America's Oldest Brewery

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The first generational transfer of power at Yuengling began in 1873, less than a decade after the Civil War, when David's son Frederick joined him as partner, and the company became D.G. Yuengling and Son. Frederick took full control soon after and added the bottling line, but he passed away at 51, leaving his only son, Frank, at the helm. Barely in his early 20s when he took over, Frank would go on to inherit the biggest challenge in the brewery's history.

"I'm a cheap son of a gun. But after 165 years, I didn't do this on a whim. I was confident in our ability to grow."

All businesses face obstacles, but few face one as great as having the federal government ban its product. The 18th Amendment was ratified in 1919, and over the next 13 years, Yuengling barely survived Prohibition by making ice cream and "near beer," a nonalcoholic alternative the family hoped would maintain its brand recognition. When America's dry spell ended, many regional breweries were dead, but Yuengling unveiled its "Winner Beer," a jab at the temperance movement. Frank promptly sent a truckload to President Roosevelt at the White House.

When Frank's 64-year run ended in 1963, sons Richard Sr. and F. Dohrman took charge. Under Dick Sr. (Dohrman died in 1972), the brewery, like many family businesses, existed primarily to sustain the family. It often lost money, and expanding -- or even upgrading the plant -- was not on Dick Sr.'s agenda. He was mostly hoping to get by.

Dick Jr. began working at the family brewery in 1957, stacking crates as a teenager. From the beginning, he was outspoken about the flaws in the operation that he tended to notice. "I'd force my way into other areas of the business," he says. "I'd try to implement changes at 18, and, of course, I'd get overruled."

Disagreements with Senior led Junior to quit the business in 1973 to start his own distributorship. Naturally, he sold Yuengling (as well as other brands), and as a result, he routinely found himself back at the brewery, filling up his truck. His father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 1983, and Dick Jr. took charge not long after. "Hell, I always wanted to do this," he says. "I wasn't selling Pabst and Rolling Rock because I wanted to. I couldn't get along with my dad."

The wholesale contacts Dick Jr. had made as a distributor proved handy now that he was a manufacturer. A little bit of luck, it turns out, also helped. In the '80s and into the '90s, craft beers began rising to prominence, and even though Yuengling has always considered itself a workingman's beer and has priced it accordingly, its relative obscurity allowed it to ride the wave of the booming craft category. Yuengling's 200,000 barrels grew to 300,000 as the company began spreading across the Northeast.

As demand grew and Yuengling sensed that he might have something big on his hands, he began to think about the future. In 1993, while on vacation in Florida, he sat his four daughters down and asked them point-blank whether they might one day be interested in taking the reins. Above all, he wanted to know whether the money he was investing in the company was going to benefit his kin. Three daughters agreed (and the fourth hasn't ruled it out), and they began working at the brewery soon after. Jennifer is a plant coordinator, Debbie works in finance and accounting, and Sheryl helps manage distribution. Though the brewery has always been part of their lives, they are the first women to help manage it. "It is a source of pride," says Sheryl, "that we're women and we're going to be taking this over."

"There are plenty of guys that have put breweries out of business," Dick jokes. "I don't know of a woman who has."

Still, the 61-year-old, chain-smoking Yuengling acknowledges that his daughters would not be ready to take over any time soon. There is no clear leader in the group thus far, although Jennifer, the eldest, comes closest. For starters, she's gone to brewing school and can explain precisely how Yuengling Porter makes its way into your bottle. She also has a graduate degree in psychology, which can't hurt in a family business. Perhaps most importantly, she takes the same hands-on approach that has become her father's signature. At the brewery before dawn, she says the boss is still her best resource. "He's certainly not a scholar and he doesn't have a college degree," she says. "He's just dedicated his life to the brewing industry, and he's magical with it. And the best way to learn is through our interaction with him."

Assuming they do take over, they will purchase the company from their father, just as he did from his father, and his father before him. Such a succession path has become tradition because, as Yuengling puts it, the next generation is bound to feel a stronger connection to the brewery with its own money invested. "It's like a kid's first car," Yuengling says. "If they buy a $700 wreck, they take care of it, wash it, polish it. You give them a $20,000 new car, it's just not the same." Exactly how he will appraise a brewery that barely resembles the one he purchased just a generation ago, Yuengling says, remains to be decided.

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