Yuengling's 200 Year Celebration Plans with Wendy and Jennifer Yuengling

David: 00:00:05

Hello everyone, and welcome back to a very special episode of Respecting the Beer as we continue our conversation with the Yuengling sisters of, yes, that Yuengling Brewery.

David: 00:00:14

This week they're gonna share a few more stories at the brewery and their plans for the 200th anniversary of the brewery.

David: 00:00:20

Enjoy

Wendy Yuengling: 00:00:21

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

Wendy Yuengling: 00:00:29

McFleshman's: If we can play off of that really quick.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:00:30

I grew up in a family business.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:00:32

My, uh, my dad and his three bro- or two brothers owned an air compressor business here in town, and, uh, shout out to Appleton Compressor.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:00:39

But when me and my brother were in our high school ages, they made us work at the, the shop.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:00:47

They made us.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:00:47

Like, that wasn't a choice.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:00:48

We just had to.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:00:49

But we were cleaning up… They gave us, like, the worst jobs, so we're cleaning up, like, vacuum pumps from cheese packaging co- companies and, like, you know, the meat dis- uh, meat packing stuff.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:00:59

So it's just like a h- I have horrific memories of working for my family and, uh, of all, like, the crazy stuff.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:01:06

Also forklift races in the parking lot.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:01:09

But, uh, what was the, like… There had to have been a moment where you're like, "Oh, man, are they really gonna make me do this?" Did they, like, send you in to clean the, the kegs or the cellars or anything?

Wendy Yuengling: 00:01:19

Or,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:01:19

like, year-old

Wendy Yuengling: 00:01:21

kegs

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:21

I mean, we never, we never had anything that horrific.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:25

It, you know, for me though, it's-- I, I was-- It-- My, my first job was, was a tour guide and giving tours, and that was not fun at all for me.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:33

And being very introverted, not enjoying public speaking, and as an 18-year-old, I was like, "What am I doing here?" So, so I, I, you know, you don't realize it at the time, but I think that was a great grooming lesson for me.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:01:46

And, you know, years later when you start to go through talking points and you learn how to speak to the media, it's like that, that was really a first stepping stone for me that I didn't realize it at the time but a, but a great first lesson to kind of initiate me into the, the comp- the family

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:02

McFleshman's: notes right now because I'm like, as soon as, as soon as

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:04

mine turns eight or nine, like, let's get you on the tour.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:07

Oh, she's not gonna have any trouble grabbing the mic.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:09

I'll get to that.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:10

She's all about it.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:10

It's great.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:11

Uh, this just spurred a memory I had listening to the August Schell interview.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:16

They, they said they,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:17

their

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:17

worst job was they, they were in charge of taking the, the

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:21

bottles that were to be recycled, and were like my kids' age, seven years old, and throwing these into a

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:27

bin to shatter them to compact their volume.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:30

Can you imagine like how many child labor and OSHA issues?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:35

Well, it's free labor.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:36

That's the business.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:36

That's why you

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:36

make children, is so that you can

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:38

build up your workforce.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:39

That's what my dad always said.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:40

That's why we're here.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:41

No, it's so that they can get, you know, access to to, intangible skills is what they're doing- Ah, there it is … is what we're building.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:02:47

Character

Wendy Yuengling: 00:02:48

I remember one of my first jobs when we, in fact,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:02:51

did have returnables as well.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:02:53

We used to have these cartons that, you know, just said premium beer, but we also made a premium light.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:02:58

And I remember going down on a Saturday when my dad was loading trucks, and he just gave me a stack of light cards, and I just had to tuck it in the corner of every case so that we knew that they were premium light versus premium.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:03:11

And, you know, it was fun for like the first 10 minutes, and then after an hour.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:03:15

I'm like, "Are you

Wendy Yuengling: 00:03:16

McFleshman's: get that case of

Wendy Yuengling: 00:03:18

I don't think I got paid, but,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:03:21

but it was good experience.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:23

yeah,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:23

your, your fingers start to hurt from pushing the cardboard into the case.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:27

You know, and our dad is always quick to remind us, you know, we, we worked over college years and then came back into the business.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:32

We've been out twice.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:33

He's quick to remind us that he's been working in the beer business since he was 15 years old.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:38

And Yeah

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:39

like, there's, there's no slacking.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:41

He might be one of the hardest workers

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:43

McFleshman's: I'm sure he would have stories.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:44

I'm sure he's told them to you.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:47

Uh, what-- So I, I wrote a note down when you were kind of going over your history.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:51

What… You said you, in 19, was it '80 that you got behind this, the, the lager that's, that's really catapulted you guys?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:58

Is that, did I hear that

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:03:59

right?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:01

That was

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:02

McFleshman's: Okay.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:02

So I was wondering, I thought maybe this was, this went back to 1920.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:08

I didn't realize there was more to the story.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:10

Oh, the lager is recent?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:11

Yeah.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:11

No, I wonder what was your beer before that beer?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:14

What was your flagship before

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:15

that

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:15

so yeah, so we have some what

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:18

we ref- refer to as,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:20

Heritage brands.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:21

We have a Lord Chesterfield Ale which is in my,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:24

Kind of interpretation, it's a, it's an American style ale.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:27

We have a Dark Brew Porter.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:29

Those go back

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:30

to probably the, the 1800s.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:32

And then returnable bottles, which, which we just

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:36

referenced, they were our

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:37

flagship.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:38

It's called Premium Beer.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:39

Premium was

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:40

' our, our

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:40

flagship brand, and it was really a, a local brand.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:44

It sold throughout the surrounding counties.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:46

and you know, part of the reason why the

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:48

founder, D.G. Yeungling,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:50

landed where he did in

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:51

Pottsville, it was a, a growing anthracite coal region.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:55

And, I mean, there were lots of

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:56

thirsty miners in those days.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:58

And,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:04:58

You know, Premium Beer was really our, our

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:05:00

flagship.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:05:00

It was, you

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:05:01

know, a very simple pilsner style beer, a little bit of sweetness to

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:05:05

it, but a

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:05:06

McFleshman's: So ancestry.com moment.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:05:08

Where, where did your family come from?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:05:10

Did I miss that note?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:05:12

Because it sounds like you're talking about a lot of English influence as well as German and all, and Czech

Wendy Yuengling: 00:05:18

He came from Germany.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:05:19

He came from Wurttemberg, Germany

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:05:22

yep, yep

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:05:23

McFleshman's: Got it.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:05:23

And, and somewhere along the way Ale became a, a beer that was brewed by you guys.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:05:29

We made porters and ales, and even before lager was resurrected in, in 1987, we have old labels of when we had lager brands back in the '50s and '60s.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:05:41

We made cream ales.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:05:42

We've made so many different styles over the years, and fortunately, our German heritage is such that we don't throw anything out.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:05:49

So we have boxes of old labels of, of brands that we've made over the years that, you know, it's been fun.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:05:56

Jen mentioned our Eagle series, but these are small batch brands that we sell on-site at our pretzel gift shop and our Tampa restaurant, the Emily Draft House and Kitchen.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:05

And so we've been able to resurrect some of those and find inspiration in those old re- old labels that

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:12

McFleshman's: You guys have some OG credit as a street cred now for having been a craft brewer before it was cool.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:19

Because it sounds like you were doing what we do now back then.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:22

That, that's really cool to hear all these influences

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:24

We've been doing it all along

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:26

and I think we just never really got caught up in, you know, what you call it.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:31

But, you know, there's pictures of DG and his two sons who worked in the business in the 1800s, and the barrels in front of them, you know, they'll say fine porters, lagers, and ales.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:42

So we've been making brands like That,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:45

McFleshman's: Damn the label, right?

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:46

Just do what makes you, what makes you happy.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:48

Exactly.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:49

Well, now you're here in Wisconsin, and a, a small rollout starting in January.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:54

It was just on tap.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:55

And then now just recently, what, two weeks ago?

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:59

Mm-hmm.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:06:59

It, Last week.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:00

Holy cow.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:00

In draft.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:01

It seems like- In kegans, in bottles, yeah

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:03

like now it, you've always been

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:04

here because- Yeah … I drove down, uh, we li- we're, uh, the brewery's o- off of College Avenue, our downtown, and I drove from the other side,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:11

and I saw so many neon signs for Yuengling in the bar windows and all the ads.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:16

So like now it just feels like y'all have been there.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:18

Well, and I have some friends who are actually sitting in our beer garden currently.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:21

They went to graduate school in Pennsylvania, and I ran down, uh, 'cause I got the times wrong, and I was like, "Guess what? We're gonna be drinking Yuengling upstairs." And their eyes got huge.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:32

They're like, "Oh my God." So I think like everyone's- We have some Bostonians and Philadelphia natives around here that, yeah

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:37

oh, we're so excited.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:38

It's, And we here in Wisconsin, we have had the opportunity of having like

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:43

a beer mecca where people would like be like beer mules to grab like our certain brands you could only get in Wisconsin, you know?

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:49

Yeah.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:49

Like you guys have heard of New Glarus, I'm sure.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:50

Like New Glarus.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:51

Like New Glarus, like Spotted Cow.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:52

Yeah.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:53

Yeah.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:53

And, uh, you know, everyone,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:54

like if you uh, when you go and visit your family- And McFleshman's I hear … and McFleshman's as well.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:58

Let's just throw a plug in.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:07:59

Yeah.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:00

Free plug for your own podcast.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:04

We'd love to get there sometime.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:06

Where is it?

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:07

McFleshman's: We're essentially in Green Bay, but just a little south Yeah, is there

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:11

Okay.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:11

I haven't spent time in that market yet, but we'll try and s- swing

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:14

McFleshman's: know how to reach us.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:16

But I guess what I'm trying to say is like, we've-- you-- New Glingling has also had that, like, moniker of being like the beer that like… I knew a guy a couple months ago that went to Ohio for work, and I told him he's not allowed to come back unless he brings me a case of New Glingling.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:32

Like that, you're kind of that beer for us here in Wisconsin, and now you're here.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:37

So what is you know, what, what's next then?

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:41

Well, it was-- Wisconsin's been a great launch for us.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:43

So Jen and I were out there when we, shortly after we launched Draft and got to spend some time in some accounts.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:51

And then with Package launch last week, things are going really well.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:54

We have almost three thousand Draft lines in the state for our lager brand at this point.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:08:59

And I think we have just about five hundred for our Flight brand, which is our low-calorie, low-carb option

Wendy Yuengling: 00:09:06

light beer.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:09:07

So Yeah, it's been, it's been great.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:09:08

We're also getting ready to launch Package now in the state of Iowa,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:09:12

so

Wendy Yuengling: 00:09:12

that's gonna keep us.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:09:13

busy.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:09:14

And, you-- know, we try and be very methodical in expansion, so

Wendy Yuengling: 00:09:18

we're not necessarily caught up in what market is next.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:09:20

You know, Jen and I have often said we don't necessarily have aspirations to be in all fifty states in our generation, but we wanna make sure that our brands are doing well in the markets that, we're currently in.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:09:31

So like

Wendy Yuengling: 00:09:32

I said earlier, this is

Wendy Yuengling: 00:09:33

our, our thirtieth state now that we're selling New England, which

Wendy Yuengling: 00:09:36

is, which is

Wendy Yuengling: 00:09:37

McFleshman's: Yeah, and back to your, your, uh, comments about Miller, that it gets critical, right?

Wendy Yuengling: 00:09:41

Your relationship with Miller, Coors at this point, and I'm glad to hear that's going so well

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:09:46

It, it is going

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:09:47

well.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:09:47

We've established good relationships with the Molson Coors folks, both within the Fort Worth brewery and then also in the Milwaukee brewery.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:09:54

And, you know, our director of quality, he's typically in either one or both of those breweries probably every quarter touching base with the quality managers uh, brewing managers.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:06

And, and, you know, anytime, anytime they're running production, we have samples shipped into us in both Pennsylvania and Tampa, and we're doing-- we have our sensory panel sitting on, on, on

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:17

both of-- on all of those.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:18

So, so yeah, we're really ensuring qual- and quality every step

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:21

McFleshman's: We're a tiny brewery.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:22

We do distribution in 28 counties.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:24

Uh, I know how much sleep we- Wait, 28 counties?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:28

That's just in the state.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:29

Counties.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:29

But what I was gonna say though, I know how much sleep we lose.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:34

Uh, I cannot imagine what you guys are doing on the scale you're doing it.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:39

You must have a really great team, a great network of distributors to pull this off.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:44

This is unreal.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:46

Although I have a…

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:47

Yeah.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:47

We've got good folks in the market and good, you know, the dozen or so wholesalers in the state of Wisconsin, they've been enthusiastic about our brands.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:10:56

I've seen some of the pictures on social media over the last week or so of just lines of people waiting to, to get into the off-premise stores when they opened with our brand last

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:11:05

McFleshman's: this made me think of a question.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:11:06

So kind of a, a random question, but I promise it has a tie to this.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:11:10

So you're both Yinglings, which is exciting.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:11:13

And I'm a Fleshman of McFleshman's.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:11:15

Actually, I'm the McCoy Fleshman, where our name comes from.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:11:19

But I am

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:11:20

also the one who, like, during our huge Mile of Music Festival, will, will be the one fixing the toilet, because that's just what it means to own the company, is that you are there to do the high-level stuff, but also, like, the lowest tier stuff.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:11:34

So is there something in either of your jobs along the way that you never thought you would be in charge of?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:11:39

You mentioned wearing a lot of hats, but you're like, "Wow, I

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:11:41

found myself doing this." Not necessarily cleaning a toilet, but you know what?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:11:47

We've all been there.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:11:49

Yeah, we've been there.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:11:50

I mean, cleaning up after… We do, we do a race

Wendy Yuengling: 00:11:53

in Pottsville every year.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:11:55

It's called the Light Lager Jogger.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:11:56

And, you know, you get runners that come through the facility, and we've had to clean up after people, and yeah, it's… We pretty much will do anything.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:12:05

I don't even know what the most random thing I've had to do.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:12:09

And if you don't know how to do it, you just Google it and figure it out.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:12:11

Like that's, I feel like that's been so much of the learning is, like, you're just figuring it out as you go.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:12:17

And so, that's been challenging, but it's also been really fun

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:12:23

Yeah, I think part of my path when I started in the operations side and did not have a brewing background is I would come in, you know, I, I would work all of the jobs, not to the point where I knew all of them by heart, but, you know, anything from running the can filler, running the labeler, or cleaning a tank.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:12:38

I mean, this was 25, 25-plus years ago, but something that I never thought I would be putting a pair of boots on and, and, you know, safety goggles and getting in a tank.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:12:47

But, you know, it's, it, it helps you appreciate what our, what our workforce does every day and, and have a better understanding of the challenges they

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:12:55

McFleshman's: 1,000%.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:12:56

That's actually one of the, the strategies we have with our with our beer tenders in our tap room is we wanna get them in the back of house just so they can see at least shadow one brew day and/or, you know, be on the canning line

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:06

when we have it, the once a week canning line.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:09

And because we're so

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:10

hospitality heavy, it g- goes the other way.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:12

That's true.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:12

Get the guys in the back- We always have that … the guys in the back to r- run a

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:15

shift behind the

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:16

bar.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:17

And everyone cleans the toilets.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:19

Yeah.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:19

Mm-hmm.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:20

Yeah.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:22

Well, now you're you're approaching on the 200th anniversary of the brewery.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:26

I know that we're a couple years away, three years away from it, but 200 years for anything

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:31

in this country is, like, you're basically the

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:35

country at this point.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:35

Yeah, that's right.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:37

So

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:37

what, what do you

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:39

anticipate doing to, to, celebrate 200 years?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:44

We, we talk about this and we had a, about two summers ago, we had a really fun concert in downtown Pottsville.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:49

We had Lee Brice, country music singer, who was a brand ambassador of ours, and it was just a great show.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:55

It was right before the Fourth of July.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:13:57

And now Wendy and myself and our sisters, Debbie and Cheryl, are like, "How are we gonna top this?"

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:14:02

Like, we gotta figure, we gotta figure something out here in the next couple of years.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:14:06

We've kicked around a lot of ideas.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:14:08

You know, there's-- when you think about when the company celebrated our 100th anniversary, which is a milestone, that was in the midst of Prohibition, so we weren't even making beer.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:14:19

So, so we've gotta come up with something big.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:14:22

We've kicked around some really cool ideas, and you know, we've actually played a pretty big role in celebrating America's 250th this summer.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:14:30

So we, we do a Stars and Stripes program with our lager brand, and we've got the logo for America's 250th on our can.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:14:36

And so it's been really nice to tie in with that

Wendy Yuengling: 00:14:38

anniversary, and it's given us some good ideas of

Wendy Yuengling: 00:14:41

what we can do in a, few years for our 200th.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:14:44

McFleshman's: That's gonna be exciting.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:14:46

So Allison slid a note to me.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:14:48

Uh, we always ask people's favorite beers.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:14:51

Uh, I felt like y- you may or may not wanna play

Wendy Yuengling: 00:14:57

favorites, but would you be able to name your Mount Rushmore, your, your top four if it's not your own, or if it is?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:05

Hmm.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:06

It's funny, we get that question a lot.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:08

I have a super hard time answering it because for me it's all about the occasion.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:13

Wendy mentioned our, our Flight by Yuengling, which is our upscale light beer, low carb, low cal, and we launched that in, oh, during COVID in, in 2020.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:22

And that has become my go-to for just everyday sessionable to all our brands are sessionable, but just everyday kinda pool, beach, beach type beer.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:33

But if I want, if I want a, you know, a hoppy style beer, but I'm not up for a, a, an IPA, I go to our Lord Chesterfield Ale, which is our American style pale ale.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:43

If I want something dark, we've got our Dark Reporter, and then we also have our Black & Tan, which is, you know, which is doing well in specific markets.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:49

So I'm not

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:50

McFleshman's: No, this is

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:51

very well because like

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:52

McFleshman's: get it in Wisconsin so I can

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:54

try all of these

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:55

Yeah, it's all about the

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:57

McFleshman's: I'm also planning

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:15:58

a trip to your tap rooms.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:16:00

I guess you have multiple

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:16:01

of them, or do you just have the one in Florida?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:16:04

Yeah.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:05

So we have the restaurant in Florida, the England Tap House and Kitchen,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:09

Which we're just starting to do tours in later

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:12

this month.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:13

So that's a destination

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:14

for people.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:15

And then if you're ever in

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:16

Pottsville, please let us know because we do free tours of America's oldest brewery, and then we have a museum area and a gift shop, but we don't have a restaurant

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:24

or a tasting room per se in

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:26

Pottsville.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:27

But after the tours, everybody,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:28

you know, gets to sample some of our beers and you can stay and buy some,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:31

but we don't have a restaurant

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:33

McFleshman's: I'm very intrigued by the ale side of your brand, so I, I can't get past that.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:36

I'm just thinking that you had a couple lagers and that

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:39

was it, but now I, I get the,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:16:41

I get the, uh, reason people say that this is one of the oldest craft breweries, if not the

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:16:48

Yeah, Yeah, we've been, we've been very fortunate that we've had, you know, this m- so many brands throughout the years that have withstood the test of time.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:16:55

And and, i- our, our consumer, you mentioned earlier about shipping or transferring beer when somebody goes into Ohio and taking it back to another state.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:17:03

We, we kind of refer to them jokingly as beer smugglers.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:17:06

And we, we've got such a cult following, not just for specific brands, but for, for our company as a whole.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:17:12

And it, it's just really the, the fans and the consumers who, who are so passionate about our brands is, is very

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:17:19

McFleshman's: My wife Allison, she was not, uh, exaggerating.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:17:22

We have, or someone who works in our office that's extremely passionate about your brand.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:17:28

She, she lights up when

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:17:30

we talk about that we're having this interview or that you're coming to the state.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:17:34

Well, and so I want to jump back on one of the questions that Bobby just asked though.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:17:37

So you said the Mount Rushmore of the favorite beers, but I'm curious the question that we've asked several other,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:17:42

Folks who've joined us is if you had like,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:17:45

if you had to make a Mount Rushmore of people who have inspired

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:17:48

and/or should be etched into stone of the brewing industry, like who would

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:17:53

those Mount Rushmore of the brewing world be?

Wendy Yuengling: 00:17:59

Man, I feel like I would say when our dad started

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:02

in

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:02

'85, you know, he'll

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:03

say

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:04

it publicly, he was really inspired by Jim

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:06

Koch

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:07

and what Jim was doing at the

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:08

time.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:09

I would say he's still an icon.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:11

You know, I love seeing him speak and,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:14

you know, you learn something every time

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:15

he's, he's, he opens his mouth.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:17

So I would say

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:18

he's one person.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:20

You know, you think about craft brewing, you know, I've, I've certainly never met Fritz Maytag, but I think that he was definitely a pioneer.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:27

Our

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:28

second generation, Jane, uh,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:31

David Yuengling opened up a steam brewery in Richmond, Virginia back in

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:35

the

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:36

1800s, and it didn't last very long,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:38

but I've always been intrigued by what Fri-

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:40

Fritz

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:41

McFleshman's: totally.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:42

What's funny is that in these conversations, I believe the Yingling family has been brought up, so this is- There Was there a fourth one?

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:49

You got one more spot.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:50

Oh, so sorry

Wendy Yuengling: 00:18:52

Uh, John, you have any

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:18:54

Well, I guess I'm thinking kind of along the lines where you were going, Wendy, the, the pioneers back in the '70s and the '80s, and, you know, you look at Ken Grossman as well, and just very different business models maybe where he's, you know, he has his IPAs and his ales such great beers.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:11

And then Jim Koch, who has really diversified his business into seltzers and teas and, you know.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:19

But the two of them just pioneers of their time.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:21

It just you know, really paved the way for, in a sense, where, where we are today and where we've landed with, with our lager

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:27

McFleshman's: What's interesting is, uh, every time you've asked that question, Ken Grossman comes up.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:34

It, it, it's, it's i- he's just iconic.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:37

He's of his time and, and he seems to have brought it all together, but he only got there because you guys started it and kept it going from centuries ago.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:44

Centuries ago.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:46

All right.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:46

Well,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:47

We got anything else?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:47

Do you guys know Maggie Skinner?

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:48

I wanna throw a name.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:49

She's a sales rep for you

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:51

' in Wisconsin.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:52

Yeah.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:19:52

She's a good friend of

Wendy Yuengling: 00:19:53

Oh

Wendy Yuengling: 00:19:53

yeah, we had beers together a couple weeks ago

Wendy Yuengling: 00:19:56

McFleshman's: Cool.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:19:56

Anyway, she says hi.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:19:57

She's doing an event right now, so she can't be here.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:20:00

She was gonna be on this side.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:20:01

We were gonna do like a real time and remote thing with you guys,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:20:04

Ale Kalsow

Wendy Yuengling: 00:20:05

McFleshman's: but she's good.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:20:06

She's good people.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:20:07

She was just doing Revolution Brewing, I think, before that.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:20:10

But Yeah

Wendy Yuengling: 00:20:10

she's

Wendy Yuengling: 00:20:11

Yeah.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:20:12

She joined us earlier this year right as

Wendy Yuengling: 00:20:14

we were getting ready to open up the state

Wendy Yuengling: 00:20:16

McFleshman's: Very cool.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:20:17

Well, I just want to give another just thank you for representing, uh, a, a family brand that just continues to go and, and innovating on the tradition of just such a, an iconic brand that is, I mean, literally, Decker's right.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:20:32

Like, you kind of are the, in terms of the beer, the, the country you know, to be around for 200 years.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:20:37

So it's just an absolute honor to get to talk to y'all.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:41

I appreciate that.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:42

Yeah, it's a pleasure.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:43

It's a pleasure being with you folks.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:44

Like, thank you for having us.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:46

Thank you for your support of our brands.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:48

You know, we're-- we, again,

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:49

we wouldn't be here without our dedicated employees and our loyal consumers o- all these years

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:55

McFleshman's: We, we appreciate you coming on.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:20:57

Uh, our distributor, we share the same one, so they were-- I was gonna say that they're very excited about you too.

Jennifer Yuengling: 00:21:03

Yeah

Wendy Yuengling: 00:21:04

Well, hopefully we'll be back out in the market sometime soon.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:21:07

McFleshman's: Very cool.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:21:07

They've done a great job with launch,

Wendy Yuengling: 00:21:09

McFleshman's: reach us if you wanna see your way around a, an intimidatingly small brewery.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:21:14

They probably kept it in the storage compartment.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:21:18

Cool.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:21:19

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

Wendy Yuengling: 00:21:22

The show is produced by David Kalsow with music by Sarah Lynn Huss.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:21:26

Be sure to join the Facebook group to connect between episodes and support the show over on Patreon, where you can get uncut episodes, access to specialty brewed beer, and more.

Wendy Yuengling: 00:21:36

Until next time, please remember to respect the beer.