America's oldest brewery might soon be the largest American-owned brewer.

Riding a 20-year wave of growth, D.G. Yuengling & Son Inc. is closing in on sales of 2 million barrels a year, bringing the 180-year-old company within a pint or two of surpassing the Boston Beer Co. and its Samuel Adams brands in sales.

A big reason is that foreign-based companies have acquired such beer behemoths as Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors. Another is the coal-region beer's rapid growth.
Business is Brewing

Yuengling also has a ways to go when it comes to overall market share, holding less than 1 percent of the U.S. beer market. Yet the company is a giant compared with microbrewers such as Harrisburg's Troegs Brewing Co., which sells about 19,000 barrels annually.