Yuengling Beer Is On Tap in Wisconsin Thanks to These Sisters

Speaker: 00:00:05

McFleshman's: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Respecting the Beer.

Speaker: 00:00:09

My name is Decker, and, uh, Gary would've been here, but the sun is shining and he is out collecting all the sunshine that he can that we missed during the wintertime.

Speaker: 00:00:17

So- Most likely in Lithuania or some random place.

Speaker: 00:00:20

Remembering with his photographic memory where he was- That's a good picture … how he was, why he was.

Speaker: 00:00:26

And that's why we love him.

Speaker: 00:00:27

Uh- Yeah … as you've heard, we've got Allison and Bobby here, the owners of McFleshman's Brewery here in Appleton.

Speaker: 00:00:34

And coming to us live from the East Coast, Pennsylvania, we've got Jen and Wendy Yuengling of the Yuengling Brewery.

Speaker: 00:00:43

It is so exciting to, uh, have you on the podcast and also here in Wisconsin.

Speaker: 00:00:47

How's it going?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:00:49

Good.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:00:50

Yeah, thank you for having us.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:00:51

Excited to

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:00:51

McFleshman's: I, just, I, it's too bad this is a podcast 'cause you can't see my smile to be, like, in, like, the presence of brewing royalty.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:00

So it's just, it's exciting to, to get to chat with y'all.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:03

That's all.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:04

I'm just gonna nerd out right now.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:05

I'm a fan girl.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:07

I think it's awesome that we have such a historical moment here.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:10

Yeah.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:10

And that is one of the coolest things about, uh, Yuengling, America's oldest brewery.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:14

Right.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:15

And now it continues.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:16

Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:17

So if you guys wanna tell us a little bit about, uh, how the continuation is going for you, that would be, uh, very interesting.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:24

I, I feel like maybe the, the 30-second elevator ride isn't enough, but maybe, uh, what, what's your, maybe the background first?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:31

Oh, sure.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:31

The full history in a, in a not so 30-second nutshell.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:36

Yeah, I can.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:37

I'll start with myself.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:38

I, I'm Jennifer Yeungling

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:39

I started at the brewery shortly after college, and it was at a time when we were going through a huge growth trajectory.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:48

The craft brewing industry was doing quite well.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:50

It was the early 1990s.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:52

Our dad had taken over the company in 1985, so he was, he was in the business then for about seven, eight years after he had stepped away for a while in the early 1970s.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:04

And, you know, our dad needed to make some, some decisions of capital investment.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:09

We were-- the demand was way more than we could sustain from a production standpoint.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:14

So he sat down with Wendy and myself and our

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:17

other two sisters and basically wanted to gauge our commitment to the family company.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:24

and, and you know, I was the first one that came in.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:26

I had just finished grad school.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:28

I, uh, had gotten my psychology degree, which is always good to have in a family business,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:33

I think.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:33

McFleshman's: managing people in the end, which is totally psychology

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:36

Yeah.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:38

Yeah,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:38

and I gravitated towards the operations side.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:41

So, so right now I oversee our

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:43

two breweries in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and we have one in Tampa, Florida.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:47

Work very closely with all of our

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:48

plant personnel, and I work on scheduling for our PA-based breweries, making sure--

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:54

Bottom line is making sure our wholesalers are getting the beer they ordered because we're brewing,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:58

packaging, and shipping in the right manner for them.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:01

Yeah.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:02

McFleshman's: glossed over 150 years by my math.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:06

You started in 1985, right?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:10

In your story,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:11

So our dad, I, yep, our, our, yep, our dad became, well, he left the business for a bit in the early 1970s, and

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:18

then our grandfather became ill in the 1980s, so, so he came, you know, he took ownership in

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:23

McFleshman's: Got it.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:24

Got it.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:24

That's so cool.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:26

What-- Where, where did it all begin?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:30

Y- you guys must tell this story on the tour.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:32

Like how, how did things- I'm assuming they're not the ones giving the tour.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:35

Well, not you personally- Just to be clear … but yeah, as a company

Wendy Yuengling: 00:03:39

Back in the day, we actually did.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:03:41

So, I can give you my short background.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:03:44

I'm Wendy.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:03:45

I've worked for the brewery since 2004, so I didn't initially take the B like Jennifer did and our sisters, Debbie and Cheryl.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:03:53

They all went right back to work for the brewery right after graduating college, and I worked outside of the business for a little bit on the marketing side.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:03:59

But I've been at the company now for

Wendy Yuengling: 00:04:01

over 20 years

Wendy Yuengling: 00:04:02

And we

Wendy Yuengling: 00:04:02

did all come up in the family business.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:04:05

When we were

Wendy Yuengling: 00:04:06

growing up in Pottsville, Yuengling was a small town brewer.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:04:09

We probably sold in what, two or three states at the time, maybe five or six.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:04:14

And, you know, we all worked in the brewery over our summers

Wendy Yuengling: 00:04:17

in high school and college.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:04:18

And our dad was smart in exposing us to the

Wendy Yuengling: 00:04:22

business on the tour side, so we got to see people coming to visit

Wendy Yuengling: 00:04:26

America's oldest brewery,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:04:28

But really start to learn the magnitude of the brand and the significance of our history.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:04:33

We're sixth generation in

Wendy Yuengling: 00:04:34

the family business, and I think that's something that none of us take lightly.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:04:39

The four of us are very proud of the fact that we're able to keep the family business going through our generation and into future generations.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:04:47

That's something that is really special to us and, and the employees that work here.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:53

I think, I think too, we're old enough, I guess, to appreciate some

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:59

of the lean years.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:05:00

So when we were growing up in the '70s and '80s,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:05:03

uh, they were tough times for our company.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:05:05

I know we've, we've heard stories about our grandfather, you know, just hanging in there to, to keep the business alive and barely meeting payroll at the end of each week.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:05:14

So we can, we can appreciate that side of it, and I think more so we appreciate the the entrepreneurial, uh, vision that our dad had when he reintroduced our lager brand, which was right at the start of maybe the first craft beer revolution in the late '80s, early '90s.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:05:31

And that took off and became our flagship brand.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:05:34

And you know, we see how far we've come from a hundred and thirty-seven thousand barrels in 1985 to, to over two million barrels today.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:05:42

So it's, it's something that we, we don't take for granted.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:05:44

We really appreciate what not just our family members, but all the employees and, and loyal fans have done for us

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:05:50

McFleshman's: how many employees do you have?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:05:52

Like how big is Yelling?

Wendy Yuengling: 00:05:56

So right now we are in 30 states since the opening of Wisconsin and Iowa.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:02

But employee-wise, between

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:03

our three breweries on the East Coast, we have about 370 employees.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:08

So

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:09

still, still small enough where I feel like we know almost everybody,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:15

and we-- That's important to us.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:18

But, but, it

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:19

is a bigger brand now, and

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:20

so certainly has a

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:21

McFleshman's: Well, one of the fun things when, when Bobby told

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:25

me that we were gonna get to talk to y'all, I was so excited because,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:29

uh, we have a seven-year-old and she's been raised in a brewery.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:32

We opened the brewery the week I found out I was pregnant.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:35

And so it's like,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:36

so she, she and the brewery are basically

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:38

sisters.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:39

And

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:39

so we're, we're excited to see the things that she learns along the way, and we don't hold back.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:45

Like, we're not, we're not gonna, she doesn't care about taxes right now.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:48

But she helps us fold the towels and she helps us, you know, do some of the events, and so she's constantly with us, and so we're just kinda making the brewery just a constant in her life as opposed to- For the record, I don't care about taxes right now either.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:59

Yeah.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:59

I can't- Like, I have to, but I don't.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:01

That's fair.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:02

But she's actually sitting in the back reading right now.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:05

That's wonderful.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:06

And then, you know, if she eventually decides she wants to continue it, you know, it's in her blood and, you know, she sees the hard work and the blood, sweat, and tears

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:14

McFleshman's: But I also appreciate that we don't wanna force her into it.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:17

So it sounds like all of you came back.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:18

So you, you go to college, but then you come

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:20

back because you choose to, as opposed to like the family that kind of puts pressure to like you have to.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:25

So that's an exciting return

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:07:28

Yeah,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:07:28

I think that's a key point to any family business and succession planning is exposure.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:07:33

Expose your children to it, expose the next generation to it.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:07:37

Ha- let them ask a ton of questions, but don't force it on them.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:07:40

And I know that's been, you know, that, that's been key for myself and I think for my sisters as well.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:07:44

And I think what we're finding with, you know, the seventh generation as they're coming through, give them exposure, let them, you know, let them work, walk their way around and determine what their interests are.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:07:54

And hey, it's an opportunity for you.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:07:55

If you're, if you're interested, we're here for you.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:07:57

And you can come back in and find a place where you add value to the

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:08:00

McFleshman's: So a question, follow-up question to that.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:08:02

So because it's just part of your blood how hard is it when, especially in the, the shifting terrain of the craft beer industry right now especially post-COVID how hard is it to envision like the Glingling of tomorrow compared to the Glingling of yesterday?

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:19

Yeah, I,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:20

I think it's tricky.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:21

I think it's a balancing act, and because we've endured for

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:24

almost 200 years, there always had to be this element of

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:28

innovating.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:29

But

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:29

yet at the same time, after almost 200 years,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:32

like, we are very

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:34

loyal and

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:35

tied to our heritage,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:36

our tradition.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:37

So you don't wanna stray from that too much, but yet you

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:39

wanna continue to stay relevant as consumers' tastes are changing.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:43

So I think it's a fine line that we try and walk.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:46

We've always

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:47

kind of drawn a line in the sand that we make beer.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:49

You

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:50

know, we didn't get involved in things outside of traditional beer up until this point, and that was a choice that we made.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:56

We're the oldest brewery in America, and so we

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:58

feel like we have a portfolio of great beers for everybody.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:09:02

But I think you have to figure out how to balance that innovation with also, you know, your

Wendy Yuengling: 00:09:08

tradition.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:09:10

I think I feel like we're evolving too as a company in terms of, uh, uh, yes, we, we make beer and we're breweries, but we've undergone some expansion in our, outside of our Tampa brewery, what we refer to as our Tampa campus.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:09:23

And we built a restaurant there.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:09:24

It's our Draft House & Kitchen restaurant.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:09:27

This is right on site and and it's, you know, we've been open for three years now, but we're learning that side of the business.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:09:32

But we're finding that we have different events there, whether it's our, our Eagle Series, which are limited time offering brands that help draw, draw people on site, and we offer special beer pairing dinners with that.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:09:43

We're, we're re-energizing our tours for our Tampa brewery.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:09:46

So there's little things that we're trying to, you know, grab little nuggets that we can you know, we can expose our fans to and and, and gain more business.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:09:54

McFleshman's: What was it that got you to decide to expand?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:09:57

Because, uh, you know, your brand has always been, uh, like east of

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:02

a certain river.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:03

It always felt like you couldn't go across this parallel or whatever.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:06

What was

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:07

it that got you to say, "Okay, now we can move west.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:10

We can keep on doing that"?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:12

Was it the the, Tampa brewery opening, or was

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:14

it, uh, because we-- everyone deserves to have our

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:17

amazing beer?

Wendy Yuengling: 00:10:19

I would say it was

Wendy Yuengling: 00:10:20

more disciplined

Wendy Yuengling: 00:10:22

around the fact that we had three breweries on the East

Wendy Yuengling: 00:10:25

Coast.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:10:26

We had two in Pottsville and one in Tampa.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:10:28

But the realities of shipping beer are you can only go

Wendy Yuengling: 00:10:31

so far and you know, our beers are priced, uh,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:10:34

at the domestic premium space.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:10:36

So in order to be able to provide

Wendy Yuengling: 00:10:38

our beers affordably, we created a joint venture a few years ago, back in

Wendy Yuengling: 00:10:43

twenty twenty.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:10:44

And so being able to partner with Molson Coors and use their facilities to brew our, our beers under the guidance of Jennifer and the operations team, we felt very comfortable that we could continue to expand, but still do so in a very disciplined manner like we've been doing for almost two hundred years.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:11:02

But maintain oversight of the quality and do it with great partners and great

Wendy Yuengling: 00:11:06

McFleshman's: So when, when did MillerCoors, O- Molson Coors, when did they open up their, uh, capacity?

Wendy Yuengling: 00:11:12

Is that, is that recent in terms of their own demand with their own beers, or like the Pabst Brewing Company no longer brewing with them?

Wendy Yuengling: 00:11:21

I don't know what the whole situation is right now with Miller's capacity, but i- is that why that opened up for you guys, that lane opened?

Wendy Yuengling: 00:11:29

I I can't speak to that, but I would say we just started brewing out of their Fort Worth brewery in Texas where they had capacity, and that's where we started very small to be able to open up the state of Texas and then grow and learn from there

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:11:44

I think, I think timing-wise for us too, I mean, we were, we were several years in discussions.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:11:49

I mean, it was more so our dad and going back to Norman Adamy and then Gavin Hattersley.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:11:54

So we really needed that comfort level in the relationship.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:11:58

They're great brewers.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:11:59

They're good people.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:12:01

We've established, you know, personal relationships with so many of their folks and you know, timing was a big part of it.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:12:06

And then the fact that from our, our DGY footprint on the East Coast, we've, we really, like Wendy said, maxed out in terms of the logistics of getting, hitting that price point from shipping beer from either Pottsville, Pennsylvania, or Tampa, Florida, and and, and making it

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:12:22

McFleshman's: It's funny, you guys are dealing with the same problem the little guys are, but on two, three orders of magnitude or more scale

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:12:29

Meow.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:12:29

And I honestly think part of what gave us confidence is doing business with other legacy family breweries.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:12:38

Like it meant something to us to be

Wendy Yuengling: 00:12:39

doing business with the Coors family and the Molson

Wendy Yuengling: 00:12:43

family.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:12:44

And so that's been really important.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:12:45

We're very

Wendy Yuengling: 00:12:46

much a relationship company, and

Wendy Yuengling: 00:12:49

they've been good partners with us, and we still get to, you know, take our brands further west, but do so in a way

Wendy Yuengling: 00:12:55

that is, you know, still feels like it's

Wendy Yuengling: 00:12:58

disciplined, like the

Wendy Yuengling: 00:12:59

Yingling way of doing

Wendy Yuengling: 00:13:00

McFleshman's: Yeah, and they're, and, and you guys are too, are the best brewers in the world.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:13:03

I mean, it just comes with

Wendy Yuengling: 00:13:04

the scale.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:13:04

You don't get where you are at this point without having the quality labs and,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:13:08

you know, people behind the scenes.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:13:10

You're not, no longer living that Sam Adams commercial where it's copper kettles tossing hops in.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:13:14

It's not the world you're in.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:13:16

You're, you're very technical brewers.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:13:18

Uh, you being the Royal you, all the, the big guys out there.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:13:22

On the West Coast, have you guys considered putting a brewery in?

Wendy Yuengling: 00:13:26

Have you done the numbers

Wendy Yuengling: 00:13:27

on that

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:29

Actually, well, yeah, part of our joint venture with Molson Coors was to have the ability to use their facilities,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:37

And, you know, their, their brewing capacity to help us with any additional westward expansion.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:42

So

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:43

yeah, so we're in it for the

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:44

McFleshman's: You're skinning the cat that way.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:45

I know a lot of, like Sierra Nevada obviously, New Belgium, they've moved to the East with their own breweries, so that's cool

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:53

Yeah, it's challenging.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:54

You know, Tampa's 1,100 miles

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:56

away from, from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and we have a great team in Tampa, but it's, it's challenging trying to,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:14:01

you know, instill the same culture that has those deep roots here in, in

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:14:07

Pottsville.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:14:07

You know, unfortunately, I have the opportunity to

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:14:09

be in Tampa once a month, usually for about three or four days, and just the evolution of how far we've come from an efficiency standpoint, from a, from a cultural respect and tradition standpoint, it's, it's rewarding for me to see how well our people, and that, and that's a testament to our managers in Tampa who have able to, been able to carry on the, the traditions that we'd like to see.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:14:31

McFleshman's: How are you able to make those traditions be a company-wide motto and, ethos when it is a, a big corporation?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:14:40

It's-- I work in a radio, uh, company.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:14:42

We have, like, 55 employees, so it's fairly easy for us to all get in a room together and be like, "We're gonna do this." And here at McFleshman's, small team as well.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:14:51

They're meeting everyone almost every day.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:14:53

And you have, like, only 14 employees- Right … and half of those are part-time.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:14:56

Yeah.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:14:57

And so it's kinda easy to get everyone on board.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:14:59

How do you, uh, you know, create the environment you want to in Pottsville, and then transfer that and create it again in Tampa, two very different environments?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:10

It's, it's a matter of living it every day and living it from the top down, every individual.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:17

And, uh, you know, we've, we've got sales reps who come in and out of the, the you know, the, the orbit of our, our Pennsylvania breweries and our Tampa breweries.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:26

We have had some cross-functional individuals from Pottsville who have transferred down to Tampa.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:33

Uh, our packaging manager is a great example.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:35

So we get that, that influx, and it, it kind of blossoms, helps blossom.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:39

And then I think for my sisters and I, being on site in, in Tampa as frequently as we try to be, that helps.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:45

But it's, it's a challenge.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:47

The, the bigger you get, the more people you have enter your organization with different backgrounds and different lives.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:52

But you know, we work at it every day, and I think we're on the right path

Wendy Yuengling: 00:15:56

And fortunately, between Jennifer and myself, our two other sisters, we've sort of spread ourselves across different areas of the organization, and we stay very involved.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:06

We're very hands-on in the company.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:08

We

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:08

don't have a lot of layers here.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:11

People wear a lot of hats,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:13

and so we get to touch a lot of people and get to know them and build relationships.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:17

And it really does feel like family.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:19

Like, you know, I genuinely feel that way when

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:22

I say it.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:22

And even when we're hiring people, like almost

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:25

anybody that comes into the organization, Jen sat in an operations

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:29

interview or I've sat in salespeople interviews.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:32

So we make sure we meet them and find the right people

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:35

that understand our culture because it is different.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:38

It's it's not for

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:39

everybody, but we try and stay as active and involved as we can and spend as much time as possible across, across the

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:46

McFleshman's: gonna fangirl once again and just make a, make a comment on how wonderful it is to see women at the helm of a, of a brewing industry company.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:56

And just- Oh, especially of their scale.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:58

Of your scale.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:58

Mm-hmm.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:59

Hear, hear.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:59

We've had a lot of interviews with various breweries, You know, very national brand ones and small ones as well, and it's typically male representation, which is frustrating because I think there's a, a having women involved can add a perspective that is just unseen in our patriarchal society, and beer has been dominated by it for so long.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:17:19

So it's just so refreshing and inspiring for me just to see that.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:17:23

So thank you for the work you do.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:17:25

You know, well, it's nice of you to say that.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:17:28

And it's funny 'cause, you know, it comes up a lot.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:17:32

We certainly had nothing to do with it.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:17:33

My, our parents just happened to have four girls, and we've all been involved in the business and, and work really hard at it.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:17:41

And, you know, I try not to think

Wendy Yuengling: 00:17:43

about, you know, may- there might be two women in a

Wendy Yuengling: 00:17:47

meeting, And

Wendy Yuengling: 00:17:47

five years later, there's five women in a meeting.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:17:50

And so, you know, I think we're making progress.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:17:52

And at the end of the day, we just try and go

Wendy Yuengling: 00:17:54

out there and work hard, regardless of if they're women or not.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:17:56

But, you know, there's definitely inherent challenges with trying to balance

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:00

everything, and I guess that's kind of a perk of working in a family business is there is some understanding of that.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:06

and

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:06

So you know, we have support from each other as well.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:09

McFleshman's: I have a question about your, uh, supply chain and, and your raw ingredients and your farmer relationships.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:14

I, I assume at your scale you're, you're working pretty closely with these, with the farmers out there and the, and the maltsters and the hop breeders

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:18:23

we are, yes.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:18:24

We you know, there's been, since I started in the business over 25 years ago, there's been so much consolidation across the board, whether it's hop companies grits or malt.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:18:34

But we've got some good relationships with the bigger, you know, the bigger suppliers and you know, a really funny story is our long-term operations employee of ours, he just retired the end of December, and he'd been with us for 47 years.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:18:50

Yeah, so he, and

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:18:51

McFleshman's: shout-out right now?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:18:52

That's incredible

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:18:54

absolutely.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:18:54

He'll be mad at me, but yeah, his name's John Callahan, and he started

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:18:58

from

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:18:58

the ground up, third shift, cleaning cellars, uh, cleaning kegs worked his way up to helping, uh, build our Mill Creek Brewery in

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:08

2001, 2002 and then became

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:12

our plant manager, our manager

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:14

and our plant coordinator at our historical

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:16

Pottsville Brewery.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:17

So he just retired and,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:18

obviously we just rolled into Wisconsin and one of our grit suppliers in Wisconsin, super excited to

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:23

have our brands there.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:25

They have,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:25

actually next week they have an event called, they,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:28

I think it's Farm to Farm to Beer or Farm to Table, and they asked a representative to come out, and I

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:33

couldn't do it that weekend.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:34

And they're like, "Well, we heard John Callahan was retiring.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:37

We would've loved to have had

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:38

him." I'm like, "Wait a minute." So I reached out to John, he's like, "Absolutely, I'd love to." So super excited.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:44

He's coming out of retirement for a couple days to do a, a presentation out at our our

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:49

our grits company's kind of event that they're having.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:52

Yeah, so it's, you know, it's nice having those relationships and, you know, it makes, it makes for easier discussions when it comes to contract time

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:59

McFleshman's: He's retiring from retirement.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:02

That happened.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:03

We're waiting after two months

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:05

McFleshman's: who's your

Wendy Yuengling: 00:20:05

Me with our, our, uh, it's our label supplier, I wanna say.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:20:10

We've had such a long-standing relationship with this company down in Maryland.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:20:14

When I started, I got to know them and you know, she's telling me that the relationship dates back to our grandfather.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:20:20

So we've been doing business together for so long, and that, that kind of stuff is important to us.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:20:24

But to Jen's point, it's getting harder and harder with consolidation happening across vendors.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:20:30

McFleshman's: your, uh, grit supplier?

Wendy Yuengling: 00:20:30

You said they're from Wisconsin?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:33

Yeah.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:34

Excuse me, Didion?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:36

Yeah, they're one of our, one of our vendors for

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:38

McFleshman's: Gotcha.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:39

Gotcha.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:40

Cool.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:41

Okay

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:41

you've said the word enough times, I have to bring it up.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:43

How do you guys survive

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:44

consolidation?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:45

You know, you, you're not

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:47

i- immune to that either, and we're all kind of at the pressures of the market.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:51

How all these years did you guys not get bought up or consolidated by one of the big mergers?

Wendy Yuengling: 00:20:56

I think You have to be a willing seller, and we've never wanted to sell our business.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:21:01

I mean, we're fiercely independent.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:21:03

We're in the sixth generation, and we don't envision that changing anytime

Wendy Yuengling: 00:21:07

soon

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:21:08

You know, we hear-- We-- Our dad would tell stories of our lean years of fifties, sixties, seventies, and, and his father, obviously our grandfather, you know, he-- There, there was a buyer, and he, he asked them point-blank, "Well, what are you gonna do with, with our brewery?"

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:21:23

They're like, "Well, we're gonna close it down."

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:21:25

And he's like, "Well, I'm not selling it to you then.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:21:26

You're gonna leave us with a shell of a building.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:21:29

We're employing people here.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:21:30

You know, we've been in business for over a hundred and fifty years." So it, it's, it's really a, a tribute and a testament to the generations before us who went through some really, really tough times, even Prohibition.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:21:41

You look at our third generation, uh, owner, Frankie, right?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:21:45

And to, to have the fortitude to be able to diversify and just

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:21:49

hang

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:21:49

McFleshman's: was that business like in the, during Prohibition for you for you

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:21:52

guys?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:21:53

So yeah, so we, you know, Frank Ailing was able to, he was able to pivot pretty quickly.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:21:58

We started making near

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:21:59

beer.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:22:01

One half of 1% alcohol was legal, kept his

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:22:03

workers employed did some real estate ventures, and then built a

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:22:07

dairy across the

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:22:08

" street from our historic brewery and started

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:22:10

making milk and ice cream products to, to get us through those

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:22:14

McFleshman's: Did you have refrigeration infrastructure where you could move dairy and such?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:22:20

At, at that time we did.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:22:22

In fact, when the dairy ended up closing, it was a cousin of our family in the nine- early 1980s that they didn't want to have the business anymore.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:22:32

We actually brought over a couple of the engineers and powerhouse folks from the dairy and employed them at, at the brewery at that time

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:22:40

McFleshman's: You know, you guys talk about it being a family business and that you were brought back to the, uh, the brewery.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:22:45

You, you know, went off to school and then you came back.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:22:48

What was it specifically that… 'Cause you had a choice.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:22:52

You could've g- done any number of things really, and but what was it about working back at the brewery, keeping it in the family that was like, "I will do this if "I can do X, Y, Z"?

Wendy Yuengling: 00:23:04

I think it's just pride.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:23:06

I mean, 'cause I didn't go right back to the business.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:23:09

You know, I wanted to work outside of the company.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:23:11

I wasn't ready to settle

Wendy Yuengling: 00:23:13

down in, in that type of a job.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:23:16

I wanted to learn, and

Wendy Yuengling: 00:23:19

I really didn't

Wendy Yuengling: 00:23:19

pay too much attention to what was going on at the brewery during those years.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:23:23

And then I started to see, you know, Jen And Debbie and Cheryl were in the thick of it as we were growing and expanded, and I started to see just the incredible opportunity that was there if you were

Wendy Yuengling: 00:23:34

involved

Wendy Yuengling: 00:23:34

in it and that's when I decided to come back, and it's just a, it's a,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:23:40

it's a, it's an incredible pride, I think, that you

Wendy Yuengling: 00:23:44

have to just keep it

Wendy Yuengling: 00:23:45

going and just to be a part of it, a small

Wendy Yuengling: 00:23:47

part of it.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:23:47

You know?

Wendy Yuengling: 00:23:48

This is gonna keep going beyond us, and, to be able to play a role and keep the business healthy is, is an unbelievable

Wendy Yuengling: 00:23:55

McFleshman's: Have you guys heard of August Schell from Minnesota?

Wendy Yuengling: 00:23:58

They're, they're a young pup.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:24:00

They're 1860s when they were born.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:24:02

But, but they, uh, have a story that is so similar to yours as they tell it.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:24:07

It- they're fifth generation now, and they talk about how were required to go off to experience the world.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:24:14

They weren't just, uh, allowed to, they were required to.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:24:17

But then they always were-- they gravitated back and, and took over one generation after the next.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:24:22

So anyway, I'm just making a note of that.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:24:24

I've heard them tell their story, and it sounds so much like what you guys are, are telling right now

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:24:29

Yeah,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:24:29

I, think we did a collaboration event with them and a few other legacy brewers back in, this was a few years ago back in Philly.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:24:37

And I think they participated and a few other, you know, small, I'll say smaller craft breweries that were still around at the time.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:24:45

Do you remember

Wendy Yuengling: 00:24:45

that, Jen?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:24:47

I, I vaguely do.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:24:48

I don't recall being a part of it, but yeah, we have, um, one of our, our lead brewer at our Pottsville plant stays in touch with some of the personnel at Schell's.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:24:55

I think he, he met with them when he went to an MBA class several years ago

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:24:59

McFleshman's: This reminds me when we several years ago when we were uh, courting some distributors our manager at the time had written out, like, kind of the history of the brewery

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:25:08

for us.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:25:09

Uh, not necessarily for me and Bobby,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:25:11

But for some of the other employees just so they could, you

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:25:13

know, answer any possible questions,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:25:15

That the d- the potential distributors would have.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:25:18

And, uh, she hands us the list, and I kind of

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:25:20

look at her, you know, inquisitively like, Why do I need this?" And she goes, "Oh, just to, you know, keep everything fresh in mind." I was like, "I know every nook and cranny."

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:25:28

And so it, there's

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:25:29

something, uh, and so to say that it's pride, like, there's also just this, like you're, you're woven into the fabric of the

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:25:36

story.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:25:36

You saw it all

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:25:37

develop, you know, and it's just when You're You're genetically bonded.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:25:40

You're genetically bonded to it.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:25:42

Yeah.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:25:42

And it's weird, but,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:25:43

like, I can, I think back to all the struggles that we've had in a heartbeat.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:25:46

I'm like, "Yep, this is what we chose. This is what we did." 'Cause, you know, 'cause when you're in the frontline, that's just your day-to-day operations.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:25:53

And so it almost becomes like, like an, an extra member of the family is how we consider the brewery for us, and it sounds kind of similar to y'all.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:26:01

Like, it's always been this, like, e- extra important uncle that's always there, ever present.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:26:08

Well, to Jen's point, when we were younger our dad was not involved in the brewery.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:26:13

Our grandfather was running it at the time, but he, you know, he grew up in the business.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:26:17

It's very much, you know, his life and he stepped away from the brewery and opened up a beer distributorship in town.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:26:25

So our early years were spent growing up in the beer distributorship.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:26:28

And so we remember going there and doing kids things like, you know, obviously eating lots of potato chips and soda, but like, we'd push each other around on hand trucks and like, you know, just climbing on pallets of beer and pallets of soda.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:26:40

And so I just think it does, it just becomes a part of you and to be able to play a bigger role in something like that is, is unbelievable.

David: 00:26:50

And that's gonna wrap up this episode of Respecting the Beer.

David: 00:26:53

Come back next week for more Yuengling family stories.

David: 00:26:57

In the meantime, head on over to the Facebook group to stay connected between episodes,

David: 00:27:00

And support the show over on Patreon so you can get uncut episodes, access to exclusive beer, and more.

David: 00:27:06

As always, the show is produced by me, David Kalsow, with music by Sarah Lynn Huss.

David: 00:27:10

And until next time, please remember to respect the beer