It only took 195 years, but Pennsylvania-based Yuengling beer — a regional favorite and the nation’s oldest brewery — is finally coming to Illinois. Beginning late next month, beer drinkers can be on the lookout for Yuengling at Chicago-area bars, as the historic family-owned East Coast brewery continues its slow expansion westward into the land of Old Style. Yuengling beers will also make their way onto store shelves in the weeks that follow, ending years of waiting for Illinois fans, some of whom take regular interstate journeys to fill their trunks with cases of the stuff. “I think there’s definitely pent-up demand in markets that don’t have Yuengling,” said Wendy Yuengling, a sixth-generation family owner and chief administration officer at the brewery. Founded in 1829 by German immigrant D.G. Yuengling, the brewery was located along a river in the small mining town of Pottsville, where it is still headquartered, about 90 miles northwest of Philadelphia. A regional brewery for most of its history, Yuengling began expanding beyond its East Coast base at the dawn of the new millennium, buying a Tampa facility and opening a third plant in Pennsylvania as it built its footprint to 22 states. Yuengling made it to Indiana in 2017. In 2020, Yuengling entered into a joint venture with Chicago-based Molson Coors, enabling it to produce its beers at plants in Fort Worth and Milwaukee, and facilitate distribution into new states. Yuengling expanded into Texas in 2021 and last year added Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma through the joint venture. Next month, Yuengling will be available in 27 states when Illinois joins the fold. The Pennsylvania brewer has traveled pretty far, growing into the ninth largest U.S. beer supplier by volume, producing 2.7 million barrels last year — a nearly 16% annual increase, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights, an industry trade publication. Benj Steinman, president of Beer Marketer’s Insight, said Yuengling is among the last regional brewers left standing in an age of consolidation, giving it craft beer cachet at something closer to a Joe Six-Pack price. “It was a mainstream beer that tasted a little different,” Steinman said. “And as it expanded, it was embraced.” The Yuengling brewery in 2016 in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. (Natalie Kolb/Reading Eagle) Nationally, Yuengling had a 1.4% market share last year, despite being in about half the states. Anheuser-Busch led the way at 34.5%, followed by Molson Coors at about 22% and Constellation at a nearly 15% share, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights. Constellation Brands’ beer division, based in Chicago, makes and imports Mexican beers like Corona and Modelo. Steinman said Yuengling not only benefited last year from its successful expansion into three states, but also fallout from a Bud Light marketing debacle, which slashed sales of the best-selling beer in the U.S. by 27%. The April 2023 Bud Light social media campaign with a transgender influencer prompted a national boycott and sales decline, which has continued into this year, Steinman said, creating opportunity for competitive brands to gain share. “Miller Lite and Coors Light were the big beneficiaries,” Steinman said. “But Yuengling and Pabst also got big benefits.” Beer sales volume is down 6.7% nationally over the past decade, but Yuengling has been roughly flat, due in large part to its westward expansion. How the Pennsylvania brewery fares in Illinois, a 7.4 million barrel market last year, remains to be seen, Steinman said. But if it captures 3% of the market, that could substantially boost its national standing. Colin Callahan, the brewery’s general manager, said Yuengling is not focused on a specific Illinois market share target, but hopes to make a splash in 2025. “We expect to be competitive in Illinois,” Callahan said. Yuengling will launch with five brands in Illinois: 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 in-restaurant sampling to get consumers to try the brands. The messaging will be simple, according to Wendy Yuengling, focusing on the company and the quality of its beers. “In terms of marketing, when we launch, we’re really just telling the story of who we are,” Yuengling said. “We’re America’s oldest brewery. We’re still family owned and operated.” One hurdle may be teaching Chicagoans how to pronounce the name. In Pennsylvania, Republican Senate candidate David McCormick took some heat during the campaign when he mangled a reference to the homegrown brew, calling it “Yangling.” But he still managed to defeat incumbent Sen. Bob Casey in November. The correct pronunciation is “Ying-Ling.” Building market share may start with members of a Facebook group, “Bring Yuengling Beer to Illinois,” which has 1,300 followers who have been posting for years about crossing into Indiana for beer runs and ruminating on when their favorite brew would be available in their home state. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” was a common refrain among members when rumors of its imminent arrival were posted on the Facebook group’s page in July. If all goes well, they’ll begin to see Yuengling for sale in their areas by late January, providing what the company hopes will be an early sales catalyst for the new beer in town. “We’ve seen that in other markets where we’ve launched, and that’s helped seed some excitement early on, because you’ve got that group of consumers that are waiting for the brand,” Yuengling said. There is an undeniable out-of-market allure to regional beer, such as Colorado-based Coors, which for its first century was only sold in the West, making it the stuff of legend everywhere else — and a target for bootleg distribution. Coors officially crossed the Mississippi River in the 1980s and was available in all 50 states by 1991 — Indiana being the last to get it — making the once-exotic beer ubiquitous. While Coors Light was the second biggest-selling brand in the U.S. last year behind Bud Light, the original Coors Banquet beer — the object of cross-country quests 50 years ago — ranked 19th in sales volume with a 1% market share, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights. That put it just behind the still-regional Yuengling Lager, which garnered a 1.1% share. Yuengling is confident it can grow market share in Illinois. As far as expanding into other markets, the Pennsylvania brewing company plans to take its time. “It took us 195 years to get into 26 states, so we’re not in any rush to be a national brand,” Yuengling said. “It’s more important to us to be able to do well in the markets that we’re in.” [email protected]