ON THE RIGHT HERE IS ONE I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR FOR QUITE SOME TIME D.G. YUENGLING JR LAGER BEER SARATOGA BRANCH, I NOW HAVE A MINT EXAMPLE OF THIS ELUSIVE BOTTLE....AND ON THE LEFT N EVEN HARDER TO FIND VARIANT WITH L.MARTIN,RIVERSIDE N.Y.
FURTHER DOWN ON LEFT IS MY RARE D.G.YUENGLING JR. SARATOGA BRANCH HUTCH AND SECOND VARIANT OF PONY SIZE WITH "JR." IN IT.
D.G. YUENGLING OPENED A BREWERY IN VIRGINIA AND LATER IN N.Y. CITY & SARATOGA SPRINGS N.Y. THERE IS SOME CONFUSION IF THE SARATOGA BRANCH WAS ACTUALLY A BREWERY OR A BOTTLING OPERATION.
The German brewer David Gottlob Jüngling immigrated to the U.S. in 1823 from Aldingen, a suburb of Stuttgart, in the Kingdom of Württemberg. He anglicized his surname from Jüngling to Yuengling and began the "Eagle Brewery" on Center St. in Pottsville in 1829. His eldest son, David, Jr., left the
Eagle Brewery to establish the James River Steam Brewery along the James River in Richmond, Virginia.The first brewery burned down in an 1831 fire and the company relocated to W. Mahantongo Street at 5th St., its current location. The Eagle Brewery changed its name to "D. G. Yuengling and Son" in
1873 after Frederick Yuengling joined his father David in running the company. Although the company's name changed, the bald eagle remained the company's emblem. During the late 19th century, breweries were also opened in Saratoga, N.Y. City, and Trail, British Columbia, although they were eventually merged with the Pottsville plant.
Frank Yuengling began heading the company in 1899 after his father Frederick died. During the Prohibition era, Yuengling survived by producing "near beers" (beverages with a 0.5% alc. content) called "Yuengling Special", "Yuengling Por-Tor", and "Yuengling Juvo". The company also ran a dairy which produced ice cream and opened dance halls in Philadelphia and N.Y. City.After the 18th Amendment was repealed in 1933, Yuengling sent a truck of "Winner Beer" to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in appreciation, which arrived the day the amendment was repealed ? particularly notable since Yuengling takes almost three weeks to brew and age.Richard L. Yuengling and F. Dohrman Yuengling succeeded Frank Yuengling after their father's death in 1963.
"In 1919, the 18th Amendment was ratified, which outlawed the sale or production of beers. The Prohibition Era forced many American breweries to close. Frank predicted the Prohibition would be short lived and strategized to insure his company?s survival throughout the tough era with four near beer recipes (Yuengling Specialty,
Yuengling Por-Tor, the near beer version of the Celebrated Pottsville Porter, and the experimental cereal brew, Yuengling Juvo) and a dairy constructed adjacent to the plant which sold ice cream and other dairy products up until 1985. Near beer was a malt beverage that did not contain enough alc. to be considered a true beer, and was therefore legal to produce and sell. The tough fourteen-year Prohibition Era ended in 1933, and the brewery celebrated by making the ?Winner Beer? and sending a truck full of bottles to President Roosevelt to express its appreciation
Yuengling suffered from the rise of large commercial breweries during the 1970s. It was able to survive owing to demand from its customer base in Schuylkill County. The company also experienced an increase of sales after a renewed interest in history owing to the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976.Yuengling bought the rights to use the Mount Carbon (Bavarian Premium) name and label when Mount Carbon Brewery closed in 1977. Yuengling initially brewed at Mount Carbon but eventually abandoned it. The dairy remained in business until 1981, but its vacant buildings sits across Mahantongo Street from Yuengling's 1831 brewery and still carries Yuengling signs to this day.
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ABOVE IS VERY SCARCE D.G. YUENGLING JR. SARATOGA BRANCH HUTCH, ON RIGHT IS ALSO VERY SCARCE PONY WITH SAME EMBOSSING. THERE ARE 2 VARIANTS OF PONY SIZES, ONE WITH "JR." AND ONE WITHOUT LIKE AT LEFT.
Richard L. ("Dick") Yuengling, Jr. took over as the 5th-generation company president in 1985, also in 1985, the Yuengling brewery was listed on the National Reg. of Historic Places as the oldest brewery in the U.S..It was also so listed in the Pennsylvania Inventory of Historic Places at some unspecified date. (The company's website mentions only a vague national and state registration in 1976).Yuengling has been a registered trademark since 1995.The Pottsville brewery was featured on an episode of The History Channel's American Eats.
In 1987 the brewery reintroduced a lager they had not made in decades to take advantage of a spike in heavier-style beers. Since this time, Yuengling Lager has become its flagship brand, accounting for 80% of production and much of its rapid growth. In the early 1990s, demand throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware outstripped the existing brewery's abilities. In 1999, they increased their manufacturing capacity by purchasing a Stroh Brewery Company plant in Tampa, Florida, hiring the former Stroh employees, and began working with a trade union for the first time.In 2000, the company built a third brewery in Pennsylvania, in Port Carbon in Schuylkill County near Pottsville. With production at the Port Carbon, Tampa, and original Pottsville plants, the company has been able to expand throughout the East Coast. As of 2009, Yuengling is a moderately priced beer popular northward through New York, westward until Ohio, and southward through South Carolina. The Tampa brewery supplies the Florida Gulf Coast, the Florida Keys, Central Florida, North Florida, the Florida Panhandle as well as Alabama and Tennessee.The brewery uses corn from Minnesota and hops from Washington as ingredients in its products. Yuengling began distribution in the state of Georgia on October 27, 2008, and in May 2009 in West Virginia.
Richard Yuengling only has daughters, so the family name itself will discontinue with him. However, his daughters are being groomed to continue the Yuengling tradition as the 6th generation of the brewing family. According to a guide of the free tour that the brewery offers at their flagship location, each succeeding owner has bought the company from his father at full market price, and that tradition will carry on with the 6th generation.
1921, Frank Yuengling built a dairy to make up for the beer sales lost during Prohibition. The dairy manufactured ice cream for 65 years
"When you think of Yuengling you usually think of beer, more precisely lager. But what most 
don't know is that ice cream may have helped to save the brewery. During prohibition Yuengling was no longer allowed to make alcoholic beer. They instead made a non-alcoholic near beer, but it may have been the creamery across from the brewery that kept the Yuengling name afloat. The ice cream packages back in those days also contained baseball cards, many of which are quite valuable today, and often difficult to find. The amazing thing is how long they continued to churn out ice cream even after prohibition. The Yuengling creamery continued serving customers in the nearby communities up until 1985 when they closed the creamery for good. " No family member wanted to run it. Here is a link to pictures of the baseball cards that came in the ice cream. BASEBALL CARDS
David G. Yuengling, a 21-year-old immigrant from Aldingen, Germany, traveled to America with his heart set on brewing beer. Pottsville’s alluring population growth and pure spring water made it the perfect place to set up shop. The rest is history.
FORGING THE AMERICAN DREAM
Fast-forward 183 years to present day, and you’ll find the tradition of Yuengling beer still going strong. South Florida Opulence interviewed Dick Yuengling, the great-great grandson of David, and the current owner of the family business. “When I was a 20-year old kid at the brewery, I can remember we went through a lot of struggles. In Eastern and Central Pennsylvania, there had been a brewery or two in about every community because of the coal boom,” Yuengling continued. “When economic times got bad, breweries started going out of business. [The nation went from about 4,000 beer companies to fewer than 200.] We were afraid we would too … production was down, the plant was old and we were not highly automated,” Yuengling said.
At one point, the Yuenglings had considered selling, but when they found out the buyer was going to tear down the plant for scrap, the sale was cancelled. “I’m proud that despite the struggles, our family business lasted long enough to become the oldest brewery in America. It’s important to me to keep Yuengling a family-owned business. To me, it’s out of respect for the previous generations of my family who came here in the 1800s and made the brewery successful.”
FROM ONE GENERATION TO THE NEXT
David G. Yuengling passed away in 1877, so his son Frederick took over the brewery. When he became ill in 1893, Frank Yuengling was called home from college at Princeton to run the company. “He had no choice because his father had taken out a bank loan to expand the business – and his mom had co-signed the loan. The business had to continue so that the debt could be paid,”said Yuengling. During prohibition, when the brewery couldn’t make beer, the business intuitively shifted to dairy. “Frank Yuengling had an ice cream factory right across the street.”
In 1963, Yuengling’s father took over the brewery. He started thinking about ways to automate the process. Dick took therein in 1985 when his father developed Alzheimer’s. Yuengling said every generation added to the brewery, further endearing the business into the family’s legacy. Yuengling’s steadfast success is due, in part, to the down-to-earth nature and beer brewing passion that have been instilled in five generations of Yuengling owners. If you visit the Pottsville-based brewery, you won’t find Dick Yuengling pulling up in a fancy car and passing the day away by pushing a pencil on a boardroom table. Rather, the stalwart salt-and-pepper-haired President drives to work in his modest Ford Taurus (proudly adorned with Yuengling bumper stickers), wearing blue jeans with his shirtsleeves rolled up, eager to help out in the factory. “I don’t use a computer, I don’t have email and I don’t sit behind a desk in a suit and tie,” laughed 69-year-old Yuengling. “I know people may think that’s weird, but it’s how I grew up. I started on the packaging line as a kid; it’s who I am. I always want to make improvements in the brewing process, but I can’t do that sitting behind a desk.”
GERMAN BEGINNINGS
With all the documented heritage of the Yuengling Brewery, one question puzzled the family for generations: Why did young David G. Yuengling leave Germany to come to the United States in 1829, and how did he learn to brew beer? Dick was determined to solve the age-old family mystery. “A group of us went to Germany in 2004 for the 60th anniversary of D-day. We went to Aldigen, the town where David Yuengling was from, to see what we could find out,” said Yuengling reminiscing. “We went through the town archives and discovered that David’s father started a brewery there in 1816 – and the building is still standing today. “We learned that David was the youngest of nine boys, and back then, it was German tradition to leave the family business to the oldest son. So David knew he didn’t have a chance to inherit his father’s brewery. In 1828, he left Germany and landed in Philadelphia, eventually making his way to Pottsville. The community was growing quickly – Pottsville was sort of like the Austin, Texas, of the time, except instead of booming in oil fields, Pottsvillewas booming in coal mines. In fact, it was in cool underground caves similar to coal mines where my great-great grandfather first stored the beer before there was electricity. Beer is a food and needs to be kept at 55 degrees so it doesn’t spoil.”Yuengling, whose name translated from German means “young man,” came to this young country to brew beer but never could have imagined what the Yuengling name would mean to future generations of family and customers. How proud he would be of his great-great grandson, Dick, who 27 years ago, took over the brewery when it produced 137 barrels and grew it to a 2.5 million barrel production today.
WHAT MAKES YUENGLING BEER SO POPULAR?
“It’s really about the quality of water we have,” said Yuengling. “Beer is 97 percent water, so if you have bad water, you’re going to have bad beer. My great-great grandfather founded the brewery here not only because the town was booming from coal mining, but also because of the great water. We’ve
never had to treat the water – it’s that pure.” Yuengling is best known for its lager, light lager and the original “Black and Tan” (a combination of the premium and dark brewed porter). Dark-roasted malt and pure spring water make for his great tasting beer. “Unlike larger brewing companies in the United States (Yuengling is 1/45 the size of Anheuser-Busch), we don’t water down our beer to appeal to the masses, and we never will.” Now the largest American-family-owned brewing company in the U.S., Yuengling distributes its beer to 14 states, including Florida. Yuengling purchased the former Stroh Brewery in Tampa in 1999.
A FAMILY AFFAIR
People often ask if Yuengling is on the stock market. The answer is no. The company has remained owner-operated ever since David Yuengling began producing beer under the name of Eagle Brewing back in 1829. The name changed to Yuengling in 1876, but to this day, the eagle emblem remains on all Yuengling products. The company has been sold from one generation to the next, not handed-down. Dick Yuengling has four daughters, two who are being groomed and coached to take over company operations when Dick retires. They, too, will purchase the company from their father and set the course ahead for the next generation. If you are on a pilgrimage to the brewery, or just happen to travel through the Pottsville area, stop in to tour the Yuengling Brewing Company, and enjoy a cold Yuengling beer while you learn about the history of this wonderful American success story.
PLAQUE ON RIGHT IS MOUNTED ON RIGHT FRONT OF ORIGINAL BREWERY IN PENNSYLVANIA
