Good Read on a Better Brew

A friend of mine gave me a great article from the New Yorker on beer called A Better Brew. It was about Dogfish Head Brewing, their founder Sam Calagione, and extreme beers. But it was more than that… it was an extremely well written story that really gives you a good picture of Dogfish Head and what they are about. I highly suggest taking the time to read the full article. Here is one of the ways the author, Calvin Trillin, discovered what Sam Calagione believes about extreme beer,

Extreme beer is a return to normality, too, Calagione believes. It’s just the normality of a thousand years ago, or several thousand, rather than a hundred. If the Reinheitsgebot is still the touchstone for most American brewers, Calagione’s is a bronze bowl from King Midas’ tomb.

One of the things I found most interesting was the lengths Dogfish Head would go through just to try something different. For example, they brewed with heated rocks because when sahti was first brewed in the middle ages they used wooden kettles; so hot rocks was the method of choice.

The online New Yorker also has an audio discussion about the article with additional insight. Again, this is some high quality stuff (not like you would find on just some beer blog). It is also worth a listen.