Boston Beer Gets a Buzz From Investors

BOSTON — The stock of the nation’s largest microbrewer, the maker of Samuel Adams beer, surged 40% on Tuesday as investors snapped up the initial public offering of Boston Beer Co.

“There’s just a tremendous amount of excitement--there’s almost a mania for microbrewers,” said Benj Steinman, editor of Beer Marketer’s Insight, a bimonthly industry newsletter. Boston Beer shares, initially scheduled in August to sell at $10 to $15 apiece, were priced at $20. They jumped $8 to close at $28 in their first day of trading on the Nasdaq market.

Boston Beer sold more than 700,000 barrels of its 14 brews in 1994, more than the next six largest craft brewers combined, in all 50 states and several foreign countries. Its most popular include Samuel Adams Boston Lager, Boston Ale and Honey Porter.

Sales have grown at an annual rate of 57% since 1990 to $114.8 million in 1994, when it earned $9 million before taxes. For the first six months of this year, sales were $69 million for a pretax profit of $5 million, according to the prospectus for the stock offering.