Brewing Up a Business: Adventures in Entrepreneurship from the Founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "My dad backed our red pickup truck beneath the second-story window of my dormitory bedroom..." (more)
Key Phrases: dogfish head, successful publicity event, other small breweries, Dogfish Head, Midas Touch, Sam Adams (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

For those who like their business advice mixed with tales of the trials and tribulations of starting a new business, this book will go down as smoothly as a pint of Immort Ale, one of Dogfish Head's signature brews. While chapters cover much tried-and-true territory, including entrepreneurship, marketing, sales, leadership, and employee relations, Calagione manages to keep the advice he dispenses fresh by relating it to his own often humorous experiences in starting what is now one of the fastest-growing breweries in the country. Stories of hand-delivering beer from a U-haul in dicey neighborhoods and securing labels with rubber bands after running out of glue attest to both the author's determination and his anything-goes entrepreneurial spirit. Solid writing and a no-nonsense style coupled with a welcome avoidance of business jargon make this an enjoyable and practical read for anyone either interested in the brewery business or thinking of creating his or her own start-up. Recommended for public libraries and large business/entrepreneurship collections.—Susan Hurst, Miami Univ. of Ohio, Oxford (Library Journal, May 1, 2005)

Product Description

Entrepreneurial dreams do come true! Starting with nothing more than a home brewing kit, Sam Calagione founded Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and made it America's fastest growing independent beer. This unconventional business story reveals how Calagione found success by dreaming big, working hard, and thinking differently-and how you can do it too.

"Rarely is a book as good as a beer but this one is. It's written with humor, humility, and passion, essential ingredients for any entrepreneur."
-Bob Guccione Jr. founder of Spin magazine and Gear magazine

"Brewing Up a Business will inspire both entrepreneurs and aspiring small business people to have the confidence in following their dreams."
-Jim Davis Chairman and CEO of New Balance

"Sam Calagione embodies the spirit of a true Delaware entrepreneur. Starting out as the smallest brewery in the nation, Sam's ambition, acute business sense, and vision have allowed Dogfish Head Craft Brewery to successfully enter an extremely competitive market as Dogfish Head continues to leave an indelible mark on the beer industry."
-Ruth Ann Minner Governor of Delaware

"Everything you want to know about succeeding in business you can learn from beer. At least you can if it's the remarkable story of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery. Brewing Up a Business is like a 'how-to' manual for entrepreneurs. With humor, creativity, and wisdom, Sam Calagione has crafted a new kind of business book that's as unique as his great beer!"
-Joe Calloway author of Becoming a Category of One and Indispensable

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Product Details

Check out these recipes from Dogfish Head Craft Brewery [388kb PDF]

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (May 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471708682
• ISBN-13: 978-0471708681
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #331,151 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars more about sam than the brewery, March 2, 2007

By	cocktail sage "cocktail sage" (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews

The book is well named - its more about entrepreneurship, and not very much about the beer industry, and frankly, its about Sam, and Sam's business, and what Sam thinks about Sam's business. There is a great deal about Sam's incredibly brilliant product strategy - and it **is** a brilliant product strategy!

If you are interested in the brewing industry / business, there is not so much here.

The book is entertaining although not that informative, and reads like many new age business books. The founder has been tremendously successful. Suggest "beer school" if you want to learn about critical factors in brewing industry.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Dogfish Head Recipe for Success, September 16, 2006

By	Bryan Carey "Bryan Carey" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I am a big fan of Dogfish Head beer and when I found out that brewer and entrepreneur Sam Calagione wrote a book about his company I was anxious to read it to see if Calagione had any interesting tips on the business of brewing and how he has made the Dogfish Head brand practically a household name among both beer geeks and beer critics. What I discovered with this book is that Sam Calagione has some good advice to offer brewing/restaurant entrepreneurs and others who have a pressing urge to start their own company. He has tried many different things, and his penchant for the unusual has proven to be a great success and it forms the backbone of his business.

Calagione spends the majority of this book discussing Dogfish Head Brewing from the early days of formation all the way to the point of maturity. He talks about his own business model and how it has helped transform his company. He talks about everything from innovation to employee morale to profit sharing to community involvement. He shows how his model of success has worked for his type of business and how the same model can be applied to other types of businesses as well.

This book see- saws back and forth between business guide and autobiography but it leans more toward the business side of the equation. Calagione frequently offers up his own company as an example of which business tactics work and which do not. Calagione has achieved a great deal of success but he has the humility to admit that he has also made his share of mistakes. He points these out in the book where appropriate, showing how a misstep here and a miscalculation there added up to exponential problems down the road and what you, the fledgling business owner, can do to avoid making the same mistakes.

Sam Calagione offers some good, basic advice on starting and running a successful company. His writing style is easy to read and his approach to business is a little different from other books of the same genre. Business books can often get boring and tedious to read but this one manages to keep the reader's attention through its simplicity and its personable style. It can get a little bit repetitive from time to time but the advice offered is generally sound and what Calagione says makes good sense. Also, one needs to keep in mind that this book is intended more as a business book for a newly minted entrepreneur. More experienced professional will not find very much useful here. Its targeted audience is the new or soon- to- be- new- small business owner.

One small disappointment with this book is that it's a business guide more than anything else. The reason I say this is because I was hoping to find out more about the man behind Shelter Pale Ale and Chicory Stout and not just a book about starting and running a company. Calagione does share a few personal moments from his past, like his expulsion from private school; his passion for beer; the role his wife has played in his success; etc. But other than this, the book is more about business than anything else.

"Brewing up a Business" is, overall, a good book for the budding entrepreneur and for beer geeks of all stripes and colors. Sam Calagione writes well and he offers up a good deal of humor to keep the book from getting too serious. He has achieved a great deal of success with his Dogfish Head Brewing Company and he wants to share this success with small business owners everywhere. With the right passion, innovation, and drive, a small company can achieve greatness and Sam Calagione is a tribute to this fact.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Maybe the only thing from Dogfish that isn't off-centered?, May 3, 2006

By	B. Milliron - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I love Dogfish Head. They are what started me on the road to craft brewing. Their beer is the most unique on the market and arguably the best too. I've met Calagione a few times, even got his autograph on a Dogfish t-shirt. He is somewhat of a personal hero.

The book is full of interesting tid-bits on the DFH story. I think every beer you want him to talk about is covered, though not too in depth, which is better because it's a business book, not a brewery book.

The only beef I have with this book is on Page 1 Sam talks about hating to read business books about when the company goes public, & the phrase "maximizing shareholder value". Then throughout the rest of the book though you'll read constantly the nauseating corporate lingo: Mission Statement, Vision, Goals, etc. Those of us who work in corporate America know and distrust this verbage. Maybe since Sam never sat in a cubicle he didn't realize how vomit-inducing this is. And on almost the last page, Sam brings up considering taking DFH public! Blasphemy.

Overall an interesting read & well-written insight into the behind-the-scenes DFH business. Could be a good guide for any entrepreneur: go ahead and be crazy but be serious about the business. It's in this that the book is not as off-centered as the brew. It can't be. Must be a good thing.

Well done Sam.