Today would have been the 84th birthday of Ed Stoudt, co-founder along with his wife Carol of Stoudt’s Brewing in Adamstown, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, Ed passed away last year in February. Growing up near there, in Shillington, Ed operated the Black Angus Steakhouse for as long as I can remember (1962 in reality, but I was three then), and we ate there from time to time growing up, in part because Ed’s aunt was married to my grandfather Harry, who after he retired worked part time doing maintenance at the brewery. The brewery opened in 1987, one of the earliest new microbreweries in the state. Because of Pennsylvania’s famously arcane alcohol laws, the brewery was owned by Ed’s wife Carol (who was also its first brewmaster) who then sold the beer to the Black Angus Restaurant, delivering it next door. After high school I’d lost touch with the Stoudts until the early Nineties, shortly after I published my first beer book, when during a trip to GABF I discovered that we were both in the beer world. Since then, of course, I see the Stoudts more frequently at beer events throughout the calendar. Join me in drinking a toast to Ed’s memory tonight.

Ed and me at GABF around 1992, after not having seen one another in quite a few years.

Carol and Ed bookending Mark Edelson from Iron Hill at the opening of the first Philly Beer Week.

Carol and Ed with Greg Koch from Stone Brewing at the opening brewer’s reception at Wynkoop for GABF in 2009.

Ed, Carol and Brian Dunn from Great Divide Brewing.