Dogfish Head – It’s Understandable

Almost two weeks ago, Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione shared some good and bad news with the loyal Dogfish Head drinkers of the land.  The Full Pint’s Dan responds to Sam’s Blog entitled “Thanks for Understanding” with a glass half full perspective.

The Breakdown

Sam of Dogfish wrote a 696 word blog outlining the following:

• Dogfish Head has blown up due to the rise in popularity in their brand.
• Dogfish Head has blown up due to the rise in popularity in Craft Beer overall.
• Dogfish Head is having problems meeting their demand even in their local markets. DFH acknowledges frustration from distributors.
• Dogfish Head has notified Canada and UK that their already limited amount of export is on hold for 2011.
• Dogfish Head wants to grow at a slow and steady pace, rather than expanding at the rate of apparent demand, because doing so would take the fun out of being Dogfish Head as well as pose quality challenges.
• Dogfish Head is pulling out of four US markets, Tennessee, Indiana, Wisconsin and Rhode Island.

The Reaction

Understandably, die hard fans in the UK, Canada in the four states were anywhere from sad all the way to angry .  I remember how happy I was when DFH came back to California two years ago. Reading the blog comments, there was a lot of venom, and it seemed people were taking this personally.  While Dogfish is “having fun”, they are ultimately running a business.  It wouldn’t make for a good blog piece if Sam rattled off a half a dozen reasons why say Tennessee or Rhode Island was chosen as markets to pull out of. There are most likely calculated, good reasons why the four US markets were chosen. Dogfish needed to make adjustments, and they did.

My Response

From Dogfish’s perspective, this is smart business.  Customer service wise, they can now accommodate some of their other markets as far as fulfilling orders and demand. At the rate they are growing, eventually the long line of pissed off distributor will get even bigger. I would imagine further measures might have to be taken, and we will likely see them unfold this year. Look for more tanks to be added, and possibly more shifts on the map. From a quality control standpoint, it seems Dogfish’s worst nightmare would be to rush trying to make 100x the amount of one of their Off-Centered Ales in a short amount of time. If you tuned into Brew Masters, you will see how DFH struggled when trying to increase their yield on some of the high alcohol releases.  That’s not fun for them, and it’s not fun as a fan, watching thousands of barrels going down the drain because their small batch recipes aren’t scaling up properly. Trust me when I say, Dogfish Head wants you to enjoy this beer, but only if it’s up to their standards.

From The fan’s perspective, I think it should be no big deal.  Don’t get me wrong, Dogfish makes one of a kind, tasty craft beer, but it’s not the end of good beer as we know it.  With the meteoric rise of craft beer, you should be able to get some tasty craft beer made closer to home, which could have the benefit of being fresher.  Expand your comfort zone, and see if someone else makes a double IPA you like, look for a clone recipe of 60 or 90 Minute IPA and start home brewing, don’t get me wrong, you deserve a good beer fix.  When Dogfish is ready, they will be back. In the meantime, if you must get your DFH fix, look for an online retailer, after doing a Google search, I found a few online retailers selling DFH. As the fan, you have to know that a lot of negativity can stem from DFH trying to accommodate too many people then they can handle.  I spoke to some distributors back in NJ shortly after Brew Masters aired, and they were cursing Sam, literally, because they are being hammered by their accounts for DFH that just wasn’t available.  The online beer geek community has been taking jabs at World Wide Stout and 120 Minute IPA for the past two years, citing inconsistencies from previous batches.  It’s good Dogfish realizes they need to reign it in, and that it’s impossible to please everybody.

From the retailers perspective, this should be a relief.  Turning away customers because you can’t sell Dogfish is frustrating, losing a customer to another retailer, because they did some unethical palm greasing to get Dogfish Head is even more frustrating.  Once the warehouses run dry in the markets DFH pulled out of, it will be a semi-even playing field again for gaining customer loyalty.  There will also be a void in the craft beer section of the coolers. This leaves a spot open for some other tasty brands to hop on the shelf.  There is enough room in the Craft Beer industry for another cult like craft brewery like Dogfish Head or Stone, mark my words, it will happen.

Questions

Armchair quarter back question:  What would you do if you were in charge of Dog Fish Head in regards to the demand issue?

Do you know what might be the political reasons for pulling out of the 4 states they pulled out of?

How upset would you be if they left your state?

Place your answers in the comment section below.