Spot. Fucking. On.
Look, I love IPA just as much as the next modern craft beer lover. But I don't kid myself or act like I'm above "mainstream" craft beer. Boston Lager and all of Sam Adams is one of my favorites. Not simply just for the taste, but the availability. I can tell a friend across the country: "You NEED to try the new Alpine Spring!" And they can try it without hunting more than going to their local grocery store.
Boston Lager is what it is: a great all around lager that isn't too heavy in anything, and perfectly balanced for just about any occasion. Their seasonals and unique ones are typically very good or great, and rarely overpowering in certain ingredients. The pumpkin is really good, and it doesn't taste like I bit into an overly ripe pumpkin. The porters and chocolate ones taste just as advertised, and they don't taste like I got punched in the face with a spoonful of Nestle Quik. I guarantee you can put many of these special ones under a "real" craft brewery's label, and many beer snobs and hipsters will act like it was pissed out of Aphrodite.
And as far as /u/AntiHeroV (author) pointing out that beer snobs and hipsters associate scarcity with quality? I couldn't have stated it better myself. In Connecticut, we have New England Brewing Company (NEBCO). They're known for Gandhi-Bot. It's a great beer. Fantastic, really. But it's so freaking rare and difficult to find many times (with a few other ones of theirs that are even rarer/harder), and it rarely lasts on draft more than a day or so when a bar gets it on.
But you will be lying if you said it tasted different (or noticeably better) than Sculpin Ballast, Ithaca Flower Power, or Cigar City Jai Alai. They're all the same flavor profiles and generally the same types of hops used that Gandhi-Bot uses. The difference? You can go to nearly any beer shop in the state and pick up a 6 pack of Sculpin or Flower Power without rushing or fighting or waiting. It's always available. They're common, regular beers. You can cross the border into NY and pick up Jai Alai for a number of stores. There's also a number of regional crafts as well with the same hop flavors as Gandhi that we all love.
People want Gandhi-Bot because it's unobtainable, unique to CT, and even uncommon/borderline rare in CT. I'm not bashing it, I'm just saying the beer snobs and hipsters make it out to be greater than beers that are readily available already. And because of that, they drive up the demand just because it's a smaller production than the readily available ones.
This goes for probably most of the beers out there. When it comes to an IPA, I have rarely found an IPA that is genuinely so god damn unique that I will go out of my way to find it. Sip of Sunshine? Sure. It has a more unique flavor that I haven't found in another IPA yet with the subtle tropical fruit aromas on top of those very citrusy hop flavors. But if you told me there's a year-round beer that already exists that tastes nearly identical to it, I'll go for it just the same and not be one of those assholes who were following around the distributor truck in CT (I kid you not, they were doing that the morning it hit the stores in cans the other week). Actually, I hope you can tell me of a beer that tastes like SoS so I can stop trying to find it every time I go out.
One thing I don't get is why some beer people will feel too good for Sam Adams (any of the beers, even the unique ones) and say it's "macro", but they'll readily suck Goose Island's dick (who is as macro as it gets, as they're owned by ABInBev). It's almost the same thing (except I haven't had a GI I have liked). Many of the staple GI beers are just awful. Then you have the "Vintage Ales" that are a little bit better than their forgettable beers, but way overpriced. Finally, you have Bourbon County, easily the most overrated beer you can ever think of that the beer snobs loooooove. Don't believe me? Look at /r/beerporn, and you can always find BCBS on the front page with people upvoting it because they think they should, even if it's a shitty picture taken with an old phone camera. Then someone may post a genuinely nice beer taken with an SLR, but from a brewery they never heard of, and it won't get any attention. I think many people love GI and all of their beers because they think they're supposed to. I know BCBS is a 100 on Beer Advocate. That doesn't change that I can't fucking stand the crap. I love stouts, and I love bourbon. I can't stand the woody/boozy flavor of bourbon in beer though. I just think they contrast too much. I've tried BCBS 3 times now in glasses to make sure it wasn't just one or 2 times I didn't like it or got a bad one, and I only completed it once reluctantly. The other two times, I gave them to my friends.
But that's not to say I don't like a barrel aged, because I love rum barrels with certain stouts (pumpkin in particular). It's not as heavy as bourbon, and it's just enough to go well.
But anyways, that's the thing. Beer culture has gotten to a point that people think they need to love a beer based on what Beer Advocate or Rate Beer tells them. It's group-think, and to that I somewhat feel Koch is right that many people don't know what they want. Unfortunately for him, he needs to play by those rules if he wants to appeal to this generation.
But I digress. Fuck beer snobs. I love craft beer and I may be seen as a beer snob to friends because I try shit tons of craft beers, but I'm not one to turn my nose up at a beer just because the brewery became successful. I definitely have beers and breweries I really dislike or can't stand, but we all do. I don't mind saying a popular "top shelf" beer is shitty, and I know how to identify what it is that makes it shitty to me. Likewise, I know why I like a "mediocre" beer, and I can explain why I like it - I like Sam Adams because it's safe, affordable, always available, not filling, goes with any food, any occasion, and doesn't taste skunky when heated up past "ice cold". There's more to the flavor of a beer that makes it an excellent beer, and Sam Adams does it very well.
Keep on doing your thing, Koch. Don't let the snobs stop you. Your brewery will outlast many of the trends, and your legacy will live on in the American beer world for a very long time. You have definitely earned the right to use one of our nation's founding fathers for your beer.