Adventures in Beer from the Founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery

This book is a constant burn relaxing you, then exciting you with the desire to create a new anything. Sam Calagione pours his passion into each and every page. I couldn't put it down as I felt like I was sharing each success and failure along the way.

If you are expecting to learn anything about Dogfish Head Brewery and how it came to be, or if you are interested in brewing in general, this book doesn't have much to offer. It's mostly a collection of trite business advice, "Know Your Customer," illustrated with very short and superficial anecdotes from Sam's life and experiences. Some of these would probably be interesting if he spent more than a couple of paragraphs on them. I'm currently reading a book about watching yeast grow (White and Zainasheff) that's far more interesting.

In this reviewers humble opinion, this book is a rather fun overview of the founding and growing of Dogfish Head brewery. Though I did somewhat enjoy Sam's writing style and some of the witty stories, the book never really leans completely towards being either a true recipe for building a successful business or a fun and lighthearted read about the good and bad times of opening his own business. Instead this book lands somewhere in between.

I would say that those individuals with experience in opening a business, or having a college background in business or management would find the contents rather uninformative. It reads like a very beginner book for those who have thought about opening a business but have never really studied up on the subject. Unfortunately those individuals to whom this book is targeted, are the most likely to fail in opening a business. Reading this might open their eyes to much of the unseen costs and time put in to start up.

The book mainly centers around Sam's personal beliefs. It never really delves deeply into subjects such as licensing, raising startup capital, insurance, liabilities, theft, and planning. Instead he briefly touches on these subjects and then discusses his own personal beliefs and opinions on the subjects. "I think I did great because I had great people" or "Make sure to take some time off, I find that it really helps me creatively". Good words of advice, but not what I am looking for as a major source of information for opening a business.

I do love the craft brewery market, and this does contain some fun stories (though not enough in my opinion) so that is why it gets 3 stars.

Though I did find some anecdotes interesting, I think there are much better business texts out there that one should use as a guideline for opening a business, this is just one book that can be added to a collection of the many books you can and SHOULD read before starting a business.

Sam Calagione founded Milton Delaware’s Dogfish Head Brewery and gained a reputation for brewing off-centered ales for off-centered people. This is his story of his brewery. He exudes the entrepreneurial spirit and recalls a quote from Goethe: "Whatever you can do or dream you can do, begin it." The book is punctuated with sage advice especially about the importance of brand building but Calagione's mastery of guerrilla marketing provides one of the more important lessons for the aspiring brewer or entrepreneur. He inspires with his passion and strives to ignite the passion of those around him. This is less a book about the nuts and bolts of starting a brewery and more about the philosophy and character needed to start a business. It’s inspiring but as much biography as business oriented. If you want a blueprint for forming a brewery, look elsewhere but if you want a fun read, get this book. I give it 4 stars for entertainment value and would give it a star less for substance.

I read this book right before I started taking brewing science classes. I found it very informative, to an extent. It mostly reads like Sam's autobiography, and it is. But his writing style is engaging and easy to read. You'll finish the book knowing a little more about starting a brewery and a lot more about Sam.

Longing to get out of typical desk jobs and create something meaningful with my hours, I have been reading a lot of books on entrepreneurship. None have struck a chord with me like this book. It's a great story, but what I cherished more is the heartening way Mr. Calagione approaches business. It's exactly how I feel - do it right and let that resonate from you - and that noble spirit has yet to truly come forth from anything else I've read. I feel more confident about approaching my own dreams. I highly recommend this if you're thinking of chasing your own goals, whatever they may be.

When working on the business plan for my own craft distillery, I read this book several times and drew a lot of inspiration from it. It's packed with a lot of details and inspiration. Sam seems to do everything wrong from an MBA's standpoint, yet still through force of personality overcomes the obstacles to success. I loved it.

An encouraging book if you're looking to start your own brewery which we have. There are other books if you want to know the science behind brewing but this book will give some great marketing ideas. Akin to Richard Branson's "losing my virginity"

This "book" is just one really long press release written by the brewery's owner. He goes on for 200 pages about how cool his company is. How "outside the box" they are. It's all a little self-indulgent and amateurish. I was looking for a little more of the logistics of starting a business, not an ego-stroking diary.