When Burley Oak Brewing Company founder Bryan Brushmiller moved from home brewing in his garage to a commercial operation in Berlin, he turned to Dogfish Head owner Sam Calagione for help and advice.
Four years later, the two breweries released their first official collaboration at a daylong celebration in Berlin, Jan. 2. They began working on the beer last month.
“Sam and I have been friends from the beginning. He always kind of helped me out,” Brushmiller said. “I reached out to him and said, ‘Hey, let’s make a beer together’ and we decided to go uber-local.”
The “uber-local” recipe included beach plums and wheat from Delaware, and rye grown by Brushmiller himself. They added a lactic acid bacterium for tartness and the result was a sour rye stout dubbed “Pants are Cumbersome.”
One of the largest craft breweries in the world, Dogfish Head made a name for itself by using both bold flavors – and off-center names – in its beers.
“Sam came up with the name, and as soon as he proposed it to me I loved it,” Brushmiller said. “It’s very Dogfish and we were all wearing shorts around here anyway.”
In honor of the new beer, Burley threw a “No Pants Party,” drawing hundreds of people to the small brewery on Old Ocean City Boulevard in Berlin.
During the event, Brushmiller was able to sample his work for the first time after carbonation and declared it a “wonderful beer” with the sweetness of the plums balancing out the sour notes.
For Brushmiller, the event was a chance to celebrate independent breweries, as well as to sample a new, limited-release concoction.
“We’re really excited to showcase indie craft beer, from one end of the spectrum to the other,” he said. “You have Sam and Dogfish – one of the largest craft breweries in America, he’s independently owned. He’s turned down offers from corporations like Anheuser-Busch several times – to me on this end of the spectrum, where we’re super-small. The one thing that unites us is we’re both independent, family-owned breweries.”
Despite Dogfish’s size and stature in the marketplace, Brushmiller said he still considers the Milton, Del.-based company a “local” brewery.
“I feel like Dogfish is the epitome of local. They’re just a larger local business,” he said. “What they do for the craft beer industry is amazing in and of itself. They’ve spearheaded the effort to really push craft beer [into the mainstream] and they’ve really propelled the notion of independent craft beer more than anybody I’ve seen.
“You’re going to see that in the coming months, where independent craft beer is going to be the new buzzword,” Brushmiller added. “You may have local, and you may have craft beer, but they may be owned by a multinational conglomeration. That’s something that distinguishes us from everybody else, and the same goes for Dogfish.”
Four years later, the two breweries released their first official collaboration at a daylong celebration in Berlin, Jan. 2. They began working on the beer last month.
“Sam and I have been friends from the beginning. He always kind of helped me out,” Brushmiller said. “I reached out to him and said, ‘Hey, let’s make a beer together’ and we decided to go uber-local.”
The “uber-local” recipe included beach plums and wheat from Delaware, and rye grown by Brushmiller himself. They added a lactic acid bacterium for tartness and the result was a sour rye stout dubbed “Pants are Cumbersome.”
One of the largest craft breweries in the world, Dogfish Head made a name for itself by using both bold flavors – and off-center names – in its beers.
“Sam came up with the name, and as soon as he proposed it to me I loved it,” Brushmiller said. “It’s very Dogfish and we were all wearing shorts around here anyway.”
In honor of the new beer, Burley threw a “No Pants Party,” drawing hundreds of people to the small brewery on Old Ocean City Boulevard in Berlin.
During the event, Brushmiller was able to sample his work for the first time after carbonation and declared it a “wonderful beer” with the sweetness of the plums balancing out the sour notes.
For Brushmiller, the event was a chance to celebrate independent breweries, as well as to sample a new, limited-release concoction.
“We’re really excited to showcase indie craft beer, from one end of the spectrum to the other,” he said. “You have Sam and Dogfish – one of the largest craft breweries in America, he’s independently owned. He’s turned down offers from corporations like Anheuser-Busch several times – to me on this end of the spectrum, where we’re super-small. The one thing that unites us is we’re both independent, family-owned breweries.”
Despite Dogfish’s size and stature in the marketplace, Brushmiller said he still considers the Milton, Del.-based company a “local” brewery.
“I feel like Dogfish is the epitome of local. They’re just a larger local business,” he said. “What they do for the craft beer industry is amazing in and of itself. They’ve spearheaded the effort to really push craft beer [into the mainstream] and they’ve really propelled the notion of independent craft beer more than anybody I’ve seen.
“You’re going to see that in the coming months, where independent craft beer is going to be the new buzzword,” Brushmiller added. “You may have local, and you may have craft beer, but they may be owned by a multinational conglomeration. That’s something that distinguishes us from everybody else, and the same goes for Dogfish.”