Not surprisingly, we’re pretty big craft beer fans here at The Portable Bar Company. The growth of the craft beer movement over the last decade has offered American beer drinkers more choices than at any time since before prohibition.
Dogfish Head
Recently, one of our favorite choices has been Dogfish Head. Dogfish Head is a Delaware-based brewery that opened in 1995 as the first brewpub in Delaware and the smallest comercial brewery in America. That didn’t last long however. The small brewpub has grown exponentially and is now serving up 20 styles of beer in more than 25 states.
Yet, their small start lives on in their constant experimentation and (somewhat crazy) exploration of new ingredients. This includes a beer they released in late 2011 called Pangaea which includes an ingredient from every continent (Crystallized ginger from Australia, Basmati rice from Asia, Muscavado sugar from Africa, Quinoa from South America, European yeast, North American maize, and water from Antartica). Any company that goes to the trouble of contacting a U.S. military base at the South Pole to get water through reverse osmosis is seriously committed to their brew.
They’re also seriously committed to the story behind their brew. Each beer they make has a story behind it. Ranging from their immensely popular 90 minute IPA which was hailed by Esquire as ” perhaps the best IPA in America” to limited offerings like Ta Henket which is brewed using a native Egyptian saccharomyces yeast strain that they captured by trapping fruit flies in the Cairo night air.
We thought Dogfish’s offerings were pretty darn good based on the quality of the beer alone, but the stories they tie each brew with make them truly unique. If you’ve got a minute, go. Or if you’re in a rush, we put a couple of our favorites below.
If you’re looking for something new to serve at an upcoming event or are looking to mix up your offerings, give Dogfish a look. Their 90 minute IPA in particular seems to draw rave reviews and being able to tell consumers the story behind it adds another unique dimension.