Brewing 12-gallon batches allowed Dogfish Head to live-test with customers
Sam Calagione · Dogfish Head Craft Brewery: Sam and Mariah Calagione · Aug 1, 2022 · at 38:38
Dogfish Head co-founder Sam Calagione explains how starting with improvised small equipment enabled rapid recipe experimentation with restaurant patrons in 1995.
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“The fact that we couldn't afford a full-scale, you know, commercial brewing system, and Had to start with tiny little pots and pans, you know, making 12 gallons of beer in the corner of our restaurant. It was actually a blessing in disguise, because I would brew two or three batches per day, and let's say I was brewing raison d'etre, Belgian brown eel, with raisins and beet sugars. In the three brews that day, I would tweak one variable in that recipe three times, and that was our first, like, de facto focus group, so I would ask the customers who cared enough to visit this Crazy little brewery. Hey, did you like the batch that had more raisins, less raisins? And we kind of developed the recipes in concert with our original fans, and that's kind of how our brand grew.”
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