Sam Calaginoe launched Dogfish Head Brewery in 1995. Although the company is now one of the U.S.’s premier microbreweries, that wasn’t always the case. When the company started, it was built stepby-
step just as is the case for most entrepreneurial ventures. In fact, during its first few years of operation, Calaginoe wasn’t sure if his brewery was a year-around business. A key reason for this confusion is that the firm is based in Milton, Delaware, a town where many local businesses close during the coldest months of the year.
One tactic Calaginoe used during the winter months, in the early days of Dogfish Head Brewery’s existence, was to gain the loyalty of local businesses and their customers. He approached this the oldfashioned way. He printed up fliers advertising his company’s off-season discounts with coupons that could be redeemed at the brewpub. To display the coupons, he built and painted wooden oversized holders that were hand stamped with the Dogfish Head logo. He then took the wooden holders around to local businesses that he felt had a clientele that overlapped with his. These places included local clothing, music, book, and health food stores. He made appointments in advance with the owners of the businesses to make sure he’d get to see them face to face. He then asked them if they’d be willing to place his wooden holders on their checkout counters. He also made each of the owners laminated cards entitling them to 20 percent off anything they ate, drank, or bought at Dogfish Head, which was the restaurant and shop attached to the brewery. The owners of the businesses Calaginoe visited all agreed to his proposals. The obvious advantage of these agreements to Dogfish Head Brewery was the additional traffic that the coupons brought into the brewery. The less obvious, however, and perhaps the most significant advantage, was that the store owners used their 20 percent off cards to eat and buy things at the brewery. The business owners would see Calaginoe busing tables and working hard. Calaginoe would also take time to speak to the store owners when he saw them, and they’d exchange tips about how to stay busy during the slow months. This initiative cemented many relationships between Calaginoe and fellow businesspeople in what was their local community.
These relationships no doubt paid dividends during Dogfish Head Brewery’s early growth years.
Today, Dogfish Brewery produces 145,000 barrels of beer annually. The firm grew nearly 400 percent between 2003 and 2006, its most rapid growth years. It has also received an unusual amount of attention. As examples of this, the firm was featured prominently in the documentary Beer Wars and is the subject of the Discovery Channel series Beer Masters, which premiered Sunday, November 21, 2010. The brewery takes its name from Dogfish Head, Maine, where Calaginoe spent summers as a child.

Questions for Critical Thinking
1. Do you think the same type of initiative, making wooden holders with fliers and coupons, and asking store owners to display them on their checkout stands, would work today? Explain your answer.
2. If you had to guess, without looking, if Dogfish Head Brewery is an active user of Twitter and Facebook, what would your guess be? Explain your thought process. Now look.
3. How can establishing relationships with other business owners help a firm spur and sustain its own growth?
4. In 2005, Sam Calaginoe wrote a book titled Brewing Up Business about the growth and success of Dogfish Head Brewery. In what ways can writing a book help the founder of a business accelerate the sales of his or her business? In recent years, Dogfish Head Brewery has also been the subject of a documentary (Beer Masters) and is now the subject of a Discovery Channel series (Beer Wars). What are the pluses and minuses of engaging in these types of initiatives?