'The Outer Edges Of What Beer Can Be'

I drank my first pint of Dogfish Head in 1996 shortly after Sam Calagione opened the microbrewery on the main drag in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware in 1996. It was an India Pale Ale, an amber-colored ale of medium intensity and sublime hoppyness that is my personal litmus test for how good a brewery is, the logic being that if a brewer can't make a decent IPA, he probably can't make a decent anything else.

I found the original Dogfish Head IPA to be so-so, but since then have come to appreciate Calagione's eclectic range of brews, some left untasted because they are much too potent or quirky or both for my palate.

Calagione (photo, right) was a clever self promoter from the start, but also learned to brewed damned good beers and ales. Plenty of people agree because in 13 years Dogfish Head has not only survived a massive microbrewery shakeout, but has shot to number 38 among the 1,500 or so microbreweries, and is the leader in brews with at least 10 percent alcohol content. (Buttwiper, by contrast, has 4 percent alcohol.)

Now Dogfish Head has gotten a boost that will no doubt turn Calagione's peers green with envy -- a book-length New Yorker feature article. Even if you don't enjoy beer, it is a great read from an entrepreneurial perspective.