Weisbrod and Hess Oriental Lager Beer Brewery, 1882-1939
Yards Brewing, 2001-
2439 Amber Street, Philadelphia PA 19125 (main entrance on Martha Street, below East Hagert Street)
© Carmen A. Weber, Irving
Kosmin, and Muriel Kirkpatrick, Workshop of the World (Oliver
Evans Press, 1990).
Lager beer production began
in Philadelphia in the 1840s. 1
George Weisbrod
and Christian Hess opened their brewery in 1882 at the
corner of Frankford Avenue and Adams (now Hagert) Street.
According to the Census of Manufactures of Philadelphia,
this brewery was one of nine operating in the 19th and
31st Wards. 2
In 1886 the
Weisbrod and Hess Lager Beer Brewery employed 32 men and
comprised a brewery, refrigerating houses, stable, and
cooper shop with the bar-room, store, and meeting rooms
facing Frankford Avenue. 3
Expansion by 1889
included construction of a new brewery, with 100 men
working at the brewery. 4
The Weisbrod and
Hess Oriental Brewery operated until Prohibition in 1920.
The brewery reopened for five years following
Prohibition, closing in 1938. 5
The stable, facing Martha (once Holman) Street, is the
oldest remaining structure in the complex. Built in 1885,
this three story, three bay brick building with stone
detailing contains the inscription ‘W H’ on
the second story. The brewery stands across the street.
Constructed by 1889, the two story brick building has
decorative brickwork and stone keystones and belt
courses. The complex is missing the refrigerator houses
and storage buildings that faced Frankford Avenue and the
boilerhouse that stood at the corner of Hagert and Martha
Streets. The three story brick building with brownstone
water table, belt courses, and lintels along Hagert
Street housed offices. Finally, a bottling plant,
probably built in the 1930s, stands on the corner of
Hagert and Amber Streets. This two story brick building
has terra cotta detailing and tile mosaics.
The brewery held a four story millhouse, with the hop
tank, two steam engines, and two ice machines on the
first story. The cooling tanks were on the top story,
with the kettle and mashtub on the second story. The
copper brewing kettle had a capacity of 250 barrels. The
attached four story refrigerator house had the fermenting
room on the third story. The boilerhouse contained three
boilers. 6
At present, the buildings appear abandoned.
1 Scharf and
Westcott, History
of Philadelphia, pp. 2280-2281
2 Blodget,
Census
of Manufactures of Philadelphia, p. 82.
3 Hexamer General Survey #1997 (1886)
"Weisbrod & Hess' Lager Beer
Brewery."
4 Hexamer General Survey #2561-2562 (1892)
"Weisbrod & Hess, Oriental
Brewery."
5 R. Dochter
6 Hexamer General Survey #2561-2562 (1892)
"Weisbrod & Hess, Oriental
Brewery."
Update May
2007 (by
Torben Jenk):
Most
of the buildings west of Martha Street survive, including
the Bottling Plant with its colorful Phoenix mosaics and
terra cotta letter panels, and the 1885 stables to the
south. One now enters from Martha Street through a facade
into a courtyard that used to be roofed. The roof sat
atop huge wooden trusses. Yards Brewing bought these buildings in
May 2001 and started brewing beer in March 2002.
Brewing capacity has grown from 2,500 barrels to 8,000
barrels in 2006. All brewing starts with thirty
barrels mixed into sixty-barrel fermenters. Half the
production is of Philadelphia Pale Ale, "a Pale Ale
brewed with a Pilsner malt" that was recently
rated one of the five best Pale Ales in
America. Other beers regularly
brewed include India Pale Ale, Extra Special Ale,
Saison, and three "Ales of the Revolution," the latter
brewed according to the historic recipes of three
founding fathers: General Washington Porter, Thomas
Jefferson Tavern Ale, and Poor Richard's Tavern Spruce
[Ben Franklin]. Yards uses Simcoe hops from the Yakima
Valley region of Washington state and malts from the
US and Germany. The company sells direct to over 330
accounts in the Philadelphia area. The high local
demand has restricted availability elsewhere.
John Bovit and Tom Kehoe started Yards in 1995 in
Manayunk, and moved eighteen months later to Roxborough.
In 1998, Bovit left and Kehoe (President) was joined by
Nancy Barton (Secretary-Treasurer) and her husband Bill
Barton (Vice President). Thirteen people are on the Yards
staff including head brewer Josh Ervine, the "Parson of
Fermentation," Dean Brown [a skilled brewer], and "The
Enabler," Chris Morris [Sales Manager]. It was the
Bartons who found this building, noticing the "Bottling
Plant" sign after delivering beer to a local customer. At
the time the complex was stuffed with used supermarket
equipment, deli cases, carts, shelving, and scales being
offered for resale.
Yards brews on the second floor of the former Bottling
Plant and the gently sloping concrete floors and two
original floor drains still serve their original purpose.
Large windows to the west offer a rooftop glimpse to a
concentrated collection of Kensington mill buildings
clustered near Coral and Front Streets. Bottling is done
downstairs on a line requiring five pairs of hands.
Kegging can be done by one. The Bartons have visited
breweries in Europe and hosted Brew Masters at Yards to
learn how to increase capacity within the building; they
now estimate they can grow to between 20,000 and 40,000
barrels per year. The packaging and shipping room is on
the first floor of the building to the north of the
courtyard, while the office and tasting room are above
(often used by community groups as meeting space).
In the tasting room, "Pennsylvania Brewery Historian" Rich
Wagner has given a number of
illustrated lectures on brewing in Philadelphia, some
of which have included descendants of the Weisbrod
& Hess families, who have shared their family
photos. Some of the photos show bear and other wild
animals on display in the refrigerated rooms, shot by
the Weisbrods at their hunting lodge in the Poconos
and brought down for the delight and fright of the
kids of Kensington. Other family stories tell of the
fire in the stables; the horses were cut loose and the
men got on with fighting the fire. Hours later the
horses were retrieved, having patiently waited at
their first delivery stop! Renowned brewer Joe Ortlieb
visited Yards recently, expressing amazement at the
premium price paid for Yards beer, about $200/barrel
while he received only $20 in the 1970s. Others stop
in to Yards for the Saturday tours, but most come for
the beer, which is sold from the loading dock for
around $20 per case. It’s delicious beer at a
competitive price.
In the stables
west of Martha Street, Helix Motorsports turns the new Minis into
hot rods, boosting them to 300 hp. East of Martha
Street stand some of the Wagon Shed and Stables, now
mostly a ruin, along with the brick chimney.