Beer Nut: Greenfield native Sam Calagione talks beer, baseball and the Grateful Dead

According to the old saying, the quintessential American things are "baseball, mom, and apple pie."

But last week, those symbols might have been tweaked a bit for some of us to "baseball, craft beer and the Grateful Dead."

Last Friday, Greenfield native Sam Calagione – who my readers probably know better as the founder of Delaware's Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ale s – threw out the first pitch at the Red Sox game – which also happened to be Grateful Dead Night at Fenway Park. This all came about when his friend and Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux learned Calagione would be attending the game, and he set things in motion.

Dogfish Head, of course, has long honored various musical acts, including the Dead, and in 2015 brewed a beer called "American Beauty" (after the album of the same name). This developed into a long-term relationship with the band, resulting most recently with this year's Grateful Dead Juicy Pale Ale. The beer was brewed in honor of the band's 60th anniversary, which coincided with Dogfish Head's 30th.

I spoke to Calagione on Saturday about the baseball event and the new beer.

Dogfish Head Brewing has released "Grateful Dead Juicy Pale Ale" in honor of the Grateful Dead's 60th anniversary.Submitted

Calagione said being on the mound at Fenway was "slightly surreal, but it also felt like sort of a homecoming."

"We [Calagione, his father and grandfather] used to go to games and some of my earliest memories are from those games," he said.

Calagione wore a special T-shirt which had been tie-dyed by Dogfish Head public relations coordinator Janelle Miley. But to take it further, Calagione then spent three nights painting the back and adding the number 5 in honor of Boston sports legend (and known Deadhead) Bill Walton.

"He was not only a great person and ambassador for the Celtics, but also for the Grateful Dead," Calagione said.

As far as the new beer, Calagione said that it has been the fastest-growing beer in Dogfish Head history – an encouraging sign at a time when overall national beer sales seem to be flat.

"I think it also shows that the 21- to 31-year-old demographic that doesn't seem to be drinking as much beer as previous generations is open to new ideas, but they have to be kind of special, and this beer seems to fit the bill," he said.

American rock band The Grateful Dead in concert, circa 1970. From left to right, drummer Bill Kreutzmann, lead singer Jerry Garcia and bassist Phil Lesh. (Photo by Don Paulsen/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)Getty Images

One interesting facet of Grateful Dead Juicy Pale Ale is the use of Kernza in the grain bill. Kernza is a trademarked name for the grain produced by a perennial wheatgrass and hailed as a sustainable and ecologically sound alternative to wheat due to its potential to improve soil health and reduce water pollution.

"It's closer to rye than barley; it has kind of a dry, peppery note to it," Calagione said about Kernza. "The beer is built around Azacca and El Dorado hops, so it has lots of mango, lots of pine and a lot of citrus. There is actually some oat and honey granola in there, too, so there is some sweetness from the hops and the honey, but then with the Kernza, it ends with kind of a dry, bready characteristic."

Calagione likened his company's ethos to the way the band worked. He pointed out that the Dogfish Head mantra is "our differences make us stronger" and that fits with the diverse backgrounds that made up the Grateful Dead.

"Jerry Garcia came from a bluegrass background. Phil Lesh was a classically trained jazz musician. Pigpen came from the blues, and Bobby Weir is a straight-up rock 'n' roller. So they all came from these different musical genres. And when they brought all their different skills together, it was very complementary and sort of created a new genre of music," Calagione said.

"So when I think of our team at Dogfish Head, with all my coworkers, from the brewers to the distillers to the graphic designers to the chefs, we all have a voice in creating new products. So we're on a creative journey in the same way the Grateful Dead was."