Which billionaire founded the Boston Beer Company?

Jim Koch co-founded the Boston Beer Company, the brewer best known for Samuel Adams beer. He launched the company in 1984 after leaving a career as a management consultant and drawing on a brewing recipe from his family.

Koch was a fifth-generation brewer, and his great-great-grandfather’s recipe became the basis for Samuel Adams Boston Lager. At the time, American beer was dominated by large mass-market producers, so the company’s fuller-flavored beer helped popularize the modern American craft-brewing movement.

The company was named for Samuel Adams, the Boston revolutionary and statesman, not for a brewer named Sam Adams. That historical namesake is a frequent source of confusion in trivia questions.

Koch took the Boston Beer Company public in 1995 and remained its chairman. The business expanded beyond Samuel Adams into brands such as Angry Orchard, Twisted Tea, and Truly. Koch’s role is technically co-founder, but he is the single canonical answer to questions identifying the company’s founder.