TONY C. "BEERMAN" KNIPLING

KNIPLING TONY C. "BEERMAN"
Of Coraopolis, on Wednesday, July 26, 2017, age 63, husband of Lois; loving son of Jeannette and the late Cyril "Tony" Knipling; brother of Janine Hannan (Jim) and Renee Coon (Rick); uncle of Sean, Emily, Kelce and Jordan; also two great-nieces. Tony got his start in the public eye as an usher at the Hollywood Theater in Dormont. From there he became the mailroom clerk at the Koppers Building, Downtown, then took courses to learn piping drafting. He worked for Comstock, even contributing to the drafting designs for the building as it appears today. He moved to where the early '80s took him, performing installation certification walkdowns of nuclear power plants at Fermi (Michigan) and Shippingport (Midland, PA). The numerous moves for this work made him decide to take on a new field, all due to a Christmas gift from his sister, his first "beer school" to learn about homebrewing. He became interested in brewing beer through the Three Rivers Association of Serious Homebrewers (TRASH), and their first homebrew competition was held in the basement of his house in 1990. He worked for Country Wines in the North Hills while teaching others about homebrewing, and was at the vanguard of the Craft Beer movement when he started working at Vecenie Distributing Company in Millvale. He is known throughout Western Pennsylvania and in the greater craft beer community as a Certified Beer Judge, a dedicated teacher and font of knowledge all about beer, from how it is made, bottled, shipped, sold, and (yes!) drunk. The Craft Beer School crowd will surely miss his quirky and fun Beer School nights out. On the home front, Tony was a great cook and his pasta sauce and chili were known to friends and family as fabulous. His boundless energy at beer trainings, seminars, and festivals will be sadly missed. Visitation Sunday 2-8 p.m. at the DAVID J. HENNEY FUNERAL HOME, 6364 Library Road (RT 88), Library, where a Funeral Service will be Monday at 10:30 a.m. www. davidhenneyfuneralhome.com.