I got to the Boston Brewery about a half hour late and met Jim Koch in about 10 steps from the door.   I started giving him papers and showing pictures and nudged in to give him a glass from Kaltenberg in Germany.   I thought this would get his attention.    His secretary/Assistant Susan, a business woman was there to sweep these things away and keep Jim moving.   Jim wanted to hang and drink beer and Susan was one of the best promotion people I had ever met.  She was a student at Tanglewood and knows just about everyone and has been just about everywhere.   I am sure Jim would still be drinking beer in his kitchen in Boston if it were not for Susan.  Jim knows this but he also knows that she is the boss that keeps him moving.   At the end of the day, Jim knows what a free beer can do for you.   It allows him to be thankful for beer when he’s done with work for the day.   This was a free beer moment and Jim was part of it from every aspect.

  Within one minutes of getting there I got my first free beer offer at the outdoor gate.   Has anyone written a book called the one minute free beer manager?  After meeting Jim, with a few happy faces open to mingling and having a good time, I locked onto the Sam Adams Lager.   It was very good and just as the mood and cold quenching hit the spot.   I walked around to at least 10 other free beer stations and tried the dark, tan, and other new Sam Adams, but I kept coming back to the Lager.   It was “Clean” and hit the spot for summer.  The free food was great and the servers didn’t mind it either.    There was nothing business about this meeting although it was promotion for ACCION that promotes the funding of new businesses with Jim Koch.    Jim later admitted he actually does everything for the love of beer even though he also has a heart to help other beer drinkers.   Jim is a humble and plain fellow on the surface.   He is truthful when he drinks beer.   He even said that the reason he is working with ACCION is that he googled them on-line and he called them.   No research, just the love of beer motivates this guy!

  Overall, it was like a true Beer Heaven.   Free Beer, Free Food and shmoozing with Jim and the gang.    The award ceremony was for regular people.  A woman made cookies from the beer grains.   She told a serious story about how the beer grains, helped save her only Son from a rare disease that created malnutrition.   If she didn’t find an ancient recipe using spent grains, there was a possibility that her son could have died.   After her story, and not a dry eye in the place, Jim said, “I wish I could tell you that I started my company with a story as great as that.”   Sam Adams was actually created in his bathtub back in 1984.   He had gone through a bad divorce and had nothing.   That thin thread and his great drive for beer, allowed us to celebrate a taste of heaven and know that Beer can stir the soul.