USA, PA: Snitz Creek Brewery opening in Lebanon

Joshua Schucker, the head brewer at the soon-to-open Snitz Creek Brewery in Lebanon, began brewing first batch of beer on December 5. It will be the first batch of commercially brewed beer in Lebanon County since the Lebanon Valley Brewing Company ceased operating in 1959, Lebanon Daily News reported on December 8.

"It's exciting," Schucker said. "I think it's something the area needs."

Schucker, who has been homebrewing for five or six years, has a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Lebanon Valley College. He worked at a lab in Harrisburg for about 16 years, testing drinking water and soil.

"Brewing beer is basically a combination of chemistry and microbiology," he said. "It's not viewed that way because it's beer, but the process is chemistry, so yes, it does translate."

Schucker, a Newmanstown resident, has been working full-time at Snitz Creek since the beginning of November. He said using his degree to make beer is much more fun that analyzing water and dirt.

"This is the best usage of science that I think mankind has ever come up with," he said.

When homebrewing, Schucker normally brewed 5-gallon batches and said he has never operated a system as large as the one at Snitz Creek. Moving from 5-gallon batches to a 7-barrel system (there are 43 gallons in a barrel) can be tricky, he said.

"It's not necessarily a linear scale from a 5-gallon homebrew batch to commercial equipment," he said. "There's efficiency changes in commercial systems versus a homebrew system. But there are are proven calculations to try to ramp all these things up and keep the final beer quality, the beer gravity, the alcohol content, the hop bitterness units."

While the brewery's first batch of beer was being brewed on December 5, it will be at least a couple weeks until the brewpub opens. Owner Patrick Freer said he is hopeful it will open before the end of the year.

"The big stuff is done, and now it's a lot of little stuff," he said. "It can be overwhelming at times, but we got the people in line to do everything so we can get the brewery ready for inspections in the next week or two."

Although no commercial breweries have operated in Lebanon County in more than 50 years, the county actually has a rich brewing history. More than 30 breweries of various sizes operated there between 1759 and 1959.

The complex of red-brick buildings on North Seventh Street where the Lebanon Valley Brewing Co. is located was home to three different brewing companies between 1856 and 1959.

11 December, 2013