Yuengling ice cream has officially joined the ranks of freezer favorites like Ben & Jerry's, Edy's and Breyers.
The Associated Press reported that the first cartons appeared in grocery store freezers Monday after being absent for 28 years from the ice cream business. Yuengling announced their return in mid-September, stating that the treat will be coming from a different branch of the Yuengling family.
Yuengling's Ice Cream President David Yuengling is the great-grandson of the man who started the original ice cream company 94 years ago.
"It's a very exciting time for us," Yuengling, said in a statement. "We originally expected production to begin in March, but when we announced in September that we were bringing back Yuengling's Ice Cream, the response was so enthusiastic that we pushed up production."
The cartons of ice cream are now available at hundreds of stores in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Delaware and New Jersey, with additional states to be added.
"One of the biggest things in putting a new product on the market is getting brand-name recognition, which is a problem we don't have," Yuengling said "We are really popular for not having been on the market for 30 years."
While purchasing a $4.99 carton of chocolate marshmallow at a store in Pottsville, a few miles away from the brewery, Bob Pomian told the AP that he was raised with the legendary ice cream.
"I was brought up with it," Pomian said. "If it's the same ice cream I ate 50 years ago, then I'd be happy with it."
Yuengling is originally known as a 185-year-old, family-owned Pennsylvania brewery. The beloved ice cream, which was founded in 1829, went into the dairy business in 1920 after the passing of Prohibition.
Yuengling's Ice Cream will be a separate company and have no connection to the brewery, the AP reported. Yuengling said beer-flavored ice cream is not in the cards.
The Pennsylvania-based brewery will be sticking to more traditional flavors, like vanilla, chocolate and mint chocolate chip, but also will offer Black and Tan (chocolate and caramel ice cream), Vanilla Fudge Chunk with Pretzels, Espresso Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Chocolate Marshmallow, Root Beer Float and Mint Chocolate Chip.
The AP reported that David's father closed the business in 1985 after learning that neither of his sons were interested in taking over. Yuengling spent the next three decades in the computer industry before deciding on a career change which led him to rebooting Yuengling's Ice Cream.
He first evaluated the competition and made sure there would be room for another product in the $6.8 billion ice cream market, but later realized the family name would carry itself.
"What is it that's going to keep us going? What are people going to like about this to keep them buying it?" Yuengling said he asked himself. "It's a tough nut to crack, and it's not an easy business."
