Saint Benjamin Brewing Company

Love love this bar! The staff was amazing, friendly, and fun! We ordered the cheese board, brisket sandwich, pork tacos and my favorite strawberry shortcake made with beer who knew!!! We are definitely going back soon! You must check this place out you won’t be disappointed

The Taproom is now open! Yesterday was my first visit for both the brew tour and food, and based on my experience I’ll be back for more.
The brew tour was very simple. It felt like someone inviting you over to sample their home brew, so in that respect you might like it or hate it. I really enjoyed it and appreciated it for what it is, as it felt very homey hearing about how this previous software developer decided to go for his dreams and brew some beer. He won’t go into the nitty gritty details of how beer is made, if you don’t want him to (he asked our group if we’ve all been to breweries before). The tour was more talking about his beer, his story, how it came to be, and how he chose the location.
The beer — was great. My SOLID favorite was the liason saison. i don’t usually like saisons, but this one had such a nice hint of lavender that is amazingly refreshing, and somehow 8%, this was the winner in my book. I was ready to buy a case but they don’t bottle it. but you can get a growler of course!
The food was also great. Our whole table enjoyed our food, and service was very friendly and not at all rushing us, even though we spent a solid 2 hours there. My friends really enjoyed the homemade sausage egg and cheese sandwich and I got the risotto and mac and cheese. The risotto overall was good, but the rice was right on the edge of between undercooked and perfectly al dente, and was also a bit heavy on the salt, Outside of that, very good. Mac and cheese was pretty good, but the tomato jam is what really made it stand out, otherwise it would have been kind of bland.
Overall, I really had a great meal paired with wonderful beers and I love supporting independent businesses. Best of luck to this brewery!

The beers here are excellent (though I wasn’t a fan of the saffron and rosewater infused Saison du Jour IX). Their recently opened taproom is beautiful and it’s amazing to hear how fast they are expanding (10x growth in beer volume planned this year). That’s probably due to their new canning project.
I’m looking forward to watching their growth.
Given that the surroundings are somewhat abandoned, parking is not a problem.

We were doing a brewery/​brewpub crawl in town and heard lots of good things about St. Benjamin’s. It is located in a somewhat industrial part of Kensington, but don’t let that deter you. Of note, they recently moved locations and Waze took me to the wrong, original location. First time Waze has ever led me astray… sigh! So we took a «scenic» walk… watching the expression on my parents’ face was worth the detour… lol. It is located in a historic building that has blessedly retained the original exposed brick. Tours are free; flights are $ 10 for 4 nice, sized pours. Nice selection of all kinds of beers. I am the eternal designated driver, but the primary Unilocaler… so those looking for more detail on the beers will have to read other reviews. The food was really, really good! Our party ordered goat cheese and beet salads, cheese and charcuterie, fries, and these addictive fried chipotle peanuts. Our server was sweet and attentive, despite being very busy with a bus full of folks on a brew tour. Really nice way to while away a few hours.

I first met owner, Tim Patton at a Unilocal event, when he was sampling his pre-​brewery, home brewed product. I figured I’d be polite and try the beer of a local guy trying to make good.
What followed was me reeling from having tasted the best beer I’ve ever sipped and I’ve been a fan, and have followed and encouraged St Benjamin’s success at every level.
And that success hasn’t changed, Tim, his partners and staff, and most importantly, the beer… at least not negatively. Because there have been some changes over the years. Lord yes!
I highly recommend a visit to the brewery, for their monthly Saturday tours. They really hook you up, and the atmosphere is really friendly.
Until recently, these tours and knowing where St Ben’s was on tap were the only way to get this amazing product. Now, I’m more than happy to report that their brewpub has opened up on the premises, so you can have this Philly Gem, whenever you want (within reason and open hours).
It was only about a year ago that I remember peeking in the area that would be a brew pub. Let’s just say it needed a lot of work. And work it got. I’m blown away at how quickly and thoroughly the job was accomplished. The place is beautiful.
I sat at the bar, ordered a beer and looked at the menu. I was meeting friends later at Sketch for a burger, so I wasn’t in the market for a meal but I’ll definitely come back to try some of the great looking specials.
I did order the hot, spicy peanuts, which were addictive, to say the least. And I sat, eating nut after nut, sipping one of the most perfect beers Fair Weather Jack, and couldn’t help being transported back to the time when I first tried St Ben’s, when my eyes and taste buds were opened to how good beer could be.

They call this a nano brewery. I remember when this would have been a microbrewery, but now the microbreweries are getting pretty big. As I understand, Saint Benjamin only opens once a month for tours and tastings. Parking is on the street and a bit hard to come by. Their beer is excellent. The oversized garage they’re in is quaint and the folks there are very friendly. It was still warm when I visited so the doors were open and we sat on large picnic tables to enjoy with our chips. Rumor suggests they’re growing quickly and may need a bigger space. Let’s hope that’s true.

When reviewing Saint Benjamin Brewing Company, you have to start with an understanding that, at this point, it is a pure, functional brewery. This should be obvious from the fact that they are only open for tours one saturday per month. The staff at the brewery did mention that they plan to both expand the tasting room and open a restaurant in the near future, but the only thing there now is a ten-​top picnic bench and, of course, many beer samples.
If you take the tour, it includes several beer samples. If you opt out of the tour, you can put together a reasonable sampler of four of their on tap selections or order full-​sized beer (or beers) of your choosing. I would say based on their selection on my recent visit that St. Benjamin focuses on Saison. They had several Saison du Jour’s (as the waitress in Dumb and Dumber would say,
it’s the saison of the day”) on offer during our last visit, and all I tried were tasty.
I didn’t find much to complain about with the beer options, and was particularly impressed with the unique Koffee Kolsch – a very light and refreshing coffee enhanced beer. It was a nice change from the heavier-​tasting porters and stouts you normally expect when ordering a coffee beer. The Hopligation was good, but I did not get the «high hop bitterness» that was described. But, perhaps my tastebuds are completely desensitized after years of ordering Thai hot food at Circles. No one in my group liked the Inca, which is made with corn.
All in all the beer at this brewery is largely delicious and I’m excited for the brewpub to open next door.

This little brewery in South Kensington is just wonderful. It’s worth the trek out into a more industrial area for sure. Aside from the fact that you’re going to get to try excellent beer, you’ll also presently get to try six of the samples for free (plus tip!).
So far they’ve only hosted a handful of tours. I was able to make the one that they held on the Saturday of Memorial Day. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon [of my birthday] with a few friends and to browse the brewery.
The tour part was more of a «huddle» in a corner while one of the founders explained the history of the space and the brewery’s roots since we had all already been on brewery tours. It was really relaxed and interesting. If you have any questions about the brewing process, you can certainly get them answered here!
As for the beers, they have some really great stuff brewing here. Of course, you must try the liaison saison. That’s a given. It’s so potent and has a distinct lavender flavor that surprised me despite its description. I’m not the biggest saison drinker (leaning more toward IPAs and stouts), but this was awesome.
Also loved the Inca. This was creamy and hoppy and just all around easy to drink. I hope to see it in bars! Another one made me laugh: the koffee kolsch. I tried it, rated it on Untappd, and my «distinct» beers list didn’t go any higher. I then clicked and realized that I had already tried it before — two months ago at a local bar — and rated it exactly the same! So funny. But, yes, this is also a good brew. Much lighter than you might expect, but very good.
I really look forward to seeing what this brewery creates in the future, and I wish them all the luck! Thanks for a great birthday outing!

This is such a great brewery! For now, it’s a small «nano brewery» as they call it, but in the next year they’re planning to open a brew pub which I’m sure will be awesome! My friends and I came here for a tour today and had a great time. Right when you walk in, a staff member will give you 6 tickets for sampling beers. You need to choose wisely because they have more than 6 beers on tap. My absolute favorite was their Liaison Saison, which is a lavender saison… it is SO GOOD!!! I actually had 2 samples of it because I loved it so much. I also liked the Troubleshooter IPA and surprisingly their Koffee Kolsch, which was a very light beer that tastes just like coffee. I generally don’t like Kolsches, but this one was actually good. Their plain saison without the lavender was also very tasty.
They only offer tours a couple times a month on Saturdays, so be sure to check the website or call them to confirm before you come. The tour itself was pretty laid back. Our guide asked us if we wanted the «how to make beer» spiel or just some info about their brewery. Our group had all been on many brewery tours before, so we skipped the general info and he just talked about Saint Benjamin’s. They have a good story and are all about brewing quality beer.
You can buy 32 and 64 oz growlers here at reasonable prices. I didn’t get one this time because I was biking home and it was logistically too challenging, but next time, I will definitely get a growler of the Liaison Saison!