Though as a teenager he was warned by the beer plant’s workers to avoid a career in the family business, Richard L. “Dick” Yuengling, Jr. nonetheless bought D.G. Yuengling & Son from his father in 1985. American beer then was all about national brands such as Budweiser, Coors and Miller, so the Pottsville, PA-based family’s brewery hardly seemed poised for growth. Yet Yuengling has become the country’s best-selling craft beer brand, and the company’s value soared in the past decade amid a surge in demand for craft brews.

D.G Yuengling & Son sold more than 2.5 million barrels of beer last year, a 15% increase from 2010, according to the company. Its flagship offering, Yuengling Traditional Lager, a medium-body brew, was the best-selling super-premium beer and the 15th most-popular beer total in the U.S. in 2011, according to Cheers parent company Beverage Information Group. The lager and five other beer varietals helped Yuengling pass Boston Beer Co., the maker of the Sam Adams brands, as the largest U.S.-owned beer maker by volume sold in 2011.

So what’s the secret to the success of America’s oldest beer? “We stay nuts and bolts–we make beer,” Yuengling, told Newsweek in an interview last month. “People pick up our products today because they are tasteful and they have character,” he said.

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