We’re back with our late but better than never recap of our Philly trip! On Day 2 of 3, we finally make it to Philly.
On Saturday, we decided to do some of the more touristy things in the morning before the breweries open for the day. It’s good to note that a lot of the Philly breweries are open late which makes marathon beerventuring possible! But anyways, if you’re only interested in beer you may want to skip this section. If not, let’s go!
Our first stop of the morning was the Liberty Bell. We debated on whether or not to stop here, but in the end, freedom won again! I am a fan of both history and America so this was a fun stop and we probably should have gone through independence Hall because ya know, this is where America happened. But we pressed on quickly as we had a full day ahead. Seeing the liberty bell in person was cool though. You wait in a line but it moves fairly quickly and you walk through an exhibit so the bell itself is not totally crowded. Also thanks security guy for not kicking us out for our apparently illegal monopod. If we ever get our virtual tour page working, we will be sure to post the 360 of him being disgusted.
Reading Terminal Market
In my research of things to do in Philly, the Reading Terminal Market kept coming up as a must stop and I do not disagree. I wish I had prepared myself more because it is very overwhelming and I would love to spend hours here eating everything in sight. After wandering around for a while, we settled on Smuckers Quality Meats for some quick breakfast sammies. They also had an entire case of every kind of jerky imaginable. We can report that the sausage egg and cheese and pork roll were both perfect and mostly unbalanced breakfast for starting our day. You should really google the best places to stop in there if you have limited time.
Love Sculpture
Our next stop on our Philly tourist extravaganza was the iconic love sculpture. I don’t really know anything about this other than I wanted a picture. Somehow, we forget to take cute pictures of anything other than beer on many of our beerventures so this was the perfect built in photo op.
Bar Hygge
Our first official Philly brewery was Bar Hygge. If you are like us you have no idea how to pronounce the name. According to the website it’s huu-guh and is the Danish concept of embodying a feeling or mood, that comes from taking genuine pleasure in making ordinary, everyday things more meaningful, beautiful or special. Despite the name, it is not a Danish restaurant. Just as confusing as the hard to pronounce name was that the beer is brewed under the name; Brewery Techne. Just a heads up for Untapping purposes. Because we had already eaten at the Reading Terminal Market we sadly declined the weekend brunch menu and just stuck to beer.
Unfortunately, Bar Hygge doesn’t offer flights and we weren’t about to get 8 oz pours of every beer on tap so we only tried Time of the Saison, Herb Garden (Gruit) and Haiku (Sour Cherry Ale). Each of the beers we tried had a nice earthy flavor, low in the ABVs and were different from the normal IPAs and stouts we see so much of. We were also excited because we haven’t seen much gruit action since Vermont.
Time of the Saison was the weaker of the offerings we tried. It was ok in the pallet and the nose but had an unforgiving dryness to it that increased the more we consumed. The Haiku was certainly an offering for Melissa, the sour beer connoisseur, and she rated it with high marks. But when doesn’t she like a sour? Lastly the Herb Garden was the brew of the hour. This gruit style beer packed a small victories garden worth of herbs and sweetness. Those unfamiliar with gruits may be slightly putoff by the lack of hops, or the odd mouthfeel. Give them a chance though, it’s an acquired taste.
Bar Hygge is a hipster establishment with fancy, over the top cocktails, and an extensive (expensive) food menu. Based on the 3 beers we had, we would certainly recommend stopping by if you find yourself in that ghetto a** part of town. Yeah, it was pretty sketch but not unlike the rest of Philly. Bar Hygge earns itself 4 wrong pronunciations out of 5. And quite frankly, I’m still calling it Bar Hi-geh.
Eastern State Penitentiary
After the quick drink at Bar Hygge, we walked to Eastern State Penitentiary. It’s kind of weird walking through the city and coming across this castle looking thing. We bought general tickets (or student tickets if you’re smart and carry around your student ID at all times) and got headphones for the audio tour. Now, my only knowledge of prison life comes from binge watching orange is the new black so I was excited to learn a little bit of history through the soothing narration of Steve Buscemi. We also discovered that audio tours are wonderful ways to visit places, as we didn’t waste time stopping to read every sign. (It’s also important to note that Andrews reading comprehension is still at a 4th grade level.)
The tour went through the history of the penitentiary which was actually the first one ever and the pennsylvania prison system based on isolation. I didn’t realize that it was still operational until the early 70s based upon the state of ruin a lot of the cells were in. Al Capone is one notable inmate and his cell looks a lot nicer and more spacious than many nyc studio apartments. “But the proponents of the system believed strongly that the criminals, exposed, in silence, to thoughts of their behavior and the ugliness of their crimes, would become genuinely penitent. Thus the new word, penitentiary.”
Rocky Steps
Like any good trip to a new city we decided to visit pop culture tourist stops in favor of actual culture. As much as we would have loved to spend hours visiting the Philadelphia Museum of Art, we had lots of beer on the agenda and not enough hours in the day. But we did budget in a quick jog up the steps just like Rocky. It seemed like we weren’t the only ones with this plan as many people ran up the stairs. Even a girl in a chicken suit. #merica. The building itself is gorgeous and once you reach the top of the steps you get a lovely view of the city. We also found a twin love sculpture here but this time in Spanish! Sorry Philly, one day we will do you justice!
Crime & Punishment
Luckily, it was a beautiful day and not too hot so we made the mile walk to our next brewery, Crime and Punishment. Sadly, there were no flights to be had here either. But when we asked we were given a reason we couldn’t debate, they didn’t want to wash that many dishes. Who can argue that?!
Crime and Punishment is a small brewpub in the appropriately named Brewerytown. Quick history lesson courtesy of wikipedia- “Brewerytown got its name because of the numerous breweries that were located along the Schuylkill during the late 19th century and early 20th century. At its and peak there were over 700 (!!!) breweries in Philly and about 20 in Brewerytown, however they all sadly closed thanks to Prohibition. Now Crime & Punishment which opened in 2015 is bringing back the beer to the area!”
We started with Flora Sinensis (saison), Zinoviev Letter (english Mild), and Sudden Zest (Gose). Of course I was a fan of the Gose while Andrew took the english mild and kait had the saison. We chatted for awhile and decided we needed sustenance so we ordered the chicken salad sandwiches, because that’s what you do in Philly right? And because we had food, we went for round two of drinks. Our second round included Infinite Zest (Gose), Lembezzler (Radler) and Space Dogs: Laika (DIPA). Although not typically an IPA fan, I did enjoy the space dogs. I’m more a fan of the sour beers so the two goses and radler were delicious and right up my alley. The beer at Crime and Punishment was unique and balanced, the atmosphere was great and the bartenders were knowledgeable and friendly. Our only complaint was the broom closet sized location; we were lucky to get seats! We do hope they move into a larger facility soon.
Crime & Punishment makes a mean chicken salad sandwich, and even meaner (and delicious) brews. Aside from the cramped space, C&P offers excellent atmosphere, engaging bar staff and a delightful lunch experience overall. I would certainly serve time at this brewery anyday and it receives a well deserved 4.75 public intoxication citations out of 5.
St. Benjamin
After Crime & Punishment we Ubered to St. Benjamin Brewing Company in Kensington. The building is located in the historic carriage house and stables of the defunct Theo Finkenauer Brewery. So much history on this beer trip! St. Benjamin refers to Benjamin Franklin, avid homebrewer and founding father. The taproom was spacious with lots of seating and a huge bar. We were happy to learn that flights do exist in this city! We picked seats in the back and were a little ambitious ordering two flights.
Our flights consisted of (ordered from least to most favorite):
Wit or Witout Witbier, Franklin’s Abbey Triple, Yardarm Saison, Bayside Saison, Avast IPA, Export Stout, Saison Du Jour X and Junto Kolsch. Now as previously described, these beers were rather average and there wasn’t really anything standout about the flights as a whole. However, I would like to point out that Junto was way entirely unexpected and really interesting.
Junto is a coffee kolsch… Yeah, you heard that right. While the coffee kolsch isn’t the most rare of items, it certainly is an unusual combination of flavors that a either consumer loves or hates. Melissa and Kait shied away from the flavor (because Melissa hates coffee and Kait wasn’t sure how to handle it) but I loved every drop (or right, I (Andrew) am writing this section. We should really start using different fonts or something so if anyone actually reads this doesn’t assume we have personality disorders).
Saint Benjamin is a huge space, and appeared to have an excellent lunch menu. And flights. About time we finally got some flight action. Unfortunately, most of their beers were average and immediately forgettable. While I would like to recommend the space since it was gorgeous, medium size and excellent for parties, we are a beer blog after all. St. Benjamin earns a mediocre 2.5 lightning strikes out of 5.
Just a side note to St. Benjamin staff and to bartenders in general: If you cater to large beer tour groups of 10+ patrons, please for the love of Cthulhu, please serve small groups or individuals first. At the very least don’t pour entire flights at a time… That was just plain obnoxious…
Philadelphia Brewing Company
When I plan out trips, I try to make sure I plan routes that make sense and allow us to visit the most breweries without dying. So it’s important that information I pull from websites and facebook is correct. We got to PBC around 4pm, and according to all the information we obtain it was still open… Which was still open for purchasing beer but not tasting! Welp, we are try before we buy people and didn’t feel like lugging around 6 packs for the rest of the day so we politely declined. We were told we could try all the beers on tap at the restaurant right across the street and that the distillery next door is open. So we did the only logical thing and went for the spirits.
So we did officially stop at PBC and it earned itself a spot on our map, But I cannot rate it the way we normally would. If you plan on taking in a tasting, be advised that their tasting hours are from noon – 3. Please let us know how the beer is! Oh, they also had some sort of kitten adoption day that we also missed… Super depressed about that 🙁
Rowhouse Spirits
Rowhouse Spirits is located right next to Philadelphia Beer Company and our bartender was the tour guide for PBC; so we had a sudo-official visit. I try to stick with beer as my stomach doesn’t always agree with liquor but Andrew gets excited for distillery visits; he is a true equal opportunity alcohol connoisseur. Rowhouse was an awesome distillery with an interesting assortment including gin, whisky, aquavit, and flavored liqueur. You can pay $5 and get three half ounce tastings. Not a bad deal. Especially because I’m pretty sure our pours were a little generous for “half – ounce” pours. Andrew really enjoyed the gin and whisky, and had a dilemma choosing which to buy. It’s not often we purchase hard alcohol, so it is a pretty big deal to get the Andrew stamp of approval. He went with their award winning Gin. I have never heard of aquavit, except for a trivia questions matching brands to their alcohol so I wasn’t sure what to expect but was pleasantly surprised.
Rowhouse Spirits wasn’t a planned stop, but was a pleasant deviation from the our daily grind. We highly recommend stopping here and trying their award winning Gin, Le Coeur Noir coffee liquor and Bear Trap herbal liqueur. Rowhouse earned a very positive 4 G&T’s out of 5.
Yards
Next up on the Philly agenda was Yards Brewing Co. Well, technically we tried to go to the Evil Genius pop up beer garden, but we quickly learned that it was not a permanent fixture and when our uber driver dropped us off at an empty lot with a concerned “are you sure this is where you want to go?” we just said sure. So back to Yards we go. This is one of the biggest and most well known Philly breweries and we were not shocked to find the place packed on a saturday afternoon. And when I say packed I mean packed. But we could at least make our way to the giant bar in the middle of the taproom and order a small batch flight. We try to order things that we’ve never had before so we were happy to have options not readily available to us in Jersey.
We eventually found our way to a corner to set down the flight and our luck would have it there was an outlet right there. Time to charge the phones! (Pro-Tip: Bring phone chargers everywhere you go. You think it would be a given, but it seldom happens) Unfortunately this means I forgot to check in everything I drank. Oops. We’ll let Andrew fill in that blank.
But on things I can comment on, the brewery was fun and there was a brew garden that we didn’t get a chance to check out. The bouncer at the door was observant and realized that it was Andrew’s birthday, so good job bouncer man! And speaking of birthdays, although Kait and I said our presence would be Andrew’s present, she went ahead and bought a pretty awesome bike jersey from Yards. Way to show me up.
Beers ‘n rage at Yards was in full swing. After brawling (like the Brawler? The Yards beer…? Ok, sorry no more jokes) our way to the flights line, we decided on the small batch flight which included the Bourbon Barrel Aged Imp Stout, the Grapefruit Philadelphia Pale Ale, the Punter English Bitter, PYNK and Yards Saison. The Grapefruit seemed like an innocent and potentially pleasant place to start, but this bitter pour did little to satisfy our palate. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t really grapefruitey… At all. The Punter and Saison fared a little better, but both could be categorized as average craft beer. PYNK fruit beer is where we ramped up in flavor. It was slightly tart, a tad dry and mostly fruity. Melissa and Kait were huge fans and give 4 thumbs up. I let them nurse the rest of the flight while I went on to enjoy the main event: Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout. Sitting heavy at 10.8%, this murky looking small batch had a fist full of roasty goodness, and none of that over pungent alcohol taste common with ABV > 8%. I really enjoyed this brew and highly encourage it as part of your flight or even a full tulip pour. Any more than that and you’re sure to be stumbling out.
Yards is a hoppin brewery that felt like a true Philly experience. The atmosphere was loud, the crowd was a little fiesty and full of laughter, the bartenders were quick and most importantly the beer had a perfect scale ranging from “I just want a beer with nothing weird going on” to “bring on the crazy sh*t.” Oh, and I got a sick new Brawler bike jersey out of it, so thanks Kait. Yards proud earned itself a must visit 4.25 out of 5.
2nd Story
The night was starting to wind down (or so we thought) and we needed a little grub to keep us going. Thus, a trip to 2nd Story Brewing Co was in order for dinner and beer. True to its name, this brewpub was two stories; and rather large.
At this point we were more hungry than thirsty, so this might be one of the few occasions we looked at the food menu before looking at the beer. We ordered a few burgers and a tried all 7 of their brews on draft.
From average to above average, we had the Daisy Point Pils, Debbies ESB, Fritzie Lager, Five Mile Ale, Pickers’ Pride English IPA, Hefewible Hefeweizen and the Declaration IPA. I realize our palettes were not the sharpest at this point, but average beer still tastes like average beer. This brewpub had a very pleasant selection of beer, but clearly it was not established to keep the beersnobs of the world happy. We did however, really enjoy the burgers.
2nd Story would not be up to most beer snobs standards, and it was underwhelming even by ours. 2nd Story does seem like a great place to kill a night and grab a bite before hitting the bars. Not to mention that this was one of the few brewpubs that we had to wait for a table (despite its considerable size). 2nd Story got us off the ground floor, but failed to deliver us to the penthouse and earns an average 2.5 out of 5. And when the waitress asks if you want dessert be sure to get the donuts.
Eulogy
Pronounced yooleje, noun, “a speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something highly, typically someone who has just died.” And this is the part of the night where we went wrong and for all intents and purposes; died. This is a must stop beer bar right across the street from 2nd Story.
Without getting into too much detail, we had several rare beers from around the world and were disappointed that we couldn’t consume all of the expensive, rare carbonated beverages at Eulogy; some of which literally behind lock & key. We drank so much, and had such a jolly time with the bartenders upstairs that they eventually bought us brews; one of which was Consecration from Russian River. Yup.
Eulogy was a great end to the night and comes highly recommended. What doesn’t come highly recommended is letting Kait and Melissa control the music. Eulogy is a must visit but save it for the end of the night and make sure you sit at the bar upstairs. Those guys are great.
