This past weekend marked the end of production for Schlitz, a beer brand with a history dating all the way back to 1849. And while Schlitz’s discontinuation comes as a blow to beer enthusiasts of the Midwest (Schlitz has been called “the beer that made Milwaukee famous”), there’s still plenty of storied U.S.-based brews to be enjoyed.
One notable brand predates Schlitz’s founding by decades, earning it the title of the oldest continuously brewed beer in the country.
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Founded in 1829, the company that came to be known as D.G. Yuengling & Son was established by David Gottlieb Yuengling (born David Gottlob Jungling) in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. The brewery (originally known as the Eagle Brewery before a name change in 1873) has been producing beer in one form or another ever since, including several Prohibition-era near beers, advertised as “cereal beverages.” (Yuengling also branched out into ice cream during Prohibition.)
The company has also remained a family-owned operation since its founding.
“There’s very few family businesses that last past three generations,” says fifth-generation owner Richard Yuengling Jr. in a video posted to the Yuengling website. “And our family’s going into six, and maybe seven.”
D.G. Yuengling & Son hasn’t weathered the years without its share of controversies. Richard ‘Dick’ Yuengling Jr. angered leaders within the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in 2007, when he was accused of suggesting he close the brewery in Pennsylvania if workers didn’t decertify the union, according to the Associated Press. He then came under fire in 2013 after voicing support for right-to-work initiatives in the state, which critics argued would take away power from labor unions in the state, The Morning Call reported. In response, there were calls to boycott Yuengling by the Teamsters and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
Dick Yuengling Jr. also faced calls for a boycott after expressing support for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, but Yuengling later told Philadelphia news outlet Billy Penn that any boycott efforts made no “noticeable” impact on sales.
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But even as America’s oldest (and apparently resilient) beer brands, Yuengling offerings still can’t be found in much of it. As of 2026, Yuengling’s offerings are distributed to only 30 states.
In fact, in some states, you may have a better chance of finding a Weihenstephaner — a German beer produced by a company believed to be the oldest existing brewery in the entire world. The Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan, or the Bavarian State Brewery Weihenstephan, was said to be founded in 1040, when a monastery in Friesing was granted a license to serve beer in town. The brewery still operates today under Bavarian state ownership.
“The Weihenstephan Monastery Brewery — after nearly a thousand years — still stands upon the Weihenstephan Hill, proud of its quality and its tradition and conscious of its position as the oldest existing brewery in the world,” reads a portion of the brewery’s website.
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