Dogfish Head Craft Brewery

In a brunch conversation that meandered from Groundhog Day to Greek mythology, Boston Beer Company leaders and Brewers Association (BA) president and CEO Bart Watson mused on craft beer’s current slump and how it can be busted.

In this episode of the Brewbound Podcast, Brewbound editor Justin Kendall and senior reporter Zoe Licata dive into RNDC’s bankruptcy filing, as well as the fallout, with many suppliers left wondering if they’ll ever get paid back. Plus, they chat about Boston Beer’s fast-follower strategy and craft’s mid-year volume number.

Sam Calagione is in a creative groove. The Dogfish Head co-founder is on the verge of releasing a collaboration full-proof whiskey in collaboration with Rolling Stone magazine. He recently wrote a column for the magazine on the 1976 overlap of punk, hip-hop and craft beer. And his 31-year-old craft brewery finished Q1 up, still trucking behind its Grateful Dead collaboration beers and spirits-based canned cocktails.

Boston Beer Company founder and CEO Jim Koch believes “premiumization is still out there and possible” for bev-alc producers. Koch shared the sentiment Tuesday during a fireside chat with Goldman Sachs analyst Bonnie Herzog while touting the “magic” of ready-to-drink (RTD) offerings and the potential for Lytt, Boston Beer’s new 15% ABV BuzzBallz challenger.

Boston Beer Company’s first quarter got off to a slow start, with year-over-year (YoY) declines in both shipments (-6.9%) and depletions (-4%), and a 4.4% decline in net revenue to $433.9 million.

Dogfish Head is looking to extend its long, strange trip back to growth in 2026. Following the launch of Grateful Dead Juicy Pale Ale last year – which helped return Dogfish Head to growth – the Boston Beer Company-owned craft brewery is leaning even further into its partnership with the Grateful Dead and releasing a “Volume 2” collaboration: Citrus Daydream Lager.

It may be time for beer to finally address its pricing issues. That was one of the main takeaways from Day 1 of the Beer, Wine and Spirits Summit Sunday, hosted by Beer Business Daily and Wine & Spirits Business Daily in Coronado, California.

To open a conversation about craft beer in 2025, Boston Beer founder and CEO Jim Koch and Dogfish Head co-founder Sam Calagione went back about 15 years to revisit a beer they collaborated on nearly a decade before they joined their companies.

Summer ended with Dogfish Head riding momentum in both canned cocktails and its beer portfolio.

The Dead are helping raise Dogfish Head’s trends. The Boston Beer Company-owned, Milton, Delaware-based craft brewery’s launch of Grateful Dead Juicy Pale Ale earlier this year has returned the brand to growth for the first time since 2019, co-founder Sam Calagione told Brewbound last week.

📉 January 2025 Shipments -8.7% YoY; 🫧 Jiant Wants to be Hard Tea’s Olipop; 🌑 Blue Moon Denver Brewpub to Close; 🍹 A Round With Austin Cocktails Founders; 📰 WellBeing Deal; Saugatuck Closures;🥉 Circana: 3 of 10 Segments Post Growth; 🚫 ‘You Can’t Fucking Make Beer Legally in DE’; 🖐️ Constellation’s Rule of Five Hard Punch

As Dogfish Head’s 30th anniversary approaches, co-founder Sam Calagione shared why he believes the Milton, Delaware-based craft brewery will return both its beer and canned cocktail brands to growth in 2025. Part of that strategy is the launch of a new year-round beer, Dogfish Head and Grateful Dead Juicy Pale Ale, which Calagione shared with attendees of the 2024 Brewbound Live business conference earlier this month.

Boston Beer Company will increase investment across its entire portfolio in 2025, the company shared with its distributor partners in nearly 30 in-person meetings held across the country over the last two months. The investment will be made in both traditional and digital media, in addition to “new dynamic partnerships.”

Dogfish Head Cocktails introduces two new higher-ABV recipes, Pineapple Orange Rum Mai Tai and Passion Fruit Citrus Vodka Mule.