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In between shows Ed Stoudt was sweeping the floor. His wife Carol was swatting flies in the shop.
When you attend a beer festival at Stoudts Brewery, you’re in their house...and they take care of you. The $25 ticket is still one of the best deals around; it includes unlimited tasting and the Best of the Wursts sausage buffet with all the trimmings — sauerkraut, red cabbage, German potato salad and, of course, Ed’s bread.
This year, the festival has been downsized slightly, from a capacity of 1,200 people to 1,000. The reason: to make room for the Stoudts’ new baby — a spanking new bottling machine. The Italian-made Fimer setup lines one side of the rectangular showroom. Ed is quite proud of the way he engineered the system to fit so neatly into the space.
"I cut down the stage a little, so I only really lost about two feet of floor space," he said. Nonetheless, they still want people to enjoy some elbow room at the festival.
Stoudts began brewing 17 years ago in Adamstown where Ed owned the Black Angus Restaurant. To begin with they opted for the 25-ozs champagne bottles for their beers. Carol recalls when Ed gave her a "beautiful 1901 (bottle) filler for my birthday." When, after a couple of years, they felt the need to go into 12-ouncers, bottling lines were too big and too costly, so contract-brewing was the only option, first at The Lion and then at Frederick Brewing Co.
Today, manufacturers have come up with smaller, but still top quality systems for today’s craft brewers. It’s still costly, however. Ed reckons he laid out half a million dollars for the new bottle filler, used labeller and other associated parts.
It’s a difficult decision to justify financially. Ed says he doesn’t expect a complete return on the investment in his lifetime — especially since most of the time it will be used only one day a week. What it does mean, though, is that the Stoudts finally have full control over their beer, and in a business (small empire) where everything else is done in house, family-style — from the restaurant to the bakery and brewery — that’s important. Of equal importance is quality.
"I just want to make the best beer I can," Ed said.
The double pre-evacuation filler rivals the best in the business. "Oxygen-levels are almost non-existent," Ed said. While the large bottles have gone the way of the 1901 filler, and will no doubt be missed by some, Ed maintains the quality is better and besides you get more beer for your dollar with the six-packs.
Despite the price tag, the Stoudts trademark thrift and ingenuity is much in evidence. Ed didn’t want to buy a palletizer, so he invented one. He rigged a system where a welded steel frame drops over the pallet allowing each row of 450 bottles to be moved effortlessly onto the production line by one man through a pulley and counterweight set up.
"I got quite excited that I actually invented something," Ed said. It also enables the Stoudts to retain control over the printing of their cases. "I like a pretty box," Ed said, noting that PA is a case state. Six-packs still have to be packed by hand, but since 85 percent of Stoudts business is in its home state, he’s not concerned.
Along with bottling and packaging also comes storage. Cold beer is held in the highest regard by the Stoudts. Ed just happened to have 50 x 100 sq. ft. of refrigerator panels he purchased 10 years ago at a school auction. "I thought they may come in handy one day." Voila, the guts of his new cold warehouse.
Along with the new bottling line comes new packaging and a reshuffled lineup of beers. Year round products are Pilsener, for the first time in 12 ozs, Gold, American Pale Ale and Scarlet Lady ESB.
Seasonals are the Honey Maibock for spring, Hefeweizen for summer, Oktoberfest for fall and Winter Ale. Debuting in the fall is a new line of Big Beers. Well it’s not exactly new; let’s say tweaked. The Triple is virtually unchanged at 9%; the Fat Dog Stout will be given steroid treatment to become a massive Imperial Oatmeal Stout weighing at 10%; and a new beer, Double IPA — the strongest of the lot at around 11% alcohol — is on the drawing board.
One of the highlights of the recent fest came when Ed rounded up a group of beer savants to taste brewer Mark Worona’s test batch of the new Fat Dog. The verdict: don’t change a thing. Thick, huge and delicious with hops emerging at the end for a long, long finish.
An added bonus came with the bottling line installation. The Stoudts were able to persuade their son-in-law, John Matson, to return to his former position in the brewhouse bringing also the return of daughter Carey, along with grandson Henry from California.
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