuff with three of the four main ingredients in beer: yeast, hops, and barley. But what about water?" He suggested using rosewater, to which Jim replied, "I would never have thought of that in a million years." Sam responds, "I found some yummy rose syrup made with lemon juice and rose pedals [sic] in Turin, Italy." Jim: "Didn't the word 'alcohol' come from the Arab invention of distillation to make perfumes and medicinal essences! You're going way back here and making the primal brewing liquor." They go on like this, but these were love letters, in effect, and Jim was plainly noting that craft brewing was, and remains, a labor of love despite tuff times in the industry."The Fact that Success is No Longer Automatic Should Not Be Considered a Drawback" With apologies to the Beatles, however, the main difference between the boomtimes and now is that love alone won't cut it. "You can only be successful if you're relentlessly focused on your customers," Jim said, but "there's nothing wrong with that. That's what business is like. The fact that success is no longer automatic should not be considered a drawback." He recalled his tuff early days in the biz, when he "didn't know how to make a label" or "make a sales call," and when "just good, sound, nuts and bolts business advice was crucial." All of which was a segue to introduce the winner of the Sam Adams Brewing the American Dream prize, Moor's Brewing, from Chicago, to which Boston will give said crucial advice.Jahmal Johnson, Damon Patton and Anthony Bell founded Moors on Juneteenth, 2021 with a mission to "make the Blackest beer company we could imagine." Damon said co won the prize on backs of its k&ouml;lsch, and in collaboration with Boston, "we're definitely looking to become the first Black-owned brewery with national distribution in the 200-year history of craft beer." And he hoped to do it in the spirit of Gem&uuml;tlichkeit, with which he agreed, but of which he said "our mentors have large vocabularies - it sent me straight to Google." Moor's has received its cash prize, but eagerly awaits travel to Boston to learn alongside Jim & co, Jahmal said."I'm Proud to Say It's Illegal in 15 States, And I'm Hoping For More" Talkin' recent innovation, Sam played up the strength of co's Grateful Dead Juicy Pale Ale, one of craft's biggest hits in the past yr, comparing its rise to that of its namesake band. The Dead grew at "human scale, and relied on fans to spread tapes hand to hand, one human at a time" - a process he said has repeated itself with the beer, where on-premise sales make up 50% of the biz. Also talked up a new iteration of co's Worldwide Stout, which includes a strain of the imperial stout aged in Utopias barrels, another homage to the connectivity between Dogfish Head and Sam Adams.Utopias is Boston Beer's only product that "touches every one" of co's production facilities from creation to distribution, Sam shared. And the 2025 batch is the "strongest beer in history" with an ABV of 30%, Jim said. "I'm proud to say it's illegal in 15 states," he clucked, and "I'm hoping for more. We had to have a special building in PA to store all the barrels" because the air is so volatile from such a high ABV, threatening explosion, he said. "So this is fun stuff. It sounds a little demented but it's always been the thread of craft brewing - adventurousness and a willingness to do semi-crazy things. This is where the fermentation of yeast has taken us." Guess the question is: Where's next?

Craft May Not Be All Comin' Up Roses, But Jim Koch, Citing "Gem&uuml;tlichkeit," Optimistic at Throwback Boston Beer GABF Brunch

Publishing Info

Craft May Not Be All Comin' Up Roses, But Jim Koch, Citing "Gemütlichkeit," Optimistic at Throwback Boston Beer GABF Brunch