An excerpt from my book going LOCAL!
When a family has been making something for 135 years, you've got to assume that they must know what there doing. If what that family's been doing is brewing good beer, and that beer is sugar free, salt free, preservative free and carries the motto "Honestly Fresh," there's just no assuming. And if they have something that to my knowledge no other brewery in the world has, you've got to know about it.
Like my friends at Tröegs, Straub Brewery is not a restaurant, pub or café. However, that "something" they have that no other has, allows you and me to taste the goodness of their beer fresh from the source anytime we want and whenever they're open - totally complimentary. This something is the famous Eternal Tap.
Ah, The Eternal Tap.
My first recollection of this bottomless well of fermented goodness flows from the stuff of urban legend and lore swirling in the imagination of a teenaged boy. As a youth growing up in central PA, I would imagine a brewery where they had a beer tap sticking out through the wall of the building and old dudes would hang out there all day drinking for free. It never ran out and was always on - 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I would imagine endless summer days, with chairs and tables placed in groups around the tap. The dudes would play cards or chess, drinking glass after glass under the shade of a grand oak and everyone having a good ol' time and no one ever getting drunk.
Unfortunately, my dreams where shattered one Sunday afternoon when my riding buddies and I rolled up to Straub Brewery and not a soul was to be found - no gathering of gentlemen playing chess under a canopy of green, no laughter and spinning of tales and most sadly, no spigot sticking out of the wall with a continuous flow of beer. My friends watched as I stood silent in the parking lot.
Now years later, after having scouted out pub after pub where they proudly serve Straub, I met a forth generation Peter Straub at a PSU tailgate party. He offered me a beer and gave me a name of someone to contact at the brewery. So I made a call up to Saint Mary's and arranged a meeting with the guy named Dan. When I arrived on a chilly morning in September aboard The Steed, steam was rising from the brewery, men and trucks were moving about and the distinct smell of fermenting mash was in the air. This time they were open. This time The Eternal Tap, if it even existed, would mine.
When I walked into the small office I was greeted by Dan Straub, President, who is one of 80 some Straub family members who still claim their beer making heritage with pride. Dan loves his brewing legacy, he loves his community that supports him, and he is proud of that fact that his small family brewery has lasted so long. "It's an amazing success story when you see how few breweries are left that has stood the test of time." At that, Dan asked if I wanted to try his beer. I think he wanted me to taste the pride, to taste how fresh and how good his beer really was. And he invited me to taste it at its source - the enigmatic and haloed Eternal Tap.
Finally! After all these years, all the daydreams and despite disappointment, I was finally going to partake. Not only that, but I would partake with the president of the company - the great, great grandson of the founder himself.
I was tingling with excitement and anticipation as we walked out of his office, down a short hallway of memorabilia and into the keg room. There, sticking out of the wall (just like I imagined) were two (regular and light), plainly appointed, but absolutely beautiful tap heads (I swear there was a glow around them). Dan walked up, picked up a glass and asked which one I wanted. I didn't even hesitate and picked the regular. He pulled back on the handle and sweet Straub beer flowed out into the glass, forming a snow white head over a golden body. Dan handed it to me and drew one for himself. He raised his glass and made a humble toast to life and beer.
At that, I put the glass to my lips and drank in 135 years of hard work, pride, success of a small mountain brewery and the goodness of a locally made beer. And let me tell you, urban legend, lore and my imagination did not equal this moment or the taste that flowed so smoothly over my tongue. Straub beer is good, damn good and Honestly Fresh!
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