We are not beer drinkers, but thought a tour of where the brew is made would be interesting. And it was. This place was a lot larger that I realized. It was a nice cool afternoon, this 19th day of September.
It is a very old brewery as well. From their website: In 1855, German immigrant Fredrick Miller purchased the Plank Road Brewery. Surrounded by woods, the small brewing operation was no bigger than a Victorian house. Today, a replica of the Plank Road Brewery is just one of the historic highlights in Milwaukee’s Miller Valley—the home of the nation’s second largest brewer, Miller Brewing Company.
It definitely is highly mechanized and run by a bunch of computers.
Below are the brand names owned and marketed by Miller.
An unbelievable amount of brew is made and distributed every day. Over 200,000 cases of brew every day...
This warehouse was a beehive of activity with fork lifts and pallet after pallet moving from the packaging area off to the trucks and train cars.
Below, one of nine huge cooking vats for the brew.
Not sure what all the different tanks are, but perhaps the diagram below will explain some of them.
Note my reflection on the stairs coming down from the vat floor.
And the famous cave where the original barrels were stored in the 19th century prior to refrigeration being invented. This lone main section is all that has been preserved. However, we were told that there were many other caves off of this one but have all been sealed off.
The caves, which are a beloved feature of the Miller Brewing Co. brewery tours, were excavated into the side of the bluff – 60 feet below the hilltop – that runs along the south side of State Street in 1850 by the Best Brothers, who owned the Plank Road Brewery on the site. The temperature is pretty constant in the cave, which was apparently the largest in a system of caves that went about 600 feet deep into the bluff. All of the others have since been permanently sealed off, though you can still see entrances to at least three of them in the remaining cave.
Above, our young lady-guide. Not sure she was old enough to drink a beer...but she was a good guide.
Directly behind the cave entrance up on the bluff, is the replica plank road brewery building.
Above & below are pics of the "tastingarea" of the tour. And this was the end of the tour as well.
It certainly was a labor intensive era in our country's history, and the brewing industry was no exception.
Above, Nancy posing in front of the old bus at the visitor's center. It's Miller Time, and time I wrap this blog up. So, till the next time, RVing Beach Bums signing off.
This blog was written & published at our home in Virginia Beach, VA.
No comments:
Post a Comment