Retired smokejumper Bill Moody spoke about his former supervisor, Francis Lufkin, July 15 at the Old Schoolhouse Brewery Taproom in Twisp.
Old Schoolhouse Brewery debuted Lufkin Amber Ale on July 15 with a party at the Taproom in Twisp.
The 15-keg batch of the ale is a follow-up to the brewery’s Smokejumper Amber, which came out about two years ago. Lufkin Amber is named after Francis Lufkin, a pioneer smokejumper who made one of the first experimental jumps in 1939. He also was on the second smokejumper crew ever to jump into a live fire, in 1940 up Little Bridge Creek. Lufkin managed the North Cascades Smokejumper Base in the Methow Valley until he retired, in 1972.
Bill Moody, a retired smokejumper who worked for Lufkin, spoke of his boss at the brewery’s celebration. “He made a lot of men out of — I could use different terms for what he was working with,” Moody joked. If Lufkin was hard to work for, then Old Schoolhouse may have offset that by creating an amber that’s “lighter and more approachable” than the earlier Smokejumper Amber, said Jacob Young, a brewery co-owner.
The brewery’s latest release is also a fundraiser. One dollar from each pint sold goes directly to crew at the North Cascades Smokejumper Base, Young said.
