The Vanilla Bourbon Porter has been a popular request, and so we’ve brewed it again. However, there is one slight twist this time. Previously, we took a basic porter and aged it with vanilla beans that had been extracted in bourbon. We see no reason to mess with a good thing, so we’re still using that same formula, only this time we’re aging it on oak chips that have also spent some time soaking in bourbon. It’s still too early to tell just what this batch will turn out like, but it certainly shouldn’t disappoint.

      With the recent holidays, things have been a bit busy around here lately. While we would love to have a few more batches in the pipeline, we just haven’t had the time. However, there are a few ideas just waiting to be brewed, so stay tuned.

Happy Festivus! Our latest creation is a celebration of this non-denominational holiday referenced on Seinfeld. Just like Frank Costanza, we too were looking for another way to celebrate the holiday season without sticking to the more traditional ideas. With this brew, we took many liberties with what went into it, but in the end we hope we have something to bring everyone together during the holidays.

Weighing in at 9.5% ABV, we made sure there was plenty in this recipe to make it full of holiday cheer. With honey, cherries, cinnamon and nutmeg as well as vanilla beans extracted in bourbon, this brew is both sweet and spicy. It’s like drinking a mouthful of holiday cheer! While we certainly realize something of this magnitude may not appeal to some of our fans, we have also brewed up a batch of our popular Honey Pale Ale for the other side of the spectrum.

The latest batch of Honey Pale Ale has seen a few changes from the last incarnation, but these subtle changes are definitely improvements. With a slightly lower ABV of 7% versus the previous 7.6%, this is a little more drinkable with a less alcohol-forward finish. We also dry-hopped this batch with additional Cascade hops to add a more noticeable aroma and flavor to balance out the otherwise sweet and dry finish added by the honey. We’re always open to improvement, so this may yet grow more by the next batch. We always appreciate feedback from our fans, so let us know your thoughts!

That’s all we have for now, hope everyone has a happy and safe Festivus (For the Restofus)!

     Sorry for not updating more regularly folks! It’s been a hot summer, so we haven’t been able to brew very much until a few weeks ago when we got our hands on a chest freezer and temperature controller. We did manage to push out a hefeweizen before the end of summer. It turned out a bit sweeter than expected, with a rather caramel color and finish. If you’re lucky enough to get some though, it is going quick!
     In other news, now that we have a freezer, there should be more batches to come, including lagers. We recently brewed a very small batch (like, 2 gallons small!) of our own attempt at a Munich-style pale lager which is currently lagering away. Depending on the result (still a little while away) we may try to make a bigger batch, but either way we shall be making more attempts at lagers in the future.
     While it is a bit early to be talking about X-mas, it’s almost too late to be brewing an ale in time for the holiday! However, this past weekend we just put together a (hopefully) tasty treat that should (also hopefully!) be ready just in time for X-mas. To give some hints, it involves lots malt, honey, a handful of hops, a touch of nutmeg and some cinnamon sticks. Initial taste tests are similar to gingerbread cookies, but we’ll see what happens after fermentation (and the potential addition of vanilla and cherries!) is complete. This interesting treat is certainly a bit unusual from our normal brews, but what better way to celebrate the holidays than have a crazy ale with a crazy original gravity of 1.080? Ideally, with the yeast we’re using, this should come out past 8% or so. We hope you’ll all enjoy this brew, as we’re trying to step onto the sweeter side for this holiday treat! It is going to be a long, exciting wait to open this present! Cheers!

     Our apologies for having not updated here in so long but we’ve been busy preparing to move, moving, then getting settled in. However, there are updates to be had! Just to name a few, our pale ale is finally ready, we’ve been busy this past week enjoying Philly Beer Week, and of course, with moving we are upgrading our brewery with bigger and better equipment. 

     First and foremost, the pale ale has finished fermenting, moved onto bottling and is finally ready to drink! As this was a very experimental brew, we weren’t positive how it would turn out, and much to our surprise it was not quite what we planned, but certainly not in a bad way. The main experiment was with adding honey for flavor and aroma, but the yeast gobbled it all up quite well, along with everything else. It was a very efficient fermentation to say the least, but with a final alcohol by volume of 7.6% it was way over what we had intended. It has a slightly dry finish which is typical when adding honey, but there are still subtle hints of honey aroma and flavor. Overall, it definitely screams “pale ale” but we certainly did not achieve the more creamy, smooth body we were hoping for. However, we certainly don’t plan to quit there, just go back to the drawing board with tweaking our ingredients and process. This is still a very refreshing brew, just in time for summer to kick in. Enjoy!

     Philly Beer Week is the gathering of breweries big and small, near and far in Philadelphia for the celebration of great beer. With countless events across the Philly region, it certainly provides endless opportunities to explore your beer palate. If you missed out this year, we better see you out next year! 

     At the start of Philly Beer Week, we had a wonderful opportunity to be introduced to a brewery a bit out of our region otherwise. If you haven’t had a chance, we highly recommend checking out Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project, who we had the chance to sample their awesome brews Jack D’Or, an American Saison (inspiring!); Baby Tree, a quadrupel brewed with plums (simply amazing!); St. Botolph’s Town, a brown ale (to die for!) and Field Mouse’s Farewell, impossible to describe except to say, a brilliant blend of grains including rye, oats, wheat and barley. Definitely check them out, you won’t be disappointed! 

     To say the least, Philly Beer Week has been great, and it certainly didn’t stop just there. Ranging from exclusive beers for beer week to great food and beer pairings, there hasn’t seemed to be a time of day something isn’t going on. Again, if you’ve missed out this year, definitely check it out next!

     Finally, as noted, we’ve moved! The new house is bigger and better and provides room we can better dedicate to expanding our equipment for both brewing and fermenting. Thanks to everyone who helped with the move, we’ll certainly be passing more beer your way. We’ve been off the radar for a little while with packing everything up, moving and finally unpacking and settling in, but things are shaping up quite well and we’re hoping to push out some new batches very soon. 

     Down the pipeline we have a few ideas in mind, but nothing set in stone yet. We’re hoping to push out a hefeweizen before summer is out, but with a demand for more Ale Bock we may need to work a little magic. We also have some plans to modify a few existing recipes, including a hoppier version of the Ale Bock and a creamier version of our Honey Pale Ale. We’ll be sure to keep you all informed of where we go next. 

Cheers!

    Welcome to the Worst of Philadelphia Craft Brewing blog! Here you will find updates on our craft brewing, including upcoming beers, current and past releases as well as upcoming events. Thanks for checking us out and please follow us on here as well as on Twitter and Facebook. Below are just a few of our past, present and future beers, enjoy!

Ale Bock

    This hearty brew was our first original recipe, brewed with love for the first time during the blizzard of December 2009. The original idea we had in mind for this beer was our own unique take on the Bock style of beers, with a typically sweet and heavy character; however, we didn’t stick to any strict guidelines for the style; we just threw together what sounded right.

    The first twist for this beer that we had planned from the start was to produce it with a Belgian Ale yeast instead of the typical Lager yeast used for Bock-style beers. The grain bill was hefty compared to anything we had done to date, but all the more sugars to ferment! To balance this heavy brew, we decided to throw in more hops at the last minute than we had originally planned, in turn producing a batch that can only be referred to as unique.

    The aroma and flavor of the unfermented wort gave us what we hoped was a solid idea of what to expect, but over the first few days it dramatically changed. By the time this brew was ready for secondary fermentation, it had altered itself far more than originally expected. By this point, we realized we had quite the monster on our hands! It was not until it was finally bottled and matured for a few more weeks until we were finally able to confirm that what we had created was certainly not a Bock.

    While we still refer to this brew as the “Ale Bock,” the name is certainly deceiving. Perhaps one of the more balanced beers we’ve tasted, it combines a particularly interesting blend of bitter and sweet while leaving one to wonder just where it fits into the broad spectrum of beer styles. One could say, if this were a Bock of any kind, it certainly must be the “worst” Bock, at least in Philadelphia. But perhaps we’ve created more of a hop-lover’s Bock instead.

Java Stout

    Two of our favorite things to drink are coffee and beer. We decided one day that instead of keeping the two separated, why not join them together? While coffee stouts are not unheard of, we’ve always felt they left something to be desired, so we set out to fill in that missing link on our own. Subtlety is certainly not in store for this particular brew. While the coffee flavor is far from overpowering, there’s also no missing it. This unusual combination of coffee and beer allow a marriage of both substance and style, creating a subtle smoothness in mouth-feel similar to that of creamer. Bold, yet casual to drink, this brew is a must for coffee lovers!

Dunkelweizen

    While we can’t take much credit for this brew being our own, it’s still worth noting as the beer that started it all. It carries a nice dark color with a flavor heavy in darker malts, yet a rather crisp, hoppy finish. Unfortunately, this particular batch has been depleted and we are not likely to make it again, but we do have plans for our own recipe in the future, so stay tuned for updates!

Vanilla Bourbon Porter

    Our latest brew is still in the early stages of maturing, but is already proving to be another one to keep us guessing. We first brewed a pretty standard Porter but went over the top by adding more malt than the recipe called for. While racking it into the secondary fermenter, we extracted vanilla beans in bourbon and then mixed them both into the brew to add a nice finish. So far, this batch tastes nothing like we expected, but with the addition of these new elements, it should certainly push it to a new direction!

Honey Cream Pale Ale

    Coming down the pipeline in the near future is our next batch, what we are calling the Honey Cream Pale Ale. The elements we are including in this batch should make a very interesting twist to this recipe. We are taking a typical Pale Ale recipe and adding flaked corn in hopes of achieving a creamy mouth-feel, then adding honey towards the end of the brew for a nice subtle honey-sweet complement to this bitter brew! We are very excited for this batch, and expect it to arrive just in time for some warmer weather.