Why Philly beermakers are starting businesses without their own taproom and equipment

Shoppers at Philadelphia bottle shops might've spied new cans from a brand called Prime Station Brewing over the past month. The beermakers have released two brews aimed squarely at the local crowd: the Cult of the Divine, a dry-hopped pale lager that references the Divine Lorraine Hotel, and A Howling Wilderness, an extra pale ale that takes its name from an early descriptor of the city.

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While the beers are available at 10 distributors in Philly and another six in the surrounding counties, fans won't find them anywhere else. Prime Station released its first brews over the summer without a taproom or brewery of its own, relying instead on contract brewing through Well Crafted in Montgomery County to get their product to market.

"The cost is a big thing," said Connor Sheridan, co-founder of Prime Station. "Also, just the timing. It can take much longer to open your own brick-and-mortar location given construction timelines, licensing with the city of Philadelphia, all of those things. … Building out our own space could have taken an extra year, maybe even more, before we were actually able to open our doors. So this gives us a little bit more of an expedited timeline to actually start selling beer."

Jon Henning, the brewery's other co-founder, added: "It's also like a proof of concept. It is such a huge risk to jump into a physical space on your own. So at least if we know we could sell the beer firstly, then we're more confident jumping into that space."

It's an increasingly appealing option for new breweries. Richie Tevlin likewise launched Space Cadet Brewing Co. without a storefront last fall, citing the high costs of construction and production. That's also how Trauger Brewing, an outfit from Neshaminy Creek Brewing co-founder Jeremy Myers, began in 2021; it now belongs to a collective with Broken Goblet Brewing in Bensalem, where its beers are brewed. The industry even has a name for these kind of businesses: gypsy brewers.

Well-established brands in Philadelphia support their work. Yards Brewing Co. has offered up its Northern Liberties production space to smaller outfits through a new contract brewing venture with Two Roads Brewing and Bald Birds Brewing Co. formed in early June. While Yards President Tom Kehoe says the company has been regularly making beer for other brands since the COVID-19 pandemic, with the new collaboration, Yards has officially made contract brewing "part of our business plan."

"We have a facility that can make a lot of beer and we have a lot of excess capacity, so to speak," Kehoe said. "And we wanted to make sure that we would be able to keep the machines running at an efficient manner. The less downtime, the better off our business can be."

The way Kehoe tells it, contract brewing has become a mutually beneficial business strategy for his company and smaller outfits amid a slumping beer market. Craft beer production declined nationally by 4% in 2024, according to the Brewers Association. Brewery closings also eclipsed openings, something that hasn't happened since 2005. The trade group chalked up the losses to "rising ingredient costs, shifting consumer preferences and increased competition in a saturated market."

Kehoe echoed some of these challenges, pointing to the growing popularity of spiked seltzers and canned cocktails. Contract brewing, he says, can help emerging beermakers "hesitant to invest in their own equipment."

Creating a strong backstory and even a character has become another way to grab attention. Tevlin went with a literal space cadet: an astronaut traveling the galaxy for the perfect pint. He appears in comical illustration on each can, screaming from a roller coaster or soaking his moon boots at a nail salon.

Sheridan and Henning, on the other hand, went with a steampunk figure named Axel Hopsworth. He's a brewer and inventor from the 19th century, back when Washington Avenue was called Prime Street. After creating a time machine in the basement of the former train depot at Prime and Broad streets, now a Sprouts grocery store, Axel hurdles into the future and decides to stay there. His travels through Philadelphia history will inform each of the Prime Station beers.

"We've got a Google Doc with dozens of different options that we can lean into," Sheridan said. "Whether it's an idea for a name or just the story or a little tidbit of information that happened that we'll have to come up with a name for. That's gonna be one of the fun things over the years."

Sheridan and Henning would like to have their own space eventually — ideally along Washington Avenue. But they're in no rush to snap up real estate. For now, they're happy to drift through time and space, like their mysterious mascot.

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