Samuel Adams and the Boston Beer Party

Samuel Adams once said, "Give me a half-decent, untaxed, all-American beer, or give me death!" Or maybe that was someone else.

Either way, Samuel Adams was truly a "Renaissance Man": he was an astonishing contributor to the American War for Independence, skilled diplomat, loving husband and father, and (most importantly) a prolific beer manufacturer, which made him rather popular with the minutemen.

Sammy Adams enjoying a cold one.

Born in Boston in 1722, Adams went on to Harvard, where he received degrees in Beer Composition and Beer Theory respectively, before going on to start his own local Boston brewery in 1745. He met with only mild success, due to the huge amount of imported British Beers (despite American protest) and high taxes on local brews. Determined to succeed, he began to branch out into new realms of brewing brilliance, gaining widespread success with his cold beers.

But the British soon got in his way. After declaring innumerable taxes on American products, the Beer Act was the law that broke the brewer's six-pack. Assembling a band of fellow cold-beer lovers, the Sons of Brewery, in 1773 they proceeded to dump several tons of Newcastle Brown and Guinness into the Boston Harbor. Fishermen later reported that the local sea-life was completely wasted for months.

Locals rejoice at the prospect of no more warm beer. The fish will take whatever comes their way.

Shortly after, war broke out among the colonies, and Samuel Adams assisted the revolutionaries, while still maintaining his brewery in the interests of "morale." He began to branch out into other alcoholic beverages and international markets, first coming out with the Declaration Draught for local and foreign patriots, before distilling his award-winning Spirit of '76, which did remarkably well internationally, often marketed under such slogans as "The Shot Drunk Around the World" and "It will get you drunk!" It is often believed that it was this success that brought the French, who were starting to find champagne highly over-rated, into the War on the side of the Americans.

Even though Tea may have "won the war" for Britain in the 1940's, it was most certainly Samuel Adams' Boston Lager that did it for the Americans in '83.