Samuel Adams

The brand's roots trace back to a family recipe for Louis Koch Lager, developed by Jim Koch's great-great-grandfather in the mid-1800s, which Koch rediscovered and used as the foundation for Samuel Adams Boston Lager. Samuel Adams is widely credited with helping to ignite the American craft beer movement in the 1980s, bringing flavour-forward, independently brewed lager to a market then dominated by mass-produced options.

Samuel Adams entered the AF category in 2020 after its brewing team spent two years in development. The AF range uses dealcoholisation — a process in which beer is brewed at full strength then has the alcohol removed — with Samuel Adams's specific approach focused on preserving the hop aroma and flavour character that would otherwise be lost during that removal stage.

National distribution gives Samuel Adams a mainstream retail presence that most AF brands cannot match. For sober-curious beer drinkers who want an AF option from a brewery with a long and documented track record in American craft beer, Samuel Adams brings the weight of an established institution to a still-developing category.