Yards, oh Yards how I miss thee. Before I moved to Flordia, I lived in Philadelphia, PA. The land of many good beer bars, and its fair share of great craft brews. When I first had a Yards, I convinced my roommates to buy a case of it when living in Manayunk. At the time they were small and new and bottle conditioning. We received a case with what even now I'd say was an excessive about out sediment in the bottles. We didn't notice right away (go figure) but when we did, Tobie and I drove to the brewery (which at the time was in a Warehouse down the street from us) and demanded a new case. Picture two slightly buzzed kids, standing in the rain asking, "can we get a new case? This one has stuff in it." Yeah, that was us. I'm pretty sure they explained to us it was supposed to be there, be we were drunk and could not fully grasp the concept at the time. I think we ended up leaving without a new case.
It was sometime before we had it again, but when we did, it was love at first taste. My favorite Yards beers are the Philadelphia Pale Ale and their ESA. For a while, I could only get them at Race Street Pub around the corner from me, but over time as they grew sixs were available at my corner grocery store, heaven. My friends Jason and Dorrie, who are visiting this weekend and looking to add another few Best Beer Moments to the list, and I visited the brewery on a rainy Saturday a few years ago. We took the quick tour and sampled their beers. The brewery was one large room of kettle, brite tanks and fermentors, lined with kegs and a bottling line. Post tour, we hung out in their tasting room. Being that the brewery was located in a 18th century building, that I believe at one point was a local brewery as well, the room had very high ceilings, exposed wood beams, with a pool table, couches, and a few tables and chairs. Kinda like a collection from the Salvation Army in someone's old barn. It rocked. I could have stayed there all afternoon, drinking the rain away.
I returned many times for the tour, and just to hang at the tasting room. People would bring their dogs and hang out, I loved it. Yards was as true to their Philly roots as they could be, brewing recipes of "Colonial" beer found in Ben Franklin's writings, and a few others.
Yards recently went through an owner/brewer shake up and has moved locations. I hear they are almost brewing again, or are and should be back to full steam soon. I hope the beers are the same and for their continued success.
All the people that built the Yards that you love are now with philadelphia brewing company
Posted by: Old Yards fan | Friday, April 11, 2008 at 04:43 AM