Monika went with some friends on a girls only trip to Atlantic City, so the boys got together and went drinking. We decided to hit up a brewery and a brewpub in Philly. I’ve been trying to hit up breweries lately because of my increasing interest in home brewing, which is getting a bit fevered lately. In fact, right now, I’ve got 15 gallons of beer and 6 gallons of wine brewing in my kitchen, with another 15 gallons worth of ingredients in my house just waiting for a free day to make.
First stop after taking the speedline to 8th and Market was Yard’s Brewery on North Delaware Ave. They’ve been around since 1994 and was one of the first craft breweries in Philadelphia. I had just tried some of their beers a few weeks ago when I went to the City Tavern, where they serve all of their Ales of the Revolution. Took a cab, walked in the door, was given free beer immediately. Gotta love that.
a shot of the bar and lounge. the bridge in the window is not really the Ben Franklin Bridge, although it can be seen from that window from that exact angle.
the size of the holding tanks indicates that this is no tiny brewpub, its a real life brewery. This is Yards only location, so if youve ever had one, it once lived in one of these tanks.
Once the tour started, we got two more free beer samples. It because undeniably apparent that our tour guide, who was giving the final tour of the day, had been sampling plenty himself. He was hilarious, did a great job, and slurred a little.
the building has been around a while, and changed hands a few times before Yards took it over in 2008. The murals on the walls are a leftover from when an indoor skate park owned it right before Yards.
Our tour guide actually worked on the bottling line, which was awesome, because thats what I kind of have been dying to see close up. I guess it was all those viewings of Strange Brew when I was a kid.
and here I was, up close and personal with something that a normal person would find completely inane, but beer lovers find fascinating. were simple folk!
and here is the beginning of packaging. even to a nerd, this is kind of mundane.
We headed out of Yards after a round of beers at the bar. there were some pool tables and a shuffleboard table, but all in all, there wasn’t too much of a scene here. Just a bunch of tourists and nerds like me. It was raining and so we got a bit wet hailing a cab for our ride down to Old City where our next stop, Triumph Brewery (really a brewpub), was.
Triumph Brewery has three locations. Monika and I have visited the one in New Hope (you can read about that day trip over here). If you don’t get the difference between a brewpub and a brewery, I’ll explain. Breweries sell the beer they make on premises other locations as well. Brewpubs really only make small batches to serve at that location and don’t distribute their beer.
Though it was nice up in New Hope, the location in Philadelphia was absolutely amazing. I can’t believe I had never stopped in before, but I’m sure it has something to do with the fact that is directly across the street from my favorite bar in Philly, a place called Eulogy.
this is the shot from the bar where we were siting. upstairs are the brewing kettles and the holding tanks, which are behind glass, but not rally tour material since there isnt a whole lot of wasted space for groups.
for 12 bucks, you can get a four ounce pour of every damn beer they make (9 when we were there). That way, you can sample all of them and then buy whatever you like, which we did. I ended up with a delicious Belgian Rye Ale that clocked in at 6.9% alcohol.
We had dinner here as well, and theyre veggie burger was awesome, served with fresh greens and clearly-home-baked ciabatta roll.
heres a better view of where the beer comes from.
The Flyers game was on, and we each had a few beers, but soon enough, we were stuffed and ready to move on. Next stop was Mahogany Cigar Bar in Center City. This place is a regular guys’ lounge with couches and coffee tables and a real library type decor. And best of all, you are allowed to bring your own cigars.
pretty dark in here, but this is Rob and Kreg gettin there smoke on. We each brought two, one that we wanted to try, and one that we knew we liked. It was unanimous; we all liked our standbyes much better.
the service was awesome, and even though it was filled to capacity, the place wasnt overly crowded. But, without any more smokes, it was time to move to our final location.
We tried to walk the two and a half blocks to our final stop, The Franklin Mortgage and Investment Company. This place is supposed to be kind of a speakeasy feel, so there’s not really a sign outside. Also, we made a wrong turn, got soaked, took a cab 4 blocks, got directions from some random guy on the street and finally found the set of stairs leading down to the front door. However, there is a doorman at the top of the stairs, dressed in all black, who told us to wait while he looked for some room. A minute later, he gives us a head nod indicating it was time to move on and sneak into the little bar.
This is all you get of this place. Great cocktails, but expensive since we were right near Rittenhouse Square. Very chill scene that I would reccomend if you can manage to find it.
after a round, and a refill from my flask, we headed back to the suburbs, to Sunnyvale Tavern to meet with the girls and finish ourselves off.
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