When it comes to owning a brewery, Bill Barton, co-owner of East Kensington-based Philadelphia Brewing Company said the actual brewing process is just a snippet of what goes on behind the scenes.
“The part about mixing the grain, the hot water, throwing the hops in—that’s a real small part of brewing,” said Barton. “A big part of it is making sure that your temperature gauges are properly calculated, all your machinery is in functioning order and that you’re checking the beer daily that it’s fermenting at the right temperature—all those little minute details are really key.”
Just as vital is the team of people who work in production for the 38,000 square-foot brewery—whether it’s coordinating the brew schedule, delivering beer to the city’s bars and restaurants or bottling the day’s brew.
Alex Bender, who’s been working at the brewery for about a year, is in charge of warehouse duties like setting up and assisting the bottling line, stacking cases of that day’s brew, and emptying and cleaning kegs. He also stocks the store and sometimes will hit the road to help with deliveries on days when the brewery isn’t bottling.
“I try to be as versatile as I can be around here,” said the Philly native. “Whatever anybody needs, I’ll try to help them out.”
In his one-year time span of working at PBC thus far, Bender said the brewery has been quickly expanding by adding another cider, bottling Schwarzinger and Razzberet Tart, a Commonwealth Cider brewed at PBC, and hiring several more employees.
He was previously working at a catering job in the city for about five years when he found out that the brewery was hiring through word-of-mouth.
Bender, whose personal favorite beer grew to be Kenzinger, plays bass in the band Brewtallica with four other co-workers—all of whom come from music backgrounds and various bands like Mean Streets, Call it Quits and Kill Verona. The guys came together to play this year’s Philly Beer Scene “Band of Brewers” alongside two other breweries with four practice sessions under their belts. They played to a packed house at World Café Live and won the competition with its three medleys of Metallica covers.
Since winning the competition, Brewtallica has been asked to play a number of different venues in the city. They most recently played Ortlieb’s Lounge, located nearby in Northern Liberties, at the end of last month. Barton allows the guys to practice for upcoming gigs in the brewery’s tasting room on Thursdays.
“I think the Beer Scene guys approached us about us entering it and it was just kind of a given that we’d all say yes since we’re all musicians,” said Mickey Coburn, drummer in Brewtallica. “I think we all really wanted to do it.”
The guys hope to brew a beer named after the band in the future, Bender said.
Coburn, a family friend of the Bartons, works as a packaging assistant at PBC and is in charge of helping on the bottling line alongside Bender and filling kegs. He’s gotten a firsthand taste of how the brewery has changed over the years and even helped build the bar that now stands in the tasting room.
According to Barton, the brewery staff has grown more than seven times from its original four full-time workers. It now employs 30 full-time workers.
“It’s crazy to see how far it’s come along,” said Coburn, who began working at PBC five and a half years ago. “When I first started, there were only four beers and we had a couple of seasonals here and there.”
Kensington-native Paul Butterly has been coordinating day-to-day operations, like figuring out which beers to brew on which day and scheduling deliveries and packaging for six years this month. He started out helping with deliveries on the truck, and said a lot of responsibilities overlap at the brewery based on the need that day.
“We all sort of learn how to do each other’s jobs,” said Butterly. “You wear a bunch of different jackets and hats here.”
The brewery is known for its fun, usually Philadelphia-themed names, like Kenzinger, a take on the brewery’s location, its seasonal pumpkin ale, Kenz O’ Lantern, and Fleur de Lehigh, PBC’s seasonal spiced golden ale. The team weighs in on a number of different aspects of the business together on a regular basis—including the naming process.
“Pretty much everything we do here is a collaboration,” said Barton. “We have a big list of, we call it the ‘Big List of Bad Beer Names.’ We keep it going and everybody gets their input.”
(Click the photo below for an interactive graphic explaining the various beer’s that PBC offers)
The crew is gearing up for the city’s annual Beer Week, the largest beer celebration of its kind, which will return at the end of May this year. Venues holding events and specials for Beer Week span the entire city, including Kensington’s Memphis Taproom which will feature different kegs every day. PBC is one of 56 total breweries that will be participating in the 10 daylong event.
Coburn admits it’s a lot of hard work, but he enjoys it at the end of the day.
“We load up the trucks in the morning, we package and some of us have to go deliver because there’s a lot of extra stops each day,” said Coburn. “And then after we clock out, we all have to go to an event and rep the brewery. Those are long days for Beer Week, but it’s fun—it’s all very fun.”
Text, Images and Graphic by Mark Whited and Lauren Arute
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