REPUBLICANherald.com

8/04/2008
Lead brewer devoted to Yuengling-brand beer
BY STEPHEN J. PYTAK

John Callahan, Pottsville, takes the concept of brand loyalty to heights not many Yuengling fans can aspire to.

“There are 101 steps here,” said Callahan, lead brewer at D.G. Yuengling & Son Inc.’s Mill Creek operation, open since 2001. He was referring to the stairs he walks at the three-story brewery, as he supervises a team of 12 brewers who boil, stir and age beer.

Callahan looks laid back at work, wearing a short-sleeve shirt detailed with images of blue-colored palm trees one day recently. He sweat bullets in the steamy kettle room, then shivered walking through cold storage.

“It’s busy now because it’s summer. But all 12 guys — brewers and beer processors — in this department, they all like the department. They all have a loyalty,” said Callahan, 50.

He said 900,000 barrels of beer are brewed each year at this operation.

“Our goal is a million barrels. We’re slowly working on that,” he said.

He takes pride in the finished product: “It’s a local beer. Everyone looks to us like we’re making the best product around. You have a lot of loyalty in the community. We can go into any bar around and we know we made this beer. It’s nice when you see your product out there.”

A Yuengling employee for 28 years, Callahan said Yuengling changed his life.

“I was bouncing around jobs when I was a kid and wound up here. It was close to home, everybody likes beer and it’s better than the priesthood. There’s more money in it. The money, for being local, is excellent,” he said.

“The Yuengling Family treats everyone like their own. They always treated us good. They’ve given me the opportunity to move up. It means a lot. It means my whole life. And you get to test what you make every day,” he said.

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