The Pennsylvania State University Creamery, often shortened to just Berkey Creamery or The Creamery, is a producer and vendor of
ice cream
Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as str ...
,
sherbet, and
cheese
Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During production, ...
, all made through the Department of Food Science in the
College of Agricultural Sciences of the
Pennsylvania State University
The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...
. It is the largest university
creamery
A creamery is a place where milk and cream are processed and where butter and cheese is produced. Cream is separated from whole milk; pasteurization is done to the skimmed milk and cream separately. Whole milk for sale has had some cream re ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, using approximately 4.5 million pounds of
milk
Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. Immune factors and immune ...
annually, approximately half of which comes from a 225-cow herd at the University's Dairy Production Research Center and the rest from an independent milk producer,
and selling 750,000 hand-dipped ice cream cones per year.
Offering over 100 ice cream flavors made with a
butterfat
Butterfat or milkfat is the fatty portion of milk. Milk and cream are often sold according to the amount of butterfat they contain.
Composition
Butterfat is mainly composed of triglycerides. Each triglyceride contains three fatty acids. Butt ...
content of 14.1% and ingredients from around the country and the world,
the Creamery's ice cream is enjoyed by many students and alumni every day.
History
The first Creamery was built in 1865, and dairy short courses were first offered in 1892.
Ice cream became a part of football weekend tradition in 1896, when Creamery ice cream was first sold to the public. By 1932, the Creamery was buying milk and cream from hundreds of nearby farmers and was selling ice cream in both
State College and
Altoona,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
.
Ice cream makers
Ben Cohen and
Jerry Greenfield
Jerry Greenfield (born March 14, 1951) is an American businessman and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings, Inc.
Greenfield grew up on Long Island. He attended Oberlin College, where he was a National Merit Sch ...
of
Ben & Jerry's
Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings Inc., trading and commonly known as Ben & Jerry's, is an American company that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet. Founded in 1978 in Burlington, Vermont, the company went from a single ice cream p ...
, are 1978
The Inside Scoop on Ben & Jerry’s
Imakenews.com (2009-09-30). Retrieved on 2013-08-17. alumni of the Penn State Creamery correspondence course in ice cream-making, Agriculture 5150, which teaches manufacturers the basics of ice cream production.
During the 1980s the Creamery was using three million pounds of milk per year, and in 2004, it supplied the Penn State dining halls with over 225,000 gallons of milk. That same year, it produced 200,000 pounds of cheese products and 225,000 gallons of ice cream and sherbet, both selling these products and providing them for university use.
Only U.S. President
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
has been allowed to mix different flavors of Creamery ice cream. The Creamery normally does not allow mixing of flavors (i.e., having scoops of different flavors in one cone / cup). The flavors President Clinton requested were Cherry Quist and Peachy Paterno. However, when Clinton returned after his tenure as the President, Creamery workers would no longer serve him mixed flavors.
The Creamery moved from its long-time home in Borland Laboratory location to a new location in the new Food Science Building at the intersection of Curtin Road and Bigler Road in 2006. The new Creamery is closer to Beaver Stadium
Beaver Stadium is an outdoor college football stadium on the campus of Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania. It has been home to the Penn State Nittany Lions of the Big Ten Conference since 1960, though some parts of ...
, the East Residence Halls dormitory complex, and a parking deck
A multistorey car park (British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a build ...
. When the move was first announced, there were some student protests, but these protests eventually subsided.
There are five Creamery ice cream flavors that have remained the most popular in recent Creamery history: Vanilla, Bittersweet Mint, Peanut Butter Swirl, Peachy Paterno, and Butter Pecan.
The new creamery facility has been named the Berkey Creamery, in honor of the Berkey family who donated a large sum of money to the construction of the Food Sciences Building, which includes the new creamery facility.
Image:Borland Lab Creamery Penn State.JPG, The old location of the Creamery was in Borland Laboratory.
Image:PSU Berkey Creamery Inside.jpg, Patrons waiting in line to receive their orders
Image:Information Plaque for the Pennsylvania State University’s Berkey Creamery.jpg, An information plaque
Plaque may refer to:
Commemorations or awards
* Commemorative plaque, a plate or tablet fixed to a wall to mark an event, person, etc.
* Memorial Plaque (medallion), issued to next-of-kin of dead British military personnel after World War I
* Pla ...
for The Creamery erected by the Alumni Association
An alumni association or alumnae association is an association of graduates or, more broadly, of former students (alumni). In the United Kingdom and the United States, alumni of universities, colleges, schools (especially independent schools), ...
See also
* List of dairy product companies in the United States
This is a list of dairy product companies in the United States. A dairy product is food produced from the milk of mammals. Dairy products are usually high energy-yielding food products. A production plant for the processing of milk is called a dair ...
References
External links
Penn State Creamery Home Page
Penn State Department of Food Science
Flavors available at the Penn State Creamery
Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences
{{Coord, 40.8041, -77.8622, region:US-PA_type:landmark, display=title
Pennsylvania State University campus
Dairy products companies of the United States
Ice cream parlors in the United States
Tourist attractions in Centre County, Pennsylvania