Strained Brew

The real story behind the rift that broke up Yards.


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Published: Aug 7, 2007

If Philadelphia is now one of America's great beer towns — and according to most beer experts, it is — then Yards Brewing Co. deserves at least some of the credit.

With its 1994 opening in Manayunk, Yards revived Philly's long-dormant brewing tradition and helped kick-start the local craft explosion. Launched on a shoestring budget, Yards nonetheless saw its beers — especially Philadelphia Pale Ale — become staples in Philadelphia taverns. Demand grew so high, in fact, that Yards, now located in Kensington, had to pull out of some out-of-state markets just to keep local customers happy.

But while business was good, all was not well at the brewhouse. That finally became clear last week, when co-founder Tom Kehoe split with shareholders Bill and Nancy Barton after years of infighting over how the company should be run.

"Things haven't been good for a lot of years now," Nancy Barton said last week, just days before the split was finalized. "It's much like a divorce. It finally comes to a point where you approach the other person and say, 'OK, this is it.' It sounds easy, but it's not."

According to a separation agreement signed Aug. 2, Kehoe will keep the Yards name, as well as its popular line of beers. The Bartons will keep the Kensington facility, which they plan on reopening early next year as the Philadelphia Brewing Co. In the meantime, the Bartons will allow Kehoe to continue brewing at Kensington, possibly up to December, until he gets a new facility up and running.

In other words, Yards fans need not worry: Production will continue as usual.

Though the split wasn't exactly pleasant, it does seem that both the Bartons and Kehoe walk away with what they want: Kehoe gets a chance to grow the business he launched — with the help of a few credit cards — nearly 15 years ago, while the Bartons get to keep their beloved Kensington space and start fresh under a new name.

Philadelphia Brewing Co.'s first beers — including an IPA, a pale ale, a stout and some one-off brews — should be available by early next year.

"We are staying in this building," says Barton. "It was really important for us to stay here. We're a huge part of this neighborhood now." But Kensington, as it turns out, played a big role in the breakup.

The Bartons, intensely loyal to their adopted neighborhood, believed Yards needed to keep its focus on Philly. They didn't mind dropping out-of-state markets to meet local demand, and they supported Yards' self-distribution system, which they felt allowed them to better serve area customers and deliver fresher beer.

"Bill and I [wanted] to keep it local," says Barton. "We pulled back out of the states we were in to focus on Philly. There's a lot of reasons for that — cost, flavor, a lot of other reasons. But I'm not sure Tom was down with that."

He wasn't.

Kehoe saw demand growing and believed his company was on the cusp of something big. He also believed the Kensington facility was an obstacle to getting there. He says the brewery couldn't even meet demand in South Jersey.

"Bill and Nancy love this building and having this brewery here in Kensington," Kehoe says. "But we were maxed out. We can't make any more beer ... right here. We could probably add some tanks and do some small things to the building, but Yards is going beyond that. We've pulled out of a few states, just because we were selling so much product here and were barely keeping up. We need to expand."

And with his new Yards, he plans to do just that.

Kehoe says the old Yards standards — Philadelphia Pale Ale and Extra Special Ale, India Pale Ale and Saison — will remain part of the lineup. But he says some of the brewery's more popular one-off beers — the Sexy Sister Belgian-style ale and Pynk Lambic, for instance — may become regular seasonals.

Kehoe also says he's doing everything he can he can to keep the new Yards — for so many years the city's only brewery — right here in Philadelphia.

"I can't believe this town, which is so amazing with its brewing history, has only one production brewery right now," he says. "Now, hopefully, there will be two. And I'd love to see more."

(editorial@citypaper.net)