... (1979, still five years earlier than Sam Adams) is just some little nobody barely worth mentioning. Of course, both of them suffer because (a) they're in California, not the East Coast and (b) they actually make their beer on premises, rather than contracting it out. And apparently their spokespeople aren't as charming as Jim Koch (the woman who cofounded the brewery is mentioned in the article. Once.) - walt crawford

Hell, I'd argue that at 2.5 million barrels, Sam Adams isn't a craft beer at all. (That's roughly three times the size of Sierra Nevada and more than ten times the size of Anchor Steam, which so far has remained a craft brewery.) </grump> (Since I don't drink beer anyway, this shouldn't bother me, except that it's typical of New York "if it didn't happen here or nearby, it didn't really happen" journalism. - walt crawford

When I was still a beer drinker, I had a Sam Adams once. As I remember, I thought "better than CoorsMillerBudCrap, not even in the same league as Sierra Nevada and not as good as Anchor Steam." But that was a long time ago. Before California had more than 800 microbreweries and craft breweries... - walt crawford

Long before Sam Adams when I worked at Hamm's Brewery in St Paul we'd do small runs of "craft beers" they didn't call them that they were just small lots of special recipe beers for specific markets and liquor wholesalers. And if you worked there you could buy a case on payday. Mickey's Malt forth win - WarLord

WarLord: Yep. In my mind, contract beers done to a special recipe aren't in the same league as breweries devoted to full-flavored beers. (Of course, I'm old enough to remember when Miller's High Life was a medium-bodied beer with some actual taste, before it was transformed into another BudCoorsLucky clone. I'm *old.*) - walt crawford