You know craft beer has gone big time when there is a feature-length exposé about it in The New Yorker. 
Well, that just happened. And what better way to ring Better Beer into the world of what’s what than a talk with Dogfish Founder Sam Calagione. The Article — entitled A Better Brew: The rise of extreme beer by Burkhard Bilger — details the ever-increasing popularity of so-called “extreme beers” in America and the steps Calagione has done to lead that charge. Says the New Yorker,
Dogfish is something of a mascot for this unruly movement. In the thirteen years since Calagione founded the brewery, it has gone from being the smallest in the country to the thirty-eighth largest. Calagione makes more beer with at least ten per cent alcohol than any other brewer, and his odd ingredients are often drawn from ancient or obscure beer traditions. The typical Dogfish ale is made with about four times as much grain as an industrial beer (hence its high alcohol content) and about twenty times as much hops (hence its bitterness). It is to Budweiser what a bouillabaisse is to fish stock.
It’s a great — if a little lengthy (as only the New Yorker can do) — article well worth the time. If you ever wanted to learn more about the crazy beers the U.S. has to offer (or to celebrate the beers you already love), this is the article to do it.
[image via The New Yorker]
