Back in the '70s, New Albion Ale was a game-changer for the beer scene, with some naming it the first modern craft beer. Unfortunately, it slipped out of production in the early eighties, when it simply couldn't compete with massive U.S. beer market. But all was not lost! The New Albion yeast strain has been preserved at the University of California at Davis since 1977, and the brewers of Sam Adams are currently recreating the classic craft brew.

Sam Adams and McAuliffe have produced a very good pale ale that is easily recognizable as the blueprint for the excellent California pales that came to define American craft brewing in the decade after New Albion's demise. It feels lazy and simplistic to say New Albion tastes like a proto-Sierra Nevada, but that's about the best description I can come up with.

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