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Speakers and PanelistsSam
Calagione
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The Italian word for chutzpah is audacia but it might as well be Sam Calagione.—Forbes Magazine
When Sam Calagione opened Dogfish Head in 1995 it was the smallest commercial brewery in America making 10 gallons of beer at a time. Today Dogfish Head is among the fastest growing breweries in the country. Dogfish Head has focused on brewing stronger, more exotic beers since the day it opened, as the motto "Off-centered ales for off-centered people" attests to. Dogfish Head has grown into a 100 person company with a restaurant/brewery/distillery at the original site in Rehoboth and a 103,000 sqare foot, 240,000 barrel capacity regional brewery in Milton, Delaware. In the last year alone Sam Calagione and Dogfish Head have been featured in Rolling Stone, Men's Journal, Real Simple, Playboy, the New York Times, Bon Appetit, the History Channel, the Wall Street Journal, Every Day with Rachel Ray, and Reno 911 to name a few media outlets.
The company has averaged 40% annual revenue growth over the last four years on beers that average 9% alcohol and feature an average of two non-traditional ingredients.
Dogfish Head has recently entered into a licensing agreement, and the second of six DC-area Dogfish Head Alehouse's opened in September of 2007 as a result of this partnership. Sam's book, Brewing up a Business, published by Wiley, is now available in paperback. Sam's second book Extreme Brewing (Rockport November 06) is already in its second printing. A third book, "He said beer, She said wine" (DK/Penguin Spring 2008) is co-written with female sommelier Marnie Old. Sam has been named Small Business Man of the Year by the Delaware Small Business Association and was recently named Entrepreneur of the Year by Delaware Today magazine and the State Chamber of Commerce. He sits on the Board of Directors for The Brewer's Association and the Delaware Restaurant Association. In 2005 and 2006 and 2007 Dogfish Head was the only brewery in America (out of 1400) to be named to the Inc. 500 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the country. Sam runs the company with his wife Mariah and 98-ish amazing co-workers.