Yet you immediately, in your blog entry on this, mention how DFH started a full decade after your west coast innovators?

“Well, as everyone in Oregon knows, the “extreme-beer experiment” was already well, well underway. Dogfish Head came to the party 20 years after it started.”

“Calagione founded his in 1995, more than a decade after craft beer had heated up on the West Coast”

Nice.

I actually think it’s unwise to talk about “American” brewing. Craft beer, more than almost any product I know, is local. There are a few key regions in the US that are distinct from one another–the West Coast (NW is yet distinct from California, though in degree only), the Upper Midwest, New Enlgand, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Rocky Mountain states. I wonder if what distinguishes Quebec from Ontario and BC has less to do with international than regional lines. Thoughts?

On the Canadian vs. American front, however, I do believe there is a cultural difference in attitude, with Canadian brewers being roundly more conservative in nature than their peers south of the border. The exception that proves this rule is the Quebecois, who are firmly rooted in Belgian brewing tradition — Achouffe once sold a full one-third of its production in Quebec! — and so are far more experimental than the rest of us.

FWIW, I don’t think it makes much sense to distinguish between Canadian and US breweries–if America can be called a region (perhps unwise)–then North America makes just as much sense.

Very true, Jeff, which is why I noted that the coastal dichotomy was an “undercurrent” rather than declaring that you say it straight out. It’s how I interpreted your responses, simply enough.

As a Canuck, I have no interest vested with either coast, or the vast swaths of land in the middle, so when I say that, for me, Dogfish certainly does qualify as one of the most innovative breweries south of the border, it’s because that’s what I honestly believe. In fact, every time I get ready to write off Sam as a brewing novelty act, he comes out with something new and extraordinary, Palo Santo Marron being the latest such beer.

Back to your comment: “…Dogfish Head isn’t, in my view, the brewery that embodies the spirit of innovation in American brewing.” So what brewery to your mind would embody such a spirit?

I don’t mind a disagreement, but it should be about my actual position. I never mentioned east v west.

Exactly. Although, if the New Yorker is paying expenses, I’m prepared to try ti find a story just a good in every US timezone.

Right now, though, I’m looking forward to Gose in Leipzig.

As the BA discussion makes clear, the story’s author spoke to many individuals on both coast and in the middle, before deciding on Sam as his focus. It could have been Tomme Arthur or Adam Avery, but it wasn’t, presumably because the best story was found in Delaware, and knowing all of these guys as I do, I reckon I’d probably have made the same choice. It’s not about credit; it’s about the narrative.