- Bottoms Up (RSS)Don Barkley, Mendocino Brewing founder, opening a new craft brewery in Napa
By William Brand
Thursday, February 28th, 2008 at 11:11 am in Uncategorized.
There’s a new craft brewing coming soon. It’s Napa Smith Winery & Brewery, in Napa. It’s a deal between a Napa wine-making family and Don Barkley, one of the founders of Mendocino Brewing.
Don retired from Mendocino last November. But he’s not retired from brewing, he says. They intend to unveil their first beer at the Napa Valley Mustard Festival at the end of March.
Who is Don Barkley? He was the first (and nearly the only) employee at New Albion Brewing, America’s first craft brewery, which opened in Sonoma in 1976 and folded in 1983. Among other things at Mendocino, the recipe that became Red Tail Ale is Don’s. Not a bad contribution to our craft brewing world.
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February 28th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
[...] William Brand is reporting that Don Barkley will be opening a new brewery in Napa, which will be called Napa Smith Winery & Brewery. Supposedly beer from the new brewery will debut in late March at the Napa Valley Mustard Festival, which suggests things must be pretty far along at the new brewery. [...]
October 1st, 2008 at 6:12 am
Did Don ever open this new brewery? If so, can you tell me the name of it.
Cheers,
Tbim – thebeerinme.com
October 1st, 2008 at 6:38 am
HI Beer in Me…Yes, it;s open. It’s called NapaSmith. Haven’t visited, but intend to soon. http://www.napasmithbrewery.com/home.html