Philadelphia Weekly

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Philadelphia’s beer scene has been at the center of national attention for the last few years, and deservedly so. But that doesn’t mean opportunities to discover and drink good beer end at the city limits. Quietly, a handful of suburban bars have devoted serious attention to putting together beer lists that rival the best in the city proper. And some of the craft beers that are most popular in the city’s bars and restaurants can also be enjoyed at their source, alongside smaller production efforts that rarely make it out of the brewery.

What’s more, a number of these spots are easily accessible by train. The R5 line isn’t just for suit-wearing Main Line bankers and lawyers commuting to their Center City skyscrapers. This silver chariot can also whisk city-dwelling Doppellbock and IPA enthusiasts to within stumbling distance of a handful of destination-worthy beer emporiums. And just for Beer Week, SEPTA offers a Sip Safely daily pass that offers unlimited all-day rides on regional rail, subways and buses for only $9.

One option is to take the 50-minute ride out to Malvern and then work one’s way back into town. The Flying Pig Saloon, with 23 drafts and 150 bottles, is a fine place to start. When he opened the cozy, wood-paneled room with its weathered zinc bar 10 years ago, co-owner Steve Iacobucci featured Yards ESA and Victory Hop Devil on cask. Now the selection of 10 permanent and 13 rotating drafts still has plenty of local options, but reliably features five or six Belgians on draft. While the Pig once had a reputation for smokiness, with the passage of the statewide smoking ban in September, Iacobucci has actually seen his sales increase.

Just two minutes on foot from the Paoli train station sits T.J.’s Restaurant and Drinkery. About two years ago, after realizing there was a void to be filled in the suburbs, Terri Villante and Jeff Miller decided to embrace craft beer, going so far as to bring the number of taps up to 25 and stock anywhere between 120 to 150 bottles. They also offer a full food menu that emphasizes beer as a key ingredient, in everything from appetizers and sandwiches to entrees and desserts. Think ribs braised in Leffe Brown and a brownie sundae made with Sly Fox’s O’Reilly Stout. Plus, everything on the menu comes with a suggested beer pairing. It’s tough to walk out the door and resist the call of the coolers offering mixed six-packs to go.

Next up on the suburban beer-bar crawl is Teresa’s Next Door, almost directly in front of the Wayne train station. Teresa’s Cafe has drawn accolades for its food since it opened almost 13 years ago, but the addition of a sleek, modern bar space that wouldn’t be out of place in Center City has allowed co-owner Andy Dickerson to devote serious attention to craft beer. Behind the long blue-granite bar are 24 taps (with two hand pumps) as well as an exacting selection of glassware that ensures each pull is served in its proper receptacle. The constantly rotating beer selection is updated on a chalkboard above the bar, and Dickerson oversees a system of updating the taps that ensures that no particular style of beer is under- or overrepresented.

If you’re still standing at this point, you can make one more stop at Gullifty’s, by the Rosemont train station, where a hefty list of local craft beers and international favorites accompanies its pizza and grill menus.

If this journey has stoked your enthusiasm for uncovering beer bars in the suburbs, there’s room for a separate trip out to Capone’s in Norristown, where Matt Capone offers 16 taps that tend toward well-hopped beers. And the bottle shop, around the back, holds a dizzying array of craft beers for stocking the home fridge.

While beer bars offer the appeal of being able to sample broadly and widely, brewpubs provide an opportunity to get a sense of the story and place behind a given beer.

“If you like beers from a certain brewery,” says Sly Fox Brewmaster Brian O’Reilly, “you’re never fully complete until you’ve been where the beer is made.”

The Sly Fox Brewhouse and Eatery, just southwest of Phoenixville, is the original home of the brewery. And while most production, bottling and canning has now shifted to a larger facility in Royersford—several miles away—the original brewing area directly behind the bar is still used multiple days a week to brew specialty beers. Even if nothing is doing behind the glass, the handsome ski lodge-styled beer hall, with 12 taps plus three hand pumps, is an excellent spot to sample the breadth of O’Reilly’s efforts. The rotating tap selection is bound to offer something not seen in the city; on a recent visit, the Gang Aft Agley, a Scottish-style “wee heavy,” was a standout.

Just down the road from Sly Fox, in downtown Phoenixville, is a recent installation of the Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant, joining prior locations in Media, West Chester and five other spots in Pennsylvania and Delaware. Like the other Iron Hills, the 10 taps include five permanent selections along with a rotating Belgian-style ale, and four other seasonals that are up to the brewer. If that’s not enough variety, the bar makes a Bottled Reserve line available for consumption at the bar or takeout; each of these special bottlings may have come from a different Iron Hill. And like the other Iron Hills, the brewing equipment, overseen here by Head Brewer Tim Stumpf, is directly on display, just to the left upon entry.

Victory Brewing Company has the highest number of sales of any craft brewery in the Philadelphia area. Its recently revamped brewpub, attached to the rest of its brewing and corporate operations in a Downingtown industrial park, reflects this magnitude. Huge copper beer-kettle tops, formerly used in a Czech brewery, are installed at both ends of the long bar. Overhead, PVC pipes shuttle beer from fermentation tanks on one side of the brewery to the cellar on the other side. And about the beer: Twenty Victory brands are represented at any point in time, including four cask lines. It’s worth the trip to try perennial best-seller Hop Devil or the dark, rich Storm King Stout on cask at their birthplace—and even if they’re only on regular draft at the time, something else is bound to surprise.