yuengling. america's oldest brewery, located in pottsville, pennsylvania. in 1829 the eagle brewery was established by david g. yuengling (from germany) on centre street in pottsville, but in 1931, it was completely destroyed by fire and a new brewery is built in the current location of mohontago street. during prohibition, the brewery switched to producing near beer products and continued to produce only near beer until the end of prohibition in 1933. they remain the oldest brewery in america with a second brewery 3 miles from the orignal and a third in tampa, florida. i took the tour and boy was it worth it. it was free and you get to sample the brews in a small pub at the end of the tour. the tour takes you all through the brewery from top to bottom (which is literally underground...you are marching around through caves, hopping over puddles and getting dripped on by god knows what...i was hoping it was just water, i was afraid to look up...talk about creepy. they store the beer underground because it is the same temperature year round. (if you care about stuff like that, i just thought it was an interesting tid bit). a useful tip...wear shoes, not flip flops or open toes shoes...otherwise, you have to pick a pair of shoes from the shoe room, a room which was filled with shoes, rather than beer...
<<<<<these are the shoes i chose.
you are required to wear proper footwear for your own safety so you don't end up like me (dead, for example) or stub your toe...so don't grumble too much about it, it's your own fault for not wearing sneakers. there's a lot of climbing up and down stairs, and like i said you are stumbling around in dark caves (just kidding, they have lights...kind of)
so if you aren't up to some exercise, you may want to pass. have no fear, though, after all that work, they give you a beer (or two if you are nice, ie: tip!) and you can relax for a few minutes before being herded into the gift shop, check it out, they have some pretty cool stuff for sale! (everything but beer, i mean)
on to my next adventure...
