The Boston Phoenix

Aug 29 - Sept 4, 2003

In the Drink
For Rhonda Kallman, beer isn't just a beverage - its a way of life

MOST OF US, at 23, have no idea what we're going to do with the rest of our lives. We're dabbling in this, trying a little of that, earning a meager paycheck to pay off school loans, and trying to figure out what the hell we're qualified to do next.

At 23, Rhonda Kallman was, alongside Jim Koch, launching what would one day become one of the best-known microbreweries in the country. At Boston Beer Company, maker of Sam Adams, Kallman built the third-largest dedicated sales force in the beer industry and stayed with the company for 15 years. Now 41, this mother of three young children is far from slowing down; in September 2001, Kallman launched her own company, New Century Brewing, and rolled out Edison Light, a "mainstream" light beer that's currently available in Boston and Atlanta.

Q: Why beer? How’d you end up in this industry to begin with?

A: I ended up in the industry because of Jim Koch. He and I worked together at Boston Consulting Group back in the early ’80s. At the time, I was his secretary. And we were secretaries; I had an IBM typewriter and everything! And at night I was bartending and waitressing, and I often came in a little late and a little hung-over, but I was pretty good at what I did while I was there, and when he decided to start a beer company — he knew about beer because he was the sixth consecutive oldest son to be a brewer, and he knew about business, he has three Harvard degrees — but he didn’t know anything about bars. So there I was, right under his nose, and one day he asked me to help him start a beer company.


Q: Do you feel like an anomaly, being a woman in this business?

A: There’s a handful of us out there in beer land. I evidently was the pioneer woman in the beer industry back in 1984. But I think it enhances what I do; it doesn’t really deter what I’m doing. You stand out a little easier, at a convention anyway. I have a ball. It’s not just this industry, it’s any industry; a successful woman, and will they take you seriously? It’s up to them, you know? It’s their problem.


Q: Have you had a lot of people who haven’t taken you seriously? Has that been a problem?

A: Not outwardly so. But things like trying to raise money for the business, and the question is, "So, how many kids do you have?" Meanwhile, my CFO’s sitting next to me, and he happens to have three also, but nobody asks him. So that’s what’s still going on out there. And very much in Boston. It’s just not that progressive. Money’s a very conservative thing. Places that get it, get what I’m doing, are people that ... understand the need to have something new and different, and they understand that things are cyclical. And there are so many people that don’t live that way, and don’t understand that, and they want things to stay the same.


Q: How do you convince them that things shouldn’t stay the same?

A: You really have to prove it. It’s not easy. But you do. It’s like, okay, then watch. If you don’t want to play, then just sit on the sidelines and watch.


Q: You had so much success with Boston Beer; why did you leave?

A: I had been there 15 years, and it was a wonderful experience, building a brand from scratch and building a company from scratch, and making it a national success, but it was done. The thrill of the job was really gone. We became public in ’95, and of course that changes the way you do things, and I just thought, okay, it’s time to move on to the next chapter of my life.


Q: Did you expect to stay in the beer business?

A: Well, I love the business, so probably. But I wasn’t sure, and I left just to kind of get off the treadmill, and it happened to be the whole millennium thing was going on, so my family and I went down to the Caribbean for a two-week vacation, and after being there a week, I got a phone call from a brewing consultant that I knew from the industry, Dr. Joe Owades, and he called me and inspired me; he said, "I’ll make a beer, you start a company." And my response was, "Oh shit, Joe." I said, "Let me think about it." And so I did.


Q: How long did you have to think about it?

A: Overnight. So I called him back and said, "You’re on, but I don’t want to do the micro-craft thing."


Q: How come?

A: I can’t compete there. I know it’s just a difficult business. It was tough to compete with Sam Adams. But Joe, as I remembered, was credited with the invention of light beer, so here’s this guy who’s 80-something years old, he calls me out of everybody in the industry. I thought, one out of every two beers consumed is a light beer, and when I sat there literally on the beach, on a little island called Jost Van Dyke, and I’m thinking, where’s a market here? Where’s an opportunity? It was clearly light beer. I wasn’t going to do the importer thing, and I didn’t want to do a craft ale — what’s next? And I thought, well, this is it. Because it’s clearly an under-branded segment that’s growing, and it’s very dominated by the giants, and that’s what I like to do, is find a different way to do it than them.


Q: Why do you think Joe Owades called you?

A: We always had mutual respect and admiration for each other. And he called me because I’m crazy enough to do it. He knows how much I love the beer business, and how good I was at it.


Q: What is his role in the company now?

A: He’s a consultant. He oversees the making of the beer for me. We just got our patent approved on our process; Joe’s figured out, after 35 years, how to make light beer better, and Edison has a patent on his process.


Q: Is that unusual, to have a patent in this business?

A: Yes. I only know of a few, including Edison. I’m sure there’s probably more, but I only know of a few.


Q: What do you say to people who say light beer is just for women?

A: Um, just look around you. Usually it’s in a bar when people start telling you that stuff; well, look around you, because you know what? There’s a lot of guys drinking it, too. You know, it’s funny, generally those are people probably of my generation, where light beer to a lot of people like that is a compromise. But it’s not. It’s a wonderful, easy-to-drink beverage; you can drink a lot of them. That’s really what people are moving toward. That’s why there’s such high growth in the light-beer segment.


Q: How’s Edison doing so far?

A: It’s doing well. I mean, I launched the brand the day before 9/11, in Boston, [and] it’s always a struggle going up against the big guys, but I just have to do it differently than them.


Q: And how are you doing it differently?

A: It’s the cracks. I exist in the cracks, I try and find the cracks. For example, right now Edison is available in about 60, 70 restaurants in Boston, though it’s not in a lot of sports bars or Irish bars, because I can’t really compete there yet, because they generally have a big choice. So I find places where we can be a bigger fish in a smaller pond.


Q: Now that you’ve got Edison and Boston Beer has Sam Light, do you feel like you’re competing with old friends?

A: No, because they’re so different. [Boston Beer] couldn’t really make a beer like Edison because it would stretch too far the Sam Adams name. I wanted something that a Bud/Miller/Coors Light drinker ... it [would be] easily accessible for them. And Sam Light obviously is a great beer; it just all depends on what you want in your light beer, and there’s different occasions for different things.


Q: So what’s next? What’s the strategy from here?

A: Keep building it, keep focused. I would like to sell it in New York City, because I think they’re ready for something like this, clearly. And the cool places in New York City, Soho, Tribeca — the places I like to go. Just to grow opportunistically, where it makes sense. Distribution is clearly a decision-maker, you know, finding the right distributor that has the right portfolio, that is willing to help build the brand from scratch — it’s not that easy these days, so you really have to find the right place to do that.


Q: What do you think you’d be doing now if you hadn’t gotten into the beer business?

A: Oh my. Oh. I have no idea. It’s like meant to be for me. Probably selling spirits.


Q: It was going to be something to do with alcohol.

A: I think so. It’s in my blood. And it’s fun, you know? It’s a really good business, good people. They know how to have fun, but yet be professional too. I love that.


Q: What does your husband do?

A: He’s going to kill me, but whatever he wants. He has different things going on. He’s like a serial entrepreneur. He’s very supportive. I think he likes having a wife who owns a beer company.


Q: Do you remember your first taste of beer?

A: God, it was an awfully long time ago! I was probably nine — and I’m a lot older than that now. And my guess is, it was Miller High Life. It’s what my father drank.


Q: Obviously you drink a lot of beer. How do you keep from getting a beer gut?

A: I don’t eat the pan of lasagna with the six-pack of beer. Everything in moderation. Really. It’s true. Don’t cut beer out of your diet! If you’re on a diet, don’t cut beer! The food is in the beer; there’s no beer in the food. So if you have to choose ...


Q: What’s your best cure for a beer hangover?

A: The hair of the dog! Have another one. I mean, you have to. It’s the only way to go. And eat greasy food. Have that pizza, big burger, and fries.


Q: How often do you get drunk?

A: Oh, I don’t get drunk often. I get a nice buzz, but I don’t get drunk. I’m a professional.

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