Sunday, April 22, 2007

Brewing Up a Business: Adventures in Entrepreneurship from the Founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, by Sam Calagione

Brewing Up a Business: Adventures in Entrepreneurship from the Founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, by Sam Calagione

The story of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery is fascinating. It is part corporate history, part entrepreneurial manual, and part beer odyssey. Before he was 25, Sam Calagione created several beer recipes and opened a brewpub, convincing the state of Delaware to change their laws along the way. The book is pretty honest, talking of failures as well as successes; the fact that a mere 12 years later I can buy the beer over 1,500 miles away tells you that happily the successes are much more frequent. Calagione describes the lessons he learned along the way as well, covering marketing, selling, leadership, management, and pretty much everything else an entrepreneur needs to know. I picked it up because I’m interested in brewing, but found it much more inspiring than I’d ever expected. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in starting a business—or anyone interested in beer!

The book was so good I decided to try some of the product Dogfish Head creates. My local supermarket has a pretty good beer selection and I was able to pick up both Raison D’Être and 90 Minute Imperial IPA. The Dogfish motto is “Off-centered beers for off-centered people;” the two types I tried certainly live up to this unique goal. Raison D’Être had a complicated flavor that I liked quite a bit, and the 90 Minute IPA may be my new favorite beer! I’ll be on the lookout for more brews from Dogfish Head, and hope to visit Delaware at some point in the not-so-far future.

First Sentence:
My dad backed our red pickup truck beneath the second-story window of my dormitory bedroom.

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