In 1829, the United States was a young nation, having recently celebrated its 50th birthday. Andrew Jackson was the new president when a twenty-three year old German immigrant named David G. Yuengling established what was to become the oldest surviving brewery in the United States.
Today, the brewery continues to operate in the same family with the current leader being Richard L. Yuengling, Sr., who started at the brewery at age of 15 and salary of $10.00 per week. Except for some time in the service, he has been with the brewery ever since in various capacities and as the president since 1963 when he took control after the death of his father.
Originally founded as the Eagle Brewery, the firm dropped the Eagle name in
the 1890's due to the confusion and lawsuits brought about by several other
breweries of the same name. Although the name has changed, the eagle
figure has continued to be used in the company advertising and was revived again
in 1976 when it was added to the can design with red, white, blue and gold
colors in celebration of the bicentennial.
The brewery survived the prohibition years by the
introduction of an almost no alcohol near beer. This product was very
successful, partly due to the fact that bootleggers would buy wooden kegs of the
near beer and spike it with alcohol. This mixture was easily sold at
extremely high prices.
After prohibition, the brewery discontinued its near beer and
returned to the brewing of real beer, and was quite successful despite that
there were then hundreds of breweries in operation. After the start of
World War II, materials for beer making were very difficult to obtain, since
many items were rationed. The brewery found it could sell all of the beer
it could make and often fell short of the great demand. No exports for
armed services were made from the brewery since they had no rail services, a key
element in transporting large quantities at a time when gasoline and tires were
rationed, thus making transportation over long distances near impossible.
Since World War II, the brewery has continued to modernize
and make improvements. It presently is listed as having a capacity of
200,000 barrels per year, although production for the past several years has
been near the 100,000 barrel level. The primary market of the brewery is
eastern Pennsylvania with some beer also sold in New York, New Jersey, Maryland
and Washington D.C.
Why has this brewery survived so long when so many others
have closed? Brewery president Richard Yuengling feels that it is due to
several reasons, among which are strong sales in market area, continuous
improvements and streamlining of production such as conversion from coal to gas
and the addition of new facilities, and probably most importantly, the tax
credits the brewery receives from both Federal and State government which have
helped fund the improvements.
In celebration of its 150th year, Yuengling will soon issue a
new colorful can design which will be similar in design to the poster
reproduction on this month's cover. The brewery presently has three can
labels - Yuengling, Bavarian, and Chesterfield
Ale. They also filled the
recent privately issued Pocono Mountain can
series.
Note - If you would like to have a full size poster from
which the cover was reproduced, send $2.75 (in
1979) to D. G. Yuengling & Son, Inc.,
5th & Mahantongo Streets, Pottsville, Pa. 17901. * Back
to News Page
Article from Beer Cans Monthly, May, 1979 $1.00
