Dogfish Head Launches Ready-to-Drink Canned Cocktails

Best known for its beer, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery has also been distilling spirits for nearly twenty years. This secret, especially for those of us on the opposite coast will finally get to dabble a bit in this line as Dogfish Head Distilling Co. launches a new scratch-made, ready-to-drink line up of Canned Cocktails.

The canned cocktail category is rapidly growing as its currently trending up +46%* as the future continues to look promising as demand builds. Dogfish Head is the latest brewery to launch a lineup of canned cocktails joining others such as Rogue Ales & Spirits, 10 Barrel Brewing, and Boulevard Beer to name a few.

Rolling out nationally, except for a few states that includes Oregon, is the distillery’s lineup of Canned Cocktails that includes three off-centered recipes – Blueberry Shrub Vodka Soda, Strawberry & Honeyberry Vodka Lemonade and Cherry Bergamot Whiskey Sour. Each recipe was crafted using Dogfish Head Distilling Co.’s house-made spirits combined with all-natural, high-quality culinary ingredients to create a liquid masterpiece. It is said that this lineup tastes as if it was poured straight from a bartender’s shaker tin. The lineup of Canned Cocktails begins hitting shelves in 4pk/355mL slim cans this week.

“A lot of folks don’t realize it, but Dogfish Head has been distilling spirits for about two decades, and we actually released our first ready-to-drink bottled cocktail back in 2017,” said Sam Calagione, Dogfish Head Founder & Brewer, in a statement. “Just like our award-winning spirits, our Canned Cocktails were born from blissfully inefficient recipes, the overactive imaginations of our uber talented co-workers, and a distinct distilling process centered around innovation and boundless creativity. While our spirits have been available to those throughout the Mid-Atlantic for some time, our Canned Cocktails are the first opportunity for off-centered people nationwide to drink in and explore the goodness that is Dogfish Head Distilling Co.”

Here’s a preview of the Dogfish Head Canned Cocktail Lineup.

• Blueberry Shrub Vodka Soda(7.0% ABV) – Inspired by the James Beard Award-nominated bar program at Dogfish Head’s geographically-enamored seafood restaurant, Chesapeake & Maine, in Rehoboth, Delaware, this scratch-made Canned Cocktail begins with Dogfish Head Distilling Co.’s vodka distilled with blueberries. It is then macerated with lightly sweetened balsamic and red wine vinegar to create a blueberry shrub vodka and is blended with soda water. The ensuing deep, burgundy-colored libation is juicy and subtly sweet from the blueberries, with a slightly sour and complex fruity character from the vinegar.  *A. Spirits Awards “Best-In-Show” winner in the ready-to-drink category.**
• Strawberry & Honeyberry Vodka Lemonade(7.0% ABV) – Inspired by Sam’s visits to his friend’s honeyberry farm in coastal Maine, this scratch-made Canned Cocktail features Dogfish Head Distilling Co. vodka distilled with honeyberries, macerated with strawberries and blended with a house-made lemonade. Light coral in color with a fresh-squeezed lemonade haze, it exudes the well-balanced tartness of fresh-squeezed lemon combined with a sweet berry taste.
• Cherry Bergamot Whiskey Sour(7.0% ABV) – Developed to accentuate the nuances of Dogfish Head Distilling Co.’s malt whiskey, this ready-to-drink Canned Cocktail takes whiskey distilled with tart cherries and highly-fragrant, citrusy bergamot oranges, and blends it with a house-made sour mix. Light amber in color, it is chock full of oak and vanilla whiskey flavors balanced by notes of citrus and dark cherries with a hint of honey, lemon and bergamot.

“Dogfish Head Distilling Co. has always been focused on building our recipes around enticing combinations of natural culinary ingredients in their rawest forms; never adding flavorings or bringing in bulk-spirits for re-distillation,” said James Montero, Dogfish Head’s Innovation Manager for Beyond Beer, in a statement. “This commitment has allowed us to produce a wide array of award-winning vodkas, gins, rums, whiskeys and more, and has helped us build a loyal cadre of spirits drinkers. I’m proud to share that that same level of rigorous care was used when creating the recipes for our ready-to-drink Canned Cocktails.”

In creating this lineup, Dogfish Head Distilling Co. spent hundreds of hours honing its Canned Cocktail recipes, using a number of stringent R&D processes to inform its quest for excellence. From conducting quality control analyses and tasting panels to garnering feedback from guests at Dogfish Head’s coastal Delaware restaurants and taproom, the development of these Canned Cocktails was recognized and rewarded in late 2020.

“We knew we weren’t going to officially release these tasty cocktails until early 2021, but we just couldn’t contain our excitement any longer,” said Calagione, in a statement. “So, we submitted a preliminary sample of our Blueberry Shrub Vodka Soda to the L.A. Spirits Awards and it ended up winning “Best-In-Show” in the ready-to-drink category. What an awesome way to kick-off the New Year and celebrate the soon-to-be launch of our latest endeavor!”

For more about Dogfish Head Distilling Co. and its NEW lineup of scratch-made, ready-to-drink Canned Cocktails, please visit www.dogfish.com/distillery.

*IRI Total US MULO+ Conv thru 1/3/21.
**Available nationally, except in the following states: PA, AL, NC, MS, MT, OR, WY, WV, UT, VT, SC, IN & MI.