BREAKING - Yuengling, America's Oldest Brewery, Is Coming To Illinois in 2025. FINALLY!

CBS - Pennsylvania-based Yuengling, the oldest brewery in America, announced it is expanding to Illinois early next year, bringing its beers to bars and restaurants across the state.

Beginning in late January, Yuengling brand beers will be available on draft at bars and restaurants in Illinois, with their brews coming to store shelves in the following weeks.

"For years we have seen an overwhelming desire for our portfolio from our most loyal fans in Illinois that have been eagerly awaiting the brand's arrival," said Wendy Yuengling, a 6th generation family owner and chief administrative officer at the brewery. "We are incredibly proud to announce our expansion into a great beer market such as Illinois in the new year and, as the Oldest Brewery in America, we look forward to upholding our commitment of delivering high quality beer drinking experiences across the entire state."  

Yuengling is currently available in 26 states, mostly on the East Coast and Southeast. The expansion to Illinois comes after the brewery expanded to Indiana and Arkansas in 2017, Texas in 2021, to Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma in 2023.

Look who finally decided to show up to the Midwest party. Yuengling, the OG of American beers, the granddaddy of lagers, the cold, golden nectar of the gods, is finally blessing the great state of Illinois with its presence in 2025. Cue the applause, cue the cheers, cue the crying tears of joy from Chicagoans who’ve spent decades begging their East Coast friends to haul back cases of the good stuff like it’s a black-market deal.

For those of you who’ve been living under a rock (or, God forbid, drinking only craft IPAs), Yuengling is the oldest brewery in America, founded in 1829. That’s almost as old as America itself. When Abe Lincoln was out here freeing slaves and splitting rails, Yuengling was busy perfecting the art of beer. And now, nearly two centuries later, they’ve realized that Illinois- home to Chicago, one of the greatest drinking towns in the world- might want in on the action.

Yuengling began in the quaint little Pennsylavnia town of Pottsville. (Shout out Kacey McDonnell). It started as a small little quaker operation, stuck it out through 2 world wars, prohibition, the great depression, and the massive influx of foreign- far inferior- beers into the American landscape. 

Smith Collection/Gado. Getty Images.

Like many small domestic run operations, they were perfectly fine maintaining their market share in their own neck of the woods. 

The only problem was anybody that ever visited Philly or Pittsburgh and had a Yuengling, wound up mind blown at how a local beer could be so fantastic, and not available anywhere outside state lines. 

This is monumental. 

You ever see a Cubs fan sob uncontrollably? Because that’s exactly what’s going to happen when they find out they no longer have to cross state lines just to score a six-pack of Yuengling. Forget sneaky road trips to Indiana or pleading with Uncle Tony to smuggle it over from Pennsylvania. Illinois beer drinkers are about to enter a whole new world of convenience.

This is a huge win for the state of Illinois. A state that is broker than your degenerate brother in law who still lives with his parents and lets them pay for his phone bill. A state that arguably has the worst crop of professional sports organizations, (and owners), in the entire country. A state that cannot get out of its own way and has seen great businesses and brands flee from it, heading for the hills asking themselves what took so long. A brand- no, a pioneer and namesake like Yuengling announcing they are FINALLY going to be available in The Land Of Lincoln, after being in business for 195 years. 

It’s hard to overstate how big this is for a state that prides itself on its beer-drinking culture. Chicago alone is a city of rooftop bars, corner taverns, and late-night dives, fostering the birth of the best stories and the making of the worst decisions. Yuengling, like a long-lost cousin who arrives at the family reunion with a cooler full of cold ones, will seamlessly blend in.

(Sidebar - my ex's family lived outside Philly. For holidays, I made the drive a couple of times with a few cases of Spotted Cow that I would grab over the state line in Wisconsin, gift them to her brother- a big beer fan- and load back up with Yuengling and Cape May's. Like a rum runner for Al Capone I'd drive across state lines imagining the looks on the faces of my Chicago friends when I handed them an ice cold, true American beer at my next cook out. Sure I could just place larger orders for Yuengling at my Cleveland bars and take those with me back to Chicago, but there's no comradarie or excitement in that.)

I for one am very excited to see how the locals receieve it as well as how a Yuengling Lager pairs with a deep-dish pizza or a Chicago-style hot dog.

p.s.- after I secure the mayorship and set my sights on governor of Illinois. I'm forcing Wisconsin to sell Spotted Cow and Moon Man to us in Illinois or I'm barring all cheese and brat imports from the Dairy State. And if that doesn't work, we invade.