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D.G. Yuengling & Son Inc. might be headquartered in Pottsville, Pa., but Tampa, home to its largest production facility, has become just as important to the family-owned, privately held company that's America’s oldest brewery, founded in 1829.
Yuengling came to Tampa in 1999, when it bought the former Stroh Brewery Co. facility at 11111 N. 30th St., less than two miles from Busch Gardens Tampa. On Nov. 16, the company broke ground on an ambitious expansion intended to make the area even more of a tourist attraction.
Located on a 13-acre parcel the company already owned, the multimillion-dollar project — Jen Yuengling, the company’s Pottsville-based vice president of operations, declines to disclose the exact cost — will include a 15-story hotel, restaurant, private dining and conference rooms, outdoor recreation area and beer garden, coffee bar and concert and entertainment pavilion, as well as interactive displays and artifacts that will tell the story of D.G. Yuengling & Sons.
“Florida has become our largest sales market, and our Tampa brewery is our largest operating brewery,” Jen Yuengling tells Coffee Talk. “Over the past 20 years that we’ve been here, we’ve gotten to know our neighbors here in north Tampa: Busch Gardens, Moffitt Cancer Center, the [James A. Haley} VA Hospital and the University of South Florida. As we've gotten to know and develop along with these partners, we feel we're able to help in the revitalization efforts in this whole North Tampa corridor.”
Beer aficionados will be happy to hear the expansion will also include a test lab where Yuengling staff will be able to indulge their creative impulses.
“We'll be bringing in a state-of-the-art pilot brewing system,” Jen Yuengling says. “We’re looking at roughly a 10-barrel system. That'll give us the opportunity for our brewers to experiment with some innovation and new brands that we'll be able to serve in bars.”
Phase one of the project, which includes the restaurant, conference area and pilot brewery, is slated to open in early 2022. The hotel —developed in conjunction with Alliant Partners and Alfonso Architects — has a target completion date of spring 2023.
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