PORT CARBON - The Port Carbon Zoning Hearing Board unanimously approved a variance Wednesday night for America's Oldest Brewery to add six storage silos and a liquid adjunct tank to its operation at Yuengling Beer Co. at 310 Mill Creek Ave.
At the hearing, which took place at 7 p.m. in the municipal building at 301 First St., D.G. Yuengling & Son Inc. and DGY Real Estate Ltd. Partnership was seeking a variance to build the 72.5-foot storage silos and a 61-foot liquid adjunct tank, since the area is presently zoned for a maximum height of 35 feet.
The proposed location for the silos is on the south end of the property bordering Fourth Street and the project is expected to finish in June.
The Yuengling Beer Co. at Mill Creek was built in 2000 and started production in September 2001.
Since then, Yuengling increased production there and expanded the facility. In 2010, Yuengling expanded the fermenting cellar and built another storage cellar for additional fermenting and storage tanks.
Representing Yuengling was attorney David Rattigan of the Law Firm of Williamson, Friedberg & Jones LLC, Pottsville, Robert Seaman Jr., plant manager at Yuengling, and Nathan Taylor, chief drafter on the project from Miller Bros. Construction, Schuylkill Haven.
"They (silos) will be used for storing malted barley, which is really one of the main four ingredients in making beer," Seaman said.
The liquid adjunct tank will be used for the storage of corn syrup.
Seaman said that the silos will be exact replicas of silos already on the property and that while the pad that the silos will be on will be able to fit six silos, they are only planning to build four silos initially.
The surface area of the pad for the silos is 1,600 square feet and for the liquid adjunct tank is 200 square feet.
Seaman said that the reason Yuengling needed more silos is that when they order a railcar of malted barley from the Midwest, it could take several weeks to get here, so with that lead time and cars that get lost occasionally, the thought process is to have more silos to have more of a buffer or comfort factor with more barley in storage.
"Our challenge if you look at the LA tank or work area two, you'll see a single rail track there and that really limits our ability to get more than one or two cars in there at a time," Seaman said.
With the upgrades, Yuengling would be able to have more railcars delivered at a time so that they know they have enough barley.
Seaman also said that in theory, this should reduce truck traffic and that when railcars don't make it to the brewery, the national railroad that brings the barley starts running trucks at their cost.
"I think if you took today compared to today, meaning with or without the new proposed silos, what we're trying to do is if we're making 1.5 million barrels of beer today, we're not going to bring in more rail frequency, what we hope to do is bring in more at once, get it over with and fill our silos up, then a week later, bring them back again," Seaman said. "This is more of a convenience for us in making sure that we have enough malt to brew. It really is not about capacity, that really took place two years ago when we added fermenters and aging tanks."
Taylor said that the property is 224,000 square feet and that the brewery makes up less than 35 percent of the property.
Board solicitor Stanley Burke Jr. said that the only conditions of the zoning hearing board, the same as when the last variance for upgrades was granted, include the plan be submitted to the county since the borough doesn't have a subdivision and land development plan, the plan must be reviewed by the county engineer and once it is approved, it is to be delivered to the borough secretary, and Yuengling must submit proof of erosion and sedimentation review and permits and any NPDES stormwater management permits should also be submitted to the borough secretary.
"I'll draft and submit an opinion within the next 30 days that will be signed and approved by the board members," Burke said.