Sam Calagione, a self-confessed Deadhead, experiences his best mornings on his 18-foot cutter out on the Atlantic, fishing and listening to the Dead. After carefully navigating the channel near his Delaware home to the right spot, he drops the anchor, presses shuffle on one of the three iPhones he brought with him (two as a backup in case he drops one in the water), and waits for the striped bass to bite. Then the charismatic brewer, who founded Dogfish Head Craft Brewery with his wife Mariah in 1995, can work on his tan, sip a beer and completely immerse yourself in the world of the Dead.
“I try to listen to the Dead for at least an hour every day,” he says with a grin during a visit to ROLLING STONE’s Midtown Manhattan offices, where he relaxes in a small conference room after marveling at the iconic photos on the magazine’s walls – including one of Jerry Garcia and his crew. “It’s like the doctor saying, ‘An apple a day.’ I take two IPAs and an hour of Live Dead a day and that seems to keep my head clear.”
The brewer, who appears casual in a bright yellow hoodie with the ROIR record label printed on it, and his business partner, Canadian-born Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux, in a short-sleeved shirt under which he hides Grateful Dead accessories all over his body, laugh together.
Two Deadheads, one vision
“I like that,” says Lemieux. “We should recommend that to people.”
“Better than ‘Take two and call me in the morning,'” counters Calagione.
Calagione and Lemieux have worked closely together since 2011, when they launched the partnership that made Dogfish Head the official beer of the Grateful Dead. Their first collaboration, cleverly marketed as “American Beauty,” was a strong pale ale—albeit a premium brew in a champagne bottle, intended for special occasions. The partnership continued, and they have since made the beer more accessible. Calagione sums up this spirit: “Let’s brew beers that prove that every day is a special occasion.”
This attitude also fits the vision of the people who run the Grateful Dead’s business. The band’s team at Rhino, the Dead’s label, initially brought up the idea of collaborating with a beer company – as an extension of the Grateful Dead branding, which includes everything from skis to skateboards to shirts and wallets, because a cold beer before or after a Dead show is simply “part of the Grateful Dead culture,” explains Lemieux.
Misfit Power in a glass
Some in the band organization initially wanted to work with a big beer company, but luckily someone brought Dogfish Head into the mix. “Bob Weir famously said, ‘The Dead are Misfit Power,'” says Lemieux. “So the Dead are huge, but also kind of weird.” Together, the Dead and Dogfish Head developed beers with this Misfit spirit that everyone can afford today.
Calagione leans forward in the conference room and opens two cans that he brought with him in a bucket full of ice. “You don’t have to drink both, but at least try both to get an idea of how we thought about making them very balanced but still distinct from each other,” he says. [Anmerkung der Redaktion: Wir mussten das Bier nicht austrinken … aber wir haben es trotzdem getan.]
The Grateful Dead Citrus Daydream Lager is medium bodied and not overly carbonated. It’s just bitter enough without leaving an aftertaste. The Grateful Dead Juicy Pale Ale, on the other hand, is deliciously bitter with tiny, tingly bubbles that never overwhelm the palate. It’s a pale ale through and through.
Sustainability as an ingredient
“We said: Let’s brew two very accessible and complementary but distinctly different beers,” explains Calagione. “Both have exactly 5.3 percent alcohol, so they are very beginner-friendly ABV. Both use two different types of hops, and each contains a particularly sustainably grown grain.” The company brews the Juicy Pale Ale with granola and a grain called Kernza, which Calagione says “sequesters about 10 times as much carbon from the atmosphere as an acre of traditional malting barley.” They make the Citrus Daydream Lager with lime, lemongrass, lemon peel and the grain fonio, “an African grain that has been cultivated since before humans invented the wheel.”
Calagione is genuinely concerned that Deadheads understand that the brand is on their side, that Dogfish Head shares the same values - such as sustainability – and “that we are serious and fully committed.” He says he is honored that the Dead and Rhino have allowed Dogfish Head to use iconic artwork, such as the Dead’s dancing bear in the past and, for current beers, the “Stealie” (i.e. the “Steal Your Face” skull logo) on their products.
Another way to show their commitment to Deadhead culture is through limited vinyl releases. Dogfish Head is the official beer of Record Store Day and has been involved since 2025 via a series of limited-edition Grateful Dead compilations called “On a Back Porch.”
Rare recordings, newly discovered
The third volume was published last Saturday. It includes six rare live recordings, including 1976’s “Samson and Delilah,” a nine-minute version of Chuck Berry’s “Around and Around” from 1978, and the band’s biggest hit, 1989’s “Touch of Grey,” among others. As with his predecessors, Lemieux worked closely with Calagione, his son Sammy, and a friend of Sammy’s named Dash to select their favorite recordings – some of which were selected on the brewer’s boat.
“As with beer, these albums are some of the most straightforward co-productions I’ve ever done,” says Lemieux. “We produce these albums in minutes. A few text messages, done. The ‘Samson and Delilah’ from June ’76 – Sam wrote, ‘Hey, what do you think of this?’ I know it well because everything on it is from previously released Grateful Dead albums that are out of print on vinyl or CD. So we like to go for deeper cuts. It was great fun making them. To me, they’re almost like a beginner’s guide to listening to the Grateful Dead.”
Lemieux knows firsthand the need to delve into the Dead’s extensive catalog: He has worked with the band since 1999 and has personally listened to every one of the 1,800 recordings of Grateful Dead concerts in the band’s archive. In his estimation, around 1,500 of them were good enough for publication. It took him about eight years to listen through it all, and since then he’s taken notes for another eight or nine years as he plans the group’s archival releases – as well as his personal favorites for his “Dave’s Picks” series, which has been running since 2012. He estimates he now spends at least six hours a day listening to the Grateful Dead. “I’ll never get tired of it,” he says, beaming.
The “Frenzy Point” and the X Factor
When he says this, both ROLLING STONE and Calagione want to know how he knows what’s good when comparing 1,500 concerts. “I listen to moments that are different,” he says. “When I was at Dead shows, I called it the ‘Frenzy Point.’ That’s the moment when the band – six people on stage – hits the X factor and you feel the energy in the room, and all of a sudden 36,000 fists go up in the air in Madison Square Garden because it’s a discharge. It can happen once a night, or 10 times. It can happen during ‘Me and My Uncle’ or during ‘Scarlet Begonias.’ I listen too on when Jerry gives extra emphasis to a line of text or Bobby [Weir] screams a little louder on ‘Estimated Prophet’, where he freaks out at the end of the song. If it gets a little more extreme and intense, that means they’re really feeling it.”
Lemieux recently helped launch a new streaming service called Play Dead through Nugs, which offered more than 400 full Grateful Dead concerts on day one — 20 of them previously unreleased — with more on the horizon. “We will release two shows a week, so 100 shows a year,” he says. “The ultimate goal is to bring the entire archive online.”
The archivist also recognizes the Deadheads’ desire for physical products (like Dogfish Head’s “On a Back Porch” LPs) and says there’s no end in sight for his own “Dave’s Picks” compilations, with a new major box set released every year. While he’s excited about a surprise release to be announced later this year, he’s especially excited about what 2027 has in store. “It’s the 60th anniversary of the first album, the 50th anniversary of ‘Terrapin Station,’ the release of ‘The Grateful Dead Movie,’ the famous Cornell show, the famous Englishtown and New Jersey shows,” he says. “There are a lot of big anniversaries in the world of the Grateful Dead next year. This year has a few, but next year is going to be a big year for us.”
Vinyl, beer and Deadhead identity
“On a Back Porch” offers a handy sample – or perhaps the analogy of a beer flight is more apt – of what the Dead’s archives contain. “Live concerts are where the magic happens, and these records are a good place to start,” says Lemieux. “These are really great albums, and they feature 45 minutes of released but hard-to-find Grateful Dead music. We love it.”
The band’s special records and partnership with Dogfish Head are part of a larger culture, according to Lemieux. “First and foremost, what we do is music,” he says. “For Deadheads, I think it’s part of their Deadhead identity to show it. Right now I’m wearing Grateful Dead socks, a Grateful Dead belt, a Grateful Dead phone case, a Grateful Dad hat and a Grateful Dead wallet. Not because I get it for free, but because I really like that stuff. Our identity is being a Deadhead. I think we all thought one Drinking beer is part of the Grateful Dead lifestyle, and that was ultimately the deciding factor: it fits the Grateful Dead lifestyle.”
Similarly, Calagione says he has always admired the community that Deadheads have built. “The way the Grateful Dead community put audience first and commerce second certainly influenced how we built the Dogfish Head brand,” he says. “We’ve never let the tail of money wag the dog of inspiration on Dogfish Head. That’s why this has truly been the most rewarding collaborative project we’ve ever had, and the longest-lasting. It’s so nice to see people my son’s age, in his early twenties, getting as deeply into the Dead as David and I did back in the day.”
Calagione is also eager to attract new fans. As he leaves, the brewmaster pokes his head into another ROLLING STONE conference room, introduces himself and tosses Dogfish Head/Grateful Dead hats to those present. “You get a cap and you get a cap,” he shouts. And of course he left a bucket full of the band’s cold beer for everyone.
