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February 27, 2025

Friday Food Insider: Delaware brewer will return to his 'spiritual home' for craft brew summit in Maine

Photo / Courtesy Broadreach Public Relations Sam Calagione started Dogfish Head in June 1995 in Delaware.
By Alexis Wells

A brewer from Delaware fell in love with beer in the Pine Tree State, where he will be the keynote speaker at the New England Craft Brew Summit on Friday, March 7.

"Maine is our spiritual home," Sam Calagione, founder of Dogfish Head Brewing, told Mainebiz. 

A Maine-trained brewer, Calagione spent summers on Pratts Island in the midcoast town of Southport, where the name Dogfish Head originated. In 1993, while out jogging, he told his dad that he had wanted to open a brewery in Delaware. It would be the state's first new brewery since the prohibition era.

"He was quiet for a second, probably thinking I was nuts, but then he said, 'Dogfish Head would be a cool name for a brewery,' as we jogged past the road sign heading to that point of land," said Calagione. "So in one sentence, I got my dad's OK to go on this quixotic journey and the name of my company."

Dogfish Head is a point of land on the Sheepscot River in Southport. 

Dogfish Head Brewing & Eats opened as the state's first brewpub in June 1995 in Rehoboth Beach, Del. Since then, it has grown into a nationally recognized brand of beer-wine hybrids, craft distilling and non-alcoholic beverages. 

From home to commercial brewing

Calagione's love for brewing began in 1992 when he began home-brewing in his New York City apartment after graduating from college. 

"I was taking a master's in fine arts classes at Columbia with the goal of becoming a novelist, short story writer, or professor while working at a craft beer bar to pay my bills," said Calagione.

"I fell in love with all the great diverse beers coming on the scene in the early '90s," he added. "I decided to refocus my passion for creative storytelling around writing creative beer recipes incorporating culinary ingredients in unexpected ways instead of trying to write the next great American novel."

Calagione had his first commercial brewing experience in Maine in the apprentice program at Federal Jacks Brewpub in Kennebunkport in the early '90s. 

The future of craft beer

In 2019, Boston Beer Co. acquired Dogfish Head Brewery. Calagione told Mainebiz he had known the owner of the Boston Beer Co. for over 30 years and had "taken the leap of faith and merged." 

As for the future of his business, Calagione said that he hopes to see the return of growth for American craft beer and get younger legal-age drinkers into the magical, mystical, diverse world of craft beer. 

"This is the main subject I look forward to chatting with my fellow brewers about over multi-pints of each other's brews during the New England Brewers Summit." 

Summit details

The theme of this year's New England Brew Summit, an educational conference and trade show hosted by the Maine Brewers’ Guild, will be: “The fermentation of change: redefining craft beer's future." 

The Friday Food Insider is working on some fun stories for the coming months. What changes have you seen in the Maine restaurant world? The Mainebiz Food Insider wants to hear from you! Contact Alexis Wells at awells@mainebiz.biz.

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