Celebrating Craft Beer Trailblazer Jack McAuliffe | CraftBeer.com

Jack McAuliffe founded New Albion Brewing, one of America’s earliest craft breweries.

Jack McAuliffe, who died in July at age 80, founded New Albion Brewing in 1976. He created a lasting road map to opening a craft brewery, proving that a basement passion could become a viable profession. “He showed a path from homebrewing to commercial brewing,” says Ken Grossman, who toured New Albion in the late 1970s prior to opening Sierra Nevada Brewing in Chico, Calif., in 1980. 

For CraftBeer.com, I looked at McAuliffe’s lasting legacy and how it continues to resonate today.