Capital Region Riverkeeper Volunteer Happy Hour

When:

November 10, 2014: 6:00PM to 8:30PM

Where:

Albany Pump Station, 19 Quackenbush Square Albany, NY 12207 map

To Attend:

RSVP

Riverkeeper is hosting a happy hour at the Albany Pump Station to celebrate and thank our many volunteers and invite new folks to get involved. Your first beer is on the house, compliments of the owner of the Albany Pump Station and a great supporter of Riverkeeper. Additionally Riverkeeper will purchase a round of appetizers and prices will be reduced to happy hour prices for our group.

Join us as we celebrate our volunteers and invite new folks to join our community. We will be looking ahead to the 2015 Riverkeeper Sweep on May 9 and Outreach trainings in January. Please email Jeremy at [email protected] with any questions.

Please RSVP here.

Visit the pump station’s website to check out the menu and current beers on tap.

History
The Evans family was in the commercial brewing business for three generations. The original brewery was built in Hudson, NY in 1786. It continued production until prohibition in 1920. Its award winning ales were well known in the Northeast and were even exported to England and France. Production levels peaked in 1915 when 65,000 barrels of beer were produced at the Hudson Facility.

The brewery bottled its own beer in Hudson at one of the country’s earliest bottling facilities (1889) and later at a plant in New York City. The family also malted much of their own grain in their malt houses at the Hudson facility. Neil Evans revives this rich heritage here at the Albany Pump Station. Surviving C.H. Evans Brewing Company memorabilia is displayed in the new facility, as well as pictures of the pump station as it appeared at the turn of the century.

The Pump Station Building

The Albany Pump Station consists of two adjoining buildings. The first building was completed in 1874, the entire structure being completed and put into service in 1895. Total floor space is 8,000 square feet and the roof trusses are 40 feet above the floor.

The Pump Station drew water from the Hudson River and pumped it under Clinton Avenue to Bleecker Reservoir, which is now Bleecker Stadium. In 1927 the pump station moved over 7 billion gallons of water. In 1932 the Alcove reservoir was put into service and the Pump Station ceased operation.

There are two, massive, overhead cranes which are still in place today. These cranes, completed in 1906 and 1909 and used for pump engine repair, are each able to lift 20 tons. These cranes were used to install the fermentation and serving tanks in the brew pub establishment now located in the building.