My brother owns a brewpub in Pueblo, Colorado called Shamrock Brewing. He called me this morning with an interesting story about Boston Beer Company, the brewer of Sam Adams.

If you’re not really into beer, you probably don’t know that there has been a serious shortage of hops. Limited availability and rising prices have been difficult for all brewers, but especially smaller ones. In some instances smaller brewers stopped making beer.

Boston Beer decided it had some extra hops to make available to smaller brewers who really needed it, so founder Jim Koch offered up ten tons. And they’re selling the much needed hops at their cost, not the elevated prices hops are currently commanding.

You can read more at the Sam Adams website about this generous hops sharing program.

My brother is greatly impressed and so am I. There are many ways to define “industry leadership.” In my opinion, one of the best measures is being willing to help smaller players and contribute to the improvement of the industry as a whole. That makes Boston Beer an industry leader.

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