WPSU’s TV and Digital series, Keystone Stories, explores the people, places and culture that make Central Pennsylvania unique. On its last episode of Season 3 on Monday, Oct. 23, Keystone Stories looks at “Libations,” highlighting breweries, distilleries, cideries and wineries across Pennsylvania. In this sneak peak, you’ll hear from Royce Novosel-Johnson, a co-founder of Logyard Brewing in Kane in McKean County, and narrator Will Price.
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Narrator Will Price:
While Logyard Brewing was only founded in 2017, its roots go back generations.
Royce Novosel-Johnson:
What we like to say is we have a story to tell. And there's a very rich history both in this area, but also with specific industries, ours being the logging, forestry and sustainable forestry. Nature outdoors, you know, kind of personifies this area. My great grandfather and my grandfather and those brothers, they all started in the logging game. We use that as a strength for us when it came to our branding, came to our décor in our taproom or the names of our beers, because it's something that we don't have to fake. We know it, so where we brew now is at a facility where my father had that built in 1994 and that stored all of our logging equipment and it was built on what we've always affectionately known as our logyard. And so when we looked for a name, my partner Michael had said, "Well, where are we standing?" You know, trying to come up with a name. "So where are we standing?" "Why? I don't know. I mean, we're we're here at the log yard." And he said, "I think we just named it."
Narrator Will Price:
Royce, grew up in Kane, but left the area to pursue his career. When he came back to help run his family's timbering business, he discovered something while cleaning out some nuisance birch trees.
Royce Novosel-Johnson:
And just by peeling the bark off there's such a fragrance that you’ve got to think there's something to be done with this. There's another use for this. So we've incorporated that into one of our beers. We can get anything shipped to us, just like the other guys do. You can get different ingredients for flavorings. You can get grain. You can get hops. You can't really get somebody to send you a tree. So we kind of have a disposal and we try to make sure to use it and use it in a sustainable way.
When we came to Kane and got involved, that could be as simple as joining in the beautification day called Care for Kane. It actually made an impact. You could feel it, you could see it, it was tangible and it was infectious and gets more people doing it.
I feel and see the same things going on with our brewery, which I don't think we would be able to accomplish if we were doing it somewhere else. It's having an impact on the people that are affiliated with it. You know, it's a tangible movement that you can kind of feel and be part of. It’s one of the coolest things I've experienced being in this town or doing the venture that we're doing. And how the two go hand in hand.
Find out about more of Pennsylvania’s breweries, distilleries, cideries and wineries on the final episode of Keystone Stories Monday night at 9:30 on WPSU-TV.