It's the brew
podcast.
It is the drive b.
Brought to you by Russian River brewing and
Victory House. Her linda Harass is back with
us international food and beer judge.
And 1 of our guests today is Renee
D luca Renee,
Pleasure to meet you. Very nice to be
here. Thank you so much, Steve. And you
are the daughter of
Jack Mc macarthur. Correct.
And it's all about, new A brewing,
and we're tasting some
recently brood,
Yes. The original recipe. And your dad's recipe.
Right? Yes. Yes. Our friend Don Barclay, Brew
at Men no brewing. He's here and back
with us. And tell us your story. I
mean, you're the daughter of a a major
craft beer dude. Yeah. Your father started this
in 76.
Correct. That is when he incorporated New A
and brewing company in Sonoma. I did not
grow up with Jack.
I found him a little later in life.
Oh, cool. Yeah. It was a story. And
when I found out what he was known
for, I said, you know, I always knew
I had beer in my blood, and I
wasn't wrong. I have enjoyed getting to know
Jack for the last 20 some years, and
we have bonded over the beer,
and
I now run the brewers daughter beer company,
which does business as new A, and I
licensed
Don who was Jack's head brewer
for a number of years. Right. I said,
sure. Go ahead and brew some for this
event that we have coming up at the
museum of Sonoma County,
which is happening here we'll talk more about
that with Linda in a moment. You started
taking Jack Mc macarthur. U. To
beer festivals and craft beer conferences and stuff.
And then you helped revive
the beer in 20 11. Talk about that.
Of the things we've done in getting to
know each other is bond over the beer.
And I said, Jack, how have you ever
been to a beer fest or 1 a
conference around craft beer, so big these days
he's like, no. I gave that all up.
You know, he had kinda become this elusive
figure in craft beer. Year. And I said,
well, I wanna go to the Great American
beer festival in Colorado. It's an annual event
in Denver here And so he came and
met me out there, and
we walking up and down the aisle were
in 2011
where all these... Breweries are handing out samples
of their beer.
And I said, Jack,
Look at what you started? What do you
think about all this? And he said, Obama
owes me a lot of money.
Because, of course, back then, that's when Obama
was in office and Jack's just a character,
And
I said, well, you started this, and then
it got
word around the hall. The jack was in
attendance.
And Jim Cook, who is the founder of
Boston Beer, Sam Adams as we know it.
You got Wind of it, and he said,
oh, I wanna meet Jack.
So we went to the Boston beer long
shot breakfast, which is something that... Yeah. Sam
Adams does
every,
Great American beer festival, they
award
a home brewer who submits their recipe
with brewing their beer, and they were announcing
that, And so I brought Jack to
the breakfast that morning,
that I got to stand there with the
folks from Boston Brew their P person, and
everybody else, and
Jim and Jack met for the first time.
And Jim said, oh, Jack, it's so great
to meet you. It's like meeting Sam Adams.
In that way that Jacob has very ef
vessel You know. And he said, I don't
know if you know this, and I'll tell
you we did not know this. He said,
in when the intellectual property from New A
came into the public domain after
you left New A and closed the business.
He goes, I retained it. Because I didn't
want the big guys of beer to get
the name New Album and do something with
it because Jim was
veer, Jack and randy A being, you know,
the start of the whole craft beer movement
and he knew what it meant. So he
had held onto it for all those years.
What a great story.
So. And we had no idea that that
is what happened. And I just found that
out today. I picked up Renee from the
airport. And she was telling me all these
stories because I'm like okay. You're gonna come
on the show and there's a lot of
myths out there about Chap Cola and New
A. There's a lot of legends, There's a
lot of myths and Legends the end.
Urban legends, and you know the real stories.
Yeah. And, you know,
it I got to meet her at the
Smithsonian Institute when the American Beer history, at
American history Museum, in 20 19 yeah 2000
and put in the the beer history museum.
Mh. And Jack was there if it's many
time. Jack was en ent. Yes.
There is a...
Display at the Smithsonian in the history news
museum dc if you go there, called brewing
a revolution, and it honors for May tag.
It honors Ken Gross and New,
and they had a party to launch the
exhibit in 2019,
and we're in the same hall as Julia
Child's kitchen. Which is pretty cool, man.
So when the when the history, the museum
of Sonoma County was gonna do this exhibit
on Baron Hops. And I said, I'm actually
friends with Jack Mc mcconnell S. They're like,
no way. And Like, I think I might
be able to get her here too. Yeah.
And, of course, any opportunity come have a
beer and honor jack and New A. And
I'm there for it. And Now, Jack is
still alive. He lives in a corner of
Northwest Arkansas where he retired,
and
he is in his late seventies.
He's doing up okay. But not in the
kind of health where he could travel. And
these days, I'm more or less telling the
story and keeping his name and, the legend
out there. Yeah. Says here you formed the
brewers
daughter beer company, and you've been running things
ever since. Yes. So what
was Jim Cook said come to Boston.
And let's reimburse some of your original recipes,
and we were like, okay. That sounds fun.
So we got in touch with Don Barclay,
who was the head brewer who still... Had
the recipes,
and we were in communication with the brewers
at Boston beer, and I got to sit
there and be a fly on the wall
the day we did the brewing and listened
to Jim Cook and Jack Mc macarthur, talk
about the early days of craft beer while
they were busy bring it. And john
John Hall, the beer writer we there and
really about it. And it was just an
amazing experience, and then they released the beer
a year
later was and brought Jack out with Jim
at the next Jb in 2012
and released the story to the world, and
they did a little beer tour. Renee, Dawn
Broccoli, and my father and I are gonna
go down to the russian pub tonight
afterwards and do a meat and greet. So
if you wanna come meet... Renee, Jack Mc
S and Don Barkley. We won't have the
beer, but you can come to the beer
Festival Saturday.
To try the beer... Renee, the Vip part
Starts at 4, and Renee is gonna tap
the c herself, How cool is that? Yay.
At 04:30,
and it goes 4 to 8, so a
lot nicer and colder. I
some memorabilia that I had, including the original
handmade, new A point of sale sign that
Jack used to make and anyone that was
carrying his beer, he would make this handmade
sign.
And so I donated 1 of those to
the exhibit and an original new A t
shirt. The t shirt I'm wearing that says
new A is from the updated beer.
But, yeah. So that was a lot of
fun rebooting it. And then Jim cooked did
this amazing thing and said, you know, Jack
you were a little ahead of the time,
and a lot of us made a lot
of money on your idea. So they had
released the new A that Boston Beer made
around the country, and he gave my father
all of the proceeds from the sale of
that beer. Holy moly. And he gave him
all the intellectual property back, He said it
belongs stayed you. That's so cool. Yeah. She
is Renee D luca. She is the daughter
of Jack Mc. New A brewing company is
acknowledged to be the first post
Prohibition micro
brewery in the United States,
and Jack Mc mcconnell founded it
in
19 76,
Where
did you grow up and where do you
live now, Renee? Oh, thank you for asking.
I
was an adapt d, which is why I
at.
Jack later in life. I was raised by
a very wonderful couple in suburban Washington, Dc.
They were from Ohio. Virginia.
Maryland actually. Think. Yeah. Right. Suburban Dc.
And
so I went to College in Ohio and
accidentally stayed for 30 years, and I live
in Cleveland, Ohio. And have, really done some
cool things with New A and some of
the brewers there. Cleveland has a great beer.
But I ended up working and live radio
and Tv in Cleveland for many years. You
know, I believe that because you're really great
right now. I'm the show and, you know,
radio You. The story a few times. Yeah.
Renee D luca with us, and
her Linda talked more about what's going on
at the museum of Sonoma County. The exhibit
goes all the way till September first, and
then we're gonna try to go over to
the site where her father started the brewery
in the town of Sonoma. Which I've never
walked through either. So this Saturday from 4
to 8, you can park across the street
at the mall. It's right near the mall.
People don't ask me, What do you mean?
There's a museum of Sonoma County. It's beautiful.
It's got columns and wood, and it's art
d and Marble. And from what I understand,
it's associated with the Smithsonian. It's this Smithsonian
and philly.
It was the post office it was built
in 19 16. It was a Santa rosa
post office.
And the sculpture guard, and they they have
the whole land on there that yeah from
when they moved the museum over back in
the seventies.
They moved it over there, and it's all
fence in, and we're gonna have the beer
festival in the sculpture garden
cooler time of day, 4 to 8 Nice,
along these different coal sculptures that are out
there and the redwood trees are shade, russian
river brewing,
pouring,
light and sponsor are also they're pouring as
well. Like an is a sponsor their point.
We're gonna have some different local Pod farm
brewing actually because they have a, they're actually
part of 1 of the other exhibits. U.
And Bruce Callum from Ke Brew housing to
come,
He's gonna come to the festival that's gonna
be kinda... Cool. Yeah guy. Yeah. Him and
his wife are gonna be there, they're gonna
be in the Vip part. So, at 04:30...
So if you go on, that
museum so c dot org,
or on their Facebook page as well, you
can get... The Vip is sold out. If
you've got your vip ticket if you win,
come down there. If you're in the news
biz, and you wanna can take some photographs
and things like that and meet Renee and
try this historic beer,
let it let them know when you're checking
then because we would like to get the
word out about this because what we really
wanna do eventually is get a historical
landmark, a real 1,
because this is history is national history. Yeah.
Not just California, or Sonoma County has. And
marking sonoma, this is where this craft beer
revolution
started. That's just so cool. Well, yeah. And
your dad Jack Mc macarthur
started new A brewing company in the town
of sonoma. Yeah. So he was in the
navy in the late sixties, and he was
stationed in Scotland. He was a welder
alps. For the nuclear submarines,
and he would go into town in the
evening and take part in
enjoy the porter ale and staffs of Scotland.
And he learned to brew while he was
there. And then he was discharged to Northern
California
from the navy
and was living in sonoma, and all there
was to drink at that era
was bud miller course.
Yeah. And he said, well I guess if
I want to drink those wonderful porter ai
and stout, I have to brew them myself.
So that's the inspiration for New A,
the name new A, Sir Francis Drake when
he, you know, found north in California. He
named it new A. I don't know if
you're knew that. And then the ship he
was on was the Golden Hi, and that
is the ship in that became part of
the label of new album bringing Okay. So
my dad had a sense of history and
very to Impart that to the beer. And
he retired. To what Northern Arkansas? Yeah. He's
in Northwest Arkansas... So after he left New
A,
he went to the banks about 8 years
into his...
Endeavor, and they didn't understand what he was
doing. They said, you know, starting a new
beer company. It's like starting a new car
company and going against Ford and Chevy. Why
would you do that? Yeah. He, no. You
don't understand doing something different, but they didn't
finance them. So he did go to work
with folks at Mend Brewing company for a
while, and he was 1 of the folks
that created Red tail Ale, which was 1
of their flagship. Bruce. 1 of my favorite
beers of all time wave. But Jack didn't
really like working for other people.
And so he went off he was an
engineer by trade and went off and did
other things and kind of was a little
bitter and disappeared from the beer world until
I've... Found him was reunited with him as
an ind.
My birth mother put me in touch with
him long
road to that... Old were you when you
finally met your dad. So I found Linda
found my birth mom when I was 30
years old. Wow, And a couple years later
was
reunited with Jack, who did not know of
my existence.
Wow when he found out about it, he
said it's a communist conspiracy.
But he and his family were very warm
and welcoming to me and it is been
a wonderful journey. And then we brew
the beer, and I started bringing him to
these conferences and events, and people like, oh,
check Mc macarthur is still around.
Jim Cook gave us the Llc property back.
Jackson said Renee, I wanna do anything with
this. I'm retired.
So why don't you run with it and
I have, and I've re brew some of
the beers with some Ohio breweries in the
meanwhile.
And the money that Jim Cook gave Jack,
he was able to build a little retirement
home on his sister's property in Northwest Arkansas.
Which he was on disability at that point.
And so
that is how he ended up in Northwest
argument, which he really enjoys. So tell me
what you were saying? About when people message
you, they're usually messaging from California or the
west. Because because California gets it more. They
do. And and while it's been very well
received in Ohio, and I lived in North
carolina for a little while and Raleigh Brewing,
actually brew the beer we had at the
Is Smithsonian event. I brew with Raleigh Brewing.
I've had Carolina partnerships with all these breweries
east of the Mississippi, but it's the people
from California that write to me the most
and say,
when are you gonna bring New A back
to California.
Want it? We miss it. Yeah. I believe
that. Yeah. That makes sense. It was very
popular. She is Renee to Luca? We're talking
about new a Brewing company, her father, Jack
Mc macarthur founded new A in the town
sonoma in 19 76. There's a lot going
on, We'll talk more about the big thing
at the museum of Sonoma County.