Microbrewed Adventures - Charles Papazian [32]
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NEW WISCONSIN APPLE/RASPBERRY/CHERRY BEER
Boisterously fruity and fresh tasting, this fruit beer has the character of real beer. A short acidic bacteria fermentation creates complexity not possible with simple fruit additions. This beer is all about using local and indigenous ingredients and incorporating your skills as a brewmaster. The recipe can be found in About the Recipes.
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Their secrets are not shared. (Otherwise they wouldn’t be secrets.) However, applying some basic brewing principles, homebrewers can begin to approach what Dan has accomplished. It took Dan several years of experimentation. Each time he tried, he came closer to the perfection that has won him several beer competition medals throughout the world. So get brewing!
Changing How People Think
About Beer, One Minute at a Time
Dogfish Head Brewery
FOR SAM CALAGIONE, president of one of America’s most “explosive” craft breweries, it all began in a small New York City apartment. It was 1992 and Sam, attending Columbia University, dwelled on a future MBA degree. But then he fell in love. Romancing the specialty and microbrewed beers offered at Nacho Mamas, his local Manhattan beer bar, Sam was caught up in the intrigue of such beers as Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Brooklyn Lager and other cosmically insightful microbrews.
“It took up half the space in my apartment,” admits Sam of his pursuit of homebrew. Inspired by the unique character of microbrewed beers, he immediately pursued the fringes of craft brewing. His first beer was cherry pale ale. He never looked back.
Connecting with area beer aficionados such as Richie Link in New Jersey, Sam soon switched his educational track, finding himself shoveling grain at various breweries along America’s eastern seaboard and pursuing course work with such teachers as Shipyard Brewing Company (Portland, Maine) brewmaster Alan Pugsley.
Sam and I are enjoying his 90-minute India Pale Ales at Denver’s 2004 Great American Beer Festival as he reminisces, “I was 25 years old and nobody was in much of a hurry to invest in my ideas.” He made do with whatever resources he had, essentially setting up a glorified 12-gallon homebrew system and opening up his Dogfish Head Brewpub in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, in 1995. “I brewed 390 batches of beer the first year,” he recalls. “Before that I had only brewed 70 batches of homebrew. Brewing so often really sucked, but I learned a lot about brewing and about what my customers really liked. Some beers really took off in popularity. It did really suck to have to brew so often but experimenting with so many small batches really provided the foundation for our beer philosophy at Dogfish Head Brewery.
“We were really small and Rehoboth Beach isn’t exactly the brewery capital of the country, but we are located just two hours from Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Manhattan was only three and a half hours away. People who had visited the brewpub were calling and wanting our beers in their area, remembering the flavors of our really eccentric beers. Our Chicory Stout is made with roasted chicory, organic coffee, licorice root and St. John’s wort. Our Immort Ale was very popular with our customers, brewed with maple syrup, vanilla beans, peat-smoked malt and juniper berries. People thought we were really crazy when we offered our first pale ale at a price of $12.99 for a six-pack.”
Sam Calagione, Dogfish Head Brewery, Milton, Delaware
Sam Calagione, photo by Bruce Weber.
Sam’s journey toward providing beer drinkers access to his special beers was wrought with challenging times. He does not for a minute think his was an overnight success. The restaurant barely kept the venture afloat in the beginning. First there were six people that were his regular customers and over time there were 12, then 14, and slowly his following grew to a sustainable base. It was five years later that Sam considered