Today: The magic craft of brewing.

Eating local is all the rage (this is a good thing), but I rarely seek out opportunities to drink local.  This, too, is probably a good thing.  I need not sample brews everywhere I go.  I wouldn’t get very far.  Nevertheless, while we were in Delaware last week, we joined our friends for a tour of the Dogfish Head Brewery and and a sampling of several of their local brews.

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Prior to our 18 hour journey to and from the First State, Nick watched Beer Wars, a documentary on craft breweries, which prominently features the folks at Dogfish Head.  I thought the movie was about people fighting over beer, and since I’m not a big drinker and I hate war, I read Glamour instead.  I am a very enlightened soul.  Short story: Nick knew what to expect.  I did not.  I wore a dress and was ridiculed by our tour guide. It matched the safety goggles we were required to wear, ergo I maintain it was appropriate attire.

The brewery itself was about a half hour’s drive from the beach house, set on a property that used to be a cannery, in Milton, Delaware.  The ride out was breathtaking.  I was immediately impressed by the giant tree house that stands in front of the brewery.  I especially liked the sign at the entrance which read, “Watch your Dogfish head.” Unfortunately, the tree house is not part of the tour.

We received four paper sharks to redeem at the post-tour tasting, our aforementioned safety goggles, and we were off.  Dogfish Head was established in 1995 with their Rehoboth Beach brewpub,  Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats.  To meet increasing demand, the brewery was opened in Milton and continues to grow.  As our tour guide told us, Dogfish’s craft beers are sold in 25+ states and three foreign countries: Canada, Mexico, and New Jersey.  Zing!

We learned a bit about the brewing process and checked out the giant hand-crafted beer vats (is that what they’re called?).  It was all quite impressive.  Following the tour, we had the opportunity to taste four of their brews from the following:

• Festina Peche (this is Kristine’s favorite)
• 60 minute IPA
• Palo Santo Marron
• My Antonia
• Namaste

I tried the Festina Peche and Namaste.  The first was a bit too tart for me, but I really liked the lemongrass and coriander of the latter.  Since I was driving, and I’m a bit of a lightweight, I stuck with the Dogfish Head Beach Beer birch beer for the rest of tasting.  No disrespect to the brew masters, but the birch beer was my favorite.  In fact, I enjoyed the sugar rush so much, I ordered a full glass at the brew pub when we headed there for dinner later that night.  Much of menu features locally sourced produce, meat and seafood and the atmosphere is relaxed and low key.

So what is a craft brewery, you might ask.  (You might not ask that, but for Pete’s sake, play along.) In order to be classified as a craft brewery (or a microbrewery, though I am not sure the two are interchangeable), the maximum amount of beer a brewery can produce annually is 15,000 barrels.  The big guns of beer (Anheuser-Busch) brew in a day, what breweries like Dogfish Head brew in a year.  For more numbers, click here.  In 2009, Boston Beer Company (our neighbors and the makers of Sam Adams) was the #1 craft brewery by sales volume.  Several other New England Breweries made the top 25.

I still have a lot to learn about local drinks, but what I have learned so far is fascinating.  And tasty.  Take Nantucket’s Cisco Brewers and their Whale’s Tale Pale Ale, for example.  Delicious, local and craft brewed!  Those friends of mine might be on to something…

Also On Tap for Today:

• Lauren shares some great tips for shoe-tieing 🙂
• Teeny, tiny heirloom tomatoes
• How cute is this state by food tote?

What’s your beverage of choice?  Have you ever toured a brewery?