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"The year was 1829, and times they were a-changing. Andrew Jackson had just succeeded John Quincy Adams as the United States\u2019 seventh president. Technology was a thing: William Burt patented an initial version of the typewriter, the typographer. The U.S. population, a humble 12 million spread across 24 states, hadn\u2019t yet expanded to the West Coast, but soon would. Although migration via the Oregon Trail wasn\u2019t in full force, the first wagon group would set out seven years later.\n1829 was also a very good year for beer. German immigrant David G. Yuengling founded a brewery in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, that would go on to become America\u2019s oldest. What's perhaps even more impressive is that it's been in the Yuengling family all this time. Six generations and going strong, Yuengling Brewery has grown exponentially over the years. \nOperating the brewery initially known as Eagle Brewery (the Yuengling brand still features the eagle trademark today), wasn't smooth sailing at first. After just two years, the building was leveled by flames. And then there was Prohibition. Thanks to Yuengling's ingenuity, strategic prioritization and commitment to innovation, these were just bumps along the way in the tapestry of this 185-year-old family business.\nSee also: Meet 5 Small Business Owners Going Through Year One\nMashable spoke with Dick Yuengling, fifth generation Yuengling and current company president, and two of his daughters, Wendy and Jennifer, about how they've kept the business alive \u2014 and in the family \u2014 for almost two centuries.\n1. Pivot to survive\n\nImage: Flickr, Daniel OinesIn 1919, Prohibition hit, and it hit hard. \u201CMy grandfather was faced with Prohibition. You employ all these people at this brewery, and all of the sudden the government says \u2018You can\u2019t make beer anymore,\u2019\" says Dick Yuengling.\nYuengling adapted, developing three pseudo-beer products to stay relevant. The roster included three less-than .05% alcohol \"near beers,\" one of which was marketed as an ahead-of-its-time \"energy drink.\"\nTo bolster profits, Yuengling also opened an ice cream shop/dairy across the street from the brewery. It was in business until 1985, and Yuengling's frosty offerings have recently returned to grocery shelves across the Mid-Atlantic.\nThis strategic thinking kept the brewery afloat during the trying time for suds purveyors. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, Yuengling thanked President Franklin Roosevelt by shipping a truckload of brew ... to the White House.\n2. Take calculated risks\nDick Yuengling recounts the 1950s and '60s, another tough period for the brewery:\n\"There were a lot of co-region breweries at the time, and we were one of them \u2014 a lot of them were going out of business through the \u201850s and \u201960s. We were really floundering, selling maybe 70,000 or 80,000 barrels of beer. We had a great brewmaster, we had good products and I saw that we had a good foundation a successful company as all the rest of these companies were going out of business. I saw an opportunity to grow, to take some of somebody else's business when they would close up.\"\nHe modernized to turn the company around: \"I got more involved in the packaging operation, I'd see where we could put a machine in. Everything was done by hand in those days \u2014 we threw cases on by hand with all returnable bottles, we piled them up by hand and loaded them up in trucks by hand. It was really an antiquated operation, and I was always fighting to economize the operation, make it more efficient. Get as many cases out as you possibly can.\"\nModernization has led to increased production \u2014 the Pottsville brewery is slated to put out 400,000 barrels this year (that number was 137,000 before Dick took the reins). Across all of Yuengling's breweries (including one in Tampa), the output may reach 3 million barrels by the end of 2014.\n3. Keep a close eye on industry trends \u2014 always consider where there's room to grow\n\npopoutImage: Flickr, David ReberDick Yuengling recalls the company landscape when he took over in 1985: \"My dad got the brewery up to 137,000 barrels, but a lot of it was the cheap brand \u2014 I wasn't put here to make that kind of beer. At the same time, in 1984 I think, Jim Cook started the Boston Beer Company and people were gravitating to better beers \u2014 and we always had good, tasteful products. We developed different brands to go along with this craft beer thing that was just beginning back in the \u201880s. By \u201987, we had the lager brand, which is our flagship.\"\nKeen attention to the marketplace paid off. Yuengling Traditional Lager accounts for almost 80% of the company's sales today. And, even though Yuengling has found success, as the craft beer industry continues to boom, they haven't stopped experimenting.\nJennifer Yuengling explains that while the company relies on Yuengling Traditional Lager, it's important for the brand to experiment. \"We've become innovative over the last three or four years, more so than ever, with the seasonals we've come out with \u2014 our Bock, our Oktoberfest and our Summer Wheat. The way that the craft brewery industry has evolved and emerged over the last several years, it's hard to know what brands are going to stick and what are just gimmicks. We still need to play in these other areas to stay competitive, with the seasonals, for instance, to stay fresh in the consumers\u2019 minds.\"\n\"You have your flagship brand and you start playing around with it, just to keep your company interesting to the consumer,\" adds Dick.\nAll in all, Jennifer credits the strong foundation built by generations past. \"In addition to having good luck and taking risks and having good ideas, it\u2019s also the fortitude that our ancestors put into it in surviving the trials of prohibition and the different world wars.\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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