Jack McAuliffe is one of the most significant figures in United States brewing history.

He's also one of the most elusive.

As a young Navy technician servicing Uncle Sam's nuclear sub fleet, McAuliffe found himself stationed in Scotland, where he developed a taste for the indigenous ales. When he returned to America, he couldn't find any equivalent beer, so in 1976 he used his engineering skills to fabricate his own brewery out of cast-off dairy and soft drink equipment.

New Albion Brewing Co. in Sonoma, Calif., was the country's first modern microbrewery built from the ground up, a harbinger of the craft beer revolution to come.

McAuliffe marketed an ale, a porter and a stout that attracted national attention, including an article in the July 9, 1978, Washington Post. But he found it impossible to make a living turning out dribs and drabs in his 45-gallon brew house. McAuliffe drew up blueprints for a larger brewery with a pub attached, but the United States was slogging through a recession and bankers weren't interested in lending him the money he needed to build. New Albion folded in 1982; McAuliffe left the beer business and never looked back.

By that time, however, he had inspired about a dozen other entrepreneurs to cobble together their own breweries. Among them was Ken Grossman, founder of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. in Chico, Calif., which is on a pace to make 750,000 barrels this year.

To celebrate 30 years of brewing, Grossman coaxed McAuliffe (now in his 60s and living in San Antonio) out of retirement to collaborate on a limited-edition anniversary brew.

Brew day was May 25. "I hadn't seen him in 25 years at least," Grossman said about McAuliffe, who he said had been in an automobile accident the previous year and had lost the use of one arm. "Mainly he supervised and sampled."

Jack and Ken's Black Barleywine Ale recently debuted in 25.4-ounce corked bottles. A deep mahogany color with a ruby glint, the heady brew has a sweet, almost sugary taste up front, giving way to a bittersweet chocolate flavor mid-palate and a hoppy, slightly floral finish.

Although it measures a formidable 10 percent alcohol by volume, the anniversary beer avoids the hot, solventlike taste that mars many young barleywines. It should age gracefully, as live yeast in the bottle chew up the remaining sugar molecules to yield a drier, more complex beer over time.