Jim Koch with Pint Glass.JPG

Boston Beer Co.'s Jim Koch, addressing the annual conference of brewers meeting in Dayton, stressed a passion for brewing, history and the need for brewers to remain united in the face of competition from conglomerates.

(Samuel Adams)

DAYTON, Ohio - Jim Koch, patriarch of the Boston Beer Co., married key management doctrines with his passion for craft beer as he addressed the sold-out Ohio brewers conference. He set the tone for his speech by cracking open a beer at the podium at 9:23 a.m.

Koch deftly weaved history in his keynote address to the brewers and industry workers at the conference, which doubled its attendance from last year's inaugural meeting in Wooster, said Mary MacDonald, executive director of the Ohio Craft Brewers Association. But his common theme was simple: Craft brewers must stand united.

"We will succeed together or not at all," Koch said of the craft industry, which owns about 11 percent of the beer market. "When the big guys can divide us they can win."

Recent years have seen Heineken buy a large interest in Lagunitas Brewing Co. and Duvel Moortgat add Boulevard Brewing. And Anheuser Busch-InBev gobbles craft breweries as fast as thirsty taproom customers can quaff pints.

The craft industry saw a dip in growth from October 1996 to 2004 because, as Koch said, "Anheuser-Busch decided to take down craft breweries. They split craft breweries. When we split we are powerless. When we are united, we will be successful."

In his casual style, Koch said he sees prosperous and challenging times continuing to crest in waves for the industry overall but said he sees growth on Ohio's horizon.

"There's easy times and hard times," he said. "In the easy times people will get in. The hard times will shake people out."

He added: "At some point running a craft brewery is going to get hard again."

Koch's ties to Ohio run deep. He grew up outside Cincinnati and has a brother in Dayton. Family members have been brewmasters since Prohibition, and Koch is the sixth oldest son in a row to be a brewer, dating to the 1840s, he said.

Ohio has about 160 craft breweries. Koch later said "there can be 300."

"Ohio is No. 4 in the United States for craft-beer production. Ohio has an amazing brewing tradition. ... (But) there's not going to be the next Great Lakes. They were a pioneer."

Great Lakes Brewing Co., the state's first craft brewery, holds a special memory for Koch. Soon after the brewery opened in 1988, Koch - in Cleveland on a sales trip for Samuel Adams beers - said he had one of the first sips of the Cleveland brewery's beer.

"I had their first beer," he said after his speech in an interview. "It was the middle of winter, and I heard the brewery was opening. We found our way there in the dead of winter and stared through the window. Thaine Johnson (Great Lakes' original brewmaster) let us in. Thaine and Pat and Dan Conway were there and said 'We were just about to tap the first beer.' "

Boston Beer Co., the nation's largest craft brewery, never shied from innovation, one of Koch's themes during his speech. Decades ago the brewery made a triple bock that sold for $100 a case and came in 250-millileter, cobalt blue bottles with platinum engraving. It was, Koch said, the first beer to be aged in bourbon barrels.

"There's tons of really great beers that have not yet been created," he said. "Stouts didn't exist when God makes rocks, dirt and trees."

Koch also credited vanguards Fritz Maytag of Anchor Steam and Jack McAuliffe of New Albion Brewing Co., and pointed out that McAuliffe's daughter, Northeast Ohio beer blogger Renee DeLuca, was in attendance.

"Jim is my beery godfather," DeLuca said.

A six-pack of comments from Koch

* On the fact that three of the first four presidents were brewers: "They were not just founding fathers; they were founding brewers." The lone non-brewer in the group: John Adams, namesake cousin of Koch's brewery.

* On freedom of brewers' creativity vs. winemakers: "We can use any ingredient we want. We're like a chef."

* On beer's image: "Wine has always been treated with respect and dignity. Beer hasn't had that image."

* On brewing: "Making truly better products means better, more innovative products - not just another IPA. Continue to make beers that excite and engage customers."

* On the industry's health: "Craft beer is teaching the Germans to make beer, is teaching the English to make beer. Craft breweries are springing up all over the world - in Chile and in Mexico. ... Beer doesn't need to come from huge industrial intergalactic brewing conglomerates."

* On competition from large, corporate-owned breweries: "They want what we have; there's nothing evil about that. We are going to see them increasingly coming into our space."