Albany beer lovers with long memories call him the “Godfather.”
That’s because Bill Newman was at the forefront of the craft beer movement, making quality beer for years in a former mattress warehouse.
Before Newman’s Pale Ale was first sold at Albany’s Washington Tavern in 1982, there were no microbreweries east of Colorado and fewer than 100 breweries of any kind in the entire U.S. Today there are nearly 10,000 breweries, including dozens in the Capital Region, according to the Brewers Association trade group…