McAuliffe, an engineer, set up in an industrial park in Sonoma, making or improvising the parts he needed to make his own beer and building a business model as he went along.Īlthough New Albion closed after only six years, said historian Maureen Ogle, author of 'Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer,' the romantic image of an eccentric backyard tinkerer cranking out great beer has become the ideal to which modern brewers aspire, she said, even ones who have never heard of the man who set the mold. since Prohibition ended four decades before. Nobody had built an all-new microbrewery in the U.S. There was one major independent brewery - Anchor in San Francisco - but owner Fritz Maytag had bought and revitalized an existing brewery. Back in the U.S., all he could find were the pale lagers made by the likes of Budweiser, Pabst and Miller. McAuliffe began brewing his own beer after experiencing good European ales during a stint in the military. 'It's a great gateway beer for people who are just getting into craft beer.'Īnd that's very much where the beer started out almost 40years ago.

to brew the beer, starting with the flagship pale ale, using the original recipe developed by her father, Jack McAuliffe. She has a deal with Ukiah's Mendocino Brewing Co. An iconic Sonoma County brand name is returning to store shelves thanks to a daughter who wants to carry on her father's legacy.Ĭleveland-based Renee DeLuca says she is hoping to resurrect the legendary New Albion Brewing Co., founded in 1976 in Sonoma but shuttered since 1982, before the end of the year.

Ambitious Brew by Maureen Ogle