Dogfish Head and Rise Up cook Booze For Breakfast

For this year’s Analog A-Go-Go festival collaboration, Dogfish Head is moving away from beer and will incorporate a pick-me-up to enhance the search for the perfect vinyl record.

Collaborating with Rise Up coffee roasters, Booze For Breakfast will be unveiled to the world at the Saturday, Nov. 9 festival at Dogfish Head’s Milton brewery.

“We’re combining two of our favorite things that come from the earth,” Dogfish founder Sam Calagione said, referencing how both coffee and beer use grown ingredients that are roasted, barley for beer and beans for coffee. 

“We wanted to bring this mutual admiration to a new level with this collaboration,” he said. 

Tim Cureton, co-founder of Rise Up with business partner Noah Kegley, said they had been fans of Dogfish even before founding Rise Up in 2005 in a parking lot trailer in St. Michaels, Md. Cureton said craft coffee and craft beer are similar in many ways, and craft beer has been an influence on Rise Up. About a decade ago, Cureton said the Rise Up management team met Calagione and toured the Dogfish brewery in Milton. The respective founders became friends and grew to use and appreciate each other’s products.

Cureton said James Montero, head of distilling at Dogfish’s Rehoboth brewpub, approached them with the idea for a collaboration. Cureton said Rise Up’s new Rehoboth location has a bar serving beer and cocktails, and he was excited to work together.

“What’s cool is the cross-pollination of the two companies,” Cureton said. “Our coffee is infused in the Dogfish spirits. We’ve taken some of their barrels - whiskey, rum - and put some of our favorite coffee into those barrels.”

The recipe for Booze for Breakfast was concocted by Dogfish distiller Darren Bobby. The base comes from using Dogfish Head’s 2017 Beer for Breakfast - named in part for its use of scrapple and maple syrup and in part because it was the title of a song by legendary Minneapolis punk band The Replacements - and distilling it. The distilled beer was then aged in a mix of used bourbon barrels and new oak barrels, Bobby said. 

When pulled out of the barrel, Bobby said the drink had a spicy taste with scrapple notes on the nose. He said he thought the beverage would pair well with Mexican spiced coffee. He then came up with the idea to combine the two. Using coffee beans from Rise Up, Bobby in essence brewed coffee in a still, adding cinnamon and nutmeg during the brew. Bobby then pulled the coffee out of the still while still hot and mixed in some dark brown sugar. The mix was then taken back to Dogfish’s Milton distillery -  a 500-gallon still as opposed to 50 gallons at the brewpub - and combined with the distilled Beer for Breakfast to create a new spirit, Booze for Breakfast. 

“It’s super easy when you work with creative, talented people,” Calagione said about the collaboration. “We really love each other’s companies.” 

He said this is the largest volume of liqueur that Dogfish has ever made; previously, the company had only dabbled with small batches in the early days of the company’s distilling operations. Once the Milton brewery opened its distillery, the focus became on gins and vodka and premixed cocktails. 

Calagione said Analog A-Go-Go is probably his favorite of Dogfish’s events.

“I’m proud of all of our events, but my biggest passions in life are music and beer, and learning about other makers and artists and being inspired by them. We combine art, music, beer and now, coffee, as another artist.” 

Sporting a Rise Up baseball cap, Calagione said there will be a limited-release, bottled version of Booze for Breakfast at Analog A-Go-Go. Besides at Analog A-Go-Go, Booze For Breakfast will be available at Rise Up’s Rehoboth location.

Tickets for Analog A-Go-Go are available at www.dogfish.com.