McAuliffe, John "Jack"
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Brewers Association
label: Collection Interviewer
content: Harry, John
label: Collection Interviewer
content: Johnson, Paula, Curator
label: Collection Interviewer
content: McCulla, Theresa
label: Collection Creator
content: National Museum of American History (U.S.)
setName: label: See more items in
content: American Beer Brewing Oral History Collection
label: See more items in
content: American Beer Brewing Oral History Collection / Series 1: Born-Digital Interviews
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 748.34 Megabytes (Total Running Time: 01:14:08, audio/wav)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2019-03-09
container: label: Container
content: Item NMAH-AC1595-BDA0052
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Audio
label: Type
content: Megabytes
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Oral history interview with John "Jack" McAuliffe, co-founder of New Albion Brewing Company, operational in Sonoma, California, from 1976 to 1982. McAuliffe talks about his early childhood in Honduras and Colombia, where his father was stationed while working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In 1953, McAuliffe's family moved to rural Fairfax County, Virginia, in the expanding suburbs of Washington, DC. McAuliffe talks about childhood interests in building things and welding. Other topics include McAuliffe's service in Scotland for the U.S. Navy, where he worked as an engineer repairing submarine antennas; his introduction to homebrewing and pub culture in Scotland; his return to the U.S. in 1968, when he moved to San Francisco and continued homebrewing; and his idea to open a microbrewery in Sonoma. McAuliffe talks about the steps involved in opening the brewery, recognized as the first from-the-ground-up microbrewery; the nature of work there; his relationship with other figures in the early years of microbrewing, such as Fritz Maytag, Michael Lewis, and Ken Grossman; his decision to brew with Cascade hops; customer and media interest in New Albion's beer; and the ethos of 1970s northern California. McAuliffe also talks about his 2013 collaboration with Jim Koch of Boston Beer to brew New Albion Ale.