What's in a name?



Plenty if it happens to be Yuengling.



The 182-year-old Pottsville-based brewer is making a splash in the increasingly important seasonal beer market with its new Oktoberfest.



The beer — a rare first-time product for "America's oldest brewery" — began trickling into area taverns last week with little advance buzz.





Yuengling Oktoberfest’s entry into the crowded and high-profile fall seasonal category marks a sea change for the company, which could soon surpass Samuel Adams as the largest American-owned brewer.

Having carved out its place against mass-marketed, internationally owned beers like Miller and Budweiser, Yuengling is now shoring up its reputation as a craft brewer against a multitude of smaller but fervently followed microbrewers.

But the balanced, malt-and-hops harvest brew wouldn’t have come about at all had wholesalers not been willing to bet big on the Yuengling name.

Without anyone having tasted a single drop of the deep-amber beer, the brewery took pre-orders for 2,000 barrels’ worth.

It didn’t seem to matter much that Yuengling’s Oktoberfest had yet to be created when the company first began taking wholesale orders earlier this summer.

“It is hard to sell a beer that isn’t available to sample,” conceded Yuengling marketing manager Lou Romano.

“I believe that shows the confidence that people have in the brand,” he added. “They didn’t expect anything less from us for the Oktoberfest.”

The strong advanced sales were enough to convince owner Dick Yuengling Jr. to buy malt and hops directly from Germany, ingredients crucial to crafting an authentic Oktoberfest.

But the brewery steeped in so much tradition still had one problem.

It lacked an Oktoberfest recipe.

Unlike all its other beers, which are based upon or inspired by long-held family formulas, Yuengling would need to get creative and conduct a few brewing experiments in order to come up with its version of the Munich-inspired harvest festival beer.

In other words, Dick Yuengling and his brain trust of brewers were about to get their craft-brewing groove on and strap on their lederhosen.

“The brewery has a record of making every type and style of beer you can imagine — except Oktoberfest,” Romano said. “It gave us license to get creative and try some things. Brewing is an art as much as it is a science. It really challenged our guys.”

Over the summer, Yuengling’s top-secret Oktoberfest project produced a handful of different batches.

But instead of test-marketing the alternatives or bringing in focus groups, the taste testing was left to a small inner circle of company brewmasters and members of the Yuengling family.

Not a drop left the brewery.

Believing it had hit upon a winning Oktoberfest formula, the company began brewing its new seasonal in earnest in July, with simultaneous production at its locations in Pottsville and Tampa, Fla.

Already, some 1,400 barrels have rolled out to wholesalers like Wilsbach Distributors Inc. in Susquehanna Twp. Additional batches containing at least as much Oktoberfest will mature and ship in the coming weeks.

At Wilsbach, it’s now up to a sales force armed with growlers of the new brew to push it into local bars.

“Us not knowing what it tastes like makes it hard to trade,” said Wilsbach brand manager Ken Gilman, who keeps a keg tapped for such sampling and taste-testing. “So far, everyone’s very receptive.”

Converting draft handles to the orange-colored Oktoberfest label will be key. That’s because Yuengling isn’t releasing its harvest brew in bottles or cans, at least not this year.

And while Yuengling is sponsoring an Oktoberfest event later this fall in Bethlehem, there’s been precious little advance marketing for the beer.

Most drinkers are stumbling onto the new brew the same way Terry Mentzer did last week at the Market Cross Pub in Carlisle.

The Adams County Yuengling drinker just happened to spot the bright orange tap handle and decided to give it a try.

He wasn’t disappointed.

“It’s a little heavier than the lager, and it’s got a nice, smooth mouth feel,” Mentzer said. “All their beers are good, really.”

Yet in a beer market where craft brewers create more and more concoctions and beer lovers go on to sample one after another, Yuengling’s stable of seven standard beers can sometimes seem staid.

Dick Yuengling insists the constantly growing company, which expands into Ohio this month, has its hands full pumping out 2.3 million barrels of its existing beers. The lineup is led by sales leader Yuengling Traditional Lager.

And despite recent expansions in Pottsville and Tampa, there’s not much capacity to produce seasonal beers.

“We just don’t get involved that much with seasonals,” Yuengling said. “It gets difficult to make all these different brews.”

Still, the company is slowly stepping onto craft brewers’ turf precisely because beer drinkers have become so bold.

It marks a complete turnabout from the days when Yuengling was the little guy, beleaguered from all sides by beer battles with bigger, blander, mass-marketed domestics.

Now Yuengling is punching down, looking to burnish its craft brewing bona fides.

“I’ve never seen the interest in beers like I’ve seen today,” Dick Yuengling said. “With the growth of the craft brewers, they’ve rejuvenated consumers’ interest in beer. There is a segment of the marketplace that wants to try new brands. They’re not loyal. They are trying everyone’s brand, but that’s okay. It gives you courage to try new things.”

Three years ago, Yuengling broke into the seasonal category with its spring Bock, based upon an existing company recipe. The Bock rolled out exclusively on draft its first year and has since expanded to bottles.

That’s the formula Yuengling is looking to emulate with Oktoberfest. But the stakes are even higher because the fall seasonal category has been such a big hit for the likes of Samuel Adams and a long line of craft brewers.

“It’s a very beer-centric holiday, and the consumer has come to expect a special beer,” Romano said. “I know it’s the No. 1 seasonal offering for every supplier that produces one. It’s a marquee brew.”

Yuengling’s entry will be judged by discerning beer drinkers like Seth Otto.

The 28-year-old Schuylkill County native living in Carlisle said he was raised on Yuengling products. But at Market Cross Pub, with its dizzying collection of beers, he often delights in dabbling.

On a recent Tuesday, he downed Oktoberfests from Yuengling, Dogfish Head, Hofbrau, Long Trail and Beck’s.

After all his sampling, Otto dubbed Yuengling’s version the “most drinkable,” but said it still won’t tame his taste bud wanderlust when it comes to beer.

“I’m glad Yuengling is expanding their horizons,” Otto said. “I wouldn’t say their Oktoberfest is the best, but it is less aggressive than some of the others, and you can drink more of it. Definitely anyone who drinks Yuengling will be happy with it.”

So, while the nearly two-century-old company has managed to break new ground with its Oktoberfest, the brew’s taste fits comfortably with its tradition-rich family of beers.

Mike Wisor, who tried the beer, said that something about the Oktoberfest’s undertones just says “Yuengling.”

“It has the same base,” described the 29-year-old Carlisle resident. “It definitely has the Oktoberfest flavor to it, but it also has that lager flavor to it, too.”

That makes Yuengling’s Oktoberfest entry at once different — and familiar.

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