Summer ended with Dogfish Head riding momentum in both canned cocktails and its beer portfolio.
The Boston Beer Company-owned, Milton, Delaware-based craft brewery shared that its canned cocktail portfolio grew 22% in Circana-tracked off-premise retailers for the 13-week period ending August 24. The company added that the addition of Grateful Dead Juicy Pale Ale continues to drive the beer portfolio’s growth, flipping its trendline for the first time since 2019.
Dogfish Head co-founder Sam Calagione cited moving production and packaging to its Milton brewery with the addition of slim can packaging capabilities for helping drive increased sales.
In previous years, Dogfish Head’s outsourced canned cocktail production couldn’t keep its retailers supplied for summer, even during its July focus month within Boston Beer’s calendar. Those issues have led to an inability to forecast demand, Calagione told Brewbound.
“It’s made a huge difference in the availability,” Calagione said, adding the company’s wholesalers and retailers are no longer “gun-shy” ordering for fear of out-of-stocks.
“This is the first summer that we’ve kept up with demand,” he continued.
Around 85% of Dogfish Head’s canned cocktail business is in its core Mid-Atlantic market, Calagione explained. He added that Circana data doesn’t capture a large share of its business due to the Mid-Atlantic’s large number of untracked independent retailers.
Dogfish Head’s two variety 8-packs –Tropical and Vodka – have led the canned cocktail line through summer and proven to be complementary, Calagione said. The fastest-growing standalone flavor has been its Blood Orange Mango Vodka Crush (7% ABV), which Calagione said had been a distant No. 2 to Strawberry Honeyberry Vodka Lemonade (7% ABV) until picking up steam this year.
“I could see next year the vodka Blood Orange Mango Crush be the No. 1 single SKU pack in canned cocktails for us,” he added.
Blueberry Citrus Vodka Lemon Drop (7% ABV), which was added to the vodka mixed pack this year, has been so well-received that it’s a candidate for a standalone pack in the future, Calagione said.
Dogfish Head’s cocktail portfolio will wrap 2025 with a limited-release, high-ABV collaboration offering, Calagione teased. He declined to offer full details other than the product will contain “the most ingredients” of any of the brand’s canned cocktail releases.
For 2026, one to two new canned cocktail packages will hit retailers in the spring, but the volume-driving packages will remain unchanged, Calagione said.
Moving forward, Calagione said Boston Beer views Dogfish’s canned cocktails and Sun Cruiser vodka iced tea as “the primary drivers of our spirit-space cocktail portfolio for years to come.”
Dogfish Head Extends Grateful Dead Partnership Extended, Pale Ale Now No. 2 in Portfolio
Dogfish Head has extended its partnership with the Grateful Dead following the hot start for the co-branded Juicy Pale Ale (5.3% ABV), Calagione shared with Brewbound.
“We think it has the legs to do that for years to come,” Calagione said.
Calagione announced a five-year partnership between Dogfish and the Dead during the 2024 Brewbound Live business conference.
As of early September, Juicy Pale Ale is on pace to end 2025 as the No. 2 beer in Dogfish Head’s portfolio, trailing 60 Minute IPA (6% ABV). In June, Calagione told Brewbound that Juicy Pale Ale’s early sales led the company to more than double its forecasts, with more than 250,000 case equivalents (CEs) packaged at the time.
Juicy Pale Ale will eclipse 60 Minute as the company’s biggest first-year launch ever, Calagione added. However, Juicy Pale Ale has proven incremental to the company’s flagship IPA.
“One of the things that we’re proud of is that 60 Minute has not been cannibalized by the Dead beer,” he said.
Half of the beer’s business is coming from the on-premise, even as the channel has been challenged in recent years, Calagione shared.
“This beer is incredibly sticky with its taphandles,” he said. “Part of it is the really iconic Steal Your Face tap handle, but it’s just how drinkable this 5.3% ABV, Kernza-infused pale ale is. It’s been our most bulletproof new beer launch year-round, core beer that’s available on draft.”
Nevertheless, the biggest headwind to Juicy Pale Ale’s success has been an inability to get the branded taphandles produced, leading to Boston Beer’s team to buy them for 10 times the cost on eBay.
That shouldn’t be an issue going forward as Dogfish Head now has more than 2,000 tap handles in inventory, Calagione said.
Calagione promised additional news on the Grateful Dead-Dogfish Head partnership in the near future, including being a big focus for Black Friday weekend.
“It’s an important part now of our brand’s voice in concert with this amazing band that resonates as much with younger drinkers as it does with older drinkers,” he said.
Calagione believes partnerships remain a key part of Dogfish Head’s “special sauce” and create a “brand half.” Recent efforts include Engine 19 IPA (6.5% ABV), a collaboration beer with Philadelphia Flyers right wing Garnet Hathaway to raise money for first responders and their families, and Qualified Cast Ashore pilsner (5.2% ABV), a beer with lifestyle brand The Qualified Captain.
“Regardless of what scale they are, that helps us stand out in this universe with 10,000 brand voices,” he said.