Dogfish Head Craft Brewery Launches Hazy-O!; The First Nationally Distributed Oat Milk-Centric Hazy

What is considered innovative these days? Some DFH novelty beers from a mere 10 years ago might be thought of as quaint today.

The irony of course is DFH is now lumped in with a thousand other also-rans. Their off centered mantra, the unending throw it against the wall to see what sticks led to a dead end I suppose.

Still an important brewery. Still moving product despite being not so big not so small while getting squeezed left right and center.

Say hello to Sam and let him know I'm still helping to make his boat payments, just not as much as before.

Cheers

 

Have you noticed a difference (e.g., improvement) in sales since the 'merger' with Boston Beer Company? Does BBC have a 'better' marketing & sales team?

Cheers!

 

Ha. Who could tell?
The sales folks at DFH don't have an easy job.

I have some industry friends, some who work DFH, and all of the ones peddling national brands are pretty much focusing on high volume accounts.

So C Stores, big groceries. The typical attitude seems to be sell pallets and not worry so much about maintaining a handle at every tavern in town, because it's been a total blood bath. Covid did not help.
My total WAG is that DFH is benefitting from the BBC machine more than the other way. But no idea.

Cheers.

Edit.
Also is BBC a beer company anymore? Seems like the cider/flavored malt beverage is floating that operation. That and Boston Lagers momentum.

 

I have read/heard similar things about other larger, distributing breweries. As one point of example until a couple of years ago Yuengling produced seasonal beers (e.g., Summer Wheat which was a very good Hefeweizen for the price) but they made a decision to 'pull back' from producing a variety of seasonals (they do still make an Oktoberfest for the fall season) and instead concentrate their marketing & sales efforts on regular/year-round beers (e.g., Yuengling Traditional Lager). I can see the pandemic situation increasing this sort of 'consolidation' effort.

The craft beer industry was very competitive in 2019 and with the uncertainty that comes with the pandemic this just heightens the anxiety level of the beer business folks. Hopefully as 2021 proceeds and more and more folks get vaccinated things will get closer and closer to 'normalcy', whatever that exactly means for the hyper-competitive craft beer industry.

Cheers!

 

I mean, the fact that you think (and rightly so, in my opinion) that many of their outlandish beers from a decade ago now feel quaint seems to support the idea that they have been an innovative company. I feel like seaquench was definitely ahead of the kettle sour curve as well. While I'm not a big dfh fan, I appreciate that they have always been willing to experiment but have usually been pretty restrained in the actual application of their flavorings.

Yes they're less experimental now that they're bigger (at least with widely distributed beers, I don't know what they're doing closer to home) and for sure the marketing language is cringey but ii don't get what people want. Should they never try to make new beers? Should they pour a bunch of resources into pushing obscure styles?

 

As someone who had Hazy-O as part of Extreme Beer Fest, this is the best shelf hazy IMO. Definitely looking forward to being able to pick it up in a grocery store.