By Nick Tricome

Copyright phillyvoice

There are a lot of shared connections between Garnet Hathaway and Sam Calagione.

Hathaway, the Philadelphia Flyer, grew up in Maine, and Calagione, the founder of Dogfish Head Brewery, first learned how to brew in the same state.

They each have a love for hockey, too, with Calagione calling back to his high school hockey days and how his school used to play Hathaway’s, although that was across different eras.

They also hold local first responders in high regard.

Hathaway was named after his great grandfather, who was a fireman in Winnipeg that he grew up hearing heroic stories about, and served as the inspiration for his, and his wife, Lindsay’s, charity initiative “Hath’s Heroes,” where they host first responders at games throughout the season dating back to Garnet’s days with the Capitals.

Calagione, meanwhile, recalled the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and how his Delaware-based brewery shut down and repurposed its distilleries to produce hand sanitizer as fast as his team could for first responders throughout the area, and how that cause remained close to their hearts.

Finally, Hathaway and Calagione both love beer, which all culminated in the production of Hathaway and Dogfish Head’s Engine 19 IPA, which had its official launch in collaboration with the Flyers on Wednesday night at the PHS Beer Garden on South Street.

The beer was designed over the course of the past year because of a constant back and forth between Garnet, Lindsay, Calagione, and Dogfish Head, from the recipe, to the name (bearing Hathaway’s jersey number), down on to the final details of the can and packaging designs.

And part of the proceeds from the new IPA’s sales will go toward supporting local first responders, to continue the Hathaways’ and Calagione’s drive to help and give back.

“Tonight, especially, I think it’s a surreal moment,” Hathaway said as the doors opened on Engine 19’s launch party. “But it’s one that has been a year of hard work from a lot of different people, a lot of different groups, Flyers Charities, Dogfish Head, our Flyers PR, and it’s coming out tonight where we get to celebrate.”

“So having my own beer, it’s wild, but it’s way bigger than that,” Hathaway continued. “It’s a group of people trying to support our first responders around Philly. So tonight, it’s going to be a celebration.”

“It’s incredibly poignant and meaningful,” Calagione said. “When COVID happened, in Delaware, we had to shut down all of our restaurants and we repurposed our distillery to stop making gin, rum, and vodka and start making hand sanitizer for the first responders throughout Delaware. So it’s a cause that’s dear to our hearts as well, and Garnet tells the story about his great grandfather up in Canada, who was a fireman. This is an homage to his work and kind of paying it forward.”

Flyers fans and various first responders quickly filled PHS to try Engine 19, while also getting the chance to meet and mingle with Hathaway, some of his teammates, the Dogfish Head team, and a couple of Flyers alumni like Mark Recchi.

The current Flyers are already back in town and skating again in Voorhees, just ahead of training camp and a new season – under new head coach Rick Tocchet.

Wednesday night was a bit of a means for them to celebrate those renewed hopes, too, before getting fully back at it.

“There’s a lot of excitement about where we can get to with hard work,” Hathaway said. “I think we’ve set the stage of how hard we can work, and now the next step is improving on that.”

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