One of America’s Most Iconic IPAs Just Became a Light Beer

Dogfish Head lightens up with its first Minute Series IPA since 2011.

Published January 10, 2025

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Decades ago, Esquire called Dogfish Head’s 90 Minute IPA “perhaps the best IPA in America.” Legend has it that brewery founder Sam Calagione used a vibrating football game to gradually shake hops into boiling wort over an extended period, thus giving birth to a concept known as “continuous hopping.”

That device now belongs to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. As for the beer? Some drinkers might consider it a relic, too — greatly admired but an artifact of an era that has come and gone.

Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA has an ABV of 9 percent.

The truth is that much has changed since the aggressively hopped, high-ABV trailblazer burst onto the scene in 2001 — including, for example, drinkers’ thirst for big beers. Boozy stouts and IPAs, once all the rage, have largely made room for low-alcohol, or even no-alcohol, alternatives.

Leave it to Dogfish Head to brew a new path forward.

The brewery’s latest offering, 30 Minute Light IPA, is a 95-calorie beer within its Minute Series, and the first new offering to join 60 Minute IPA, 90 Minute IPA and 120 Minute IPA since 2011.

a can of beer next to a glass — The nutritional info of 30 Minute Light IPA: 4 percent ABV, 3.6 grams and carbs and only 95 calories.

Even more notable is the fact that the beer has an ABV of 4 percent and just 3.6 grams of carbs, putting it on par with the current king of light beer: Michelob Ultra (95 calories, 2.6 carbs, 4.2 percent ABV).

“By continually hopping 30 Minute Light IPA, we cracked the code on an approachable, lighter IPA option that doesn’t sacrifice on taste or quality,” Calagione said in a press release.

Small beer, big picture

Of course, 30 Minute Light IPA is not the first of its kind. So-called session beers have been around for decades, even if they’ve become something of an obscure species on craft-beer shelves. In fact, Dogfish Head already makes one called Slightly Mighty.

low calorie beer — Dogfish Head 30 Minute Light IPA isn’t the brewery’s first low-cal beer; Slightly Mighty was released in 2019.

That said, 30 Minute Light IPA shows the brewery doubling down on the premise of a low-calorie, low-ABV beer as the broader industry struggles to convince drinkers to, well, keep drinking.

Total US production among craft brewers went flat in 2022, according to the Brewers Association, and brewery closings outpaced openings for the first time in decades in 2024. Meanwhile, Michelob Ultra recently became the country’s best-selling domestic beer.

can of michelob ultra — Michelob Ultra currently ranks as the country’s top domestic beer. Modelo is the only beer that outpaces it in terms of sales.

It’d be a lot to ask of Dogfish Head, now part of the Boston Beer Company, to turn the ship around on its own. Longtime fans might even see 30 Minute Light IPA as a white flag of sorts. After all, Dogfish Head built its brand making “off-centered ales for off-centered people,” usually using wild and wacky ingredients.

But if craft beer hopes to put a dent into the sales of Michelob Ultra, it likely needs more low-calorie, low-alcohol options like 30 Minute Light IPA.

The beer is now rolling out nationwide in 6-packs and on draft.