Vecenie Distributing Co. salesman who nurtured craft beer in the region
Tony C. Knipling, who for 20 years was employed as a beer salesman for Vecenie Distributing Co. in Millvale but enthusiastically worked to promote good beer in general, died Wednesday at age 63.
He was paying a call to a beer distributor in Washington County when he collapsed of an apparent heart attack and was taken by ambulance to Canonsburg Hospital.
He was known as “The Beerman” in Western Pennsylvania, a title no one contested, and he looked the part, with his Falstaffian belly, bushy beard and big smile.
He knew everyone on the region’s beer scene — at breweries and bars and restaurants, home basements and media outlets — and everyone knew him. He helped many people, whether or not he sold their beer or sold them beer, and educated even more about his favorite subject. Many sadly toasted his passing — using words such as “icon” and “legend” — on social media and with actual beers.
“Pints should be at half glass today for Tony Knipling,” tweeted his longtime friend, beer historian Ed Vidunas, who knew him back when he was president of the Three Rivers Association of Serious Homebrewers, or TRASH, in the mid1990s. Already the certified beer judge was championing small breweries that were just popping up, noting in a 1994 letter to the editor of the Post-Gazette his hope “that you will continue to educate beer consumers on the great diversity of malt products.”
And that’s what he went on to do. He helped organize the first Pennsylvania Microbrewers Fest in 1995, when, as he recalled before pouring beer at the final fest last year, “the industry was so young and so fragile.” As craft breweries boomed from a handful to more than 5,000, he two-fistedly helped grow many brands, such as Victory and Dogfish Head, from microbrews to wellknown regional and national ones. Trey White, president and owner of California’s Anderson Valley Brewery, tweeted that “no one was a bigger fan of craft.”
Mr. Knipling spread the gospel not just at festivals and events such as Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week, of which he was a founding member, but also as the “professor” of the Cultural Trust’s Craft Beer School. He helped launch that in 2007, and it sold out, month after month, year after year. His co-host, Susan Sternberger, said she can’t yet think of their entertaining and educational show going on this fall without the guy she came to love for his “big heart.” She knows how many of the events he worked were for charitable groups and causes. “He volunteered so much of his time and his knowledge to helping other people.”
This spring, he continued his teaching work with the Britsburgh Beer Society. He talked many an ear off, whether he was working or just enjoying a beer for fun, and was a straight shooter who said what he meant.
Matt Sherwin, one of the principals behind the effort to start Brew: The Museum of Beer in Pittsburgh, said, “He was a fun guy to be around, always made a room feel lighter.”
Mr. Knipling worked as a sales associate at Country Wines in Ross and manager of Pennsylvania Homebrew Market in Hopewell, Beaver County, before joining Vecenie. Craft beer was so small that he only worked a few hours a week to start. Before long, he was working more than full time, at all hours and every day of the week.
“He just took the extra time to be very thorough about how he did it and did it right,” said his boss and friend Ken Vecenie, who spent Thursday hearing from scores of men and women who, as he put it, “looked up to him for guidance.”
One of them is Andy Kwiatkowski, now head brewer for Hitchhiker Brewing Co., who credits him for his career. “I don’t know of anyone young or old who had a stronger work ethic or passion for this business.”
One of Mr. Knipling’s two sisters, Renee Coon of Waterford, Pa., laughs recounting how she blames sister Janine Hannan of Bethel Park for his interest in brew, because one Christmas, Janine gave their brother a wine-making class that turned into a beer-making one. Ms. Coon noted that his sense of humor was “very dry. I always say he should have been brought up in England.”
They all grew up in Brookline. Her brother worked as an usher at Dormont’s Hollywood Theater before becoming mailroom clerk in Downtown’s Koppers Building. After taking courses in drafting, he contributed designs for what was then known as the Comstock Building, Downtown. A series of jobs at nuclear and chemical plants moved him as far away as Michigan and West Virginia, before he “got sick of that,” said his wife, Lois, who was with him for 35 years before they divorced last year.
He’d recently moved to Crescent, Beaver County, but lived most of his life in Coraopolis with her, and she wanted him to move back so they’d be closer. He worked too much, she said, but she knows: “He loved what he did.”
In addition to her and his sisters, Mr. Knipling is survived by his mother, Jeannette Knipling of Whitehall. Visitation will be from 2 to 8 p.m. Sunday at the David J. Henney Funeral Home, 6364 Library Road (Route 88) in Library, where a funeral will be held at 10:30 a.m. Monday. There may be beer in the parking lot.
As his friend Scott Smith of East End Brewing Co. noted on Facebook, “If they aren’t serving good beer in heaven, they will be soon.”