Dogfish Head Craft Brewery and Patagonia Provisions are partnering to scale up a collaboration beer made with Kernza, a perennial grain grown with regenerative agricultural practices.
Kernza Pils, a German-style pilsner, is the biggest launch yet of a beer made with the grain. The beer will be available “coast to coast” on draft and 6-packs of 12 oz. cans (suggested price $12.99) by the start of April.
Dogfish Head co-founder Sam Calagione said the goal is to make Kernza Pils (5% ABV) “a nationally distributed year-round beer” if consumer demand is strong, while also increasing the acreage of the grain planted by farmers.
“We intend to grow this beer assuming two very hopeful but realistic things,” he added. “Consumer demand is there, people dig the beverage as much as those of us that have tried it do, and the access to Kernza, the organic grains, continues to scale with the demand.”
Patagonia Provisions, the sustainable food branch of the popular outdoor clothing company, began partnering with breweries to brew beers with Kernza in 2016, starting with Hopworks Urban Brewery in Portland, Oregon. The 2016 partnership with HUB was at the “nascent stage” of getting the Kernza supply going, Birgit Cameron, co-founder of Patagonia Provisions, told Brewbound. Now, the company has the opportunity to take beers made with the grain to more consumers across the country.
“We couldn’t do that before,” Cameron said of scaling beers produced with Kernza. “Now we can because of Sam and Dogfish Head. This partnership is really, really important in that effort.”
For Patagonia Provision, scaling Kernza means taking it from a few thousand pounds of the grain used and a small amount of acreage planted in the ground to “potentially hundreds of thousands of pounds of Kernza used” and an increased interest from farmers in planting the grain, Cameron said.
“It’s like a 10x increase in demand and usage of this important grain,” she said. “So that’s key, and then the other is the awareness building around it. The fact that we can go coast to coast allows us to amplify the story and the reason why we have ‘drink up to draw down’ on the can and empower the consumer and our communities to be a part of this movement.”
The climate crisis is an increasing “state of emergency” for the planet, Cameron said. Partnerships with companies such as Dogfish Head help by creating “collective action” and raising broader awareness
“Our business mission, which is to be in business to save our home planet, so every decision we make ladders up to that,” she said. “And then that collectiveness of our two companies coming together to bring in broader impact is really key to making that happen.”
Kernza, with long roots (up to 12 feet) and perennial growth that allows it to thrive without the use of pesticides, was developed in 2008 by the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas. Kernza also uses less water than conventional wheat, which helps reduce soil erosion and removes more carbon from the atmosphere than annual grains.
Getting more acres of Kernza in the ground is admittedly a slow process. However, Cameron said these efforts go in stages, starting with transitioning to organic and then regenerative organic. The first Kernza crops were grown in Minnesota, and now the acreage is expanding widely.
For Dogfish head, the project fits within the brewery’s DNA, having brewed with culinary-inspired, local and organic ingredients since it opened in 1995, Calagione said.
According to Calagione, pilsner was chosen due to its approachability for a wider consumer base. Although not fully organic, Kernza Pils is made with around 85% organic ingredients, including Contessa hops.
“If Kernza is the rockstar ingredient, then the Contessa hops are like the rhythm section behind the rock star ingredient and it gives this amazing green tea and pear notes to it,” Calagione said.
Dogfish Head Rolls Out 90 Minute 19.2s, Variety Packs
This year, Dogfish Head is rolling out 19.2 oz. single-serve cans of 90 Minutes IPA with a convenience store focus as a “growth driver,” Calagione said.
The company is also putting out a year-round, seasonal variety pack that will be line priced with its core 12-packs. The current variety pack features 60 Minutes IPA, SeaQuench Ale, Namaste White, and Festina Pêche.
In addition to its spring beer variety pack, Dogfish Head is taking its “Bar Cart” canned cocktail variety 8-pack nationwide, featuring Strawberry Honeyberry Vodka Lemonade, Blueberry Shrub Vodka Soda, Blood Orange & Mango Vodka Crush, and Lemon & Lime Gin Crush.