CEOInterviews.AITQC Podcast Episode #31 - Sam Calagione with Dogfish Head

A

Aaron0:10

All right, Sam. But Dogfish, awesome to be here with you, Aaron. We're half a beer in at the start.

S

Sam Calagione0:16

Dude, I'm so stoked, man. I reached out to you guys and I saw Dogfish Head and I've had your beers before and I was like, 'This would be sick collab.' You know, I've been wanting to do a collab with somebody pretty big. I was, dude, when you guys responded, I was shocked. I was like, hell yeah.

A

Aaron0:31

We were so excited to get that email because, you know, I'm a beer's mostly water. The earth is mostly water. The human body is mostly water. I consider myself a water mammal that got stuck on land by the powers of civilization. And I feel like you're a brother from another mother in that regard. Hell yeah, man. Well, congrats, man. All your success. The beer is great. Your brewery has been crushing it. Right back at you. You guys are awesome storytellers and I think that's the key to any distinct brand is amplifying your capabilities to tell stories and you guys tell great ones. I'm learning as I go, man, and I'm sure you still are too.

S

Sam Calagione1:10

Oh yeah. Yep. Yep. Before we get rolling about you guys, I want to give Pure Lure a shout out. These guys here and awesome letting us use their building, beautiful store, beautiful brand. And yeah, man, I'm stoked that we're able to pull this off.

A

Aaron1:28

I love that it's a fisherman's fishing brand. It's not some exec that's in Madison's up in New York City right now. The dude that owns Pure Lure is not here today because he's out in the white. Yeah, Brendan's here. And I'm actually in a little bit I'm going to try to FaceTime him after we get this rolling here. He's got Starlink right now. But for those listening too, the boat ramp is right there and like he's got a live cam, all that stuff. We can show them that later. But do you feel like you're in your most comfortable environment when there's a boat ramp within view of you? You know, you got this boat ramp right here and a lot goes down at these boat ramps, right? That's how it all started, dude. I sat there and just watched at the boat ramp. What was the first video that you got lucky enough to catch in the wild that like, holy shit, I could build something around?

S

Sam Calagione2:09

So, it wasn't just me. It was a lot of buddies of mine that worked in the industry and we had a group text going around. This is back in like 2015, 2016. And I just had so many videos and we're like, man, let's like one of them went in the water at Brightell Beach Boat Ramp. Yeah. And I was like, woo, this is something new. You don't see this every day. Come to find out, this stuff happens all the time. Yeah. We live in Dogfish Head in beautiful coastal Delaware. Come visit us. We got a hotel right in Lewis Harbor and there's a beautiful park across the street from our hotel that used to be where the boat ramp was. And I got to give props to my wife's mom, Rachel, because when she was in her 40s and 50s, they would literally make cocktails and take their chairs down to the boat ramp and just sit on the side at like four, five, six at night or, you know, the sun was dropping and watch people come in and so many, you know, shit shows occurred and it was like a fun hobby there.

A

Aaron3:02

Yeah. Is boating pretty big in Delaware?

S

Sam Calagione3:09

Yeah, I mean Delaware I think is underrecognized for the beauty of our coast. You know, there's that classic scene from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure where they're like, 'We're in Delaware.' And they're like, they don't even know how to act because Delaware really doesn't have a renowned personality, but we have four beautiful towns that touch the Atlantic. And so, much like New Hampshire, we have a small coastline, but it's absolutely gorgeous. It has almost like your style beaches, like big, you know, soft sand North Carolina style beaches. And our weather is more like North Carolina than say Cape Cod or Portland, Maine. So, you can do shit year round. You still get a change of seasons, though, too. But you still, you know, it'll snow, but not stay on the ground, but you get the four seasons, but you can bike and boat year round. And our bestselling beer, 60-minute IPA, and to earn my beer calories every morning, I'm either on my paddle board or my mountain bike. And in the winter, I paddle board and sometimes I have to do a little slalom around ice flows, but you can do it year round. It doesn't freeze up.

A

Aaron4:07

My parents, they had a place in Rehoboth. And they're kicking themselves. This is back when I was maybe 5 years old. They sold it before the values exploded. Is that how you guys ended up in the beach area in North Carolina?

S

Sam Calagione4:19

No. Funny story. I actually grew up in New Jersey and then I went to school in North Carolina and then dude once I found North Carolina in Wilmington I settled there. I love it. Yeah. You know I just like the same kind of thing like you get a change of seasons there too. You know it's brutally hot right now but in the winter time it freezes so you can have a bonfire and enjoy all that.

A

Aaron4:38

What was your first family boat?

S

Sam Calagione4:46

My dad didn't know shit about boating and then he bought his first boat was a 16 ft sailboat and he thought the way that you turned it was you get out of the sailboat, turn the direction of the bow in shallow water, and then you get back in the sailboat and go. So, he learned a lot from that. And then when we bought our place in Dogfish Head, Maine, which is what we named our place after when I was 15, he, you know, the first rock he hit in Maine because we went from Cape Cod to Maine. He was like, 'Fuck that shit, I'm going to get a motorboat. I can't deal with a keel and all these rocks.' So, we started with like a 19 foot Eastern with like a 90 horse.

A

Aaron5:17

I had a little Jon boat, but then me and my buddy got his dad's boat. This is like our first boat. It's a little 23 foot. Nobody's going to know what it is. It's a Caesar spray. It's a company down in Florida that took a Mako mold and customized it. I mean, a piece of shit, but dude, we had, I mean, I could still start that two-stroke today and it'll fire right back up.

S

Sam Calagione5:41

Is it in Jersey or?

A

Aaron5:44

No, it's in North Carolina now.

S

Sam Calagione5:46

Okay. Is it still part of your fleet, if you will?

A

Aaron5:47

No. I wish I still, like I said, I could go start the thing right now. It would run fine. Yeah. And then so when you, because I watched the awesome show where you built the boat that you have now. What's the name of that company? Something Bay.

S

Sam Calagione6:00

Hanzo Bay. Yeah. They built, they are great. Factory direct, you know, husband and wife own the company. They're great people, man. And they build like 30, 35 boats a year. Nothing crazy, but out of Holly Ridge, which is about a half hour north of Wilmington. Yeah. And they're just, I love their mentality, man. Just like, hey, we want to build a safe and perfect boat. We don't want to go pumping these out to different dealers. They're happy the way things are rolling.

A

Aaron6:25

Yeah. Like we have a 19T Whaler and that's a great boat and with the core you could cut it in half and it floats. I have a 17 Whaler.

S

Sam Calagione6:38

You got the 17. Sweet. But even your big boat was designed to float if it gets hit, right? But that's kind of rare for boats over 30 feet, right? So there is a new law now that they have to foam infuse them so they will float if you hit a log or something. It won't go down. And it's nice peace of mind like, alright, if we do hit something at night, that boat will stay afloat and I can at least sit on top of that until something happens.

A

Aaron7:02

Yeah. Very cool. But you didn't bring that up here to White Marlin. You wish you brought your Whaler. You said next year I should bring it. I should fish this tournament.

S

Sam Calagione7:14

Yeah. That's why we're here. Everybody listening. We're up here to obviously celebrate this amazing Pilsner. Qualified Captain, shore man. Yep. I think you or your sister came up.

A

Aaron7:24

Oh, my sister. She's incredible. Yeah. And she did the artwork which is just beautiful. I love the way it looks like a parchment paper, like a treasure map, the actual outer burn of the label. So, she did beautiful work and obviously we built the collaborative clothing that we built around her artwork. She crushes it, man. I'd be screwed without her. It took me a while. I'm like, 'Lawren, you got to quit your job.' She was working at a school doing all their graphic and design work. I'm like, 'Please just let's do this together.' Yeah. And she's on it. We fight like hell. But mom and pop, I mean, it's me, her, and my mom, and a couple other girls that are helping us out.

S

Sam Calagione8:00

What does your mom do with the group?

A

Aaron8:05

She does all the online management, the customer service, fulfillment. Lauren does wholesale. Mom does retail.

S

Sam Calagione8:12

Do you like? I worked with my wife Mariah who co-founded Dogfish with me and grew our social media and the digital voice of our brand. She just retired this year after 30 years but we used to joke that the piece of glass between our cubicles at the brewery was bulletproof glass. You know, working with your spouse or family member is not for everyone, but you and your sister can do it. It's a commitment. There's a lot of long conversations, but back to the beer though. I mean, I want to get into this, but before we get into our collaboration beer, tell me about Dogfish, man. I mean, the background. What got you into brewing beer? Now I know the name. I'm an idiot. I didn't put two and two together.

Well, not unlike Hilton Head from your neck of the woods where everyone has heard of that pretty much. Dogfish Head is like an unknown little cove in Mid Coast Maine near Boothbay Harbor, Maine. And that's where I grew up. And I went to college as an English major. I wanted to write novels or short stories. And I moved to New York City and started taking classes at Columbia in their MFA program for writing the day after I graduated from college. And to pay my rent, I worked at a bar across the street from Columbia that was like, I didn't know it, but it was a first generation craft beer bar in the early 90s when craft beer was just going off. And so I fell in love with good beer because like most college kids I just drank the shittiest cheapest beer until I got there and my shift beers would be like Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada Celebration and I was just like, holy crap, there's such a diverse, vibrant world of beers that I didn't realize. So, I got way into it and within months I started home brewing in New York City and then within months of that I stopped going to classes and started writing the business plan for Dogfish. I went up and visited my parents.

A

Aaron9:55

So, wait, right off the get-go though, you knew you had something or were you just throwing out a Hail Mary batch that I brewed?

S

Sam Calagione10:07

I was walking home from the home brew store in New York City. There was only one at the time called Little Shop of Hops and a bodega, a little tiny market that was like a cloud of fruit flies around some cherries. I was like, and then I saw the price of them. They're all discounted. I was like, you know what? I'm going to buy those cherries and squish them into this pale ale recipe that I bought. And the beer turned out amazing. And my roommates just happened to be the guys that were a TV show called The State on MTV. So these comedians like Ken Marino, Joe Lo Truglio, the short cop on Brooklyn Nine-Nine. All these guys were there the first time I served my homebrew and they were like, 'This is delicious.' And I stood up and said, 'This is what I'm going to do with my life. I'm going to open a little brewery.' My next two batches of home brew turned out crap, but I'd already kind of committed to doing it, stood on my coffee table. So, away we went and I went up and visited my parents and my dad's like, 'How's your classes going at Columbia, Sam?' And I'm like, 'Uh, stopped coming, Dad. I know you're paying for them.' I was like, 'And instead, I've been working on this way to open a brewery.' And he was quiet for a second. We were on a jog together. And he's like, 'You know what? Dogfish Head would be a good name for a brewery.' He pointed at the street sign of where we lived and I was like, so in that one sentence I got my dad's okay and the name for our brewery and away we went. In '95 we opened the smallest commercial brewery in America right up the road from here.

A

Aaron11:19

No shit. I did not know that. We were the smallest. I couldn't have, I was 24 years old. No, my only experience was bartending and waiting tables. So no one was going to lend me a bunch of money. It's such a commitment. It looks like, I mean, one of my good friends at Jude, he owns Ritzel Beach Brewery and I'm watching, I'm like, man dude, you're committed in a grind in a small little area. I mean, what big investment, right? You scared of shit?

S

Sam Calagione11:44

Oh yeah. I mean we were like in a race to go bankrupt for about the first three years and we're very thankful to all the current co-workers and past who had complimentary skills to Mariah and I that really helped us grow this brand over 30 years. Yep. My wife and, yeah, so away we went. But we kind of found our own niche even within craft beer for brewing more with culinary ingredients. And the beer we did together is kind of no different because we're taking a really unique heirloom corn from your home state to celebrate. There's a really cool little malting company called Epiphany Malt in North Carolina that we got to do this very special heirloom corn that's in our beer.

A

Aaron12:25

I'm a Pilsner guy. You like Pilsners, a lager. Cold crushable beers. Ice cold in the summer, dude. When you get off the boat and you got, I took a picture the other day. We got a bunch of fish and having that ice cold beer. Like having the girl bring it to you. Like my girlfriend, she brought me the beer in a cooler right by your flame of fish. Oh, you know what? You're making me want to get another beer. We got to get another beer. Make it two, please. Yeah, we're going to get another round going. But are you happy with the way it turned out?

S

Sam Calagione12:55

Dude, listen, man. I am. And it's very refreshing, but it's got still a little flavor to it. A lot of Pilsners don't. Back to where you said you were a college kid drinking light beer. I like Miller Light. I drink a lot of Miller Light, but it is incredible when you start with these, drink these all day, and then you go have a Miller Light afterwards, and you taste it and it tastes like shit. It's not saying it tastes like shit, but it's just you really can respect the flavor of these beers. The depth and care that went into sourcing the heirloom ingredients, whether it's the hops or the barley that's in this also came from North Carolina.

A

Aaron13:31

So, I had, and you're the professional of this. Is it true that brewing a Pilsner or a lager is way more difficult than IPAs?

S

Sam Calagione13:39

Yeah. They say in the brewing industry that, you know, because in the wine industry they say it takes a lot of beer to make good wine because the wine makers are drinking beer while they're making the wine because wine takes forever to make. In the beer industry they say it takes a lot of Pilsner to make IPAs because IPAs literally, there's 10,000 breweries in America. Half the beers that are craft beers sold in America are some kind of an IPA. But brewers in general, they'll have their IPAs with their dinner. But the day drinking go-to beer is a Pilsner.

A

Aaron14:09

Yeah. No, I have, this is built for day drinking. I've talked to a lot of brewers who are like saying that it's very challenging to dial in either a Pilsner or a lager. You know, it takes time and a lot of fuckups.

S

Sam Calagione14:21

But yep. Because you can't hide behind just a massive wallop of hops. The aromatics of hops usually overpower anything. So you got to be really delicate with the balance of ingredients because a Pilsner is supposed to express malty sweetness along with the sort of mineraly hops. So it's a finer balance than with an IPA.

A

Aaron14:41

Gotcha. Yeah. I think you guys nailed this. I wanted that crisp, refreshing beer for the summer, you know? You got it. I hope you are smuggling home a bunch of cases. I know they did. They got me like two cases downstairs. But so back to your career though. I mean, I'm learning. It's like running a business now. I like to talk in business. I'm learning so much. Like, where did it really take off? You're like, 'Holy shit, we have something here.'

S

Sam Calagione15:06

Yeah. So, like I said, we opened as the smallest commercial brewery in 1995. And even when we were tiny, it was always my aspiration to sell Dogfish Head coast to coast, even when we weren't making enough to sell out of our own building. And then, about three or four years in, we saw a light at the end of the tunnel because we would get made fun of when we bring these beers to beer festivals. Your listeners right now know this because every American now lives within 10 miles of a local brewery. And most of those breweries are doing like fruited sour dessert stouts, pastry stouts that have culinary ingredients in them. But when Dogfish started in the mid '90s, that was not the case. People were brewing like stout, lager, IPA, amber. And so we were really the first commercial brewery to focus on bringing these culinary unexpected ingredients, raisins, beet sugars, chicory, pumpkin meat into beer. And for about three or four years, we would go to festivals and the brewers and the people would be like, 'You're a fucking idiot. Why'd you put coffee in a stout? That doesn't go in a stout. It goes in your dessert.' Or, 'Why'd you put fruit in your beer? That belongs in a salad.' But around '99, like four or five years we were open, we did the first imperial IPA I think in America bottled called 90 Minute and Midas Touch which was based on molecular evidence found in King Midas's tomb in Turkey and there was evidence of barley and saffron and so we recreated that beer and then Food & Wine, People magazine, the Today Show started doing stories about Dogfish Head and really that moment was our inflection point and then we grew double digits year after year. So we've enjoyed that ride.

A

Aaron16:50

Was there a singular moment like that for you and for the Qualified Captain, like an era?

S

Sam Calagione16:57

I think it was me just having the balls to leave my job in 2020 to focus on it. You're right. Yeah. I was scared though, man. I was like, but I, you know what the fuck? Did you write a business plan or you just said I'm going to?

A

Aaron17:10

I just like, I got to give credit to and I'm going to say his name right now. Joe Sheron, who's our sales rep. He's been in the industry for a while repping brands like Smith and all the big outdoor brands. And he has an agency with reps all over the east coast and I dive with him and he's a good friend of mine and he's like, 'Dude, just do it. Leave your job right now. I'll take your brand. I'll go put it in stores and we'll be good to go.' Easier said than done but he was the one who pushed that. And that's when we hit 500,000 followers which wasn't really a lot at the time but it was, you know, and I'm kind of like, ah. And then I remember the marina that I used to work at, they're like, 'If shit hits the fan, don't worry, you got a job here, you'll come back.'

S

Sam Calagione17:54

And so with you guys now, the merch sales, how much of it is in awesome stores like Pure Lure where they have your stuff versus through your own e-commerce platform?

A

Aaron18:06

So we have about 250 locations right now which we've only been doing it four or five years now. It's a game, man. It's a, you know, we went through COVID and all that so it was kind of weird timing but during COVID the benefit of that was everybody bought a boat. Yes. Remember that. So a surfboard, a boat, a nice bike, right? So our industry kind of grew right there. I mean the merch was a little difficult but everybody shopped online. But man, the wholesale's fun. But it's a grind, man. We just got our first account in Australia. I'm super stoked on that.

S

Sam Calagione18:41

You're going to go visit it?

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Aaron18:42

Dude, I just had a trade show at ICAST and they're like, 'Yo, come on.' I kept pushing that. I'm like, 'Oh, yeah.' So, because they're about to go in their summer season now. Yeah. That'd be cool if you did. And so, that's like a Pure Lure-esque thing. It's a retailer that's taking you on.

S

Sam Calagione18:54

That's right. Are you guys just in the US only or?

A

Aaron18:59

We are. Yeah. For Dogfish brand, we are only in the US. Like four or five years, I guess it's almost six years ago now, my wife and I merged our company with Sam Adams Boston Beer. So, some of our other brands that are part of our family like Twisted Tea and Sam Adams do we sell in other countries, but for now we're like, let's just focus on the US for Dogfish. Maybe someday we'll sell them internationally. And we do collabs like I'm going to Japan in a few months to do a collab with a 200-year-old sake brewery and, you know, we've done collabs. That's been a fun part of the job. Send me this stuff for you, too. Like our jobs let us travel to some really cool places and meet some really cool people, right, dude?

S

Sam Calagione19:37

To be honest with you, I did some research on Dogfish. Not much because I like to meet the people and do what we're doing right now. But it was insane after that first post I shared how many people are like, 'Sam, I went to high school with him,' blah blah blah, or like, 'Man, I remember him back in the day.' So that's how many followers we had that know you. I mean, dude, I had a couple dozen that came out to just say they're psyched for the collaboration.

A

Aaron20:07

Yeah. Well they're psyched for the collaboration. They're like, 'That's awesome. Great guy.' Blah, blah, blah. Amazing beer. And dude, it was really cool to see because we both know when you scale a brand online and you invite that interaction with your fan base and we are truly like a human scale brand. Like we don't do much with billboards or TV ads or anything. We try to engage on our social and have real conversations and do events like we're doing today at some really cool bars. We don't do much with traditional advertising.

S

Sam Calagione20:32

That's really great because you can learn so much from the view of your brand that comes back to you from your fan base, you know, and we react to that and we engage with it. So, it's like our fans are part of our R&D and part of our, it's almost raw, right? Like that's kind of how I've been explaining it to people. Like I mean obviously we have the benefit of having the following, but I'm trying to not go so, like I don't need Google ads and all that shit, you know? Like I like, for example, I go to all these Marlin tournaments, go to all these boat shows and all this and it's been fun, man, and just kind of showing your presence and your brand.

A

Aaron21:11

Yeah. And how much of it now is the work you're doing on the series of podcasts? I watched your one on your boat build. I watched one on the Coast Guard and you're on 20 something.

S

Sam Calagione21:18

Yeah, this we're like 30. So it's about a year now and I just, I didn't know, dude, everybody's doing podcasts, right? And I'm like, let's try it. Let's just see. What do I do? Like we can, if it doesn't work, we'll just stop, you know? So, we started and then we kind of found a little niche that I think a lot of people like is we're working with the Coast Guard. But the cool part is we'll bring on sometimes the survivors who've been through serious accidents at sea. And bring them on and hear their story in hopes that maybe a lesson's learned for the future so it doesn't happen again. Dude, we've had some heavy stories. Like fucking heavy, like I'm very emotional, tears to my eyes stories. We get to tell a lot of fun stories, but through this platform, you're telling stories that are like cautionary tales for boaters in a lot of ways. And I have so much respect for these people that come on because man, it ain't easy. And for them to come on and have the balls to tell, you know, and some of these guys are the most skilled captains I know, but it just goes to show you like and that's part of our brand's message. Like, dude, shit happens.

A

Aaron22:19

Yeah. You know, I was telling you before we started filming that my best friend growing up in Maine was a lobsterman. Now they have a really cool oyster company, he and his brother, called Ebony Cook Oysters. Shameless plug for my boys in Ebony Cook Cove. But he is an amazing boat captain, probably the best captain I know. And he was out, he sometimes charters this big Freeman that they have and he was out with his daughters and they were just having a fun day of fishing. So he wasn't really focused. He was just laughing with his daughters and he stopped paying attention for a second and his boat came down on some rocks up there. Hard bottom there coast of Maine and he's like, 'I'm not going to screw the hull. I'm not going to rip off of this. Let's just see what happens.' And it settled almost perfectly the double hull Freeman and he just sat and fished from it like it was a platform or a pier and caught fish and people were coming by and taking photos. I'm pretty sure I posted that and it ended up on the Qualified Captain and got a huge response. I was like, 'That's my boy.' Dude, sometimes you just got to eat it, you know? It shit happens to everybody.

S

Sam Calagione23:25

I think the coolest thing though with the people that tell us their stories is how they reacted in that situation. So if it ever happens to you, I mean his was in a serious situation, but in a serious situation like a life-threatening situation. Like a lot of people could be very skilled and they, but how do you react? You don't know until it actually happens. Your boat's going down. What are you going to do? You going to handle it correctly or are you going to flip out?

A

Aaron23:47

My wife and I. So, one when my son was 15, we took that 19 foot Whaler that I have, and we did it with Woolrich, the clothing brand, and the Nature Conservancy, and we left Boothbay or we left Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, a 19T Whaler with EPIRBs on our life jackets and, oh yeah, at least you had that. Yeah. And then we went from there to Atlantic City, Atlantic City to Manhattan, Manhattan to Block Island, Rhode Island, and then to Cape Cod, then to Boston, then Portland. Every state that we stopped in, we raised money and did a beer dinner for the Nature Conservancy. But when you pull into Portland Harbor, and you're getting gas, and they're like, 'Where are you coming from, Captain?' And you're like, 'Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, in a 19-foot boat with a 115.' Dude, I would love to get involved with something like that.

S

Sam Calagione24:32

Oh, you? Well, I mean, your boat, what's the furthest you've taken your boat?

A

Aaron24:37

Nothing too crazy, man. I haven't yet. I really want to take it to like Palm Beach and rip over to the Bahamas one year. I got to do that. But now for us like Wilmington to Morehead or Wilmington to Drew, where you from? What's up? Ocean Isle. Where's that? Ocean, Georgia, right? I went down there, but it's not like offshore. We've gone about 60 to 80 miles, which is a day trip and you come back to the same port.

S

Sam Calagione25:08

I mean, I got the wanderlust for being on a boat. Like for our 30th anniversary, my wife and I just did. That's this year, right? Yeah. This year 2025. So my wife and I took, we now have a boat with two 300 Yamahas off the back and we took that from Maine to Nantucket, Block Island, Boston, Falmouth, Mass, and we did beer dinners at, you know, salty fisherman bars in our favorite coastal towns.

A

Aaron25:34

How was that trip?

S

Sam Calagione25:36

Freaking awesome. It was awesome. You both people are the nicest people. They are deep down, when you get to especially when you stop at different, they're just excited to see you. They want to hear your story because they're, you know, a lot of people are transit stopping all over the place. And when I worked at the marina, ours wasn't a transit stop when I worked with Sea Tow. It was cool to see all the different, I'm like, damn. Oh cool. This guy's from Canada. Hell yeah. Like you know, from a boat coming from that far away into your local port.

A

Aaron25:57

Have you done anything with Sea Tow considering your history?

S

Sam Calagione26:03

Yeah. So yeah. For right now. We offer, we did actually just did a podcast with them. This guy up in Barnegat, New Jersey did a, he had a survival story and we brought it on. No, he actually rescued the survivors. So, we talked to him about that. But no, Sea Tow is great, man. I offer a discount for all of our followers with them. Whether it's Sea Tow or TowBoatU.S., I'm not going to choose one. You're an idiot if you don't have one. Exactly. If you can afford like the $600 Yeti on your boat, you know, you can afford the tow and whatever it is. I'm a Sea Tow member and they also, a lot of harbors ask when you're fueling up because they have some relationship with different marinas where you can get a discount on your fuel if you're a Sea Tow member which I think is awesome because promoting boater safety even in a financial way by saying, well we want to promote that. The Sea Tow Foundation has a cool thing they do. It's a nonprofit that, like different marinas, boat ramp sports, they have a life jacket donation program. So like if you're, let's say you count, you're out of life jackets, you can, it's kind of like a book exchange. Grab one, take one, you know, put one back, that kind of thing.

A

Aaron27:09

When you're leaving the harbor and you know you got seven people in your boat and you're like, 'Fuck, I just have five.' Exactly. If somebody else is running on, oh, I need another life jacket. Well, Sea Tow will just return it. You know what's your? So I'll tell you my closest to dying story on a water vessel. My first job was when we moved to Maine for the summers was building stone walls for this guy and you know, riprap waterfront stone walls and we were building one on the island that we live on. I had my lunch break. I was like I can make it to that lobster shack across the Sheepscot River on a windsurfer in 20 minutes. So I got on my windsurfer. I just had my like beat to shit Dickies full length pants. I had steel-toed boots on because you know we work with rocks and get our asses kicked. And I windsurfed over without checking the weather and had an awesome cheesesteak and then I was like it's starting to blow. I better get home and all of a sudden a fucking gale came out of nowhere and I could not keep the sail up. I was just getting pushed out. I couldn't get to where I was going and there's one red can on the way into Boothbay Harbor and the rope that you use on a windsurfer to pull the sail up. I was able to lash that rope to the red can and literally the next thing was Ireland. Like I knew that path of water if I didn't get that thing I was super fucked. And every time I'd fall, my boots would be filling up with water. So that was a pretty close day to dying on a water vessel. Did you ever have one?

S

Sam Calagione28:43

I have. Luckily, man, I really have. One that comes to my mind and if my buddies listen to this, they're going to make fun of me, but I was scared as shit. But we were on my little boat that I was telling you earlier, that Mako piece of shit with the 150 two-stroke. So, we went to the tower, that place I was showing you, Frying Pan Tower, place that your friend bought. Yep. Yeah. Wouldn't go there unless it's flat calm on a boat like that. I mean, we had a window. It was July flat calm because it's how many nautical miles? We ran 48 miles on that thing and we brought extra fuel just in case. But we get there, had a great day, dude. I do a lot of spear fishing and free diving. We fucked them up. We had lobster, hogfish, everything. We had a great day. And I remember looking, I'm like, damn, dude. Those clouds are like, we got to go now. We got another two-hour ride back.

A

Aaron29:27

And did the wind come up?

S

Sam Calagione29:32

So we get about 5 miles off Carolina Beach, which is just south of Wrightsville, and there's an inlet there, and we took it. It got bad quick. I mean, bad enough where water was coming. We broke all the eisenglass, everything. We're getting the shit kicked out of us.

A

Aaron29:43

But you mean it ripped the eisenglass off?

S

Sam Calagione29:45

Yeah. Ripped the eisenglass off. We're getting the shit kicked out of us. And luckily though, we were right there in, we made it in. We made it in the waterway. Lightning bolts everywhere. But my one buddy behind us who was in a 28T Parker and I, I mean, dude, he is a very good captain, very skilled, and he's like, 'Dude, I don't get scared often.' I was scared because it went from flat to like every bit of 6 foot which is pretty gnarly on a small boat like that.

A

Aaron30:14

And we're at Ocean City and it's the week of White Marlin Open. You mentioned six foot because they're forecasting six and seven later this week. Yeah, I know. Well, do you surf?

S

Sam Calagione30:25

No. Do you?

A

Aaron30:27

Oh, yeah. I brought my board. I'm stoked. Ocean City is a great surf. I heard. Good for you. And so are you guys going to be out on any of the boats getting stuff while you're here this week or more when the fishermen come back in?

S

Sam Calagione30:40

Yeah, you can only do so much. We're going to go down watch the weigh-ins. And then after this we head up to Beach Haven like we were talking earlier and do the same exact thing. Keep going. Keep drinking. Keep day drinking. Dude, I've been on a go, man. I'm traveling. Do you travel a lot?

A

Aaron30:54

I do. Yeah, I'm on the road usually two or three days a week. How about you?

S

Sam Calagione30:59

Yeah. I mean at least. You like it?

A

Aaron31:01

I like it. I got to say, I'm now 56 and I'm just like I look forward to the days where I'm not drinking beer, which sounds weird because it's part of my job, but I love it, but I try to not drink alcohol two days a week now.

S

Sam Calagione31:14

Dude, I'm 31 and I love being home. Does that sound weird?

A

Aaron31:18

No. I have a house. I love.

S

Sam Calagione31:20

How far is your boat from your house?

A

Aaron31:23

A mile. You know, that's what I'm saying. I really enjoy it. And I'm paying all this money for a damn boat, slip, all this, and I'm barely there. But I shouldn't complain. We live the life. This has been really fun. I'm learning every day doing stuff like this. You're going from here to Jersey and you grew up in that area. I got to, I don't know if you know the band Ween. Do you know the band? Oh, you got to check out Ween. And they have a song called Ocean Man that you would love. But they're just too crazy. They're out of their minds. They're from PA and New Jersey. And one of the guys in Ween has the fishing bug so bad that he's in this internationally renowned band. We should have picked him to play at Bird and Betty's. He's already, but he's a captain of a charter boat in Jersey. So look up, I don't know if it's Dean Ween. I think it might be Dean Ween charter company, but you'd hit it off with.

S

Sam Calagione32:13

There's a guy I'm friends with up there. His name's Clammer Ted. Clammer Ted. You know friends with? What's your pirate?

A

Aaron32:19

Pirate Rob. Listen to that episode three. Right, Drew? Clammer Ted is a good friend of mine. He's a clammer, a local clammer, and he does this Elvis impersonation. He dresses up like Elvis. You'll walk around the boulevard and there's Clammer Ted. He's got the chops down here.

S

Sam Calagione32:34

Does he do it for the love of his art form or is he a good musician?

A

Aaron32:37

He sounds just like Elvis. Okay. So, he's also getting paid at bars to be, oh yeah. Yeah, dude. He's incredible. Clammer Ted. I'll send you his link. I want to see this guy. I want to see Clammer Ted. But yeah, dude. Traveling, I love it. But you got to find a balance, you know.

S

Sam Calagione32:52

And do you find that your audience skews towards the east and west coast or you get a lot of freshwater?

A

Aaron32:58

Obviously, it's probably most of the east coast, but man, we have a following everywhere, like Australia, Canada, a lot in Canada. I've never been to Canada. I really want to go.

S

Sam Calagione33:10

Ah, the Maritimes, I've heard, you're right there. I mean, we could boat from Mid Coast Maine to Nova Scotia in like 12 hours of running. Because I heard it's nice. That's supposed to be beautiful. And there's some really remote areas in the Maritimes that are supposed to be some of the nicest fishing in the world. So, that's a trip you got to put on your schedule.

A

Aaron33:26

Yeah, man. I mean, it'll all happen. We just, like I said, got to find that balance, man. I mean, small little group of people working for us. What I don't know, back to the business. I like talking business. Like, where did, when you peaked at that point, I mean, how many employees did you guys have?

S

Sam Calagione33:44

So, I think we're a little over 2,000 co-workers now, but we started with 14 in one room between the kitchen staff.

A

Aaron33:52

I love hearing these kinds of stories, man. I mean, that's kind of how we go. It's a shit show where I'm at right now. We started tiny. I think any entrepreneur that can scale their business, one of the traits that they share, those that can scale, is the humility to know what you suck at. When you're a startup entrepreneur, you have to wear a lot of hats because you can't afford to pay people. But once you get some growth, having the humility to say that hat doesn't fit me so well. I need someone who's a good accountant to do that. I need someone who's good at HR to do that. And so that's really been the secret to our success is we've found these really skilled people who had complementary superpowers to Mariah and my very limited powers to grow Dogfish. For sure. And we've always, it can sound pretentious to talk about a lifestyle brand, but we've all, you know, we started with Beer, Food, and Music. We have a stage that, you know, the Strokes have played on, Deltron 3030, and, you know, we're big, you know, we collaborate with Grateful Dead, Pearl Jam, you did, it was amazing. Flaming Lips. So, we're big music heads, but we have a beer-themed hotel. We've done collaborations with New Balance, with Woolrich and Rowing Blazers, and now the Qualified Captain. So we think of our brand as this movable feast that we learn about our brand through the eyes of the other creatives that we get to do collaborations with. And that's probably one of my favorite parts of the journey at our company.

And when you go to your website, you literally have a whole area celebrating every collaboration that you've done. And it was cool to see that it's not just the expected stuff. You did shit with Frank's sauce. I was having that. I woke up and went to Bill's Pancake place in Jersey Shore two days ago and I was having your Frank's at that. Hell yeah. Yeah, man. All these collabs have been fun. The most fun I got to say is the Coast Guard. Being able, I mean I'm blessed to be working with them. I mean being able to see these stations and what they do behind the scenes.

S

Sam Calagione35:56

Yeah. Did they reach out to you or did you reach out to them?

A

Aaron36:00

I begged them for years. Yeah. Like because, did they have to get comfortable with the fact that you were celebrating being safe by sometimes showing content of people not being safe?

S

Sam Calagione36:10

I think they didn't think we were legit. Does that make sense? Like, you know, I think a lot of companies didn't and then now pushing and pushing. I got to say I'm friends with a lot of guys in the Coast Guard and before this they were helping me out big time. But then I think they saw our audience and it just fits perfectly, right? Like, you know, we're sharing all these crazy stories. Well, let's involve the Coast Guard. So, it was cool, man. I mean, after four years, I was like, let's lock them in. So, now Drew and I, we travel and go to different stations and kind of experience the lifestyle of the Coast Guard and then bring them into a podcast, talk about their stories. But then, dude, incorporating the survivor that they had that they never even met. They just remember, they never met. They just threw him in an ambulance, you know. Think about that. They just saved their lives. Some of these survivors have never even met the guy that saved their lives. That's amazing. So, it's been cool, man. It's been connecting.

A

Aaron37:01

As you've done more with the Coast Guard, has it changed the tenor of your responses to stuff that you post? Are people being more careful, do you think?

S

Sam Calagione37:14

Oh, for sure. Yeah. We watch, I'm not taking any credit at all, but I work with a lot of people in the National Boating Safety Council. I go to all these summits and they have said that the boating casualties actually have gone down. So, I think there's more younger kids knowing that people are watching what the hell you do. And especially with drinking and driving, man. And I mean, you own a brewery, you have to push that message, you know.

A

Aaron37:43

Yeah. We have to be, I mean, there's so many components to what we have to think through. Some of it's legal. You can't promote volume drinking, but some of it's just ethical and asking people to be smart. That's why at our hotel, we provide, we work with a little indie bike company called Priority Bikes and we'll get you a bike or an e-bike, or we tell you where the trails are to walk, because we don't want you if you're having beers to get in a car or a boat. We tell everybody, man, it's just like driving a car. You can go out and have fun, but just like driving a car, you have to be under that limit. They are checking, dude. I've seen people that ruin their lives from that. I always tell people, just enjoy the boat or the beer at the dock. Have it at the fish cleaning table, whatever. You got to have a sober captain.

S

Sam Calagione38:31

Amen. And we in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, we were, so that's where Biden's summer home was, President Biden. So it was fascinating in the era when Biden was president because when you'd visit his house, our canal between the towns of Rehoboth, Lewes, and Dewey was inundated with Coast Guard gunboats. And one of my favorite moments, I didn't get my phone out fast enough, but one of my favorite moments floating in that canal was I watched a gunboat with a massive machine gun going under a bridge in our canal next to a fisherman who had a giant fucking Biden flag hanging there. And I watched the gunboat go over to the guy with the giant, the guy sitting in the front trench. And he gets out of his turn, walks up, you see him talking to the guy and smiling, laughing, and he shakes the guy's hand. And literally the American flag was billowing off the Coast Guard boat while the fucking Biden sign was hanging in the front and the two of them were shaking hands. I was like, that felt like really good, you know? We don't get along, but it was pretty good. You know, hey, you know what? We all agree on everything. That is fucking funny. And so when Biden's security detail is in town in the canal, the boats that come and board you when I'm on my little Whaler that says Dogfish Head on the side of it. I want to see a picture of that. Can you send me a picture of that so we can post that? I'll send you my picture of my little Whaler and they would board it and on his security detail would be US Marshals, you know, his actual White House security, but there'd be three or four different security entities involved with keeping him safe.

Dude, I had a crazy story when I was a Sea Tow captain. There's a place on the Cape River called Sunny Point that holds like the most ammunition in the entire country underground. It's where they import and export ammunition for our military. And the Coast Guard station in Oak Island, they're the ones who escort these big ships in and out. When I was with Sea Tow, I had a boat breakdown that drifted into them. And dude, they don't know who the hell it is. So they towed him around and before I had to go in there, a military boat got him before you did. They held him basically hostage. Not you know, but they had him back there and they called me over and I had to go through a whole process, dude, to get in there because I had to tell them out. I mean, they're broke down. You know, and I mean, proving who I was, I had to show my TWIC card, my captain's license, all this shit. But then I come around the corner on the Sea Tow boat. I mean, dude, just fucking big big guns. It was pretty heavy, you know?

A

Aaron41:17

That reminds me of a story. My dad's best friend, my uncle George, famous because he's only three generation pro football player. They had three generations of dudes in one family played pro football, but he had like a 52 Hatteras. And he was going, he visited us in Rehoboth and then he was going to Annapolis. And he was on the phone with my dad, which he probably shouldn't have been while he was captaining his boat. And he's like, 'Ah, fuck, Sam.' He's like going into this canal. He's like, 'I think I'm getting fired on.' And much like your story earlier, he was going into like the Navy's home thing and they were throwing tracer bullets in front of his bow. Oh shit. Did you tell your story yet on this thing about Pirate Rob?

S

Sam Calagione41:56

Oh yeah, I did. Pirate Rob. Everybody that's listening right now, it's episode three. Pirate Rob. He's going to crack up when he listens to this episode. Long story short, he took a center console from Sarasota to Panama, but not a small, not what you're thinking of some like World Cat or not a World, I forget. It was some catamaran. Anyways, yeah. And they got attacked by pirates, but it really wasn't pirates. It was actually the Honduras Navy. And then that whole story and they got fired at and dude, sounds like a movie screenplay. And the funny thing was that when we launched that episode, so many people talked shit. They're like, 'There's no way that happened. Blah blah blah. Half that episode was made up.' Pirate Rob went on a rampage and posted, he was fact-checking. He posted pictures and videos on his Instagram every day. Like, 'You don't believe me? Here, here's the video. Here's the video.'

A

Aaron42:50

Did you ever get the military of the country to confirm that that went down or no?

S

Sam Calagione42:53

Oh, well, he's got pictures of him on the boat. He's got the Honduras Navy on his boat with ARs. That's dude. We went on vacation in Bimini and we went out snorkeling or scuba diving and I was like asking the captain. I'm like, 'Wow, the snorkeling business must be awesome. We're on this 38 foot center console with three 300s.' And he's like, 'Drug runner boat.' I was like, 'What?' He's like, 'Yeah, it was a drug runner boat that they just ditched and let drift because the boat was not worth as much as.' He's like, 'When I got it, all that was on it was empty Red Bull cans and wrappers of power bars. These guys are just cat feeding their way up the coast to drop their drugs.' And it was the beneficiary was the local, you know, there was a few like sick drug running boats that were just used for scuba gear because they just drifted into Bimini.

A

Aaron43:42

That might be one of our next projects. We're going, that's crazy. We're going on a, well, we're not confirmed yet, but we have one more project through the Coast Guard for this year. I think they're going to put us on a cutter like that. Like a drug busting cutter. Oh my god. Hopefully in the Pacific because it's really busy there. Business is good out in the Pacific. Business is good, right? It's crazy, dude. That's our side. We wanted to go right off of Florida, but they're like, 'Nah, dude. There's shit going on in the Pacific every day.'

S

Sam Calagione44:06

What would be like? So when you think, when you see like a big Coast Guard cutter out there and you're like, 'That thing can't catch me.' Although they got little boats that they launch back. 50, 60 mph about boats. Yeah, maybe. Something like that. Little boats that just, you know, they don't even pull on. And I mean, some of them they shoot down if they can't run, or if the guys have a gun on the back, if they point the threat. I've seen some of those videos and one of those I wanted to ask you about, I don't know if you guys covered it, but it happened within the last six or eight months and was one where some young person was on a boat, didn't have their running lights on at dusk, I think down in Florida, and this super roid rage dude came that was a captain. I don't know. Oh yeah, but I mean a guy lost his shit on.

A

Aaron44:59

Did you put that up on your site?

S

Sam Calagione45:02

Yeah, I did. And I did some research on that story and yeah, he was way off the deep end. The kid should have had his lights on. And but you don't react like that, dude. Don't let your temper go to that level. Same thing. There was another incident just happened. These kids were fishing in Florida. You can't really fish for a lot of these docks, you don't cast over to fish for tarpon. Usually, you'll lose it or it'll kill it. These kids were doing that.

A

Aaron45:30

You mean from land, you're not going to land it?

S

Sam Calagione45:33

No. Drew, what's the rule? It's like if you're at a bulkhead, you're really not supposed to, a lot of marinas don't let you fish for tarpon. Oh, yeah. They're just very fun. Fish jumps. Yes, it's dangerous. Damages the boat and it kills the fish. And these fish are giant. Majestic. Same kind of situation. These kids are doing this. Obviously, it's a no-no. These guys came and like grabbed their necks and like pulled them, dude, to the kids. It's like there's a different way to handle these things, right? Because you frighten that kid away from loving the ocean if you like. We've all been there and made mistakes. I get it. And yes, they are doing something wrong. But dude, now you're touching, you could go to jail. I don't react like that. I mean, depending on the situation, somebody puts my life at risk, that's a different story. And that's another thing we try to cover so much, man. This lack of boating education in today's society is so dangerous. It's not even, I mean alcohol yes is one of the number one leading factors, but it's also lack of education is right behind it. They find out that every casualty or a majority of them that have an accident or death on the water, come to find out that that person, a captain or boat owner, has no experience, have never passed a boating safety course, nothing, because they don't need to. These states don't give a shit.

A

Aaron46:59

So, are you a fan of like Freedom Boat Club where they have expectations that you can go into this network of boats and use them and rent them, but you have to pass a boating safety thing? I don't know how big of a deal it is. A lot of people talk shit on Freedom Boat Club. I don't mind it. I think it's great because they actually will show you how to drive the boat, which I think an online course is great. But it still doesn't teach you how to drive a boat. So they do both. I think Freedom Boat Club's great. You're going to have every once in a while the guy that doesn't really know what he's doing still driving the boat, but it's just very controversial, man. I mean, a lot of people want that freedom of just being able to turn the key and go, right? Not having to hose down a boat or refuel it at the end of the day. I get it. I think it's a good thing. But I do notice in our harbor that there are some people that on those boats that know what they're doing, different. I think things will change, but I don't ever picture there being a hands-on boat training course that you have to pass like a driving course. I don't think there'll ever be anything like that. But I think they're going to change the ages on a federal limit. In North Carolina, for example, if you're born before '88 or whatever, you don't need to take shit. You can go buy one of them. So you're grandfathered at a certain age. You could go buy one of those Sportfishers and go turn the key and go on that legally. That's crazy. You don't have to prove that you know what you're doing. So that's going to change.

S

Sam Calagione48:23

And you think that's a good thing?

A

Aaron48:25

I think it's a great thing. I think it has to. When I did that trip up the coast with my son, he was 15 and he was in charge of the stereo and the GPS while I was bouncing up the thing. He got to our house in Maine and he didn't talk to me for five days because we'd been on a boat together for 11 days bouncing up the east coast. But right after that trip, he signed up and got his six-pack license and became a fishing guide and he was just smitten with being on the water.

S

Sam Calagione48:53

A lot of people do that though. I know a lot of friends of mine that they don't have any interest to make a living off being a captain, but they want to just go get the license just because they want to learn. It's a great thing. You got yours because you were doing Sea Tow. But most people get their captain's license for hiring. You got to, I mean it's expensive, and you have to pay to renew it every year. That's why I had mine for Sea Tow, but with that being said, I encourage people to still take it. It's a great course. It's a Coast Guard approved Captain Merchant Mariner course. You learn a shitload more than the state course.

A

Aaron49:27

I didn't know there was. So every state has their own course. Every state has a boating safety course. There's a company like NASBLA that approves it. I'm going through this process right now. Why? Well, a little insight. By hopefully by spring of next year, the Qualified Captain will have its own boating safety course that's approved in about a dozen states. Fingers crossed.

S

Sam Calagione49:50

Nice. Who are you doing it by yourselves or you partner?

A

Aaron49:53

I got a partner with that. I'm working with, but not the Coast Guard. It's a private company. It's funded by the Coast Guard, but it's just a nightmare. It's one of those things like I'm sure you deal with it with alcohol, like I'm dealing with the same thing like getting approved for these states and dude, it's a lot of work.

S

Sam Calagione50:06

So are they all east coast states to start with or majority of them?

A

Aaron50:10

There's a few in the lakes. But yeah, we're going to focus on our main states like obviously Florida. Is it video content or is it destinations? So that's the thing we're doing. We're going to focus on, if you take the, I don't know what I guarantee. Go on Delaware's website, take their boating course. It's probably easy. Most of them are for free and they're like cartoons and you can skip right through it. Our course is going to cover the curriculum, but we're also going to add like the shit you see on our page, like, hey, if you don't follow the directions, here's examples. This is what happens. Real life shit, you know, and they're cool with it. They're letting us do that. And which I think is going to be engaging. I think the kids are going to want to take that, it's more entertaining. Like, 'Hey, Dad, this one's free, but can we pay like an extra 20 bucks to take this one?' And then you get your little Qualified Captain certificate, you get your hat, whatever. And your goal is to launch that in '26.

S

Sam Calagione51:10

Yes. Spring of '26. May is Boating Safety Month. So, the goal is to launch it right ahead of May. That's awesome. Fingers crossed. I want to ask you, and you can tell me what you can, what you can't. What are future goals with Dogfish, man? Where are you guys seeing yourself in the next like five to 10 years?

A

Aaron51:22

So, I mean, it's an interesting moment in the alcohol beverage universe because, I'm speaking directly to your 21 to 31 year old listenership, Aaron, when I say you people need to revisit alcohol. If you drink safely and if you have a drink or two a day, that could be part of a healthy lifestyle. And right now a challenge is alcohol beverages in America is not growing. Canned cocktails are growing. We were one of the original craft distilleries. We opened our brewery 30 years ago. We opened our distillery almost 25 years ago. But there's some headwinds facing our industry. But I got to say that, between what we're doing on the cocktail front, what we're doing with the Grateful Dead beer, the Juicy Pale, Dogfish and Grateful Dead are doing together, it's been the fastest growing new beer release for us in our entire 30 years. Besides this beer. Besides this, try that one. That one's really good. This one is like super refreshing. That one went well with dinner last night. They're totally different. One of them's like a juicy, super hoppy, pale ale, but not too strong in alcohol. They're actually very similar in ABV because this is like such a sweet spot for drinkability. So, you know what I know we're going to do is keep collaborating with companies, entities, artists that we love and respect like you guys. And we already have a bunch of those lined up that we're looking forward to focusing on and talking about the future. But right now, we're really excited about what we're doing with the Qualified Captain. We have this event. I know a bunch of our co-workers and you are heading up. Talk maybe about the Jersey one.

S

Sam Calagione53:00

Yeah, Beach Haven, New Jersey. It's the next White Marlin tournament up the east coast. So some of these fishermen will actually go up and do that. They'll run the whole East Coast tournaments and we're going to Bird and Betty's, killer bar right on the weigh-ins. They have a giant event going on there with vendors, all this stuff. It's sick, dude. If you, I mean I wish you guys had the time, but anyways, yes, they're going to have the beer up there. It's going to be fun on that Thursday. This podcast won't be out by then, but on Thursday we're going to have a little thing upstairs. We'll probably have some fun games going on and all that, but there'll be some day drinking. Post-boat. There'll be Qualified Captain gear will be there. Our gear would be there. It's going to be a fun time. When we launched our collaborative clothing that we did with you and I gave you like a Boathouse rowing jacket, that's also the group. Grab that thing. That's also, yeah. Grab that. So, Boathouse is out of Philly and they're one of the few companies that actually make their stuff in the US. But they do a lot with the Olympic and D1 rowing teams, but the jacket, the back of it comes down for when you're sitting on your sliding seat, but it's also just perfect for being in the boat because we all know when you get up at 4:30 to fish, you got all that condensation on your boat seat. So, I got to say the work that we did with you, your sister, our design team on the clothing, the hats, the Boathouse SPF hoodie came out beautiful. They're already sold out on our website. So, people are going to have to come to the Qualified Captain to get it.

A

Aaron54:39

Yeah. No, man. You got a hell of a team, by the way. Those guys are all awesome. And I'm excited to continue this next, Jesus. This next two weeks of this is going to be a long time. Spear water. He said he took water. Beer water. We got this. All right, brother. We'll wrap it up here. Sam. Hey, dude. Cheers. Cheers. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure. Proud of you. So psyched that this thing came to life exactly how I dreamed it would.

S

Sam Calagione55:01

Yeah, man. Likewise, man. And congratulations on everything. You, too. Thanks, man. Cheers.

TQC Podcast Episode #31 - Sam Calagione with Dogfish Head

About Samuel Calagione