Entrance to the Victory Brew Pub

Victory Brewing Company is only about 40 minutes from where I live.  They are in Downingtown, Pennsylvania.  It’s funny because when I first started this Year of Beer project a few weeks back I actually complained a bit about how hard it was going to be to meet my goals living in Reading, Pennsylvania.  For one, I talked about the crazy liquor and beer laws that we have here in this state but I also felt like there just weren’t a lot of great places to go.  I could not have been more wrong.  I may not have any homebrew stores close by but within an hour I have an excellent selection of Microbreweries and Brew Pubs.  Enough to reach my goals with ease if I can keep the pace.  Philadelphia is a little over an hour away and they have quite the impressive beer culture in the city.   I am happy to say, I live in an area that is abundant with great beer and am more confident than ever that I will be able to reach my goals and then some.  I am very excited to be living where I am with so many great breweries and bars within an hour drive.

Okay, enough about how wrong I was.  Today was all about Victory!  I have been a fan of Victory for a long time, long before I ever thought to do this year of beer.   I have been to the brewery before but never took the tour.  When we arrived today, I was amazed to see how the place had changed.  When we were there years ago, the brewpub was much smaller, it’s at least 3 times the size now.  It was really great to see how it has changed but it was even greater to see that they are in another phase of expansion.  Craft beer is alive and well in Pennsylvania.

I got there just in time to take the tour, my wife and kids came with but my kids are only 3 and 18 months so they grabbed a table while I accompanied the group on the tour.  The most disappointing part of the tour is that we barely got there in time so I was unable to grab a beer before hand.  That’s right, I had to stand there, surrounded by beer, for close to a half hour before the tour was over and I could finally grab a pint for myself.

Aside from that, the tour was really good.  It started in a room right outside the brew house where the tour guide gave us some background and history on the company.  The brewery was founded in 1996 by Bill Covaleski and Ron Barchet, two friends that have known each since childhood.   Both of them went off to college, got degrees, entered the corporate world and hated it.  They both wanted more out of life but didn’t know what life was going to deal them.  Bill decided that he was going to enter the world of beer and went over to Germany to apprentice under a Brewmaster for 2 years.  After those 2 years were up, he came back to the states and worked at several breweries on the east coast.  When Ron found out what his friend had been up to, he thought it was a great idea and followed suit.  He went over and apprenticed under the same German brewmaster for two years.

When he came back to the states, Bill and Ron decided to start a brewery of their own.  They went and collected as much money as they could from friends, family and anyone else they could.  As a business owner myself, I know how difficult that is.  No one can really understand the difficulty that comes from starting your own business if they haven’t done it before, especially when it’s a business like brewing beer where the equipment is anything but cheap.  They collected what they thought would be enough, came up with a plan and a name.  The name they originally decided on was Independence Brewing.  Given their close proximity to Philadelphia, they thought that Independence would be a good and relevant name.  Unfortunately, when they went to register the name, they found that it had already been registered by a now defunct company just two weeks prior.

They were very upset, as you would expect, and headed to one of their houses to drink their sorrows away.  After a few pints, one of them said, “It will be a Victory if we ever get this brewery off the ground” and the lightbulb went off and the new name had been conceived.

It was a long hard road I am sure but now Victory Brewing company sells beer in over 20 states.  They sell close to 50,000 barrels a year which is 100,000 kegs.  When we were there, they had a long line of 200 barrel fermentation tanks.  Next week, they are adding 4 new tanks that are twice the size.  That’s right, four 400 barrel tanks.  It’s part of there current expansion project.  I wish I wasn’t working on that day, it would be fun to go and see then truck those tanks in.

The brewhouse was pretty neat, I would have loved to show pictures of inside the brewhouse but like a friggen idiot, when I went to take a few pictures, I realized I left the card for the camera at home.  My wife had her camera with her but that was no help since she was sitting out in the restaurant waiting for me.  Oh well.

When the tour was over, I headed back out to the restaurant to join my wife and kids.  Our friend Steven arrived to join us for lunch.  The food was excellent and of course, so was the beer.  My wife had a Victory Lager which was quite tasty and I had a Storm King Stout.  After I finished my Storm King, I ordered a flight of samples.  I had a sample glass of Kolsch, Hop Wallop, Festbier, and Donnybrook Stout.  I had also asked for a Sunrise Weissbeir but unfortunately, they had just run out so I didn’t get to try it.  I really enjoyed most of the beers I tried today.  They were all new to me.  The three that I had before today were Hopdevil, Golden Monkey and Prima Pils.  I am a big fan of Hopdevil but of all the Victory beers I have had, Hop Wallop was my least favorite.

I am looking forward to drinking more Victory beer and tend to review as many of them as I can during my year of beer.