Koch, Jim (1949–), is the current chairman and a cofounder of The Boston Beer Co, makers of the Samuel Adams line of beers.
Born into a German-American family that moved to St Louis to brew beer, for five generations the men in Koch’s family were brewers. Jim Koch was born in Cincinnati in 1949; Charles Koch, Jim’s father, had moved the family to Ohio to take a job at a Cincinnati brewery. But Jim’s father discouraged him from pursuing a career in brewing, which he considered a losing proposition in a land of large mass-market brewing behemoths. Jim attended Harvard University in the late 1960s, receiving a BA in 1971.
After college, Koch initially enrolled in a dual degree program at Harvard, but dropped out in 1973 to be an instructor with Outward Board, where he worked outdoors throughout the American West for 4 years. He eventually returned to Harvard and received a dual MBA/JD in 1978. Koch then joined the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a global management consulting firm, where he worked until 1984.
His time counseling corporate leaders working at BCG inspired Koch to think about starting his own business and he was convinced he could create a niche market within the existing beer market. His father thought he was “crazy,” but he was also one of his first investors.
Adapting his great-great grandfather’s recipe for Louis Koch Lager, Koch created Samuel Adams Boston Lager, his Boston Beer Company’s first beer and still its flagship. Koch launched his beer in April 1985. The first sales of Samuel Adams were conducted one bar at a time, with Koch personally visiting Boston-area bars to persuade skeptical bartenders to stock his beer. Today, The Boston Beer Company is one of the largest American-owned brewing companies and the largest craft brewer in the United States with the Sam Adams brand being one of the nation’s most recognizable. And despite long odds, Koch has successfully become the sixth- generation brewer in his family.