Imported Lagers

It was on Oct. 8, 1976 that Jack McAuliffe incorporated the New Albion Brewing Company in Sonoma. It was the first modern craft brewery in America. The following July, he began brewing and selling his own beer, inspiring countless early microbreweries and spawning an entire industry of craft brewers.

McAuliffe’s love of beer began in the 1960s, when he was stationed in Scotland as an engineer for the U.S. Navy. His job involved repairing nuclear submarines, but during his time off he discovered the flavorful ales of Scotland, English-style ales that were very different from the American lagers back home. He began brewing beer at home, teaching himself to make beer, and using his engineering skills to make his own equipment, too.

When he returned to the United States after his tour of duty, he finished college and worked as an engineer in Silicon Valley — and continued to homebrew. Eventually deciding that what he really wanted to do with his life was start his own brewery, he looked first toward San Francisco, but real estate proved too costly there.

So he opted for Sonoma, where he salvaged what he needed from scrap yards, welded dairy equipment and essentially built a brewery from scratch in a corrugated steel warehouse on land a few miles southeast of downtown. He christened the brewery New Albion, inspired by Sir Francis Drake, who dubbed the Bay Area Nova Albion when he sailed through in 1579, and by San Francisco’s long-shuttered Albion Brewery, which produced from 1875 until Prohibition began in 1920.

While New Albion was initially successful, making and bottling ale, porter and stout, it was ahead of its time and needed financing to expand and compete. But bankers didn’t take the idea seriously in those recession years, and the brewery closed in 1982. Not many beer lovers even know McAuliffe’s name.

A pioneer rises again

Sierra Nevada Brewing is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year by creating special collaboration beers with several early pioneers of craft beer — and they’ve persuaded Jack McAuliffe, who lives in Texas these days, to come to Chico and brew a special beer for the occasion.

Dubbed Jack & Ken’s Ale, it’s a black barley wine based on McAuliffe’s memory of a special beer he used to brew for his annual summer solstice party at the Sonoma brewery. That beer was known as Old Toe Sucker, with the origin of its name best left to the imagination. Available now in 750 ml bottles, it’s an interesting take on a classic English style, similar in some ways to the newly popular Black IPAs or India Black Ales. It’s a strong and hoppy beer (with 100 percent Cascade hops) and roasted malt lending a unique flavor profile.

An official holiday

Few people are as deserving of recognition for helping to start the microbrewery revolution as Jack McAuliffe, although Anchor Brewery’s Fritz Maytag is certainly a contender. But what New Albion did was create a model for starting from scratch, using just ingenuity and determination. Today there are nearly 1,600 craft breweries in the United States, more than at any time in the past hundred years. California alone boasts around 225, more than any other state.

It’s time to acknowledge Jack McAuliffe’s brewery as the birthplace of modern craft beer. The California Small Brewers Association is spearheading an effort to have the state of California recognize the birthday of craft beer as the date New Albion was incorporated. So, this Friday, raise a glass of your favorite craft beer to the legacy of New Albion. Next year, we’ll have a celebration to remember.