No farms No beer Part 2: Bringing it all together

Case study: Dogfish head brewery

This is part 2 of the "No Farms No Beer" post, where I expand on the process of making beer and add a practical case study. Below is the story of the Dogfish Head Craft Brewery.


A true Delaware tradition is Dogfish head brewery. Started in 1995, Dogfish Head has grown to the 11th largest microbrewery in the US, producing nearly 186,000 barrels of beer per year. The brewery is located in the town of Milton, Delaware. The company employs over 100 employees in the brewery alone. While not a farm, they support agriculture by the importation of ag products, such as barley, and other grains, hops, and even some specialty timber for certain brews as we will see.

Dogfish head beer is distributed to 27 states in the US, with over 20 styles to choose from. Their two most popular styles are the 60 minute and the 90 minute India Pale Ale. These two have hops added continuously, versus at the beginning or the end of brewing, which gives both ales a complex aroma and flavor profile. These are the top two beers produced and distributed, and are considered the flagship beers for the company. The amount of time brewed is proportional to the amount of alcohol content, so for the 60 minute, the brew contains about 6% Alcohol by volume (ABV), and the 90 minute, about 9% ABV. Once you get to the 120 minute brew, you're in sipping territory, not one to be chugged at nearly 15 to 20% ABV.


Another style is their seasonal brews including tweason'ale which is created brewing sorghum (another type of small grain) instead of barley, the result: a gluten free beer. Not a bad brew, though it tastes more like a hard cider than an actual traditional lager or ale. The name comes from the time it's available, between the seasons, starting in late January, and being released between each season. This is a great alternative for those with dietary restrictions, or for those that simply want something different.

The one brew that stands out is their "Palo santo marron" which is brewed in a custom made wooden browning vessel, which can hold 10,000 gallons of wort. The wood is from the tiny nation of Paraguay, and the tree's wood is so dense, it's supposedly the densest wood in the world. When the Dogfish Head staff were touring the nation, rumor has it, the Paraguayan guide pulled out a revolver and shot at the palo santo tree, sending the bullet into a ricochet, due to the tree's dense trunk.  The browning cask is expected to last about 25 years, and the color within the wood looks like something that should be on a rich man's floor, rather than holding beer. The brew is a brown ale, though it looks and tastes like a very dark stout, and the flavor is extremely complex, and difficult to describe. It's almost a sensory overload of subtle flavors which wanes after each sip. 

The palo santo browning vessel, capable of holding 10,000 gallons.
The wood is so dense, that workers went through 17 diamond tipped saw blades to cut the wood during construction.
(Courtesy of yourbeernetwork.com)

When asked about their grain, it comes in from many different places, including Wisconsin, Canada and even parts of Europe. From the hops side, this is mainly grown in the Northwestern part of the country. When this is coupled with the fact that the beer is then distributed into 26 other states, it makes for a long journey for one grain of barley or one  from field, to brewery, to pub. 


So, if you'll remember in my last post, the barley is turned into mash, then is separated out to make wort. Well, at 186,000 barrels a year, this barley can be a large volume of waste. The brewers have a few options with the waste. They can pay to have this sent off to the landfill OR they can give it away to area farmers. The managers at Dogfish Head have decided on the latter, offering free waste-barley to any farmer willing and able to pick it up. The spent barley is then used to supplement the feed of area cattle and hogs. So, even if you don't drink beer, the impact of this brewery may still be felt if you consume beef or pork throughout the year.

Dogfish head offers free tours and tastings, so if you're in the area, I would recommend you take advantage of this. I mean, it's free! And when you first sip a sample of Palo Santo Marron, imagine for a minute the travels that every ingredient made. The barley had to potentially travel across the Atlantic (or at least crossed state lines) to reach the brewery, the hops most likely made a cross-country journey to arrive, and the brewing chamber, constructed of wood from another hemisphere, had to be shipped to the US and constructed on site. While this may not be the first thing that comes to mind when the sample hits your lips, it is worth noting the amount of work that went into importing and crafting that bottle of beer. Obviously, this is an extreme case, but there are similar stories with other beers of the world. It's easy to forget where the food that we grow can have so many avenues for how it ends up on our plate and in our refrigerator. 


Interactive Map by iMapBuilder

follow the journey of palo santo marron