Dogfish Head Craft Brewery is jumping into the growing fruit-infused beer market. The brewery is unveiling Flesh & Blood, an honest to goodness IPA, with the brew expected to be available nationwide starting July 4th weekend, “Flesh & Blood is brewed with real lemon flesh and blood orange juice, balancing the resinous characteristics of a hoppy American IPA with the explosive zesty fruitiness and subtle dry tartness of citrus,” a brewery released stated.
“Because we derive flavors and aromas from actual fruits you would recognize at your local farmers market and not jugs or buckets of flavoring created in a laboratory, you will not see statements like ‘brewed with natural flavors’ or ‘natural flavors added’ on our labels,” says Dogfish Head founder and president Sam Calagione.
Fruit- infused IPAs has been growing rapidly, according to Dogfish, which reported a growth rate in the category of more than 800 percent last year when compared to 2014.
The fruit IPA segment is expected to have its highest volume year ever in 2016 and continue to grow for years to come.
“We’ve been experimenting with fruit and citrus IPAs since 1996 when we released Aprihop, an IPA brewed with apricots,” Calagione says. “We kept on tinkering to release Hellhound On My Ale in 2011 and Sixty-One in 2012. Flesh & Blood represents two decades of tweaking and perfecting this style.”
Milton-based Dogfish Head reported a slowdown in its formerly rapid sales growth last year as competition intensifies in the craft brewing business and big companies like Anheuser-Busch Inbev snap up craft brewers.
Calagione said the slowdown was due to the search for a marketing chief and not resorting to discounting to build volume.
Dogfish Head is listed as the nation’s 16th largest craft brewer.
Dogfish Head has grown into a 200+ person company based in Delaware with a brewpub/distillery in Rehoboth Beach, a seafood restaurant in Rehoboth Beach, a beer-themed inn on the harbor in Lewes and a production brewery/distillery in Milton. Dogfish Head currently sells beer in 31 states.
