50. Mark Burford and Peter Cotter

Rockville Centre native Mark Burford got a taste for homebrewed beer when he was, ahem, a minor. But now as a recognized brew-master, he gets the credit for helping to ferment a microbrew revolution on Long Island with his partner in suds, Peter Cotter, a self-described “Beatles Baby” from Smithtown, who has sampled beers large and small all over the world, logging more than a million miles with harmonica in hand. These two gents—who look like cousins, if not brothers—put Blue Point on the map as the Island’s first microbrewery in 1998. Thanks to their sweat and tears, the former Penguin Ice Factory in Patchogue now delivers ice-cold, unpasteurized kegs of guaranteed fresh brews, whether flowing freely in the tasting room or pouring from some 200 taps at watering holes around the Island plus elsewhere in select establishments throughout the East Coast. It’s a winning formula that’s quenched many a thirst. It certainly appealed to Anheuser-Busch, which snapped up their company for an undisclosed sum earlier this year and will now share LI’s homebrew with the rest of the country. So here’s a toast to the team that brought Toasted Lager to our lips—as well as Hoptical Illusion, Toxic Sludge and RastafaRye Ale, to name a few of our favorites.