With origins as a tiny brewpub in tiny Delaware, Dogfish Head over its 27-year history matured into one of the craft beer industry’s biggest successes, known for creative recipes that founder Sam Calagione marketed through stories of “off-centered ales for off-centered people.”

Beers like its signature 60-Minute IPA and Midas Touch Ancient Ale earned respect in the culinary world and gained attention and free media coverage through unique partnerships and events—a result Calagione said grew out of DIY marketing tactics, like squeezing in visits with influential magazine editors while on trips to present his beers to distributors. 

Now merged with craft counterpart Boston Beer Co., Dogfish is adopting new tactics to stay relevant, including by putting out a growing lineup of nonbeer drinks such as a line of canned craft cocktails. With varieties such as Blueberry Shrub Vodka Soda, Cherry Bergamot Whiskey Sour and Lemon & Lime Gin Crush, the drinks like their beer forebears rely on the brand’s independent roots and culinary-based storytelling-as-marketing—and represent the fastest-growing liquids in the combined Boston-Dogfish portfolio.

Dogfish must stay fresh as it ages. Its earliest adherents have children old enough themselves to be legal drinkers, and Calagione is moving to court them behind a new generation of spirit-based concoctions made for them. On this week’s episode of The Marketer’s Brief podcast, Calagione explains how “storytelling is marketing,” and what’s driving the “beyond beer” movement.

“There’s just a lot less loyalty to brands—and a lot less loyalty to brands that your parents ate, drank or consumed,” Calagione said. “And let’s face it, brewers like Dogfish Head are 27 years old, Sierra Nevada is 33 or 34 years old, so the average young drinker grew up with beers like 60-Minute and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and [New Belgium Brewing’s] Fat Tire in their parent’s refrigerator, so it’s not so rebellious for them to drink these beers.”

“There’s a group of younger consumers who say, ‘Craft beer? It’s cool that it’s local and in my neighborhood, but that’s what my parents drink. What am I going to establish my identity with?’ And that’s where seltzers came to be with younger drinkers today and very quickly moved into spirits-based with full-flavored cocktails which are now growing faster than seltzers,” Calagione said.

Recent data from the online alcohol retailer Drizly supports this notion. Its 2022 Consumer Trends Report, released earlier this month, identified canned cocktails as the top adult beverage that survey respondents anticipate buying more of this year.

Dogfish is also continuing to create recipes and seek partnerships that can help it tell unique stories behind beer, such as a sustainability message delivered in Kernza Pils, a newly released beer co-branded by Dogfish Head and Patagonia Provisions, the sustainable food brand associated with the outdoor apparel company, Patagonia. The beer is brewed using Kernza, the Land Use Institute's brand name for a perennial wheat alternative whose deep roots are said to draw carbon from the air, improving soil health and wildlife habitats, while protecting water resources.