Samuel Adams Contract Brewing Questions

According to their 2014 Annual Report, Boston Beer Co.:

They don't specify which products are brewed where (well, obviously the Shmaltz contract was to continue brewing the Coney Island beers for a time, after BBC bought the brand) and some of the other companies are probably making the FMBs or ciders. The overwhelming greatest percentage of Samuel Adams beers are brewed at their "macro" sized breweries in Cincinnati (ex-Schoenling) and eastern PA (ex-Schaefer>Stroh>Pabst>Diageo). There were SABL labels last year that did list both City breweries in LaCrosse and Latrobe, along with Cincinnati and Breiningsville, PA, but that does not necessarily mean they ever used those breweries.

They opened the tiny brewery inside the abandoned Haffenreffer brewery in 1988, when they were selling around 40,000 bbl./yr of Pittsburgh Brewing Co-brewed Samuel Adams brands. That made them the 21st largest brewing company in the US at the time - just behind Anchor, and larger than every other "craft" brewery.

The Jamaica Plain brewery is primarily the company's pilot plant - brewing some draught for the local region, some specialty bottled beers, etc., but the total barrelage coming out of it is a very small percentage of BBC's +4 million barrels.

They bought the old Schoenling brewery in Cincinnati in 1997, and that marked the first time they were brewing a significant amount of their own beer. They were selling over 1m bbl/yr by then.

 

Is that the brewery you see right off of Rt. 81 (I think, one of those interstates)? Jim Koch is a billionaire, so he did something right.

 

So far, so good.

 

Yeah, I-78 (also, Rt. 22) west of Allentown, PA. Schaefer used both "Allentown, PA" and "Lehigh Valley, PA" on their labels for the beers coming from there, Stroh used "Fogelsville, PA".

Some photos and facts at my page Boston Beer Co's Lehigh Valley Brewery

 

Being from Cincinnati, and having worked a few construction projects in their brewery here, I can tell you that every beer they make with the actual Samuel Adams label is brewed there, with the exception of Sam Adams Light- that one is contract brewed. As far as their other brands, I'm not 100% sure, but I do know for Twisted Tea & Angry Orchard their labels say "Cincinnati, Ohio".

 

Not anymore, according to the latest COLA for Sam Adams Light, dated May, 2015.

Just like most of the standard 12oz. canned/bottled Samuel Adams beers, it is listed as being brewed at all 3 BBC breweries (of course, that does not mean it is - the keg, can and bottle codes list the actual brewery). In previous years, it was being brewed under contract by MillerCoors in Eden, NC but that contract ended a few years back.

"American Craft Brewery LLC" is a subsidiary of BBC (probably some sort of tax dodge).

The Twisted Tea labels, like those of the SA-branded beers, typically list both of their production breweries, as well as some City breweries, when necessary. Again, the packaging code will note the actual source brewery.