Over time, Sam Adams and the whole craft movement began to slowly change the way Americans think about their own beer. Today, the center of creativity and quality in brewing has migrated from Europe to the United States.

Image Jim Koch

Q. And now, there are 1,400 craft brewers in the United States?

A. Yes. Roughly 1,000 of those are brew pubs, while others are making some of the most interesting beer around.

Q. Does the competition worry you?

A. No. Beer is where wine was 25 years ago. We are at the beginning of an explosion in interest in beer. There’s a generation of beer drinkers who have grown up expecting to get great beer. They are really driving the market. Sam Adams is starting to become available in places that it was never was, like convenience stores. We are growing in Wal-Mart.

Q. When you’re the No. 1 brewer, and you’re in Wal-Mart, do you worry that that takes away from your pioneer craft beer image?

A. There will always be people looking for novelty and obscurity. I’m not trying to be obscure. I’m trying to change the way Americans think about beer.

Q. Boston Beer reported worse-than-expected third-quarter results and lowered the outlook for 2009. What happened?

A. Sales were actually a little better than expected. We had a number of accounting charges. One of them was some residual charges from the recall back in April. We thought we closed the books on it and then we got the last bit of beer back from our wholesalers. And we had to accelerate the shortfall fees we pay to other breweries as we ramped up our new brewery in Pennsylvania, and there were some things with the tax rate.