The Boston Pub Where Sam Adams First Served Beer On Tap

The U.S. hosts many beloved beers, with Sam Adams serving as Boston's hometown favorite. Created by the Boston Beer Company, the brew has been around since 1984, the very early days of the craft beer movement. It all started when home brewer Sam Koch crafted initial versions of the now iconic Boston lager in his kitchen, based on a generational family recipe. The ascent to citywide stardom faced hurdles — Koch navigated numerous early funding issues — but he did get a Boston pub to tap his beer the year of founding.

The momentous first keg was poured at Doyle's Cafe in 1984, showcasing the approachable German-style lager to regulars in Boston's Jamaica Plains neighborhood. The bar wasn't just another hole-in-the-wall pub, though, but rather a cherished local institution, which operated from 1882 until 2019. A longtime hub for the Irish community, Doyle's Cafe carried prominent political influence, frequented by mayors, governors, and congressmen — even the Kennedy family were regulars.

Furthermore, Doyle's Cafe long promoted beer culture, serving local lagers a century prior to the introduction of Sam Adams. So when Jim Koch went bar-to-bar giving out samples of his family lager, Doyle's Cafe was the earliest adopter, purchasing the beer and placing it on tap. The taste of Sam Adam beers immediately won over bar clientele, kick-starting the path to the beer's citywide recognition.

Businesses like Doyle's Cafe established Boston as one of the key cities to visit in the craft beer revolution, adopting grassroots brewing years before the mainstream. Located in an area once a brewing hotspot pre-Prohibition, the bar's owners continued such a legacy in the 1980s. Such a business approach fit perfectly with the early days of Boston Beer Company, a brewery spearheading a burgeoning new craft beer culture.

The two businesses continued a collaboration for years to come. The brewery filmed several Sam Adams advertisements in the bar. Meanwhile, Doyle's Cafe eventually expanded to several dozen taps, becoming ground zero for plenty of new Sam Adams releases, as well as holding onto original memorabilia. Unfortunately, such an intertwined history came to an end in 2019, when rising costs forced the shutdown of the cherished institution. The bar had even survived the Prohibition operating as a speakeasy, but unfortunately, it didn't make it into the 2020s. So much like the closure of Anchor Brewing, America's oldest craft brewery, the end of Doyle's Cafe represents an unfortunate loss to beer culture.