SAM ADAMS for SALE at the BREWERY

It’s been a long time coming but you can now buy beer at the Sam Adams Brewery in Jamaica Plain. Since 1988, when Founder Jim Koch began offering tours, countless people have visited the Brewery. Today, it’s not uncommon for up to 1OOO people to visit on a Saturday or Sunday. Until now you could not buy beer there, even though many thirsty visitors were eager to. Instead, they were given a card with walking directions to nearby liquor stores. That recently changed, when Boston Beer began selling limited-edition Samuel Adams brews in its gift shop. The company received a license from the state in August, but it delayed the start of sales to coincide with the release of its new Barrel-Aged Collection. The plan is to only sell limited-edition brews as well as some of their beers that are harder to find or that the brewers are experimenting with. Currently for sale are the three beers that make up the Barrel-Aged Collection – New World Tripel, American Kriek and Stony Brook Red. To obtain a farmer-brewers license to sell beer at the brewery, Boston Beer had to demonstrate that it was “contributing to the economic development of agriculture’’ in Massachusetts. To meet that criteria, the brewery grows hops and malt on the premises and spent grain is sent to a dairy farm in Foxborough where it is used as cattle feed. They also had to make a few small changes to the lay out of the gift shop.