At a special new conference this morning at the Leiby's Dairy Inc., Tamaqua, Yuengling Ice Cream President, and Rob Bohorad, the Chief Operating Officer, announced that because of an overwhelming response, they have begun production this week.
Production was not suppose to begin until March.
The first batches of ice cream are expected to hit the shelves in major grocery stores by mid-February. Weis and Acme were both mentioned as locations.
The suggested retail price will be $5.49 to $5.99 per quart
Ten all-natural flavors of ice cream are being produced for their first run
Vanilla, Chocolate, Chocolate Chip, Black and Tan (chocolate and caramel), Vanilla Fudge Chunk with Pretzels, Espresso Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Chocolate Marshmallow, Root Beer Float, and Mint Chocolate Chip.
At the state-of-the-art facility, they will be able to make 40 quarts of ice cream per minute, 14,000 quarts per day, and 100,000 quarts in the initial 10 day run.
Yuengling ice cream initially was in operation from 1920-1985. Yuengling introduced ice cream to supplement the brewery's revenue during prohibition.
Production stopped in 1985 when no successor to the then-president Frederick "Fritz" Yuengling could be identified.
The new president, David Yuengling, is the son of Fritz.