Review of Mark A. Noon’s
Yuengling: A History of America’s Oldest Brewery
For Mid-Atlantic Brewing News
by Martin Morse Wooster
P.O. Box 8093
Silver Spring, Maryland 20907
301/565-7820

Yuengling is clearly one of brewing’s great success stories. Last year, the firm celebrated its 175th anniversary—making the company not only America’s most venerable brewery, but also one of our country’s oldest enterprises.
With production of around 1.2 million barrels annually, Yuengling is either the fifth or sixth largest brewer in the U.S., either slightly ahead or slightly behind Boston Beer.

What’s amazing about Yuengling is that this growth has only taken place within the past two decades. As late as the mid-1970s, Yuengling’s annual production was only 75,000 barrels, about what it had been for most of the century. In the 1950s, Yuengling only ranked fourth out of eight eastern Pennsylvania breweries in barrels produced. Yuengling’s seven competitors from that era no longer exist, (Stegmaier Brewing, however, has its brands produced by The Lion.) Yuengling thrives.

Still another way to look at Yuengling’s achievement is to trace the story of eastern Pennsylvania’s largest brewery, In 1972, Schaefer opened a state-of-the-art plant in Fogelsville, Pennsylvania, about 50 (???) miles east of Yuengling’s base in Pottsville. By 1974, this new plant was producing five million barrels a year of Schaefer products. Schaefer faded away decades ago. The plant was controlled first by Stroh and then by Pabst, who sold it in 2001 to Diageo, which uses the now under-utilized facility to produce Smirnoff Ice. But while Yuengling’s larger competitors stumbled and failed (Schaefer, for example, only survives as a contract-brewed budget brand), Yuengling bought a brewery from Stroh in Tampa and opened a new brewery in Pottsville.

Even though Yuengling has been around for a very long time, there is no book about the firm’s achievements. Mark Noon, who teaches composition at Bloomsburg University, has written a book that any lover of Yuengling’s fine beers will want to own. Noon’s book is outstanding in discussing the firm’s pre-Prohibition history and serviceable in discussing Yuengling’s last 70 years. Moreover, there are some basic questions about Yuengling that Noon fails to address. Still, Yuengling is an important contribution to brewing history.

Noon is at his best in discussing the firm’s first century, He’s clearly spent a good deal of time researching the now-gone saloon culture that flourished before the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment. He is particularly good in showing that these saloons offered many services to the miners whose hard work was rewarded with schooners of Yuengling. These saloons—particularly those “tied houses “ owned by breweries—were able to cash checks and offer small loans. They could also notarize documents, and some even offered translators for recent immigrants struggling to learn English. The “free lunch” many provided with the purchase of a nickel schooner of beer offered miners a great deal of good food at a low price.

Noon also shows that Yuengling survived Prohibition by playing by the rules. While diversifying into ice cream, Yuengling produced near beer in quantities close to its pre-Prohibition beer production. This meant when Repeal took place in 1933, the firm had working facilities ready to produce real beer. This gave Yuengling a substantial advantage over competitors who had mothballed their facilities when America went dry. Strong family leadership and dedicated employees kept Yuengling going through the next 50 years. Yuengling employees work for a very long time. Yuengling' s long-time head brewer, N. Ray Norbert, retired in 1999after 57 years of service. Norbert’s length of service, however, was surpassed by Frank Yuengling, who retired as company president in 1960, after heading the family brewery for an astonishing 61 years!

What Noon does not discuss at very much length is the beers Yuengling makes. Cast yourselves back in time to 1980, when America’s brewers were at their nadir. If you went to a store in the mid-Atlantic, you’d see mass-market lagers—and Yuengling’s porter and Lord Chesterfield Ale. Yuengling was the only brewery for years to make a dunkel), and kept the style alive long after other brewers had abandoned it. Moreover, Yuengling was one of the few regional American brewers to have always made an ale.

Noon does not explain why Yuengling’s portfolio was as diverse as it was. Surely some corporate record could explain why Yuengling stubbornly stuck to a range of styles. But Noon does not explain why Yuengling didn’t change. (Not does he explain who Lord Chesterfield was, or why Yuengling’s brewers were fascinated by him.)

Under the dynamic leadership of current president Dick Yuengling Jr., Yuengling has achieved steady growth. Mark Noon’s fine book gives many of the answers as to why Yuengling has become so successful. Anyone who loves brewing history will find Yuengling a well-written and enjoyable book.

Available for purchase at the Yuengling Museum & Gift Shop, 5th & Mahantongo Sts, Pottsville, PA or online at www.yuengling.com/shop.htm McFarland. 192 p. $39.95.

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