STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
OK. So when I travel from work to someplace like Boise or Kansas City or Dallas or Ann Arbor, I might grab a beer at some point. And if I do, I might ask the bartender for a local beer, something made right around there. If you're like me, you have somebody to thank - Jack McAuliffe, who died earlier this month at the age of 80. Many years ago, in the 1970s, McAuliffe co-founded the New Albion Brewing Company, which was the first microbrewery established in the United States since Prohibition.
BART WATSON: It was really the first new startup, where they built a brewery from scratch and started making the style of beers that Jack had drunk when he was in Europe.
INSKEEP: Bart Watson is the president of the National Brewers Association, which represents the thousands of small and independent craft brewers in the United States today. Those craft brewers consider McAuliffe a trailblazer who broke into the American beer market that, after World War II, really just had two options.
WATSON: The U.S. market was becoming one that was American lager and American light lager. And the craft beer revolution and the home-brewing revolution were really built around brewing Old World styles. So think things like stouts, porters, pale ales, you know, German lagers that weren't really getting made here.
INSKEEP: McAuliffe was introduced to these beers while serving in the Navy in the 1960s. He was based in Scotland and fell in love with British ales. He came back to the U.S., and he met Suzy Stern and Jane Zimmerman. And together they launched the New Albion Brewing Company decades before craft brewing really started to explode. He scavenged for equipment in junkyards. He tried out new flavors of hops - one of the ingredients of beer - because traditional hops could only be bought in bulk. The company made less than 500 barrels of beer per year.
WATSON: To open it at that time was really to scratch and claw and build it yourself because there wasn't a marketplace for small brewers the way there is today.
INSKEEP: The New Albion Brewing Company only lasted six years, but Watson says McAuliffe's influence outlived it.
WATSON: You know, it really takes those pioneers to start a movement who show that something that everyone thinks is crazy maybe isn't as crazy as they thought. And, you know, New Albion was one of those breweries that inspired other small breweries to open.
INSKEEP: In a way, New Albion lives on. The Boston Beer Company, which makes Sam Adams, bought the trademark to McAuliffe's old brewery and revived his original recipe in 2012. Boston Beer eventually gave the rights to New Albion back to McAuliffe, who in turn passed them on to his daughter. She has worked with some modern microbreweries to keep making New Albion beer, so cheers.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BEER")
REEL BIG FISH: (Singing) That you're my friend, and I'll say, I think I'll have myself a beer. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.