People Aren’t Buying Sam Adams Anymore, & It Only Has Itself To Blame

Sam Adams sales are on a decline, and the Boston Beer Company really only has itself to thank.

In a report by the Wall Street Journal that was later echoed on Time.com, sales of the iconic brand have been in decline in recent years, even as the craft beer boom is still in full swing. The Brewers Association reports that nearly two new craft breweries open every day, and with macro brands continuing to swallow up their largest competitors, shelf space for Sam Adams is becoming more and more hard to come by.

Boston Beer Co. founder and president Jim Koch has in the past been heavily regarded as the godfather and sometimes-savior of craft beer in America: he helped popularize the market with the popular Boston Lager decades ago, and has provided supplies and relief to struggling breweries during massive hop shortages in America.

But today’s craft drinkers feel that the giant has lost its touch, holding fast and tight to its principles, often times to its disadvantage: it wasn’t until a few years ago the Sam Adams brand finally brewed an IPA (which actually is pretty decent, even when you’re not in a pinch at an airport or hotel bar) because Koch himself said he didn’t like the style and wouldn’t allow it to be made, and recent documented outbursts by Koch at craft beer bars over Sam Adams not being carried with more local or special brands hasn’t done him or the business any favors.

Holding tight to being a craft brewery, even with Boston Beer Co.’s staggering size amongst its competitors, has also not done it any good. Lobbying for expanded definitions of what a “craft” brewery is has kept the company beholden to some of the same distribution laws our favorite local breweries deal with, as opposed to opening itself up to the distribution channels of the larger macro companies.