E-Malt.com News article: USA, DE: Dogfish Head brewery continues to get public attention

One of the nation’s most innovative and fastest growing breweries is on the way to the ocean beaches many Washingtonians frequent. The Dogfish Head brewery, in Milton, DE, has become the 13th largest craft brewery in the country, producing over 170,000 barrels of beer in 2012, up 20 percent from 2011. The brewery is finishing an expansion which will allow brewing 600,000 barrels per year, Gazette reported on November 13.

Sam Calagione, the brewery’s co-founder and co-owner, opened the Dogfish Head brewpub in 1995 in Rehoboth Beach, DE, near his wife’s hometown. It was named after Calagione’s fondly-remembered vacation spot near Boothbay Harbor in Maine to lend a New England character.

Starting with a minuscule 12-gallon brewing facility that needed constant use to keep up with customer demand, Calagione was continuously brewing. He experimented all the time in a brewing career that has led to his being called the “Mad Alchemist of Brewing.” Demand rapidly increased and a packaging brewery was added in 1997.

The kitchen to brewpot escapades gave Dogfish a well-earned reputation for using unusual ingredients and brewing unusual beers. Some of the non-standard additions to the Dogfish beers include St. John’s Wort, Saffron, Agave nectar, Hawthorn Berry from China, and Spirulina, a blue green algae to give green color for a St. Patrick’s Day beer.

Dogfish also has become renowned for its series of India Pale Ales (IPAs), some very high alcohol brews, and re-creations of ancient ales. The three IPAs, called 60 Minute, 90 Minute, and 120 Minute, add hops continuously for the respective time durations. Calagione got the idea from watching a chef prepare food and adding spices on a continuous basis to enhance the flavor.

The high alcohol beers, definite brewing achievements, include World Wide Stout (15-20 percent alcohol by volume, ABV), once the highest alcohol beer being regularly brewed; Fort (15-18 percent ABV), a fruit beer with raspberries and the highest alcohol fruit beer being produced; 120 Minute IPA (15-20 percent ABV); and Olde School Barleywine (13-16 percent ABV.)

The Ancient Ales series started as a collaboration with Patrick McGovern, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, to recreate the libation consumed at King Midas’ funeral, calling it Midas Touch. Successive collaborations with the McGovern have resulted in producing Chateau Jiahu based on a 9000 year old dig in China; Theobroma based on an 3,200 year old Aztec chocolate beer; Ta Henket using ingredients and traditions from Egyptian hieroglyphics, and Bierra Etrusca Bronze from excavations in a 2,800 year old Etruscan tomb.


15 November, 2013