Develop Your Own Home-Brewing Philosophy

Beer is a catalyst for community building. At our brewery, Dogfish Head, my wife Mariah and I have tried to show our kids that we make fun, creative, off-centred ales that connect us to awesome people such as the Grateful Dead and our co-workers. We hoped one of them might be interested in carrying on this tradition, but we didn’t want to put that weight on their shoulders.

- Pop Mech Editors

We expected our kids to get holiday jobs by the time they were 14. Our daughter, Grier, has chosen not to work at Dogfish Head, whereas Sammy started running food at our pub in 2015. After he told us he loved biology and chemistry, we arranged for him to brew a non-alcoholic birch beer at Boothbay Craft Brewery, near Dogfish Head, Maine, where I spent my summers growing up.

He apprenticed in the Dogfish brewpub’s microbiology lab in 2017 and, the next summer, asked to apprentice at our brewery. My wife and I told him that it wasn’t a budgeted position. He needed to make money. To his credit, he worked nights running food and cleaning tables, then apprenticed at our brewpub during the day. Last summer, he apprenticed at our production brewery. Believe me, it’s heartwarming to show up for a brew day and have my son help me crush the grain.

We’ve not had any discussion about ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ He’s only in second-year at Brown University. I try not to force anything, but if you go into his bedroom, he’s dogeared my home-brew books. Sitting in our kitchen for three hours and making an all-grain home brew is super cool, but it’s a means to an end. The end is spending quality time with the person you love. – Sam Calagione, as told to Joshua M Bernstein

ELEVATE YOUR HOME BREWING

Calagione is committed to unconventional flavour charges, from Icelandic kelp to China’s intensely sweet monk fruit extract. Here’s how you can apply his unique philosophy to your home brewing.

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