North Coast Brewing Co.

North Coast Brewing Company was founded in 1988 as a small brewpub in Fort Bragg, a coastal town on California's Mendocino Coast. Founder Mark Ruedrich, a carpenter turned brewer, was drawn to brewing after a trip to England exposed him to beer with more character than the mass-produced lagers he'd grown up on. The brewery produced around 400 barrels in its first year.

Over the decades it grew into one of the larger independent craft breweries in the United States, known for full-flavoured ales and stouts, including barrel-aged and bourbon-finished releases. In 1996, North Coast acquired the rights to the historic Acme Brewing Company name, originally founded in San Francisco in 1907, and continues to brew under that label alongside its own.