Sam and Mariah Calagione, the dynamic duo behind Dogfish Head Brewery, didn’t just stumble into the beer business – they cannonballed into it, making waves that continue to ripple through the craft beer world. Their story is one of passion, creativity, and a willingness to embrace the weird and wonderful in pursuit of the perfect pint. It’s a tale that is equal parts frothy fun and serious dedication to the craft. When they joined forces with the significantly larger Boston Beer Company five years ago, it was a merger, not a sale. And the Calagiones certainly didn’t cash out and ride into the sunset. In fact, they’ve been busier than ever on the job.
The Merger Heard ‘Round the Beer World
In 2019, Dogfish Head announced it was merging with Boston Beer Company, the maker of Sam Adams. While some craft beer purists might have raised an eyebrow, Sam and Mariah saw the merger as a way to continue Dogfish Head’s growth without compromising their vision. “We’re still the same off-centered brewery we’ve always been,” Sam assured fans. “But now we have the resources to do even more crazy stuff.”
Mariah echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that the merger would allow Dogfish Head to stay true to its roots while reaching an even wider audience.
The cash and stock transaction was valued at around $300 million – and the Calagiones took most of what they received in stock. The growth of the brand has continued after the merger. So has the work.
“I work more hours per week now than I did before the merger,” Sam said. Mariah had plans to become a part-time worker under the Boston Beer Company banner but wound up expanding her work with Dogfish Head’s Beer & Benevolence Program, which works with Delaware nonprofit, arts and environmental groups, across the Boston Beer platform as well.
“I never did go part time,” Mariah said.
The Genesis of Dogfish Head
Dogfish Head’s ascension is the stuff of Delaware legend. As the story goes, Dogfish Head began not in the hallowed halls of a brewing academy, but rather in a New York City apartment where Sam was brewing beer with a soup kettle and a few friends. After dabbling in homebrewing during college, Sam caught the brewing bug – big time. Inspired by his early experiments and the exciting flavors he discovered, Sam decided to take the plunge and open his own brewery. And thus, Dogfish Head Brewery was born in 1995, in a basement of its brewpub on Rehoboth Avenue. While Sam was busy concocting bold brews, Mariah was making sure the brewery didn’t go belly up. The company grew and became – and remains – the biggest and best craft brewery in the state, which now hosts nearly three dozen competitors. They eventually bought 55 acres in Milton, where their brewery now sits, and is large and active enough to hold daily tours of the operations there.
Dogfish Head has always been a family affair. Sam and Mariah’s kids (son Sam, and daughter, Grier) have grown up around the brewery, and the Calagiones have made it a point to maintain a work-life balance, even as the business boomed. “We’re a family first,” Mariah often says, “and that’s reflected in how we’ve run our company.”
This family-oriented approach extends to the brewery’s employees, who are treated as an extension of the Calagione clan. Sam and Mariah have fostered a workplace culture that values creativity, collaboration, and, most importantly, fun.
The merger offered the brand a still larger perch. The combined companies maintained their previous separate statuses as independent craft breweries, and the partnership allowed for better competition against global beer conglomerates that are 50 to 100 times the size of Boston Beer, even though the new company still produces less than 3% of the beer manufactured in the U.S. In addition to the Dogfish Head brands, Boston Beer makes the iconic Sam Adams beer, Angry Orchard hard cider, Truly Hard Seltzer and Twisted Tea.
“It’s great to be able to introduce more people to coastal Delaware.”
Redefining Busy
While work life for the Calagiones is every bit as busy as it’s ever been, the tasks are different since the merger. Dogfish Head’s odd, funky, off-centered IPAs are what put them on the map. Sam was the mad scientist who invented them and created the company’s independent and unique reputation that was the launching pad for the national stage. The merger has allowed Sam to return to more of that sort of work.
“I get to focus on more recipes,” he said, noting that earlier this summer he invited brewers from throughout the company to his vacation home in Maine that has a small experimental brewery to concoct new beers. The company’s marketing leaders came later in the summer to try the potential new products.
Because Boston Beer was much larger than Dogfish Head, it had a larger infrastructure of administrative services that has been liberating for the Calagiones. Sam has been freed up to work on storytelling, marketing, event design and concept work for the company, while Mariah focuses on the company’s philanthropic arm. Sam, for example, spent part of the summer doing events in New Jersey and New York City.
“The work is still as intense and as fun as when we started, but it’s now more diverse,” Sam said. “Even though we had multiple hospitality concepts – restaurants, beer, hotels, distilleries, the brewery – for 25 years we were hyper-focused on our one Dogfish brand. Now we get to experience the fun and manic energy of thinking about Sam Adams one day, Dogfish the next day and Angry Orchard the next day. We have five national brands to focus on.”
Mariah and Sam ran the small, private Dogfish Head board. Sam is on the public Boston Beer Company board of directors, which he says is a much different and more exciting challenge.
As the merger happened, Mariah focused on integrating the cultures of the two companies, making sure the people at Dogfish Head knew what their new roles were going to be and what opportunities existed at the new, larger company. Prior to the merger, she had led Dogfish Head’s marketing efforts, with a heavy focus on digital and social media, as well as running the Beer & Benevolence Program. Before she could go part-time at Boston Beer Company, the leadership there asked her to expand that work and create a new social impact team that would link the charity causes, marketing programs, and community engagement and philanthropy work at all locations companywide.
“I now lead the social impact team that works with employees at our Milton, Boston, Pennsylvania and Ohio locations,” Mariah said. “We do volunteer days in those communities and have other programs that support local aspiring entrepreneurs to start food and beverage businesses.”
Her role with the social impact teams allows her to work with Boston Beer’s sustainability leader and inclusion leader. Mariah also still has advisory roles with Boston Beer’s marketing and digital team. And she’s working with the archive team to integrate the nearly three decades of Dogfish Head history into the record of Boston Beer Company, which turns 40 this year.
“The advising roles are fun, because it’s not always the same-old, same-old every day,” Mariah said. “And the really tactical stuff involved with running the Beer & Benevolence Program for Dogfish Head in Delaware had been something I’ve always enjoyed because we really connect with hundreds of nonprofits across the state.”
Both are happy to have been able to free themselves from payroll and other functions of running a smaller company. “I stink at math, and I looked forward to not having to be so focused on the financial part of running the company,” Sam said.
Mariah is happy to no longer have to clean the brewery bathrooms and is no longer the walking tour guide. “Payroll was always stressful,” she said. “Both times I was pregnant I was worried I would go into labor on a payroll day, because no one else in our company knew how to do it. Luckily, I avoided that both times. And no one has to count on me for their paycheck now.”
Mariah said she and Sam were never alone in carrying the weight of the company on their shoulders before the merger, because of their stellar Dogfish leadership team. However, during the tough times, such as when the banks came calling, they were the ones who had to answer the phone. To that end, the merger has been a relief.
“The new organization has lots of people with great expertise,” she said. “We still carry some of the weight, particularly with our co-workers here in Delaware where we have more of a personal connection with them, but, overall, it’s a load off our shoulders to be part of a larger group.”
Things could have been difficult had the merger not taken place before COVID. Boston Beer Company continued to pay their employees after its 11 hospitality properties had to close. “It was very comforting to have that sense of being in a good organization that takes care of their people,” Mariah said.
Cheers to the Future
Sam is excited about diversifying the company, which he always felt was a beyond-beer entity. That’s more important now than ever, as some craft breweries have closed in Delaware and nationally, and the industry has to contend with products such liquor-based hard seltzers and legal marijuana.
Dogfish Head got into craft distilling more than 20 years ago and is now making gin, rum and vodka, and is helping to draft legislation in Delaware that would allow the practice to be legal for all entrepreneurs.
“As we saw craft beer slowing down, one of the big draws and the biggest driver of the merger was to create an opportunity for our approximately 400 workers at Dogfish to have an opportunity that was doing stuff not just in beer and distilling, but in the tea space, in the seltzer space, in the cider space,” Sam said. “It’s been really rewarding to watch different legacy Dogfish co-workers grow into different roles in this much bigger, almost 3,000-person organizational chart.”
Sam considers the current moment in time in the adult beverage universe to be particularly interesting, because in its long history, it’s never fragmented as much as it has in the last 10 years. For centuries, there was only beer, wine and distilled spirits. Now there are seltzers, cider and THC beverages. To that end, Boston Beer has started a THC beverage company in Canada to test the waters because of the likely inevitability that such products will one day be legal in the U.S.
“That might be a space we play in, and we’re now making non-alcoholic beers because, with the wellness movement, some people are drinking less or choosing to not drink at all,” Sam said. Younger people have an expectation of diversity and the opportunity to try new things as well. “The future holds less reliance of having just a few flagship products. Diversifying our portfolio will be important to synchronize with that reality.”
The Beer & Benevolence Program is so close to Mariah’s heart because she grew up in Milford and Lewes. Dogfish Head has raised more than $1,000,000 for the local chapter of The Nature Conservancy and recently held a fundraiser for several groups working to connect all the coastal Delaware bike trails. “We’re really excited about that because we have a beer-themed hotel right on the harbor in Lewes,” she said. “We have electric and conventional bikes that people can use at our hotel, get out into the beauty of coastal Delaware and get more congestion off of Del. 1.”
Mariah loves getting deeply involved in these local passion projects. “There’s so much great karma in giving back to the community that gave you sustenance to build a brand in a place that one would not expect a nationally known beverage company to come from. We count our blessings for that opportunity and try to give back for having had that opportunity every day.”
She didn’t plan to return to coastal Delaware as a young adult but obviously is glad she did. She particularly enjoys when co-workers in her company from across the country come to visit as part of their jobs for work events and are amazed when they arrive at a beautiful destination vacation place.
“They love it here and wind up bringing their entire teams here to host meetings,” Mariah said. “It’s great to be able to introduce more people to coastal Delaware.”
“I always tell my children they’re not allowed to complain about traffic or visitors, because that’s what makes this area awesome and helped it to evolve,” she adds. “It’s gotten more crowded, but it’s also gotten a lot richer in terms of cultural experiences. We have film and jazz festivals, an independent film theater and coastal concerts, things that didn’t used to exist here.”
The Legacy lives on
As Dogfish Head approaches its 30th anniversary, Sam and Mariah show no signs of slowing down. Their passion for brewing and their commitment to doing things differently have made them icons in the craft beer world. And while the industry has changed dramatically since they first opened their doors, one thing remains the same: For Sam and Mariah, it’s not just about the beer – it’s about the community they’ve built, the relationships they’ve formed, and the impact they’ve made.
One of Dogfish’s core values is the concept that “happy customers make us happy,” which, to Sam and Mariah, includes the workforce they consider as inner-ring customers.
“We may be the faces of the Dogfish brand, the mom and pop of a mom-and-pop company, but we know there are hundreds of people who have contributed to the success of the company for nearly 30 years by joining us in our journey in coastal Delaware,” Sam said. “We’re humbled and proud of that.”
Despite the merger with a large national company, Mariah likes to remind Delaware customers who have been with the company since Day 1 to revisit their locales.
“We’re still operating the brewpub in Rehoboth and the restaurant is next door,” she said. “I have so many friends who have never been on a brewery tour because, when you live here, you don’t necessarily do things that are in your backyard. We’d love to have folks come in as they have in the past, or, if they haven’t been here in a while, to stop by and see what’s new.”
