Did Yuengling suddenly get bigger than Miller or Bud? Nope. Both are now foreign-owned. According to AdAge, Yuengling has recently surpassed Sam Adams’ Boston Beer Company as the largest U.S.-owned brewer that manufactures all its beer in the U.S.

“It just floors me that so much of our beer industry is owned by foreign concerns,” fifth-generation owner Dick Yuengling told his local newspaper, The Morning Call, of Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. “We were not in any race to be the largest domestically owned brewer, but it’s a tremendous honor for us.”

The company’s growth is especially noteworthy considering that beer is in a multi-year sales slump. The LA Times reported that U.S. beer shipments are at their lowest levels since 2003 as major brewers such as Anheuser-Busch and Heineken USA took sales hits.

Beer shipments fall in 2011 to lowest level since 2003 [LATimes]
D.G. Yuengling & Son Becomes America’s Largest Brewer [AdAge]

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