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‘Brew unto others’: Yards of Philly will make Cape May beer

This is the first time that Yards has decided to brew for other breweries.

2019 view of Yards Brewing Co.'s new plant at Fifth and Spring Garden Streets in Philadelphia
2019 view of Yards Brewing Co.'s new plant at Fifth and Spring Garden Streets in PhiladelphiaRead moreYards

Yards Brewing Co.‚ based in Center City, says it will also make beer for Cape May Brewing Co., in its first contract brewing deal.

We “brew unto others,” punned Tom Kehoe, who cofounded Yards at its first brewery in Manayunk in 1994 and now runs the company, in a statement.

Since that year, Yards has moved to progressively larger quarters in Kensington and Northern Liberties, before settling into its current 100,000-barrels-a-year canning, bottling and barreling facility, distribution and visitor center at 5th and Spring Garden Streets on the edge of Center City.

Kehoe said there is room there to double Yards’ capacity. He said the move leaves Cape May owners Ryan and Bob Krill and Chris Henke and their 80 employees free to focus on new brews, marketing and other aspects of the “South Jersey beer culture” that he believes they have resurrected since the Krills and Henke opened in 2011.

Yards augments — it will not replace — Cape May’s current brewhouse at the Cape May Airport in Rio Grande, Lower Township, N.J., which lies inland from the Cape May County shore resorts. The business is partly seasonal, like tourism in Cape May, and Yards will help fill orders those busy months.

In a statement, Cape May cofounder Ryan Krill said his company had “outgrown” the capacity at that facility and wanted additional seasonal summer capacity to produce its growing list of beers.