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Yuengling will launch its beer brands in Illinois at the end of January 2025, in the latest Midwest expansion of the Pennsylvania-based brewery that was founded in 1829.
Major bars, restaurants and stores in the Chicago area and across the state will carry Yuengling’s full line of beers, including lagers, pilsner and light beer, said the company. Its products will be available in 28 states when it launches in Illinois.
“With the success of our newest expansion into Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma in 2023, we knew there was more work to be done in the Midwest region,” Colin Callahan, general manager of The Yuengling Co., said in a news release.
Family-owned Yuengling, pronounced “ying-ling,” said it’s the oldest brewery in the U.S. It produced about 2.7 million barrels of beer last year, an increase over the 2.3 million barrels in 2022.
It’s the largest independent craft beer producer in the country, according to the Brewers Association, an industry group for small and independent craft brewers.
In 2020, Yuengling formed a separate joint venture called The Yuengling Co. with Molson Coors Beverage Co. to expand production and distribution further west.
The craft brewer has two company-owned breweries in Pottsville, Pennsylvania and one in Tampa, Florida. Beers distributed in Illinois will be produced and shipped from Molson Coors’ facilities in Fort Worth, Texas and Milwaukee, as well as from Yuengling in Pennsylvania.
In 2023, the overall U.S. beer market shrank 5.1% by volume, while volume sales of small, independent craft brewers fell 1%, according to the Brewers Association. But retail dollar sales of craft beer rose 3% to $28.9 billion last year and accounted for nearly 25% of the $117 billion U.S. beer market.
“2023 was another competitive and challenging year for small and independent brewers,” Bart Watson, chief economist of the Brewers Association, said in an April news release. “Nevertheless, even as growth has downshifted, small brewers have proved quite resilient.”
Companies like Yuengling are trying to broaden their markets and appeal to new consumers. In 2021, it launched Bongo Fizz, a mango beer, to attract customers ages 21 to 35.
“As always, the beverage alcohol market and consumer demand continue to evolve,” Watson said. “Many brewers are accordingly updating their operations to match those changes.”