Greg Noonan, Craft Beer Pioneer, Passed Away

October 12, 5:02 PMBirmingham Craft Beer ExaminerGuillermo Woolfolk

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Founded by Greg Noonan in 1988.

On October 11th, 2009, Greg Noonan passed away in his sleep.  You may not be familiar with who Greg Noonan is, but he truly is a pioneer in craft brewing and its culture in America.

In 1986 while brewing beer at home as a hobby, Noonan published the book Brewing Lager Beer: The Most Comprehensive Book for Home- and Microbrewers.  This book is now known as mandatory reading for American homebrewers and microbrewers. 

By 1988, Noonan's passion and hobby became his business when he founded The Vermont Pub and Brewery in Burlington, Vermont with friend and business partner Steve Polewacyk.  At this point in time, brewpubs were not common in America.  This made it incredibly difficult for Noonan to raise funds to open his pub and brewery, but still Noonan found a way to fight and succeed.  Over twenty years later, The Vermont Pub and Brewery has won many awards and honors such as being named as one of the nation's 25 Best Breweries by the 1997 book America's Best Brews, three time Editor's Pick Award by Yankee Magazine, and was voted Best Place to Drink a Vermont Beer by the readers of Seven Days from 2003-2006.  The brewery's beers have also won awards at the Real Ale Festival, the Great American Beer Festival, the World Beer Championships, the Yankee Brewers Conference, and the Great International Beer Festival.  The Vermont Pub and Brewery remains Vermont's oldest craft brewery and the second oldest brewpub on the East Coast. 

Noonan went on to write several other books on craft brewing as time went on.  He wrote and published Scotch Ale in 1990, Seven Barrel Brewery Brewers' Handbook: A Pragmatic Guide to Home Brewing in 1996, and New Brewing Lager Beer in 2003.  It would be difficult to find many brewers in the nation who have not consulted Noonan's books at some point in their time brewing.

Greg Noonan is an inspiration to all craft brewers and homebrewers alike.  It is due to the actions of people like Greg Noonan that we here in Alabama are seeing a rise in craft beer culture and why we have an organization such as Free the Hops to fight for our rights to enjoy fine beer.  I had the pleasure to visit The Vermont Pub and Brewery while visiting family in Burlington last year.  It truly is amazing to see how successful that pub is and what it has done for Burlington's craft beer culture in the creation of so many craft beer friendly restaurants, brewpubs, and breweries in that area over time.  What has happened in Burlington as far as beer culture is what I hope will one day be created in our Birmingham.  Greg Noonan truly is a founding father of craft beer in America and hopefully with the passion of people like the members of the Alabama Homebrewers Association and Free the Hops we can emulate what he has achieved.  So raise a glass to the memory of Greg Noonan, he is one of the original reasons there is craft beer in it.