Interview With Sam Calagione
Those of you who live under a rock or on Mars may not be aware of my Dogfish Head obsession. Well have no fear, because I am more than happy to elaborate on it.
In many ways, I attribute my passion for craft beers to Dogfish Head. Dogfish Head is indirectly responsible for my becoming a beer writer as well as one of the main reasons I am pursuing a career in the industry today.
I fell in love with Dogfish Head four years ago while managing a restaurant in Columbus, OH. My first real “beer epiphany” was with Dogfish Head Midas Touch. Being a bigger wine geek at that point, Midas Touch completely turned my beer world upside down.
A good friend of mine gave me a copy of Sam’s “Brewing Up A Business”, which inspired me to grab the world by the horns and go after my dreams (and travel all around the country in pursuit of beer experiences). In fact, the book inspired me so much that I quit my job and moved to various corners of the country in pursuit of a beer industry career.
One of my major moves made it possible to tour the new Dogfish Head brewery in Milton and grab dinner and beers at the brewpub in Rehoboth Beach. That was one of the best days of my life.
Last year, my friend and founder of Twitter Taste Live approached me about doing a beer taste live. It was only natural that I co-host a Twitter Taste Live with Dogfish Head.
My personal way of welcoming the new year (2009) was writing a reflective post about the 3 most influential people on The Beer Wench (both blog and person) in 2008. I called the it The Wench’s Men of 2008. Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione took the third spot on the list.
My life became complete this past September when I met Sam Calagione for the first time during the Great American Beer Festival. Being that Sam is one of the most sought after beer personalities in the industry, it was virtually impossible for me to get any real face to face time with him during the largest U.S. craft beer festivals.
Now, I know what you are probably thinking. Sam is a very good looking guy — often referred to as the “Keanu Reeves” of the beer industry. But this is not the reason why I’m obsessed with Dogfish Head. I’m obsessed with Dogfish Head because I can identify so well with its brand and its story. Like Dogfish Head beers, I’m off-centered, eccentric, abnormal and extreme.
Dogfish Head was chosen by Sierra Nevada for its first ever collaboration beer — Life & Limb. And as fate would have it, they decided to host the official release party in San Francisco — a hop skip and a jump from where I currently live. Prior to the event, I contacted Mariah Calagione on Twitter requesting an opportunity to interview Sam at the dinner. She was able to set it up for me.
I made sure to fully charge my HD video camera before the dinner. What I forgot to do was turn the camera off. And unfortunately, when I arrived at the dinner my camera was dead. So I had to resort to using a FLIP camera, which was not ideal. But what can you do?
I understand that the video is long, by “internet” standards. In my opinion, although I’m not particularly interesting (or visually appealing) to watch, Sam is a great interviewee and has given me 19 minutes of compelling material.
Without further ado, I present The Wench’s Interview with Sam Calagione!
Interview With Sam Calagione from The Beer Wench on Vimeo.
Tagged as ashley routson, ashley v routson, beer dinner, Beer Wench, dogfish head, life & limb, midas touch, sam calagione, sierra nevada, the beer wench+ Categorized as Beer Events, Video Interviews
Ken Hunnemeder December 7th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Don’t you love when people have no idea you’re doing an interview and walk right in front of your camera?
marko December 7th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Great vid. Only you would throw a question about bacon in there.
uberVU - social comments December 7th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by jchristie: RT @TheBeerWench: The Wench Interviews Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head — http://bit.ly/6ZsGBB @dogfishbeer…
Twitted by beerad December 7th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
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Chipper Dave Butler December 7th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Nice catch landing a solo with Sam! You’ll need a quieter room next time so that the walk-ins won’t interrupt ya. =P Might suggest getting clip-on microphones for your next one, other than that – it went very well. Love the intro graphics. You do that yourself?
Sam is a great guy. I cornered him at the last two GABFs. He was pouring at the Dogfish Booth and was more than happy to answer questions about his beer. Being approachable really has contributed to his success.
Big Sister Julie December 8th, 2009 at 9:39 am
haha BACON! There should have been a Powerthirst question in there, too. Such as when will he create DFH Manana beer. Just sayin’.
Mutineer Magazine December 8th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Love the interview, way to go
You rock big-sis!
TwittLink - Your headlines on Twitter December 8th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
[...] Tweets about this great post on TwittLink.com [...]
Drink With The Wench » Blog Archive » Featured Beer Blogger: CARLA COMPANION December 16th, 2009 at 5:02 am
[...] lots of local and non-local brewers, I’ve met several people from Dogfish Head Brewery (including Sam Caligione) that knew who I was or had read my blog, and in general I’ve just gotten to try a lot of really [...]
Drink With The Wench » Blog Archive » REFLECTING ON 2009 December 31st, 2009 at 3:51 pm
[...] November 8th, Ashley experiences a major climax in her life as a beer writer while attending the Life & Limb Release Beer Dinner in San Francisco. At the dinner, Ashley gets the once in a lifetime opportunity to interview one of [...]
Marko January 23rd, 2010 at 7:00 pm
When you did the interview, did you share this photo with him?
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=51875751&albumID=1399175&imageID=48252888