PHLGuide
The Best Breweries In Philadelphia
photo credit: GAB BONGHI
There are always different breweries popping up around Philadelphia. But just because the options are endless doesn't mean every spot is worth checking out. From industrial warehouses full of strollers to rooms that can fit just a handful of people, here are our favorite Philly breweries.
THE SPOTS
photo credit: NICOLE GUGLIELMO
No brewery in Philly serves better food than this Black-owned spot in University City. Stay at the front bar near the TVs and HBCU plaques and order some Liberian jollof rice with your malty Nubian ale. Or head to the back area with communal tables and a menu of hoagies and tomato pie by Liberty Kitchen.
With its cafeteria-style wooden tables, Spring Garden’s Yards Brewing could probably fit a few dozen family reunions. They have beer flags hanging from the rafters like they’re championship banners, as well as a huge menu of signature ales, small-batch options like citra saison and Kölsch-style ales, flights, and even some beers named after the founding fathers. Assemble that group of friends who want citrusy wheat beers and a basket of crunchy wings.
photo credit: GAB BONGHI
This Fishtown brewery has a huge dog-friendly astroturf patio where people play cornhole and sit by fire pits with pulled pork sandwiches, wings, and brussels sprouts coated in garlic-soy sauce. Inside there’s a wraparound bar, TVs playing the game, and enough options to keep everyone in your group happy.
With names like “Stacy’s Mom,” “You Mad Bro?”, and “Zee Googles Zey Do Nathing,” Evil Genius Beer Company in Fishtown wins the award for the most bizarre beer names in the city. It's not just the names that are creative, they brew things like key lime margarita sours, chocolate peanut butter porters, and watermelon blonde ales. Come to the backyard beer garden when it's nice outside. Or maybe for something like Wednesday night Quizzo, drag brunch on Saturdays, and a Girl Scout cookie and beer pairing event.
photo credit: Philadelphia Brewing Company
Philadelphia Brewing Co. in Kensington is almost always packed with people who live in the neighborhood drinking Kenzingers. Whether you're chilling at one of their yellow picnic tables outside or inside near the fireplace when it’s chilly out, do it with the crisp golden lager everyone else is drinking. As far as food goes, there's usually a lineup of food trucks parked near the front lot serving things like crispy tofu tacos, burgers, and juicy grilled chicken satay.
If Chestnut Hill Brewing Company stopped brewing and pouring beers, people would still come here because they have the best pizza in the neighborhood and a fun outdoor patio. It feels like the kind of place where you could meet a stranger and end up inviting them to your wedding by the end of the conversation. But the main reasons we like it here are the Belgian wheat ales, espresso-forward stouts, and citrusy IPAs.
photo credit: NICOLE GUGLIELMO
POWERED BY
This Albanian Mt. Airy spot combines beer and better-than-average brewery food in a multi-floor space, so you won’t have to do a yoga pose to squeeze by strangers even when it gets busy. If you're hungry, get the wood-fired pizza, which they top with things like Albanian sausage and fig balsamic glaze.
The Attic Brewing Company’s taproom feels like an antique roadshow collection spot, art gallery, and prohibition-era pub all rolled into one. You’ll find basically every version of couch that’s ever been made, throwback wooden chairs, and a beer garden in the back courtyard with food trucks like Burrito Feliz tacos, Jamaican D’s, and Bad Mother Shuckers oysters. And since Germantown is one of the most historic neighborhoods in Philly, it should come as no surprise that this was the first craft beer brewery in the city.
Love City Brewing Co. has a big garden out back filled with plants and benches, along with enough room inside for you and a huge group to drink hazy double IPAs, oatmeal stouts, and golden lagers. The Callowhill brewery also has food trucks in their garden area. But mostly you come here to drink beer, like their Dreamcycle orange and vanilla IPA that smells exactly like an orange creamsicle.
The best thing about Manayunk Brewery Company is their elevated deck where you can look at the Schuylkill River while day drinking on the weekends. They have some in-house beers, but they mostly pour stuff from other breweries, like a fruity sour tripel from Victory Brewing Co. and citrusy pale ale from Yards. Plus, since it doubles as a restaurant, you can bring a group of people who all want to eat different things (like margherita pizzas, crispy fish and chips with housemade slaw, and pasta drenched in vodka sauce).
A trip to Callowhill’s Triple Bottom Brewing Co. feels like you’ve been dropped into a Target furniture aisle where everything is farmhouse chic. Consider this a good thing when you're looking for a place to drink before a show at Union Transfer, or want to have a date night where you discuss your week over a cheeseboard. They serve a bunch of beers like hazy IPAs, German pilsners, Czech amber lagers, and a chocolatey Baltic porter if you want something strong and dark. Another reason to visit: Triple Bottom employs (and fairly pays) people who have experienced homelessness or incarceration.
This East Falls brewery has ping pong tables and plenty of places to watch the game. They pour everything from German-style Kölsch and Mexican lagers with maize lime zest to fruity sours that taste like strawberries and peaches, and you can try them all in an $8 beer flight. But depending on how well your last bean bag toss went, you may want a full pint of a dry-hopped hazy IPA to get a good rhythm going.
Victory Brewing Co. is one of the few breweries in Center City. With a long bar where there’s no bad view of the TVs and big tables, it’s a fun place to sit with a group. Another brewery rarity: they have a massive outdoor rooftop with yellow chairs, plants, and a bar area. If you’re hungry, get some pillowy Bavarian pretzels, wings, and a double cheeseburger while people-watching on the Parkway.
Kensington’s Human Robot has a large backyard garden area full of hanging lights, flags, and picnic tables. Grab an excellent saison, a hoppy Polish-style pilsner, and anything on the food menu made by Poe’s Sandwich Joint. We usually go for the Wolfie 2.0 that’s stacked with grilled chicken, fried onions, cooper sharp, and copious amounts of hot sauce and blue cheese sauce.
This 10-barrel brewhouse that's inside of a South Philly garage is pretty small—if you bring a group here you may have to share a seat or two. But that just means it has the atmosphere of a rowdy neighborhood bar. Drink something a little unusual, like a a lemon drop IPA, a buckwheat and rye saison, or maybe just a pale ale that costs around $4 for an eight-ounce pour. Along with all the different beer, they have snacks like chips and soft pretzels.
Punch Buggy Brewing Co. feels like a taproom for people who have no interest in large breweries since they only have one row of seats inside. Instead, there's more seating outside that they set up in the street—and it’s a great place to be on a sunny day. Sometimes there's live music, but even if there isn't, there's still usually a scene of people hanging out with their dogs.
Cartesian in East Passyunk has a decent amount of seating for you, your coworkers, and maybe even a few friends, and they usually have almost a dozen beers that range from hazy pale ales, forged stouts, and sweet and fruity saisons. They only serve light snacks inside like chips and dip, but they do have a melony IPA that has that tastes like a liquid fruit salad.
Kensington’s Fermentery Form is a brewery inside of a garage that looks like where every alternative rock band in the 2000s got their start. There are also barrels everywhere, so you should really sit in their courtyard rather than at the handful of seats inside. The brewery mostly focuses on wine- and barrel-aged beer hybrids, like a fermented saison that’s been mixed with the grape must from a sangiovese. They have a few things to snack like jerky and fries, but for the most part, you come here to have an impromptu backyard party with friends.
