Daydream Playbook Entry #36

Some collaborations are a perfect fusion of two creative spirits interacting to create something incredible – and Dogfish Head’s Bitches Brew is a great example of one of our most memorable music partnerships with Sony Music. In this entry, learn more about how Bitches Brew, the album, inspired Bitches Brew, the beer, acting – quite literally – as the soundtrack to Dogfish Head’s off-centered brewing adventure.

"Bitches Brew (9.0% ABV)

Bitches Brew was one of our first beers inspired by music. We decided to brew this beer in honor of the 40th anniversary of the release of the iconic 1970 Miles Davis album, Bitches Brew. When I was drafting the business plan for Dogfish, I would listen to music, and Bitches Brew was an album I listen to a lot. That record was a paradigm-shifting landmark album in that it was really the first album that combined jazz and rock, hence the term fusion. It is recognized as the first jazz album that the term fusion was applied to, so to commemorate such an iconic album, we knew we needed to create a recipe for a beer based on the concept of a fusion.

For inspiration, I read Miles Davis’s amazing autobiography titled Miles. If you are a music or art fan, I highly recommend it. In it, he describes this smoky chili that his second wife used to make for him, which was his favorite dish in the world. After reading that, I knew I wanted to brew a beer that would be the perfect partner for Miles Davis’s favorite chili. It would need to have a roasty, sweet and strong flavor to stand up to a spicy chili dish. I got the idea to brew an imperial stout – a strong, inky, dark, beer.

Because the album itself takes inspiration from African culture, including the iconic cover artwork, we decided to incorporate African ingredients in the beer. We blended it with a version of the traditional Ethiopian-fermented honey wine called tej. Back when Dogfish was really small in Rehoboth, I brewed a simple version of tej honey beer, so I thought it’d be cool to bring back and brew the tej – which is essentially fermented mead that gets its bitterness not from hops but from a tree seed – for Bitches Brew.

We brewed a big vat of tej, but then in a separate vat we brewed a more traditional imperial stout. Much like jazz fusion, which blends different musical styles, our Wood-Aged Bitches Brew is a fusion of three beers: the Imperial stout aged on oak; the African honey-wine, Tej; and both combined were aged on Palo Santo barrels. The result is a brew chock-full of aromas of vanilla, licorice, and chocolate with flavors of roasted coffee.

Bitches Brew was among the first music-inspired beers that we brought to a national stage. Music has always been such an important part of my life but is also woven into the DNA of Dogfish, from writing the business plan for Dogfish while listening to Bitches Brew and beyond. This is one of the things that started off the thought of collaboration and just intrinsic work with music. And those similarities lead to a partnership with Sony Music and eventually the creation of Bitches Brew."