Yuengling Tour, Pottsville, PA.
I Have Been to the Mountain
This past Saturday I finally made the trek to the home of the “oldest brewery in America”. Something I’ve been looking forward to since I started collecting Yuengling cans this past March. A neighbor of mine, after viewing my Yuengling collection, suggested we make the trip. We set a date for a Saturday and decided to get an early start to make the 11:00 AM tour. Along with our wives we arrived at the Mecca of Lager by 10:00 AM. We were able to get a parking space directly across from the brewery, and since it was the weekend we didn’t have to feed the parking meter. The first thing we noticed were the images painted on the garage doors of the brewery’s buildings. Then we spotted the building on the same side of the street as our car, where a discontinued product was made, “Yuengling’s Ice Cream.” I wish they were still in the ice cream business. I would like to see if their ice cream was as good as their brewed products.
We entered the main building where a plaque states that they’ve been continuously brewing on this site since 1831. The original brewery was called the Eagle Brewery and was located on Centre Street in Pottsville. It was destroyed by a fire in 1831 and a new brewery was built on Mahantongo Street, site of the current brewery. In 1873 the brewery name was changed to D.G. Yuengling and Son. We were almost an hour early so we went into the gift shop. Besides all the Yuengling promotional items they sell, there’s a nice display of breweriana pieces including signs, bottles, and cans.
Note the two cans with the white background missing.
Can only wonder what this tastes like.
When the tour guide arrived we had over eighty people for the tour. It was some what crowded moving through the narrow stairways and different areas in the brewery. Did I mention stairways? There are plenty of stairs to climb. Stairs take you to each floor and down into the caves. You’re required to wear rubber sole shoes (no open sandals or Crocs) due to the stairs, wet floors, and for safety reasons. Remember this is not a tour of a large, modern, plant. Even though the equipment has been updated, the surroundings date back 177 years.
Since it was a Saturday the bottling and canning lines were idle which made it easier to hear the tour guide. The tour went from the brew kettles to the caves, where the barrels were stored before refrigeration was invented. Along the way there was a beautiful stain glass ceiling, and some great murals on the walls. The guide was very informative and amused us with both facts and humor. The tour ends with a visit to the watering hole were we were each allowed one plastic cup of a Yuengling product of our choice.
The next trip to Pottsville will be on a weekday, so that I can see the brewery workers in action.
