A trip to a thrift store resulted in an old-school vibrating football game, that when plugged in vibrated pelletized hops continuously down into the boiling vessel below The result was an Imperial IPA that was incredibly hoppy, yet without an overwhelming bitterness.
The experiment proved successful enough to produce at scale, and in 2001, Dogfish Head released its 90-Minute IPA (so named for the amount of time it’s continually hopped), a beer praised for its intense hop flavor without the typically accompanying intense bitterness. Two years later came the less-boozy 60-Minute IPA, which continues to be the company’s top seller. Today, 60-Minute is brewed in Dogfish Head’s largest brewhouse—a 200-barrel facility—using a pneumatic cannon that shoots hops into the boil every 60 seconds.
In 2002, the company moved virtually all of its beer production to its current facility located in a 100,000-sq-ft converted cannery in Milton, Delaware.
The south side of the building receives the beer line and deliveries of bottles, labels, boxes, and kegs. Packaged products load into trucks along the north. The west facade is removable to allow for future expansion, while the east facade nestles into a sculpted landform, allowing visitors to enter the observation platform without the use of stairs or elevator. The observation platform provides visitors a spectacular view over the adjacent pond before zigging and zagging into the building and out over the production floor.
In 2019, Boston Beer Company, makers of Sam Adams, Angry Orchard, Truly and Twisted Tea, merged with Dogfish Head in a $300 million deal. Due to the complicated brewing recipes (only one Dogfish Head beer can even be brewed in a Sam Adams brewery), Dogfish Head continued to only be brewed in its Delaware breweries as it has since 1995.
And while some of those stories involve only folks within Dogfish Head, many involve outside collaborators. For example, the Midas Touch Ancient Ale was created with help from biomolecular archaeologist Patrick McGovern and based on residue found on drinking vessels inside King Midas’s tomb. The Pennsylvania Tuxedo pale ale was brewed in partnership with the Woolrich clothing company, after Calagione read that the company’s founder homebrewed beer using Pennsylvania spruce tips. Dogfish Head’s fast-growing SeaQuench Ale, a session sour, was created to complement the offerings at Chesapeake & Maine, the seafood restaurant Dogfish Head opened in 2016, and was brewed in collaboration with the National Aquarium.
In addition to the brewery, Dogfish Head also operates a micro distillery at the Rehoboth Beach brewpub with products such as Roasted Peanut Vodka, Barrel Honey Rum and Let’s Get Lost, a whiskey that won gold in the 2020 L.A. Spirits Awards in the category American Single Malt. The distillery is very small; Dogfish Head spirits are distributed only in Delaware and a handful of other states.
