Dogfish Head founder says he’s still against beer conglomerates, despite getting acquired

First and foremost, Dogfish Head cofounder Sam Calagione is a storyteller. 

Not just because the Lewes-based entrepreneur gives a great talk, like the GRIT Talk  he delivered on Tuesday at the Mill’s Theatre N at, but also because it was the career he first chose to pursue.

Calagione studied creative writing on the graduate level at Columbia University —  despite lacking a high school diploma due to an expulsion his senior year from a Massachusetts prep school. 

“I’m one of a small elite group of human beings who got to graduate from college but never actually got a high school diploma,” he said, answering the first of seven questions designed to bring out the common stories of Delaware business leaders, including overcoming failures on the path to success.

Calagione ultimately stopped going to classes at Columbia when he realized that he really wanted to use his creative writing skills to create recipes for new craft beers, a hobby he picked up as an undergraduate. 

When he broke the news to his father on a road trip, his father responded by pointing out that a road sign up ahead — “Dogfish Head” — would make a good name for a brewery. That moment led to the first Dogfish Head brewery opening in Rehoboth Beach in 1995, a small start for what would become a nationally distributed, multimillion-dollar beverage company. 

Calagione currently sits on the board of directors for Boston Brewing Company after it acquired Dogfish Head in a $300 million merger deal in 2019.

The audience, members of Delaware’s business and startup community, also learned that Calagione meditates using the Headspace app for 10 minutes each morning and devotes 60 minutes a day — a nod to Dogfish Head’s breakout brew, the 60 Minute IPA — to paddleboarding or mountain biking.

While Dogfish Head is no longer completely independent, Calagione’s still all about rebelling against the big beer conglomerates who run 80% of the market in the US, and coming up with creative recipes.

His main message?

“Carpe the bejeezum,” Calagione said, “out of every day.”

GRIT Talks are quarterly speaker and networking events spotlighting Delaware business leaders, hosted by the AB Bernstein investment firm and The Mill. Check out a short clip about failure from the talk below. The full talk will be available to watch here.