By Chris Melzer Jan 12, 2012, 3:06 GMT
Pottsville, Pennsylvania - It was the Germans who took beer to the United States. The men who lent their names to the biggest brands - Anheuser, Busch, Pabst and Miller - were all born in Germany.
Yuengling, which bills itself as 'America's Oldest Brewery,' is a lot smaller. But it has equally German roots, and it continues to be held in the family.
Pottsville, Pennsylvania, is actually one of the most German places in the United States. Campaign posters show the names Staudinger and Hess, and if you need a doctor in this small town you can go and see Dr Altmuller. Yuengling beer, the area's biggest employer, could hardly be more German.
The first of the Yuenglings was in fact called Juengling and he was born in Germany. David Gottlob Juengling learnt the brewing trade in Aldingen, near Stuttgart, before migrating to the United States in 1823. Six years later he founded the 'Eagle Brewery' in Pottsville.
Pottsville remains the firm's headquarters, and the eagle continues to feature on bottles and glasses alike. The Eagle Brewery name has, however, long been abandoned in favour of the family name. These days, whoever cares to order 'a lager' in eastern Pennsylvania will almost certainly get a Yuengling.
'We sell our products in 14 states only. We are not one of the big ones,' Jennifer Yuengling, the daughter of fifth-generation firm boss Richard Yuengling, says modestly. In fact, that is somewhat of an understatement: with close to 300 million litres of beer sold in 2011, Yuengling is the United States' sixth-largest brewery, as well as the second-largest of those held in US hands.
David Juengling's business blossomed and each of his sons was able to make it a little bigger, until Prohibition came in 1919 and alcohol was banned across the United States. 'They made a watery beer. That was barely legal,' says Jennifer Yuengling, rolling her eyes. 'We also invested in real estate and made some money with dairy products. People say that the ice cream was very good!'
Yuengling has no idea how that ice cream actually tasted, because when Prohibition ended in 1933 the brewery again focused on its core business. Moreover, it sent US President Franklin Roosevelt (1933-45) a truck full of 'Winner Beer' for his efforts against the ban on alcohol.
The Yuenglings have close ties to the military. It is not just that kegs with their beer are taken all the way to Afghanistan in Air Force cargo planes: the Yuenglings themselves have been to war, including twice against the land of their ancestors.
'Lots of flak over the target but not very good,' one of the Yuenglings wrote in his war journal in October 1944, after a bombing raid on Kassel. A couple of days later, over Mainz, the air raid saw 'only light flak but bloody accurate.'
And what is the firm's relationship with Germany like nowadays? 'Unfortunately I don't speak German. But my father is pretty good and he's very often over there,' Jennifer Yuengling says.
The family knows where its roots lie. 'Our pub is the 'Rathskeller', the beer brands have names like 'German Bier' or 'Oktoberfest' and we are working in the 'Brauhaus', not in the Brew House. Of course there are a lot of connections and we are pretty proud of them,' Jennifer says.
The Yuengling brand was not a consistent success story. It was left for dead several times, but its sales soared hugely in the 1990s, thanks to its lager.
Now the business is stable, perhaps thanks in part to a well-known fan, who once even sent his Canadian colleague a crate of his favourite Yuengling beer as a gift: US President Barack Obama openly acknowledges his preference for Pennsylvania's German lager.
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