The oldest brewery in America, and one of the best factory tours I’ve ever taken – and I’ve taken a few.
The brewery was founded in 1829 in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and has been a family business ever since. In fact, the current owner, Dick Yuengling, met us at the door as we were coming in.
As with any factory tour, you have to wear closed toed shoes. However, if you came in sandals, they have shoes for you to borrow. I’m glad I wore my sneakers.
While we waited for our FREE tour to state, we looked at the souvenirs.
We met our tour guide, Sharon, and she took us to the first stop on our tour, the rack room.
Back in the day, there was a team of four guys who used to fill the kegs. They would take turns bringing the empty kegs, positioning them, filling them, hammering in the bungs and then hoisting them on to the racks where they would sit until they were shipped out.
It sounds like they worked like a well-oiled machine, until real well-oiled machines took over.
The cave was hand hewn and provided natural refrigeration. It was in the 50s down there. As Sharon said, “This was the original man cave.”
Almost a century of brewing came to a screeching halt in 1920, with the beginning of prohibition. The federal government sent worked to brick up the cellar, and part of the wall remains.
The Yuenglings are a thrifty lot, as hands-on business owners are. They reused the wood from the old vats to make display cabinets in the gift shop.
What to do during prohibition? Well, they did make some beer. Interestingly, pregnant women and nursing mothers could still get beer, and beer was available by prescription through a pharmacist. I think pretzels were still available over the counter.
They also started another business. They made ice cream.
It was in business from 1920 – 1985. Recently, though, it was reintroduced. Sharon didn’t touch much on the ice cream. For her, it was all about the beer.
This painting was the day prohibition ended.
On the way to the brewing room, we passed the cellar where all the beer is measured and taxed. The taxes are applied before it is sold, so they have to be careful not to spill any.
They have a stained glass ceiling over the brewing kettles. It’s there to keep the sun coming in from the skylight from hurting the workers’ eyes. It was made in 1881.
In the old days, all the kettles and tubs and such were made from copper. It was a point of pride to keep the copper bright and shiny.
Can you imagine how bright a whole room full of copper would look at high noon on a sunny day?
They weren’t brewing the day we visited, but we could still get the idea of how all the ingredients came together.
Corn grits, malted barley of different flavors and hops. Their hops come from Washington State.
Murals of the coopers
The bottle washers didn’t look too happy. Sharon told us that it was a particularly hot and unpleasant job. Now a-days, machines take care of the dirty work.
Speaking of machines, on to the bottling plant. The bottling plant wasn’t running either, but you could kind of get the idea of how things worked.
And that was pretty much the end of the tour. Oh, except for the pub!
Sharon poured two samples for each of us. I tried the Black and Tan for my first cup and the Traditional for the second. I liked them both.
While we were waiting in like, we examined what hops look like before they are processed into the pellets they use in their brewing.
And here were are, on our way out.
Still upright.
Oh, and if you are curious about the future of the company, Dick Yuengling has his daughters lined up to take the reins.