Workhorse Brewing Company, a New Hidden Gem in the Philly Suburbs

Story, photos by Jill Beckel

Workhorse Brewing Company is the newest brewery to open up in King of Prussia, PA. Located at 250 King Manor Drive, it is truly a hidden gem in the Philly suburbs! We recently went on a Workhorse Brewing Company tour led by Dan Hershberg, co-founder and CEO of Workhorse Brewing Co. We remembered talking with Dan a few years back when we did a story on his popular Philly T-shirt business, Philly Phaithful (read the full article here).

Workhorse Brewing Company was four years in the making. Dan came up with the idea of starting a brewery with his friend, Nate Olewine (brewmaster), while they were at a bachelor party. They wanted to make great beer that was accessible, readily available and great tasting. Dan is on the customer facing side of the business while Nate creates the Workhorse beer recipes. Workhorse focuses on creating top quality craft beers and ales that are bottled and distributed throughout the area as well as served right in the brewery in their taproom.

Breweries always need room to accommodate for company growth and Workhorse Brewing accomplishes this with lots of extra space. With a 700,000 square feet brewing room, they have plenty to space to brew the beer quantities that they currently need with room to incorporate more.

We learned that it takes about 6 to 8 hours per barrel to brew each batch of beer. Workhorse has all the high-tech equipment to make the brewing process smooth and efficient. They pay attention to which beers are the most popular with their customers for insight on what to keep in rotation and what to make less of. Nate helps improve the beer batches with small tweeks until they are perfect.

Workhorse currently has an almost even mix of lagers (40 percent) and ales (60 percent). Every quarter, three to four new beers are added. Workhorse Brewing Co. is all about dependable “workhorse” beers. There are always six core Workhorse beers, six seasonal beers and one sour IPA in rotation. The beer runs through a draft line directly to the taproom, ready to be served! Dan’s personal favorite Workhorse beer is the West Coast IPA. Workhorse really caters to every taste by offering cider and wine on draft too. Or, try Workhorse’s Flights To Go®, a portable flight featuring six different beers in 8 oz. cans. Each flight contains three ales (West Coast IPA, New England IPA, Pale Ale) and three lagers (Vienna, Helles, Pilsner), so there’s truly something for everyone!

Workhorse Brewing Co. really wanted to create difference experiences for people to have at their brewery with an indoor space, outdoor space, event space and more so that everyone could experience something different with each visit. The brewery has an amazing taproom filled with lots of places to sit, play board games, grab a bite to eat at their pop-up restaurant (which varies week to week) and catch up with family and friends. There is a great space with long picnic tables that can be reserved for special events. They even have seven weddings booked for 2019. Workhorse hopes to open up an even larger event space in the future with a possible catering kitchen.