Nobody Turns Down Beer and Ice Cream
Operators, Engineers, Vendors and just plain thirsty folk descended upon Pottsville, Pennsylvania on Friday, March 18th for the Yuengling Tour and Meeting. A near record 266 Attendees preregistered for this event, along with 82 Vendors and Sponsors. I wonder why?
For those of you who have been living under a rock (
you know who you are), Yuengling is America's oldest brewery, dating back to 1829. In fact, all you have to do is ask for "a Lager" in many places, and you will get a Yuengling, no questions asked.
One attendee was overheard saying "Wow, Phil Schwartz is a great President for coming up with this idea." OK, I cannot tell a lie. It was actually me who said that. But in reality, the idea came from Art Auchenbach and Carl Janson of Riordan who suggested I talk to Greg Unger of SDE (Systems Design Engineering). Greg connected me to Mike Misstishin of Yuengling, and the rest, as they say, is history. Seriously, many thanks go out to Mike and Joe Spotts, and the rest of the folks at Yuengling for their hospitality (
and $1 beers!)
Anyway, Yuengling recently completed the construction of a wastewater pre-treatment facility across the street from their original brewery. The treatment system, designed by SDE, is an anaerobic process provided by Veolia/Biothane and includes Combined Heat and Power (CHP) utilizing methane to create electricity and heat. It's pretty cool. Plus, the pre-treatment system was built in and around the old Creamery Building (constructed in 1920 during prohibition) that formerly housed Yuengling Ice Cream.
Attendees were given a tour of the pre-treatment facility and the original brewery, including the caves. A lunch and business meeting at the Pottsville Zone followed, which included $1 bottles of Yuengling and Yuengling Ice Cream (now a separate company from the beer). Thank you, Jill Jordan of Veolia, for your interesting presentation about the pre-treatment facility.
Here is a nice article about the facility from the Republican Herald newspaper:
