Pennsylvania-based Yuengling is bringing its beer to Chicago

It’s only taken 195 years, but Pennsylvania-based Yuengling beer — a regional favorite and the country’s oldest brewery — is finally coming to Illinois.

Starting late next month, beer drinkers in Chicago-area bars can look for Yuengling as the historic East Coast family brewery continues its slow westward expansion into the land of Old Style.

Yuengling beers will also be making their way to shelves in the following weeks, ending years of wait for Illinois fans, some of whom make regular interstate trips to fill their suitcases with cases of them.

“I think there’s definitely pent-up demand in markets where Yuengling doesn’t exist,” said Wendy Yuengling, sixth-generation family owner and general manager of the brewery.

Founded in 1829 by German immigrant DG Yuengling, the brewery was located on a river in the small mining town of Pottsville, where it is still headquartered today, about 90 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

A regional brewery for most of its history, Yuengling began expanding beyond its East Coast base in the early 2000s, purchasing a plant in Tampa and opening a third plant in Pennsylvania, expanding its presence to 22 states.

Yuengling made it to Indiana in 2017. In 2020, Yuengling entered into a joint venture with Chicago-based Molson Coors, allowing the company to produce its beers at plants in Fort Worth and Milwaukee and facilitate distribution to new states.

Yuengling expanded into Texas in 2021 and added Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma through the joint venture last year. Next month, Yuengling will be available in 27 states with the addition of Illinois.

The Pennsylvania brewery has traveled quite a bit, becoming the ninth-largest U.S. beer supplier by volume. Last year it produced 2.7 million barrels — an annual increase of nearly 16%, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights, an industry publication.

Benj Steinman, president of Beer Marketer’s Insight, said Yuengling is among the last regional breweries standing in an age of consolidation, giving it the cachet of a craft beer more in line with a Joe Six Pack price tag .

“It was a mainstream beer that tasted a little different,” Steinman said. “And as it expanded, it was embraced.”

Nationally, Yuengling had a 1.4% market share last year, despite being in about half the states. According to Beer Marketer’s Insights, Anheuser-Busch led the way with 34.5%, followed by Molson Coors at about 22% and Constellation at nearly 15%.

Chicago-based Constellation Brands’ beer division produces and imports Mexican beers such as Corona and Modelo.

Steinman said Yuengling benefited not only from its successful three-state expansion last year, but also from the fallout from a Bud Light marketing debacle that plunged sales of the top-selling beer in the U.S. by 27%.

The “Bud Light” social media campaign featuring a transgender influencer in April 2023 sparked a nationwide boycott and decline in sales that lasted into this year, Steinman said, creating an opportunity for competitive brands to gain market share.

“Miller Lite and Coors Light were the big beneficiaries,” Steinman said. “But Yuengling and Pabst also had great advantages.”

Beer sales volume has declined 6.7% nationally over the past decade, but Yuengling has remained nearly flat, due in large part to its westward expansion. It remains to be seen how the Pennsylvania brewery fares in Illinois, a market worth 7.4 million barrels last year, Steinman said. But if it captures 3% of the market, that could significantly boost its national standing.

Colin Callahan, the brewery’s general manager, said Yuengling isn’t focused on a specific market share target in Illinois but hopes to make a splash in 2025.

“We expect to be competitive in Illinois,” Callahan said.

Yuengling will launch in Illinois with five brands: its flagship Traditional Lager, Light Lager, Black & Tan, Golden Pilsner and FLIGHT, a new upscale light beer.

The company plans to use a variety of media as well as in-store and restaurant sampling to entice consumers to try the brands. According to Wendy Yuengling, the message will be simple and focused on the company and the quality of its beers.

“As far as marketing goes, when we launch we’re really just telling the story of who we are,” Yuengling said. “We are America’s oldest brewery. We are still family owned and operated.”

One hurdle could be teaching Chicagoans how to pronounce the name. In Pennsylvania, Republican Senate candidate David McCormick ran into trouble during the campaign when he mangled a reference to the homebrew and called it “Yangling.” Nevertheless, he managed to defeat incumbent Senator Bob Casey in November.

The correct pronunciation is “Ying-Ling”.

Building market share could start with members of the Facebook group “Bring Yuengling Beer to Illinois,” which has 1,300 followers, who have been posting for years about traveling to Indiana for beer trips and pondering when their favorite beer will be available at their home Condition.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” was a common refrain among members when rumors of his impending arrival were posted on the Facebook group’s page in July.

If all goes well, Yuengling will be available for sale in their areas by the end of January. The company hopes this will be an early sales catalyst for the new beer in the city.

“We’ve seen that in other markets where we’ve launched, and that helped create early excitement because there’s a group of consumers that are waiting for the brand,” Yuengling said.

There’s an undeniable appeal to regional beers that aren’t available on the market, such as the Colorado-based Coors beer, which was sold only in the West in the first century, making it the stuff of legend—and destination—everywhere else for pirated copies. Coors officially crossed the Mississippi in the 1980s and was available in all 50 states by 1991 – Indiana was the last to get it – making the once exotic beer ubiquitous.

While Coors Light was the second-largest brand in the U.S. last year behind Bud Light, the original Coors Banquet beer — which was the target of cross-country searches 50 years ago — ranked 19th in sales volume with a 1% market share, according to insights from beer marketers. This put it just behind the still regional Yuengling Lager, which achieved a share of 1.1%.

Yuengling is confident it can expand its market share in Illinois. When it comes to expanding into other markets, the Pennsylvania brewery wants to take its time.

“It took us 195 years to get into 26 states, so we’re in no rush to become a national brand,” Yuengling said. “It is more important for us to be successful in the markets in which we operate.”

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Originally published: December 4, 2024 at 5:00 am CST