Fruited Sours and IPAs Are This Dewey Beach Brewery’s Specialty  

Photo by Caroline Coral

The co-founder of Dewey Beer Company and a Swigg Real Wine Craft Beer & Spirits representative share details about a new release.

Dewey Beer Company opened its doors for the first time in 2009 with a desire to bring incredible craft brews to the First State. Now, years later, it has done just that with its unique flavors such as the Swishy Pants IPA, Key to the City of Dewey Beach and its delicious sours. It is also well-known for its delicious fusion dishes that pair perfectly with the unique brews.   

Delaware Today spoke with Dewey Beer Company co-founder Brandon Smith and Caroline Coral from Swigg Real Wine and Craft Beer Spirits in Wilmington about the Dewey Beach brewery’s great success and the latest brew series, the Secret Machine.  

How did Dewey Beer Co. begin and start selling at Swigg Real Wine Craft Beer & Spirits? 

Brandon Smith, co-owner of Dewey Beer Co.: We are in our seventh summer in our original Dewey Beach location, which is also a restaurant. This summer we also opened a production facility and tasting room in Harbeson, Delaware. We got our start back in 2009 home-brewing in our kitchen and garages, experimenting away with every type of style. Before Dewey Beer, we worked in restaurants throughout the beach areas. It was fortunate timing when a building came up for lease in Dewey where we envisioned our Dewey Beer brew pub.  

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Caroline Coral, operations manager at Swigg Real Wine Craft Beer & Spirits: We love working with local breweries and always have plenty of Delaware beer on hand. Dewey has been a Swigg favorite for a while, largely because of the one-of-a-kind beers that they’re producing.  

dewey-beer-co
Photo by Caroline Coral

Why do you love carrying their beer at Swigg? 

Coral: Each week when we get our Dewey delivery, it’s a surprise—some weeks we’ll get a case of Cactus Whacked-Us, a country lager brewed with jasmine rice, or Hot Wax IPA, and inevitably, a new flavor of their Secret Machine series.  

Can you talk more about the new Secret Machine series? 

Smith: We’ve been making our Secret Machine series since 2017. It was only available at our location in cans and draft until recently. Back in 2016, we started to notice these colorful and delicious fruited beers popping up, so we started experimenting to figure out how to do it. They quickly evolved and soon enough became very popular. The name was fitting because it was a bit of a mystery at the time of how to make a beer dance and be so vibrant with fruit. The beer itself is technically a kettle sour, and we really puree fruit mainly. We’ve also done pie variations, [and] cupcake, brownie, ice cream and sherbet variations.  

How have guests been reacting to this beer? 

Coral: Our clientele has been loving Dewey’s Secret Machine series. These blended fruit sours are made with fresh fruit and other dessert-y ingredients like pie, brownies, and macarons. These beers tend to sell out quickly but we’re always getting new flavors of the series.  

How can customers purchase it?  

Smith: Now that we have our production facility, our to-go refrigerators have a nice selection of different Secret Machines. There is also a very limited distribution through Otherside Beverage in Delaware and Maryland.  

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Coral: Dewey Secret Machine is available at Swigg, $20 for a four-pack. We always carry Dewey’s flagship Secret Machine, Blueberry, Blackberry Raspberry, as well as a rotating roster of other fruited sours. 

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