To Celebrate 30 Years, Dogfish Head Turns Back Time with New Cherry Pale Ale, An Off-Centered Reconstruction of Founder’s First-Ever Homebrewed Beer
MILTON, Del., July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In honor of its 30th anniversary, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery unveils an off-centered reconstruction of Founder Sam Calagione’s first-ever homebrew, Cherry Pale Ale. A liquid time capsule transporting drinkers back to the mid-90s, this limited-edition beer is brewed with Delaware wheat, Maine barley, Cascade hops and boatloads of beautiful cherries for an easy-drinking, summertime sipper with balanced sweet and tart notes of stone fruit.
Want to try the beer that started it all?Beginning this Friday, July 18, at noon EST, Dogfish Head’s Cherry Pale Ale will be available for purchase within a special 30th birthday box exclusively at www.givethembeer.com. Dogfish Head’s Cherry Pale Ale 30th birthday box includes a 6pk/12oz cans of Cherry Pale Ale alongside a selection of 90s-inspired Dogfish Head merchandise – a magnet, sticker pack, mini pennant flag and a special Post Tape digital cassette. Priced at just $30 each, including shipping, while supplies last.
“I first brewed Cherry Pale Ale back in 1993, while I was writing the business plan for Dogfish Head,” said Sam Calagione, Dogfish Head Brewer & Founder. “After serving it to my roommates and friends at a party in our small New York City apartment, I knew – and proclaimed to everyone – that brewing beer was what I wanted to do with my life. Now, in honor of Dogfish Head’s 30th birthday, I couldn’t be more excited to share my virgin brew with drinkers near and far!”
To make this release of Cherry Pale Ale as authentic as possible, every detail was thoughtfully inspired by Dogfish Head’s history and Calagione’s first time homebrewing. The beer’s recipe includes Delaware wheat and Maine barley, offering loving nods to the brand’s bistate roots – Delaware, where the brand was founded and is still rooted today, and Maine, the state housing the jut of land after which Dogfish Head was named. The label artwork, which features a hand-painted cherry, is a recreation of the artwork that adorned Calagione’s original homebrew. And to keep things true-to-history, it was created the same way as the original, by Calagione, using a hand-carved potato stamp and finely bristled paint brush.
“Everything about this release holds a special place in my heart, but one of my favorite details has to be the infamous ‘carpet coasters,’” said Calagione. “You’re probably thinking, ‘carpet coasters’ … what the f*ck? Well, when I first brewed Cherry Pale Ale, after heating the bottles in the oven to sanitize them, I placed them on the carpet to cool. Little did I know the heat would melt the carpet to the bottles requiring me to cut a ‘coaster’ around each bottle. Hey, necessity is the mother of invention … right? So that’s why every can of Cherry Pale Ale is lovingly affixed with a hand-crafted carpet coaster of its own.”
While Dogfish Head’s Cherry Pale Ale 30th birthday box will only be available for purchase online, drinkers in Delaware can pick up a 6pk/12oz cans of Cherry Pale Ale, ‘carpet coasters’ and all, at Dogfish Head’s Milton brewery. Priced at $16 per 6pk/12oz cans. Limited to one 6pk per person.
Rooted in coastal Delaware, Dogfish Head opened its doors as the first brewpub in the First State – and one of the smallest commercial breweries in America – in June of 1995. Now, 30 years later, Dogfish Head is one of the largest, most well-known craft breweries in the country, with a production brewery, production distillery and tasting room in Milton; a beer-themed, canal-front hotel in Lewes; and two delectable restaurants in Rehoboth. And while many things have changed over the past three decades, the brewery’s raison d’etre has not; Dogfish Head remains committed to providing “off-centered goodness for off-centered people,” in the forms of beers, spirits, culinary adventures and more.
For more about Dogfish Head and its 30-year history, please visit www.dogfish.com.
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DOGFISH HEAD CRAFT BREWERY:
With quality, creativity and non-conformity at its core, Dogfish Head has been committed to brewing unique beers with high-caliber culinary ingredients outside the Reinheitsgebot since the day it opened 30 years ago. Dedicated to exploring goodness of all kinds, Dogfish Head later expanded its beverage artistry beyond just craft beer to produce award-winning portfolios of full-proof spirits – whiskeys, gins, vodkas, rums and more – and spirits-based, ready-to-drink canned cocktails. A Boston Beer Company brand and proud supporter of the Independent Craft Brewing Seal, Dogfish Head is a Delaware-based entity consisting of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, a production brewery and tasting room; Dogfish Head Distilling Co., a production distillery; Brewings & Eats, a brewpub and live music venue; Chesapeake & Maine, a seafood and cocktail spot; and the Dogfish INN, a beer-themed, canal-front hotel. For more about Dogfish Head, please visit www.dogfish.com or follow the brand on social media.
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CONTACT: Megan BaylesDogfish Head Craft Brewery3024993149megan.bayles@dogfish.com
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