Five years ago today, while I was living in Beijing, I came across news that gave me renewed pride in my "native village," as Chinese people might put it (jiāxiāng, 家乡). A young entrepreneurial couple in the little city of Redlands, California, had decided to open a craft brewery -- at the local airport! For me, the ideal combo. On-scene pic:
Off and on in the time since then I have chronicled the growth of this Hangar 24 craft brewery, for instance in 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2012. I don't know what I was doing in 2010.
Now here is the 2013 report: Hangar 24 beer, flagship brew of Redlands, is now a featured item in the Trader Joe's in a chic shopping area of LA (the Farmer's Market on Fairfax and 3rd). That's its Columbus IPA and Double IPA as they appeared this afternoon, alongside the big-time brews:
Some people say that the pride of Redlands should be Landon Donovan, the talented-and-controversial U.S. soccer star. Some say ESRI, king of the geospatial-info business. Some say Brian Billick, Redlands High graduate and Super Bowl-winning coach. No offense to any of them, but today I'm nominating Ben and Jessica Cook and their teammates at Hangar 24.
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James Fallows is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and has written for the magazine since the late 1970s. He has reported extensively from outside the United States and once worked as President Carter's chief speechwriter. He and his wife, Deborah Fallows, are the authors of the new book Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey Into the Heart of America, which has been a New York Times best seller and is the basis of a forthcoming HBO documentary.