Oakland-visiting Yuengling doesn’t come in a keg

I approached Dick Yuengling Jr. at Fuel and Fuddle’s bar on Thursday night and informed him… I approached Dick Yuengling Jr. at Fuel and Fuddle’s bar on Thursday night and informed him that I was assigned to follow him for the night.

“I hope you follow me all night,” the president and owner of Yuengling said as he put his arm around my shoulder.

“You were on our bar crawl,” exclaimed a tall man with a mustache, who I would soon learn was District Sales Manager Todd Zwicker. He was referring to the Yuengling crawl three weeks ago that hit several Oakland bars. At 6 p.m. that Friday, I had been downing Yuenglings at Hemingway’s with some friends when we were recruited for the bar crawl. Representatives distributed beer cozies, T-shirts, buttons and what looked like backstage passes with free Yuengling vouchers for the subsequent bars. A man with an electronic megaphone led the inebriated tour by blasting “Charge!” before leaving each stop.

Little did I know as I played flip cup at the Oakland Cafe that, in less than a month, we would meet the man behind the beer.

Dick Yuengling and his entourage arrived nearly an hour late for their first Oakland destination, Hemingway’s, but the packed crowd made a grand exodus from the bar to surround this deity of beer. They ambushed Yuengling with questions and praise, and he always obliged their solicitations for his signature.

The mood was calmer at Fuel and Fuddle, where I caught up to the Yuengling crew and was able to conduct my interview.

“I come out every once in a while to the bars that have made us a success,” he said in this 175th anniversary of the Yuengling Brewery. In the past decade, the company has grown 1,000 percent and is still independent, as it has been since its debut in 1829. Yuengling cited this as a reason the beer has been so successful in Oakland.

“The college kids don’t like corporate America, and we are not corporate America,” he said.

Dick Yuengling Jr. began working at Yuengling in 1958, when he was 15, and he said he had always wanted to work there. In 1985, he purchased the company from his father.

The company now moves a million barrels a year in the United States alone.

“We don’t need to export,” he said.

We departed for Denny’s Bar, where I conversed with Zwicker, who explained that the company’s addition of light beer was an effort to keep up with the times.

“Like all light beers, we have 99 calories. Like all light beers, we have 5.3 percent alcohol content. But unlike all other light beers, we have all the flavor,” he said. “We’re not afraid of flavor.”

Students swarmed around Dick Yuengling once again in Denny’s, and one girl was so awed that she did not believe she was in his presence.

“How do I know you’re really Dick Yuengling?” she demanded repeatedly, before finally losing apprehension and putting her arm around his shoulder as Yuengling kissed her head.

Yuengling said that only sometimes does he get this reception at bars, but “it’s very complimentary and makes you feel good.”

“People are over there having a good time,” he said, “and that’s what it’s all about.”

When one person inquired about Yuengling’s political affiliation, he replied simply that he was of “the beer party,” earning applause from some people in the crowd.

He received praise from more students, a handshake, a “You’re awesome!” from the more intellectual Pitt students and some strange compliments.

“Yuengling is great because I’ve never gotten arrested drinking it,” one person told him.