Apr 22, 2011

Adventures of Jared:
The first weekend in April, I made a trip to Pottsville, Pennsylvania for a rockin’ bachelor party weekend. My buddy, Scott, is getting married at the end of May, so the Best Man, I’ll call him Awesome planned a wild and crazy weekend in Pottsville, PA. Now, you’re all probably wondering what the heck is in Pottsville, PA. I’ll give you couple of hints: It’s not Las Vegas (duh), it’s not Atlantic City (remember we went to PA), it’s the D.G. Yuengling and & Sons original Yuengling Brewery! Wooo everyone get excited! This weekend wasn’t anything close to the Hangover, so get your minds out of the gutter, my PTTR’s (Pretty Tasty Things readers); it was just a fun weekend touring, learning, and definitely drinking our fair share of guess what? Yuengling Beer. Now don’t expect much from this walk through (like specific dates and descriptions of what you see; I went on this tour several weeks ago, and I’m lazy…I didn’t write anything down…we’re going off the memory my parents gave me…YIKES!)

The Original Brewery built in 1829. This site still makes the tasty Yuengling beverages, but at a reduced volume. They recently built a ginormous manufacturing center near Pottsville, PA.

Our tour guide, Sharon, mentioned that when the original Yuengling settled in Pottsville, his goal was to build a brewery. For some reason, he decided to build it 8 inches away from the only other building in Pottsville, a Catholic Church. The exact reason, I don’t remember, but I think it has something to do with Pottsville mainly being an Irish settlement. Yuengling is from Germany. Maybe there was some bad blood there?……..wait, I just remembered why they chose this sight. There is a natural spring in the hillside beyond the brewery. To make beer, you need water. Don’t forget that.

See I told you it was America’s Oldest Brewery. The sign says so.

The tour starts here.

Down in the underground dwellings of the brewery, we listen to our tour guide, Sharon, tell the story of speak of “I once caught a fish this big”…haha.

Actually, she was talking about the the original keg filling process. The items in the crates are made of cork. Back in the day, they plugged the kegs with these. Everyone on the tour got one as a free souvenir.

Original wooden kegs on the left and futuristic metal kegs on the right.

Since they made beer prior to refrigeration, the Yuenglings had to find land with caves. The caves would allow for a cool, constant temperature year round. Also, I think the real reason they chose this area was due to the natural spring.

This brick wall was constructed by the federal government during prohibition (1920 – 1933, look how smart I am). I think it cut off the natural spring preventing any beer from being made.