Sam Calagione, founder and president of Dogfish Head and star of Brew Masters, lends his support to Raise Your Pints, a grassroots effort to raise the 5% ABW beer limit in Mississippi.
The 5% limit excludes about a third of the world’s beer styles, which means Mississippi beer drinkers don’t have many options when it comes to really good beer.
Thanks to Tori T. for sharing her bottle of Dogfish Head‘s limited-release Squall IPA with us last night. It is a fantastic Imperial IPA (ABV 9%), dry-hopped with Palisade, Amarillo, Simcoe, Cascade, CTZ and Willamette hops.
More on the beer from Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione in the video below.
Good karma
About a month ago I was at Joe’s Wines & Liquor checking out the beer aisle when I struck up a conversation with their beer rep, Will Miner, from Southwestern Distributing. We talked for a while about various beers we had tried recently, and he asked if I had tried Bitches Brew from Dogfish Head. (You may have heard about Bitches Brew in Sunday’s premier episode of Brew Masters on Discovery.)
I told him, sadly, I hadn’t (as I mentioned in a previous review). At that point, he told me they had just found a stray case in the warehouse, and he would call them and have it sent over. I was psyched and immediately texted Grant and Mike to tell them we would soon have a new beer to sample.
Well, it turned out that there was no case in the warehouse, or if there was, it disappeared.
Bummer. But, oh well. It was cool of him to try and hook me up either way. The FuzzyBrew gang was told of the mix-up, and we just chalked it up as a loss.
About a week later, I get this picture of Grant texted to me late night from Mike.
Bad karma
Remember, my instinct when I thought I scored a bottle of this beer was to share and set up a tasting session.
Oh, if they only knew the beer gods were watching.
So Saturday afternoon, I stopped in at Joe’s to get my Beers of the Month, and they hand me a brown bag with “do not charge” written on it. Inside was my own bottle of Bitches Brew!
It turns out that Will had taken a bottle from his personal stash because he felt bad about the confusion.
Now that is a move by someone who knows the beer gods are watching.
Will Miner, you are the man. Thanks again.
Dogfish Head Brewery founder Sam Calagione hits the road in a couple weeks with a new show on Discovery Channel exploring the world of beer. Brew Masters debuts on Sunday, Nov. 21 at 9 p.m. Central.
From the press release:
BREW MASTERS follows Sam and his partners in suds as they travel the country and the world sourcing exotic ingredients and discovering ancient techniques to produce beers of astounding originality … Sam sets out to recreate ancient ales that have been discovered at sites around the world from Egypt to Peru. He travels to Rome to research old world Italian beers as inspiration for a new site in New York with Mario Batali. A visit to New Zealand introduces the idea of making the first tomato based beer. And back home, Sam is tasked to come up with a commemorative beer called Bitches Brew to celebrate the 40th anniversary release of Miles Davis famous recording.
It’s a beer-tasting road trip! I watched Sam in the thought-provoking Beer Wars, and he’s an entertaining guy. Watch the preview here. I’ll definitely be setting the TiVo.
Sure wish I could get my hands on a Bitches Brew though.
