Creative Entrepreneurship: Sam Calagione '85

 “I have always had a creative desire to express myself,” Sam Calagione, a member of Eaglebrook’s Class of 1985, told the audience. Sam came back to Eaglebrook on October 20 to speak to the students about his company, Dogfish Head Brewery. Sam opened his assembly by telling the students that the English and History faculty members at Eaglebrook made him fall in love with storytelling, a love that his parents nurtured also. 

After graduating from Eaglebrook, Sam continued to Northfield Mount Hermon School and then to Muhlenberg College, where he was an English major. His goal was to bring his stories to life, so he set off for New York, where he enrolled in writing classes at Columbia University with a mind to earn a CFA. The job he took to make ends meet was at a small restaurant in Manhattan that brewed its own beer, a novel idea at the time. 

Finding it unlikely that he would be the one to write the next great American novel, Sam’s thinking began to change. “Maybe I could use my love of storytelling to create the next great American beer,” he thought to himself. “Why can’t an idea for a beer be as provocative, memorable, and creative as a short story?” So, he dove into this idea, researching beer brewing techniques and recipes, and researching other small businesses.

He was ready for the next steps, so he wrote a business plan. “When you think about it, a business plan is the quintessential work of fiction,” he told the students. “You have to get a lot of people to get excited to come together and turn your work of fiction into a reality.” In that way, Sam’s love for storytelling, which he used to create the plan for what would become Dogfish Head Brewery, inspired a lot of people to join his endeavor. He was 24 years old at the time.

Dogfish Head Brewery grew. Located in Delaware, Sam’s was the first commercial brewery to open in that state since Prohibition. Sam kept grounded in his love for storytelling, creating recipes for beers no one had seen before. “We are off-centered goodness for off-centered people,” was the mantra of the company at the time. This idea was inspired by the ideas of Transcendentalist writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of Sam’s favorite writers, who wrote about going on an exploration for goodness. Sam opened a brewery restaurant and an inn, and in 2002 moved into distilling alcohol as well as brewing beer. 

Sam sold the company in 2019 to Boston Beer, but Sam is still heavily involved in day-to-day operations. Dogfish Head remains connected to its customers, inviting constant connection and feedback. “So much of this love of experimentation, collaboration, and storytelling I get to participate in became part of my being on this very campus,” he told the students at the end of his talk.