Delaware now has an honorary yeast strain. As you can probably imagine, it has something to do with Sam Calagione and Dogfish Head.
Calagione wanted to create a true Delaware state collaboration.
“Wouldn’t it be neat if in Delaware, we put together a project that celebrates how well all these different communities do work together here in Delaware,” he said he thought at the time. “Maybe in some small symbolic way, we can show that the communities can work well together, even at a time in D.C. when that really wasn’t happening.
So, he went to work. The beer is called Delaware Native Ale. It is a collaboration between Dogfish Head, Abbott’s Mill in Milford, Fifer Orchards in Wyoming (Delaware), the University Of Delaware (GO BLUE HENS!) and the Delaware State government.
Abbott’s Mill hasn’t been used for nearly 50 years, milling over 400 pounds of barley. Fifer Orchards and Calagione collected fruit flies to help carry the wild yeast strain. Yeast DNA was sequenced at U of D. The orchard also provided peaches and pears for the brew. DFH employee Chad Collier even provided some homegrown hops to DNA.
Honorary Yeast?
The yeast – dubbed DNA KA1, was made the states honorary strain by the Delaware Governor, Jack Markell in recent announcement about Delaware Native Ale.
Availability: Delaware Native Ale will be on tap solely at the Rehobeth Beach Brewpub, tapping for the first time on Halloween.
