The Yards Brewing Co., a mainstay of the Philadelphia brewing scene for all of the past thirteen years I've been visiting the city of brotherly love, has been turning out its revolutionary war recipes and other ales down by the Delaware River, a site that it finally outgrew. The new quarters are a long five blocks away, at 5th St. and Spring Garden, a major crosstown arterial.
The architecture features a striking facade and a line of grain silos over the Spring Garden sidewalk. The brewery passed the 40,000 barrel annual sales level in 2015 and must have been pushing 50,000 bbls by the close of 2017, when they opened the new plant.
The taproom seems vast, certainly by the standards of a Washingtonian (I'd guess you could fit Scuttlebutt's and Fremont's taprooms both in this space). They have almost twenty of their own brews on tap, along with the occasional ciders or guest taps. Great glass panels expose the whole of the operation to the public's view. The very first brew kettle, encased in a brick jacket, was in plain view at the riverfront site and I was told it would be reassembled here, at some point.
Yards' packaged beer sales have been almost entirely in 12-oz glass bottles; a few limited releases have been in 22-oz bombers.
But lo and behold! Part of the new plant is a canning line. It was almost ready to start up when I stopped by on March 31. It may well be running by now. Cans increase potential marketing areas--I don't think Yards sells west of Ohio now but this should certainly open up more midwest markets, at least.
I tried a seasonal release, Cape of Good Hope double IPA, 9.7% abv, and very floral along with a burst of bitterness. Very good.
(Visited 03/31/18)
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