This Is America’s Oldest Beer

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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This Is America’s Oldest Beer

© Courtesy of Yuengling

With the COVID-19 pandemic altering nearly every facet of daily life in 2020, many Americans have turned to one of the oldest pastimes in human history — drinking. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that alcohol consumption increased about 14% in 2020 compared to the previous year.

While the pandemic is a relatively new development, beer drinking is not. In fact, many of America’s favorite beers have been brewed in the same way for well over a century.

24/7 Wall St. reviewed information from media sources and breweries themselves to determine America’s oldest beer.

The first recorded beer brewed on American soil dates all the way back to 1587, and the first brewery popped up in 1632. However, the oldest continuously operating brewery in America only dates back to the 1800s. That brewery is still making the same beers that it did nearly 200 years ago.

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The oldest beers in America originated in only a handful of states, with Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Missouri home to several of them. In some states, whether it is because of climate and culture, beer consumption is far higher than in others.

Introduced in 1829, Yuengling Lord Chesterfield Ale & Porter is America’s oldest beer. Its state of origin is Pennsylvania, and it was brewed by parent company Yuengling Brewing.

Yuengling, was founded by David G. Yuengling in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, in 1829, which is two decades before the next oldest widely available beer that is still sold today. Originally called Eagle Brewery, the name was changed to D.G. Yuengling & Son in 1873. During Prohibition, Yuengling sold dairy products and near-beer to remain profitable.

Click here to read about America’s 30 oldest beers.
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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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