Sam Adams founder on beer experimentation, eluding inebriation

With just a 1 percent share of the U.S. beer market, Sam Adams may be one of the nation's largest craft brewers. The company's founder and Boston Beer Company CEO Jim Koch sat down with CBSN to discuss the craft beer industry.

"The growth of craft beer in all its many forms and styles is exciting," said Koch. "The beer industry as a whole is pretty stable. But craft beer last year grew by about 18 percent."

Craft beer now represents a steadily growing portion of the U.S. beer marketplace, which signals that consumers are starting to turn away from the more traditional beer producers like Miller and Anheuser-Busch.

The success and keen interest in craft beer has even sparked a desire on Koch's part to experiment with new forms of beer to reel in more customers.

"We have this really interesting beer that we used to blend with other beers," said Koch. "It's really a wild fermentation, we just let go and we age it for a year. And then it's ready to drink. We call it KMF. Kosmic Mother Funk."

Koch credits the small, tight-knit circle of craft brewers with the industry's growth.

"I can't just be creative sitting in a room. Interacting with consumers, with bars, with other brewers, to me that's a big source of the energy," he said.

To enjoy all of that beer, Koch even offered a few tips to get around the inebriation that may come with it.

"There's an enzyme in yeast called alcohol dehydrogenase that can break alcohol down before it gets into your blood stream," said Koch. "It's not going to get all of it. And for some people it doesn't get any. So try it out."