As the craft beer industry continues to grow, one Delaware brewer continues to be the standard-bearer for First State breweries.
Dogfish Head Brewery, based out of a converted cannery in Milton, Delaware, was recently named at the top of a USA Today readers poll of top American craft breweries. It's the latest in a string of accolades for the brewery and its products.
So is it simply brand recognition and marketing, or something about the way that Dogfish Head operates that sets it apart?
According to Gary Monterosso, Cicerone-certified Beer Server and author of Artisan Beer: A Complete Guide to Savoring the World's Finest Beers, it’s a bit of both.
Monterosso first met Dogfish Head founder and president Sam Calagione more than a decade ago. Since then, he has had the opportunity to be among the first to sample a number of the brewery's offerings.
“Sam started to get a name for himself for making unusual beers,” Monterosso said, “flavorful beers certainly, but kind of pushing the envelope, taking beer in a direction where it’s never gone before.”
Monterosso recalls a time, a few decades ago, when the landscape was much different, and craft breweries' output was not so creative.
“[The beers of the time] were kind of non-flavorful pale ales. Sam came along, along with some other people as well, and just decided ‘You know what? We’re going to take beer in a whole other direction and we trust that people will like what we’re doing.’ And he’s been so successful,” said Monterosso.
But great tasting and creatively conceived craft beer alone does not explain how a small brewery in a small state register has built a national reputation without national presence. Monterosso notes there are other factors that have helped Dogfish Head tremendously.
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In 2010, the Discovery Channel aired the program Brew Masters, which focused on Calagione and company’s global search for brewing inspirations. The brewery also partnered with celebrity chef Mario Batali’s Eataly project to serve artisanal beers on the New York City rooftop brewpub, the Birreria. Add to that appearances on daytime talk shows, documentaries and magazine interviews, as well as a possible television sitcom based on his life, and the name Dogfish Head has a wide reach.
That has helped the brewery capitalize on rise in popularity of craft beer and lead the way for others.
In the late 1970’s, just 44 breweries existed in the United States. That number has grown to approximately 2,500, with over 1,000 more looking to open their doors soon.
The Brewers Association, which has Calagione as chair of their board of directors, shows craft beer sales up 15% in the first half of 2013. And while craft beer is still a tiny fraction of overall sales, those producing it now make up 98% of all American brewers.
Monterosso suggests Dougfish Head's success is helping others in the area get their share of those sales.
“Delaware has several remarkable breweries in the state and we can expand that to much of the mid-Atlantic region, this is a real brewing mecca," said Monterosso. "I think what we’re doing here in the east is we’re coming out with some really, really balanced beers, and states like Delaware and Pennsylvania especially are definitely at the forefront.”
Monterosso adds that trend goes even deeper than craft breweries - to grassroots "nanobreweries."
"[These are] companies comprised of people who may be not giving up their day jobs. They may be brewing nights and weekends, extremely small amounts, possibly self distributing. But what they are doing is taking advantage of local ingredients, and the cool thing is they’re making very esoteric flavors, maybe one batch of something, thinking ‘Hey we’re going to try this if it works and the people like it we’ll do it again, if not we’ll drink the mistakes and see what happens,’” said Monterosso.
Despite its success and influence, Dogfish Head has not expanded significantly. Currently, its craft brewed ales can be found in 26 states and the District of Columbia, and in some places overseas. On its website the company notes its is “brewing as much as we possibly can for our current wholesale partners and are not in a position to open any new territories.”
Until recently, the brewery was stymied by state legal restrictions on expanding their facilities. Now that that law has been changed, there is the possibility for growth from what Monterosso calls a “new generation of American brewers” that includes Calagione.
“These are people, guys and gals, who have looked to the brewing capitals of the world. Where have the best beers come from? The Czech republic, Belgium, Germany, England, places like that,” said Monterosso. “What American craft brewers are doing is referring to these styles and putting their own slant to them so the beers that are coming out are distinctly American and yet you can sense that heritage from other parts of the world.”