Last night had PBC drinking brews from both of Philly’s famous divorcees, Philadelphia Brewing Company (PBCo from here on) and Yards Brewing Company. There has been much speculation and rumor flying around, which the recent Philly Weekly article (Tanks for the Memories) did surprisingly little to clear up. Here's what we discovered:
It turns out that Yards has not been bought up by a major beer conglomerate, as I had previously heard. They are, however, caught in a contractual obligation to distribute their beer through a single distributor, which is going to make Yards slightly more expensive than we were used to (supposedly somewhere around the 25% mark). The recipes, however, remain the same. Or so I thought. At the Bishop’s Collar last night, we tried both the Philly Pale Ale and the Tavern Porter. Both tasted noticeably different from what I was used to and it turns out it’s because Yards is currently brewing in the Lion Brewery in Wilkes-Barre. Different water, different equipment, different brewers—I’ll withhold judgment until they get their Delaware Ave location up and running (which, from what I hear, could be anywhere from April to June) on their own equipment and using real Philly water. I still think they should be labeling it “Wilkes-Barre Pale Ale” for the time being. And I’m still more than a little annoyed that one of the Yard’s guys at the Brewer’s Plate swore up and down to me that the beer I was drinking was definitely from their first batch produced on Delaware Ave. I won’t mention names, but c’mon guys—do you think we won’t find out?! [[One thing I forgot to mention--Tom Kehoe did set the record straight at Bishop's Collar.]]
PBCo, on the other hand, will continue to self-distribute their beer, dropping off their own kegs and cases across the city as they had previously as (old) Yards. We met the brewers Josh and John last night at the London Grill, who are both the kind of guys I would expect and hope to see brewing at PBCo. They share a great deal of the Barton's vision for Kensington, and it definitely shows in their beers. On tap were the Kenzinger and the Rowhouse Red (which coupled with the Newbold IPA at Tap Room leaves only the Walt Wit left to find—let me know if you see the pencil tap handle!). I definitely have a preference for the IPA (finally—an IPA that isn’t just about the hops!), but the knowledge that all of the PBCo beers you can find right now are straight from the first batch of each definitely adds a little special something to each glass.
Also at the London Grill was an Anheuser-Busch rep (sorry—I’m horrible with names once I have a beer or two in me) who set a few misconceptions straight for me. He promised me that when AB buys rights to distribute a beer, they do not change the recipe or force any other changes on the brewer. He said that beers like Hoegaarden, Stella, and Leffe (all of which they were handing out samples of) are brewed in the same towns using the same recipe as they always were. AB’s sole purpose in distributing these beers is to provide a larger audience. I still think that producing beer on the scale required to distribute world-wide leads to changes in the recipes and methods, even if the impetus for that change doesn’t come from external mandates… But hey—with the amazing selection of Philly local beers, very rarely do I find myself reaching for a more worldly brew.