April 8, 1999 -- According to a story in the St. Petersburg Times of April 6, 1999, the Pennsylvania brewery Yuengling & Son is in the final stages of negotiations to buy the former Stroh brewery in Tampa, Florida. The story quotes company president Dick Yuengling Jr. as saying that an agreement has been reached on the selling price of the brewery and all that remains is complete the paperwork and obtain the licences that Yuengling needs to sell beer in Florida.

The Tampa facility will supplement Yuengling's current brewery in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and will be joined in 2001 by a new brewery the company currently has under construction near the original plant.

Now in its 171st year, Yuengling is recognized as the oldest operating brewery in the United States. (At 213 years old, Molson is the oldest in North America.) If the sale is completed, it will mark the first time that Yuengling will brew outside of Pennsylvania.

With a capacity of about 1.5 million barrels annually, the former Stroh plant has been idle since the company shut it down in January of this year. Yuengling says that he anticipates that it won't take much work to put the brewery back into production, and hopes that his company will be able to rehire many of the 154 people who used to work there. Yuengling is already in talks with the Teamsters union that represents the former Stroh workers.

On the face of things, this would appear to be a win-win situation all around, with Tampa getting a major employer back, Stroh getting a fair price for unwanted real estate and Yuengling getting a foothold in the southeast. The deal is expected to be completed some time next week and hopes are that the brewery could be up and running as early as June.

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