New Albion Brewing Company

New Albion Brewing Company

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Description
New Albion Ale was one of three styles of beer brewed at New Albion Brewing Company, the nation's first post-Prohibition microbrewery built from the ground up, which opened in 1976 and closed in 1982, in Sonoma, California.
New Albion was distinctive, in part, for being one of the first breweries to use Cascade hops in its beers. Cascade hops were a cultivar developed at Oregon State University and released in 1971. Taking their name from the Cascade mountain range in the Pacific Northwest, Cascade hops give floral, citrus, spice, and pine characteristics to beers, especially pale ales and India Pale Ales (IPAs). Cascade hops defined post-Prohibition microbrewed American beers as different from anything else in the world.
New Albion Brewing Co. was co-founded by Jack McAuliffe, Suzy Denison, and Jane Zimmerman. At the time of New Albion's founding, Denison was 43, divorced, and a mother of three children. Previously, she had worked as a bilingual secretary at the United Nations in New York City and studied music and composing. Denison moved to Sonoma when her eldest child was accepted to Stanford University. Denison and her friend Jane Zimmerman met Jack McAuliffe through an acquaintance. McAuliffe described his idea to build a brewery that would use traditional ingredients and artisan techniques to brew European-style beers in small batches--plans he had formed while serving in the U.S. Navy in Scotland in the 1960s. The two women supplied funding to open the brewery that McAuliffe envisoned. Denison and Zimmerman brewed and delivered New Albion's beer, using Denison's van. Zimmerman left the brewery less than a year after it opened but Denison stayed, working alongside McAuliffe and others, until the business closed in the fall of 1982.
Location
Currently not on view
Object Name
beer bottle
date made
1976
1976 to 1982
place made
United States: California, Sonoma
Physical Description
glass, liquid, paper (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 19.5 cm x 6 cm; 7 11/16 in x 2 3/8 in
ID Number
2020.0063.3
accession number
2020.0063
catalog number
2020.0063.3
Credit Line
Gift of Suzy Denison
See more items in
Work and Industry: Food Technology
Data Source
National Museum of American History
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