A brewery made ice cream during Prohibition, but not for the reason you think
The oldest beer company in the U.S. once made desserts to stay afloat.
The story
The article lists the 9 oldest continuously operating breweries in the U.S., many of which survived Prohibition by selling near beer and other products. Some have been family-run for generations.
Source: brobible.com
Our reading
The article mentions that Yuengling made ice cream during Prohibition, which is a detail that makes you wonder if they were trying to stay relevant or just trying to stay alive. It’s one thing to pivot to near beer, but ice cream? That’s a full-on identity crisis.
It’s possible that the ice cream was just a side hustle, but the fact that it’s mentioned at all suggests it was a significant enough endeavor to be included in a list of historic breweries. Maybe they were trying to be the first beer company to go full dairy.
Yuengling still exists, and it’s still making beer, but if they ever decided to go all-in on ice cream, they’d have a whole new set of problems—like figuring out how to serve it in a keg.
