Dogfish Head Brewery

 

Dogfish Head Brewery is a brewing company based in Milton, Delaware founded by Sam Calagione. It opened in 1995and produces 75,000 barrels of beer annually. Dogfish Head has been a rapidly growing brewery - it grew nearly 400% in between 2003 and 2006.The brewery was featured prominently in the documentary Beer Wars. It is the subject of the currently-airing Discovery Channel series Brew Masters, which premiered Sunday, November 21, 2010.The brewery takes its name from Dogfish Head, Maine where founder Sam Calagione spent summers as a child.

Products 

Dogfish Head's output tends toward experimental or "extreme" beers, such as their tongue-in-cheek "Liquor de Malt," a bottle-conditioned malt liquor which typically comes in its own brown paper bag. Their products often use non-standard ingredients, such as green raisins in their "Raison D'Être". Some of their beers, including the WorldWide Stout, 120 Minute India Pale Ale, and the raspberry-flavored strong ale Fort, are highly alcoholic, reaching 18% to 20% alcohol by volume (typical beers have around 3% to 7% alcohol by volume).

One of Dogfish Head's more notable odd beers was a green beer called Verdi Verdi Good, produced in 2005 and sold only on draft. The beer was not colored green artificially; rather, the green color was derived from brewing a Dortmunder style beer that contained spirulina, or blue-green algae.

Pangaea, first released in 2003, is a Belgian-style strong pale ale made with ingredients from every continent on Earth, including: crystallized ginger from Australia, water from Antarctica, Basmati rice from Asia, and more.The name Pangaea refers to the super-continent of the same name which is theorized to have existed about 250 million years ago.

IPAs 

Dogfish Head's signature product is its line of India Pale Ales (IPAs), which are offered in three varieties: 60 Minute, 90 Minute, and 120 Minute IPA. Their names refer to the length of the boil time of the wort in which the hops are continuously added. The longer hops are boiled, the more hop isomerization takes place, and the more bitterness is imparted to the beer. The 60 Minute is described by the company as "A session IPA brewed with Warrior, Amarillo and Mystery Hop X. Bottle-conditioned 6-packs and draft available. 60 IBUs." To further enhance their beers, Dogfish Head introduced a device in 2003 jokingly called Randall the Enamel Animal, an "organoleptic hop transducer module" which "Randallizes" a given beer by passing the beer through a large plastic tube filled with a flavor enhancer, often raw hops though adaptations with fruits and coffee beans, amongst others, have taken place. The alcohol in the beer lifts oils off the raw hops and imparts even more hop flavor and aroma to beers that were already hoppy to begin with.

A fourth IPA variety, the 75 Minute IPA, was developed in 2008, and is currently produced in very limited quantities, and typically distributed to vendors in firkins. The beer—nicknamed "Johnny Cask" and featuring a mascot resembling a young Johnny Cash tapping a firkin with a mallet—is made from a mixture of the 60 and 90 Minutes IPAs, and undergoes a separate cask conditioning which further includes the addition of maple syrup.As a variation on the 75 Minute IPA, the Alehouse 75 is also available. It is a mixture of the 60 and 90 Minute offerings, yet is served in a standard Sankey-style keg, rather than a firkin.

Ancient Ales 

In the late 90s, Dogfish Head started a unique "Ancient Ales" series, in which beer recipes were created based upon the chemical analysis of residue found on pottery and drinking vessels from various archaeological sites. These beers have been produced in collaboration with molecular archaeologist Dr. Pat McGovern of the University of Pennsylvania. As of 2010, four such brews have been crafted, and only one (Midas Touch) is produced year round. The others are produced on a limited basis.

    * Midas Touch Golden Elixir (first released in 1999). A strong ale based on residue found on drinking vessels from the tomb of King Midas, dating back to the 8th century BC. Defining ingredients include Muscat grapes, honey, and saffron. (See section below for more information.)
    * Chateau Jiahu (first released in 2006). A spiced strong ale based on residue from pottery found in the Neolithic village of Jiahu (in central China), dating to the 7th millennium BC. Some defining ingredients include rice flakes, wildflower honey, hawthorn fruit, and Chrysanthemum flowers. As of 2009, this is the oldest known beer recipe to be brewed in the modern age.
    * Theobroma (first released in 2008). A chocolate beer based on residue found on pottery discovered in Honduras dating to approximately 1200 BC. Some defining ingredients include Aztec cocoa powder, honey, and annatto.
    * Ta Henket (released in 2010, only available on draft at Rehoboth Beach brewpub). This beer was created to incorporate ancient ingredients and techniques described in Egyptian hieroglyphics. It was brewed with emmer, loaves of hearth baked bread, dom-palm fruit, chamomile, and zatar. Fermentation was carried out by a native Egyptian saccharomyces wild yeast strain captured from the air in Egypt.

Currently Dogfish Head brewery only dispenses approximately 1,700-1,800 cases per month to distributors. At the time of discovery Midas Touch Golden Elixir was the oldest fermented beverage recipe discovered. Dogfish Head brewery still today holds the record with a 9,000 yr old recipe used for Chateau Jiahu, which was released in July 2007.

The ingredients for the original 7.5% abv recipe in 2001 included yellow muscat grapes, lightly toasted 2-row barley malt, thyme, honey and saffron. The ingredients for the current 9% abv recipe include barley, white Muscat grapes, honey and saffron.

Microdistillery 

Dogfish Head also operates a microdistillery at the Rehoboth Beach brewpub.Spirits are hand-distilled in a small pot still and often, like their beers, tend toward unique and non-traditional formulations. The distillery is very small; Dogfish Head spirits are distributed only in Delaware and a handful of other states. Select brews (including many of the brewery's seasonal and one-off selections) can be found in 27 states across the country. Dogfish Head also licenses "Dogfish Head Alehouse" with three locations in Gaithersburg, Maryland, Falls Church, Virginia, and Fairfax, Virginia. Beer-paired food and vintage bottles of Dogfish's seasonal beers are available at their alehouses, as well as kegged offerings of their staple beers.

List of beers brewed

60 Minute IPA    

90 Minute IPA    

Indian Brown Ale    

Lawnmower    

Midas Touch    

Palo Santo Marron    

Raison D'Etre    

Shelter Pale Ale    

120 Minute IPA    

Bitches Brew    

Black & Blue

Burton Baton    

Chateau Jiahu    

Fort    

Hardtack    

Hellhound On My Ale            

Immort Ale    

Liquor De Malt        

My Antonia        

Namaste    

Noble Rot    

Olde School Barleywine

Pangaea    

Red & White    

Sah'tea    

Squall IPA        

Theobroma    

World Wide Stout    

Aprihop        

Chicory Stout    

Festina Pêche        

Punkin Ale    

Wrath of Pecant        

Portamarillo        

Life & Limb    

Saison du BUFF        

Poppa Skull