While he may never have actually said “God made beer because he loves us and wants us to be happy,” the sentiment commonly attributed to Benjamin Franklin remains true, particularly in his beloved home of Philadelphia. The city is one of the nation’s leading craft beer capitals and sits at the forefront of the American craft brewing renaissance.
Philadelphia has earned a plethora of craft beer-related accolades, including honors as one of the best American beer cities by national publications like GQ, USA Today, CNN and Thrillist, and as home to Craft Beer and Brewing Magazine’s best beer bar in the world. A handful of the region’s breweries and beer professionals have reached the rank of semifinalist for the James Beard Foundation Awards, and its brewers frequently rack up hardware at craft beer’s biggest gatherings, including the yearly Great American Beer Festival (51 medals – 13 of them gold — for Philly-area breweries since 2010) and the biannual World Beer Cup (nearly two-dozen Philly medals over the last four competitions).
An imposing roster of formidable beer artisans operate a staggering 116 breweries (across more than 165 locations) throughout Philadelphia and the Countryside, a lineup which includes some of the most coveted and celebrated in the United States — from Yards Brewing and Sly Fox to Dock Street and Victory Brewing — as well as a stellar collection of micro and nanobreweries, neighborhood brewhouses, experimental specialty shops and everything in between. All together, the region’s brew scene Philadelphia one of the country’s craft beer tourism hotspots, a must-experience destination for locals and visitors alike.
Grab a glass and map out your own visit to the best craft breweries in the city of Philadelphia and the surrounding region (Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties) with our comprehensive guide, which is sortable alphabetically, geographically and by rating on Untappd, the popular nearly 10-million-user social app which allows craft beer drinkers to review and share thoughts on beers they’re drinking and the breweries that produce them.
Begin your journey below with everything you need to know about what makes Philadelphia such an amazing destination for breweries and craft brewpubs. Need more info on what makes Philadelphia an amazing destination for breweries and brewpubs? Click below to read more.
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Overview
Philadelphia breweries range widely in size and scope. There are the pioneering names, like Dock Street, Philadelphia Brewing Co., Sly Fox, Victory and Yards, responsible for sparking the local craft beer renaissance and creating some of Philadelphia’s best-known, and most accessible, craft recipes.
Newer additions like Human Robot, Levante, La Cabra and Brewery ARS have steadily expanded into multiple locations, developing wider brand recognition and distribution throughout the region. The tide on independent full-service brewpubs is rising fast, too, as stalwarts are joined by distinctive standalones (Crime & Punishment, Second District) as well as locally based chains (Conshohocken, Iron Hill).
Innovation and originality are another major hallmark of the Philadelphia scene, with breweries like Fermentery Form, Imprint, Free Will and Forest & Main often garnering international buzz by focusing on esoteric, hard-to-find or altogether new varieties, styles and techniques like fruited sours and milkshake IPAs. Pennsylvania breweries based outside the immediate region, such as Liquid Art and Separatist, and even breweries from further afield, like Other Half and Source, have made an effort to make their presence permanently known in the city with Philadelphia outposts.
All this action is bolstered by a lineup of still-in-the-works concepts, a promising sign that beer here will continue its boom, even in the face of immense challenges rooted in the pandemic.
Beer Tours and Philly Beer Week
Many of the breweries in the five-county region have tours and/or tastings at their facilities, and a number of local groups — includingCity Brew Tours,Liberty Brew ToursandViator— offer comprehensive experiences that include multiple breweries across the breadth of Philadelphia’s deep, dynamic beer scene.
Taking place every June, the 10-dayPhilly Beer Week is the largest beverage celebration of its kind in America, drawing breweries and visitors from around the country and world.
Philadelphia Beer History
Philadelphians have embraced beer and beer culture since the very beginning of our nation. After all, this is the birthplace of America, and great ideas have been known to hatch over a pint. Case in point: Local taverns served as vital meeting points during the American Revolution, providing the well-stocked gathering spaces required by Founding Fathers and common colonists alike to birth modern democracy.
Philadelphia would also play a crucial role in the wider maturation of American beercraft. In the mid-19th through the early-20th centuries, more than 90 breweries operated in Philadelphia proper, and another 100 operated in the surrounding areas, making it one of the region’s most stable and essential industries.
The brewery uptick came to an end in 1920, when Prohibition brought on the near-demise of virtually all of Philadelphia’s beer producers, the majority of which remained shuttered beyond the repeal of the “Noble Experiment” in 1933. But the enterprising, independent spirit of the originators never left the fabric of Philadelphia’s civic identity, setting the scene for a serious comeback that began gaining steam in the early 1980s.
Throughout the next 20-plus years, innovative craft breweries proudly reclaimed the region’s reputation by brewing some of the country’s best beer.
Note: Breweries are sorted by Untappd rating by default.
