KEEPING THE FROTH ON SAM ADAMS

摘要

Just as Jim Koch is about to paste a sticker for Samuel Adams beer on the cooler of a Manhattan supermarket, the red-faced manager appears. "Don't you dare put anything on my shelves without my permission," he fumes. The brewer musters his most disarming smile and extends his hand. "Hi," he says in the voice made familiar by 15 years of cheeky radio commercials. "I'm Jim Koch, of Samuel Adams beer." The manager is unimpressed: "It's a little late for that," he says curtly. "Please leave my store immediately." For C. James Koch (pronounced "Cook"), who just stepped off the 7 a.m. shuttle from Boston, it is not an auspicious start to a day that will be spent, like many others, trolling through convenience stores, supermarkets, taverns, and nightclubs talking up his brand to sometimes indifferent retailers. But as he quizzes barkeeps about what's selling and cheeks the temperature of the Sam Adams drafts he orders, he also receives praise for the quality of his beer, especially his popular low-cal offering, Sam Adams Light. "Not a bad way to spend a day, huh?" the chairman of Boston Beer Co. grins as he lugs a canvas briefcase full of samples down Fifth Avenue in the midsummer heat.