We arrived at the Yuengling Brewery in Pottsville, PA at about noon on Friday, which meant we had an hour and a half to kill before the tour would start. We checked out the Yuengling Museum which housed quite an impressive collection of beer paraphenalia and beer art, as well as Yuengling family momentos. We were surprised at the level of access we were granted in the building and the lack of security on the premises. On several occasions we waltzed right past the "employees only' signage to investigate rooms and areas not included in the public tour, including the brewmaster's lab and the tap room where we helped ourselves to some free samples ( see photo below). The tour itself was interesting but the tour guide could stand to drop the decibel level of her presentation a few notches. A few interesting highlights were the underground caves which were used to keep the beer cold before refrigeration was invented, and the fact that during prohibition the company survived by making ice cream and their classic Porter, which was available by prescription for medicinal purposes only! Another interesting tidbit is the fact that it takes approximately 28 days to create a batch of beer from brewing to fermenting to canning to finished product, yet on the very day that Prohibition was renounced, the Yuengling's delivered a a truckload of beer to the White House to assist in the national celebration.
The tour ended with a visit to the tap room, which we had already discovered pre-tour. The good news was you could drink any of the 7 varieties of beer Yuengling currently makes, the bad news was you were limited ( by some vague PA law) to 2 beers per person. We are currently investigating loopholes for the next trip.
The brewery has been family owned since it was founded in 1829 and each generation has to buy the brewery from the previous which led us to an interesting conclusion. Since the current owner, Dick Yuengling, has four daughters the empire is ripe for a coup. We tried to fix Ted up with Wendy Yuengling, who works in the shipping department and is the most visually appealing of the four. Who knows, if he plays his cards right we could be enjoying frosty cold pints of O'Hara Lager at the Plumstead someday!
6 comments:
nice group shot
where was goose?
2 beer limit?
did they have golden monkeys at the monkey joint?
Goose and Weist didn't make this leg of the trip. They went right to the lake and got in about 9pm. Surprisingly, the kind folks at the Drunken Monkey had never heard of Golden Monkey!
If you drink from the Yuengling tap and it doesn't stop (as seen in the Huey picture) - Does that count as 1 beer?
BTW - When does the "New Bill" get introduced?
yes...where is the new Bill?
excellent job on journaling your adventure for us...only wish we could have head the conversations you guys had!
poker pro--Loving the day's journal....branching out from your beloved "vocation" is a nice touch as well...well done chap.....love the beer swizzling photo as well clearly a classic.....
That was a great photo! Hell, still is! Huey should try to get some of the beer actually IN his mouth, it might help with the desired affect he is looking for.
What did the next loveliest Yuengling daughter look like? Maybe we can up the odds of a coup?
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