Pennsylvania Beer History and Culture

[music playing] Love it man.

Warm coffee by a warm fire.

The only thing better would be a cold beer.

It is 9 AM though.

But we are on site of one of Center county's oldest breweries.

Cheers to that.

Hey, I'm Matt.

And I'm Dustin.

And we are local historia.

As educators and historians, we are passionate about exploring and sharing local history all around us.

You may have seen us leading walking tours and shining a light upon the past.

Now, we're bringing you journeys with local historia.

Experience local history with us.

Let the journey begin.

On this episode, we journey into the vaults of three historic breweries across Pennsylvania.

And explore its history and culture through lager beer.

It's not obvious to the modern eye, but we're at the historic site of the Roopsburg Brewery.

This is where German Americans made some of the best lager beer in Central Pennsylvania.

How does rupertsberg story compare to other breweries in Pennsylvania?

What were their 19th century breweries like?

How were lager style beers produced and what did they taste like?

And how can beer help us better understand Pennsylvania's history and culture?

It's so interesting that there were so many local breweries like this one that are gone now but they all have their own interesting story.

Yeah, because you had to have one in every County, every town.

I mean, the world was a lot smaller back then and in the 1800s.

We have mass migration coming from Europe.

Yeah, I mean, if you look at census records, you've got Bavaria, and Baden Germany, and Wurttemberg, all coming and settling here in Center County and all across Pennsylvania specifically.

Yeah and this was Center county's only successful brewery in the 1800s.

And those Germans immigrants and German Americans were a big part of that story.

And it's something special was happening right here in Center County that was happening all over Pennsylvania and beyond.

So we're on our way to Penn Brewery.

I can't wait to see what this site has in store for us.

Yeah it's built on the site of a German American brewery.

And then also a current craft brewery.

So it's kind of the old and the new older all together.

It'll be really cool to see how beer has changed.

Or maybe not.

Maybe not.

Maybe how much has it stayed the same from those like German roots of lager and beer.

Yeah.

To modern day where we have lagers most people don't know where they come from.

Right.

How they're produced lagers getting more popular in the mid to late 1800s.

Millions of German immigrants are coming in all over the country and especially Pennsylvania.

And they're bringing their beer culture with them.

So it's neat that we're going there check it out.

Yeah.

It'll be cool to see, exactly what remains.

And then how they maybe use that today at Penn.

Yeah.

Well.

We're here at Penn Brewery in the historic North side of Pittsburgh.

Yeah, Deutschtown is a neighborhood with plenty of German roots.

Before we deep dive, I'm going to take a look at the original structures outside.

I'm going to go talk to Chris in the brewery, and I'll meet you in the locker room vaults.

All right.

I'll save you a drink.

You better.

We spoke with the folks at Penn Brewery to get a taste of its past, present and future.

This brewery complex goes back with my family.

Back to the 1860s.

It was a complex of breweries.

If you went down Troy Hill Road turn left right below the brewery here, and at the bottom of Troy Hill Road there was sterne Nagle and walker's brewery.

So it was right across the street they were all German immigrants.

This whole area was called Dutchtown.

Or Dutchtown.

Highly German, the Pittsburgh Brewing Company when they formed the merger in 1899 most of these breweries closed.

They came in here and they tore out all the old equipment left the building open.

And from there on out it was just totally deteriorated until Tom Pastorius came along.

So it's pretty much vacant from the 50s to the 80s when it was a preservation remodeling.

Yeah.

So they really saved a piece of history not all of it not all of it survived right.

But some of it.

Yeah.

And I have memories of family walking-- there's pictures of family walking through various parts of this place.

It's just amazing to know that your family went back to the 1860s here.

And you hear those footprints.

So Chris, where are we here at Penn Brewery?

So we are in the main brewhouse of Penn Brewery.

All right.

What happens here?

Give me the lay of the land.

So this is our main boil kettle.

OK.

This is where we're going to start mashing our grains.

Converting our starches into sugars.

And we send that whole mash mixture over to our lauter tun.

So the lauter tun is where we're going to start extracting all the sugars.

Once we extract all the sugars, we send them back over to our boil kettle.

Where we start adding bitter our hops for bittering and aromas.

Right.

And after that, we send it to fermentation.

We start making beer.

We see vaults everywhere here at Penn Brewery.

Can you explain what those were used for?

We didn't have modern refrigeration back in the day.

So they would build these caves in the Hillside.

And those caves would actually maintain about 55 degrees to 50 degrees all year round.

That was a perfect temperature for the lager in your beer.

So the lager basically is a clarification process or maturation process of the beer where it allows the yeast to fall out of suspension and they make the beer more crisp.

And clean.

And more enjoyable to drink.

OK.

So over the years here at Penn Brewery, many beers have been made.

What's it like to be a part of that history?

We at Penn have made those lagers for many years.

And it feels good to just keep that tradition going and show people what a true authentic German lager is.

The final ingredient for any great lager is time.

So we ventured into the hidden beer vaults beneath Troy Hill to see where these German lagers were aged in the days before refrigeration.

Here we go there's a good-- So this one doesn't go as far as the other cave this one you can almost see the back wall from here.

Yeah.

But it hooks to the right and connects to that other cave.

Wow.

OK. And then behind you, it hooks to the right here, and connects to a cave that's actually under the brewery.

Behind the small batch area.

OK.

So in the 50s, there were still some beer in here.

I wonder if there's any-- no probably not.

This goes down into the basement and then this goes up to the small batch.

Interesting.

So I'd like to have steps coming down and actually start like doing something.

In here.

Yeah.

My gosh.

Absolutely.

Definitely just looking at that decent looks like a clown horn.

I think so.

I think it's an air shaft.

I don't know if it's where they got water in.

Yeah.

Well that does go way up.

That's cool.

That's like-- looks like in the movie Alien.

This is where Alien comes out and eats us.

It's cool how it comes down too.

All the way into the puddle.

Exploring these caves really felt like going back in time.

And connected us with the deep German heritage that deutschtown was founded upon.

Man this place is so unique.

Yeah.

It's the perfect place to experience history.

With the site and the vaults, they've really done their part to preserve German history.

Especially by brewing good beer.

That's true.

Well, we are on our way to Bobby's brewery.

That's right, that's right.

Lancaster County.

So at Bobby's we're going to talk to Sam.

He is the owner and operator of the Brewery but it'll be interesting to see what still remains like we saw at Penn and like we've seen at Ruthsburg.

At Ruby's brewery, a lot has survived.

So like brewery structure, Cooper shed, Victorian hotel, beer vaults, are in Excellent shape.

There's just a lot going on.

We're here at the historic Boobies brewery in Mount joy Pennsylvania.

This site was established by German immigrants in the 19th century and the brewery complex is still intact today.

Let's check it out.

This unique complex features immaculately preserved beer vaults.

And a Victorian hotel.

In addition, its bottling works, ice house, Cooper shed, beer garden, and many other original artifacts make Boobies Brewery one of America's oldest intact 19th century breweries.

It's a perfect place to explore and get a better understanding of Pennsylvania's beer history and culture.

We caught up with the owner Sam Allen to learn more about this one of a kind site.

Situations like this complex were all over the country.

This is the only one left in the whole United States.

There are just simply no other breweries in their 1800s condition.

With the underground cellars the vestiges of that are still here we have the whole hotel.

The old breweries typically had a hotel at the brewery that was common.

You can still find a few of those in Germany but I know of no others in the United States.

And that's what makes the place unusual.

I'm bet it'll come as no surprise to tell you that Germans were not very impressed with English style ale.

English style ale at that time would have been warm, served absolute at room temperature and it would have been cloudy, almost milky looking you know it might have had stuff floating in it.

Their lager beer that was cellar aged and cellar stored and often served at cooler temperatures was also clear and it was a real wave of lager beer breweries being produced in America.

And the fact that Bube's brewery is just simply one of those and is still here I feel very compelled to make this place honored for its uniqueness and its place in brewing history.

And yeah, we've been all drinking and taking German lager beer for granted for a long time because it's just we think we think of it as American beer now.

But it really is German beer.

Sam toured us throughout the Boobies brewery complex to show us how beer was produced in the 1800s.

So what is this room?

This is the fermenting room.

Where they added yeast to the beer and began the fermentation step.

Is this all original?

These are the actual ones they used.

So wow, this is 19th century brewing equipment still here.

So the beer brewing process starts here in the fermenting tanks goes down to the conditioning tanks.

Exactly right.

And then it's going to go down to the lager vaults.

Gravity each time, you bet.

And I can see the conditioning.

Tanks from here.

Wow, these are incredible.

Can you tell us about the space and how they were used.

Gravity would bring it from fermenting tanks down to these conditioning tanks it would spend a week here.

And then it would move on and go through a hole in the floor there.

Can I open this?

Yeah open that up.

That's the catacombs.

The beer had to spend two months down there.

So these are really great.

It's amazing to see the process.

I'm anxious to see what's next.

Come this way.

We presume that they picked this spot to put a brewery because there was a hole in the woods.

And leading down to a cave.

And they knew they needed the cave to make the cellars and they used the hole in the woods to make a set of stairs to get down to the cellars.

So I love to say that this entire place is here because of that hole.

Yeah.

Leading down to a cave.

So it's interesting that local geology and geography were the perfect setting for this brewery.

Let's go take a look at where they used the geology.

So these are the catacombs.

You're in the catacombs.

Directly above us would have been the conditioning room.

Right.

That's where they did the carbonating.

And then the beer came down here and was put into a large lagering tank.

The catacombs would have had about 30 of these big lager tanks, because it was going to be down here much longer than the whole rest of the brewing process.

So how long did it spend in these large green tanks?

At least six weeks.

And we are very lucky to have four of these original lager ink tanks left.

Yeah, so at the Penn Brewery we actually found a lager in barrels as well but they're all rotted out not in as great condition.

You could see some of the barrels were a little bit more complete but most of them were rotted out.

Some old brews I've seen other remnants of other parts of breweries but usually not the laboring tanks.

So yeah, that's worth noting.

So this is the beer garden, right?

The beer garden also integral part of an old brewery, because it's a horse and wagon yard.

But also, in the beer garden, was the boiler and the chimney the exhausted the chimney smoke from the boiler.

The boiler ran all the equipment.

But now, it's our outdoor dining space.

It's part of our pub.

If you just want to come grab a beer and a burger, you can do that inside or outside.

So this was really fun.

We appreciate you taking the time to take us around.

How about we sample a beer?

What kind of brewery owner would I be if didn't give you a beer.

Come on.

All right, thanks.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Cheers to the Boobie family.

Cheers.

A lot of historic places simply become a museum where you come in the door and look at the place see all the artifacts and then go home.

I really want people to get the same experience in of what Mr Bube did here in the 1800s way, which was could lodge here, you could eat here, you could get beer here.

That's what you do now.

We make our living the same way Mr Bube did.

I think it's sort of fun.

Back in Center County where our journey began, we spoke with Jim Lanning about Ruthsburg, its legacy, and the mission of the property today.

This is what pulled me into this place.

So we don't know exactly the date of this photo.

But it's 1880s, 1870s, right at the peak of the horse brewery.

Obviously, the house is still there.

There's the brewery, there's the saloon, stables pasture, well, that bridge here, that's-- That's here.

Cross.

It's right here.

To where the mill goes.

Yeah.

So this is the stereograph.

And this one's neat because it does say Louis Haas Rupertsberg on it.

It's 1872 to 1882.

And then I borrowed one of these from a friend.

So you want to check it out?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So this is the stereoscope.

So this is from the same time period, late 1800s.

And it'll make that two images into one kind of crystal clear image and adjust it to it comes in clear.

Wonderful.

Wonderful.

Yes, very nice.

Thank you.

I had never seen one of these.

State of the art technology check it out man.

Yeah, it's the same angle.

Yeah just from a little bit higher.

Yeah.

So if you do it right, it'll go from two images to one.

Yeah, that's awesome.

One of the ways we know what was here other than the photo is these Sanborn fire insurance maps.

So house, brewery, the ice house.

The Stone hall, the vaults, stables, pasture, Spring Creek.

Here we go.

Just outside of Bellefonte Pennsylvania, the Ruthsburg brewery and its surrounding village was first established by a gunsmith named Jacob Roop.

Mr Rupe understood that it took good water to brew good quality beer and he started the Spring Creek brewery in 1826.

Roop's gunsmith house is still here.

But it was the master brewer Louis Haas from Baden Germany who took over in the 1850s expanding the brewery along with its reputation for superior lagers.

Business was good, Haas had the Spring Creek house built in 1860 and the spring mill was also constructed across the Creek.

The Roxburgh brewery peaked under Haas ownership in the 1870s.

And thrived until his death in 1882.

This is the location of the brew house which was fed by Spring Creek.

It had everything you needed to make good German beer even a Cooper shop.

Once it was brewed and barreled, you'd send it over to the beer vaults.

We're here at the entrance to the lagering vaults.

Now, the dance hall above us is long gone.

But the vaults where the beer would be stored remains.

The Ruthsburg beer vaults cut into the Hillside and were constructed in the 1850s when Louis Haas took over.

At the bed rock back there this one's so tidy compared to my gosh Simon Killeen.

Like this is limestone placed in here but then that's the bedrock.

Prohibition time, send up the hooch, right here that's the local law, which is pretty cool.

Compared to Penn and Bube's breweries, Ruthsburg was smaller in scale.

Center County was much less populated than alleghany and Lancaster counties.

Nevertheless, Hoss could sell as much of his famed lager beer as he was willing to make.

The one the one theory too is that this might have been used for a still.

Probably a small still in here.

During Prohibition days.

Because there's a lot of local Lore about this place being heavily used.

It wasn't open as a brewery, but it was heavily used as a speakeasy during Prohibition.

That's the story.

Cool.

According to the locals.

Hoss's death and changes in industrializing America made it harder for smaller breweries like Ruthsburg.

So sadly the brewery closed its doors for good in 1902.

Matthew volk was the last brewer to produce beer on this site.

He had experienced in Tyrone and Philadelphia and he was doing his best to live up to the Hoss legacy.

But business was declining in 1901.

And instead of paying for a new brewer's license for about $250 he closed the doors and walked off.

And where this story gets interesting, is when the local revenue collector came to check the property and see what volk left behind he found 100 barrels of beer laboring in the vaults.

Now, the revenue collector did what any well mannered revenue collector might do in that scenario.

And he took all 100 barrels and wheeled them down to Spring Creek.

Dumped them in.

The river ran with beer.

The beautiful, natural resources that made this brewery successful continued to be vital to the site's mission today.

This is camp breezy a peaceful and relaxing place focused on serving veterans.

It's all about the water here, and historically it always has been.

So Jim, when you got involved with this historic property did you realize what you were getting into all the history here?

It was our hope to have a place of great freedom and peace here.

So that's the reason why we did this, Denise and I.

Tell me about it now in the present, can't breathe see what's it all about.

The purpose of camp Tracy is to serve the veterans here within Center County and outside of Center County.

In addition, because I'm a conservationist by heart, we take care of the water here at Spring Creek watershed commission.

What does this place mean to you?

It's a place that I want to perpetuate.

We have to keep it and sustain our waters here.

And it really is all about the water.

And in this case, about the beer.

Yeah, cheers.

Yeah, really.

We thought a great way to honor German heritage was to invite the bavarian stompers to play traditional music.

Cheers to keeping the traditions alive.

To good German music, and good German beer.

[music playing] Each location we visited has its own unique story.

Penn Brewery and Bube's brewery have been able to preserve their history and once again brew beer on their original historic complexes.

Ruthsburg brewery, much smaller by comparison was completely abandoned but its history lives on in new ways, serving veterans and the watershed.

All these sites share common threads of 19th century America showing how German American families contributed richly to Pennsylvania's history and culture.

Wow, we really went into the vaults on this one, Matt.

We sure did.

But seriously, this journey has really helped us better understand Pennsylvania's history and culture.

One thing that really resonated with me on this journey was how breweries faced problems that were faced by many Americans at the time.

Yeah, late 1800s, breweries actually peak in America.

And especially the 1870s, this one peaked here as well.

And you have that industrialization going and you got a lot of challenges facing them.

You got technology, you've got temperance, you've got prohibition.

Yeah, and with the technology, you have refrigeration, you have bottling, pasteurization, so bigger companies can dominate the local breweries.

It's only very recently that we've seen a push back to local with local craft brewing.

Thanks for joining us on this journey with local historia.

Yeah, this journey really helped us understand Pennsylvania's history and culture.

Especially, through the lens of beer and German American heritage.