Stoudt's Brewing Co. in PA Dutch country

   Watch for Amish horse-drawn buggies on the roads around Adamstown, Pennsylvania.  They may not be heading to Stoudt's Brewing Co. for a pint, but lots of other beer fans are.  Stopped off there a  couple of weeks ago in the course of checking out the site of the wedding this fall of daughter Tennyson and Gregg.  The Stoudt family started out with a restaurant here fifty years ago, an antique sales center forty years ago, and a brewery twenty-five years ago, in 1987.  Ed Stoudt got the first two going, but it was wife Carol who got the brewmaster's license and started cooking the mash--one of the very first women to do so.

  We enjoyed a good meal in the restaurant, then one of the next generation of Stoudts, Elizabeth, took us through the whole operation, starting with the brewery.

Elizabeth Stoudt is the cheesemaker for the business now. Behind the brewery section, one walks through a huge space (70,000 square feet) just devoted to antique sales by some 300 dealers every Sunday.  Past the antiques mall is her bakery and cheesemaking section, and an organic and good food market.  Elizabeth explained that she buys from local dairies that don't use pesticides, the process of getting certified as an organic producer is too time-consuming for a lot of these small dairies and they don't bother with it.  Back to the beer:  they focus on German styles, Kolsch, Pilsener, Helles, Gold Lager (much like Chuckanut at home, so my orange Chuckanut cap was suitable attire), along with IPAs and Pales.  Their stout does not play on the family name; it is called Fat Dog Stout to honor Ferdie, the family pooch.

(Visited 5/21/12)