Southeastern PA - news, releases, updates, etc. (2021)

Yards has a new plain old 4.5% "beer beer" called Philly Standard:

The color and taste of Philly Standard are very similar to that ubiquitous Philly (lowercase) standard: Yuengling Traditional Lager.

However, the new Yards is more carbonated than Yuengling, in a refreshing way. It drinks almost like a happy medium between Yuengling and Miller High Life. There’s no off-putting aftertaste, and you can easily chug half a glass if you’re thirsty, which makes it a good backup to just about any kind of food or snacks.

https://billypenn.com/2021/08/16/yards-brewing-philly-standard-new-release-craft-beer-review/

 

Curious to see the price on this one. I'm a huge fan of breweries offering these kinds of selections, but only when they're priced competitively. Drives me nuts when a local place by me brews a light lager and then sells it for $14 a 4 pack.

 

If you purchase Philly Standard directly from the Yards Brewery a case (24 bottles) is $34.99. In comparison I can purchase a case of Yuengling Traditional Lager at my local Beer Distributor for $27.99. Perhaps for some folks a Yards product is worth the extra 7 bucks?

Cheers!

https://yardsbrewing.com/products/philly-standard?variant=40027111489694

 

Anyone know what Victory uses as for how long their Golden Monkey is good for? I bought a 19.2oz can tonight, at it’s best by is March 30th, 2023. I’m guessing two years? Not mad, tastes great, just curious.

 

FWIW that is my guess as well.

Does two guesses = fact!?!

Cheers!

 

Yikes. I've recommended Bottle Bar East in this forum before, and I know various others have as well. I'll make you aware of the below, for your consideration to do whatever you want with, along with some highlights:

https://www.nrn.com/workforce/phila...k-73-workers-federal-wage-and-hour-violations

The owner of Bottle Bar East in Philadelphia has been ordered to pay $520,000 in back wages, damages and penalties for violating federal wage-and-hour laws, the U.S. Department of Labor said Wednesday.

A federal investigation found that BHMK Enterprises LLC, which operates the Bottle Bar East, had violated minimum wage, overtime and recordkeeping requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Bartenders and servers were not paid any cash wages, causing them to work for tips only. Workers were required to attend quarterly staff cleaning meetings without being paid for their time, and both front- and back-of-the-house employees were not paid overtime for hours worked in excess of a 40-hour workweek, investigators found.

[....]

After months of litigation, the bar operator agreed to pay the full amount of back wages, an equal amount of liquidated damages and civil penalties. A District Court judge ordered the bar to pay $246,457 in back wages and the same amount in damages, plus $25,729 in penalties, to 73 bartenders, servers, cooks and dishwashers.

 

Wasn’t there a couple in Philadelphia a few years ago that did a bunch of scamming? Farmers Cabinet or something. Pretty sure they ripped off employees and didn’t pay them. I think they were serial F&B grifters.

Yes, his name was Matt Swartz, various charges related to that place.

 

Sad to hear about that activity at Bottle Bar. I haven't been there since pre-covid, but have always had a good time there, with some great service. You would think with what they charge for single bottles/cans, they could pay their employees.

 

If one of the bartenders stole more than $2,000 from the bar, they'd be facing felony charges and up to seven years in prison. Hell, if someone stole a single bottle of beer from them they could get up to 90 days. But a business owner can steal almost a quarter million from employees, and it's "pay them back with a lil' penalty and interest."

 

I had pretty poor (rude) service there at one point and my wife insisted on not visiting based on that -- I had wavered because of their selection (and more so the food than the beer, honestly), but this makes it much easier to simply not go at all. Others have talked about the impact a "boycott" may have on employees, and while I certainly think it's a good concern there are numerous businesses in the area desperate for employees right now. I won't be giving money to the ownership, personally.

 

It's heartbreaking to see the photos. Rebel Hill's Lock 29 has a flooded kitchen and I saw a lot of flooding around Conshohocken's Bridgeport location as well. Planning on stopping by Free Will to help support their recovery effort.

 

Can you imagine the revenue lost Without ralphius? I just returned from my local distro
And luckily they had 1 4-pack of ralphius 2020 left

 

Unfortunately Manayunk Brewery is closed indefinitely due to flood damage. They said that they plan to rebuild but no timetable at this time.

 

Stopped by Source Brewing at their new Fishtown location last night for their impromptu "Pre-Grand Opening," in case anyone else is curious. For those unaware, they have a "farmhouse" (there's a little drama around that that I won't get into) brewery in Colts Neck NJ and are expanding into this brewpub location soon, here. I'd tried a few cans from them before, which were decent. They market themselves as brewing mostly trendy stuff ("tropical milkshake IPAs," big BA pastry stouts, etc) alongside more classical styles.

Last night, the menu had like 10ish selections -- many more of the former (trendy styles) than the latter (traditional). It's a cool space, I'm glad someone better than Fishtown Brewpub is taking it over. The IPAs I tried were decent. I wouldn't put them on the same plane as Tired Hands but "not messing up a simple hazy IPA" is a good measuring stick I like to start with. The marzen was the highlight, for me -- incredibly drinkable, clean, and balanced. I'm far from an expert on the style so I won't try comparing it to more traditional offerings (now that I think about it, I need to stock my fridge with Ayinger), but I could have had much more of it. Didn't try anything barrel-aged as they all clocked in at 13% and it was early in the night. In fact, nearly everything on the menu was like 8% and up (saison, a fruited "tart ale," and marzen excluded).

The service was a little lacking in some aspects and they lost CO2 pressure at one point which made many beers unavailable but I'm not at all interested in holding stuff like that against them for a "Pre-Grand Opening."

Heard great things about the chicken sandwich on the food menu as well, so definitely interested in going back for a meal. Overall -- put it on your to-do list when they open if you're looking for somewhere that focuses more on big-ABV, trendy styles (and has a little diversity to boot) but if you're looking for a place with more dialed-in lagers maybe just stick with Human Robot down the road, for now.