Victory Brewing Co. :: Taste Victory

To prepare for the next phase of construction, the restaurant and retail we be closed on Monday, February 4th. Starting Tuesday, February 5th, the restaurant will have limited seating and a simple menu of appetizers and sandwiches. The restaurant and retail will maintain normal hours of operation.This limited service and abbreviated brewery tours will continue through March. In April, brewery tours will not be given and the restaurant and retail will close to complete renovations for the May re-opening.

In just under twelve years, the walls of Victory Brewing Company have been filled completely with many, many memories. We relish the times we have played host to our guests’ birthdays, anniversaries and post-game celebrations. It’s nothing less than a thrill to see this old shell of a bakery plant brought to life by the folks that have come to enjoy it so much.

As you might imagine, we have countless memories of our own captured within this space. Prior to opening, it was just a few of us, namely myself, Ron, my father, and a host of trusted contractors that had just five months and an impossibly small budget gathered from friends and family to transform this abandoned building into a place that you enjoy socializing in. For those of you who have never done it, I would not recommend the experience of project management on a tight budget, especially when you had never built a brewery or restaurant before.

But some of the memories are quite laughable now with the distance of time. My dog’s unbridled affection for me when I arrived home at night in the first days of demolition were surely driven by the fact that old Pepperidge Farm dry soup mix dusted all of the ceiling tiles I was removing, making me a walking chicken bouillon. Or the time a salesperson wandered in unannounced and insisted on trying to sell us glassware, moments after the concrete slab my Dad and I were pouring as the elevated bed of one of our hearth ovens had collapsed due to insufficient support. I stood there, visibly agitated, with feet in a couple hundred pounds of hardening muck while Mr. Glassware took his sweet time to blow a chance to sell to us. My Dad’s reaction was far more animated when he discovered that Ron and I had asked the architect to accommodate for five stalls in the women’s room rather than the mere three required by code. Such extravagance on our tight budget literally set him off hopping mad!

And then there was our first brew. It was a Festbier that we were just hours into when our contractors started saying goodbyes to us at mid-day as they explained that the blizzard of ’95 was really living up to its name outside. We had not paid attention to weather, our wives or sleep for weeks by then so we pressed on, high on the thrill of our new brewing toy, putting in two back-to-back brews and rolling out to deep, abandoned roads at 2 am the next day. We could not make it back in for 24 hours and fortunately the fermentation temperature control system that my wife programmed kicked in and did its job masterfully as it has for 12 years now.

But some of these great memories are about to be physically removed. The hearth ovens, victims of constant heat, need be replaced and so, block by block, they will go away come February, just shy of their 12th birthday. No one stands to lose more, in terms of sentimental value, than Ron and I as we embark on building a bigger and better Victory. Things that cost us our precious pennies back then are simply worn out and we have to acknowledge and deal with that reality. Allowing sentimentality to command our actions while our beloved place slips into dysfunctional disrepair is simply not an option. You deserve better than that.

So permit us a few months and a few private tears as we revitalize our kitchen facility, expand with new dining areas and build the better, more durable Victory that our budget could not have permitted twelve years ago.

Trust us. Behind the scenes of our restaurant we have constantly upgraded the brewing facilities, to the tune of nearly $6 million, to bring you ever more delicious Victory beer. It’s time the restaurant benefited from some renovation, too. All the while, we remain focused on stepping into the future, without obliterating the precious past.

Almost twelve years ago, we victoriously opened our doors of Victory Brewing Company. With some serious renovations now underway, we will once again offer you the experience of a grand opening. This time it will be grand, not only because of the considerable physical changes, but because we feel that you deserve a bigger, better Victory to celebrate the daily victories of your life.

In anticipation of what’s to come and to thank you for your continued support, we ask you to join us as we move ‘Onward To Victory!’ We’ve created this phrase not only as a sustaining mantra for the upcoming months but also as the concept of a fun promotion designed to keep you involved and informed during our renovations. We plan to keep you up to date with construction progress and give away victoriously cool stuff. Just sign up for Onward To Victory so we know that you want to hear from us and you will be automatically entered to win. Prizes, awarded weekly up until our reopening in May, will include Victory Gear, dining certificates from our great, local restaurant partners, valuable gift packs from area businesses and a GRAND PRIZE involving our under construction Brewmaster’s Table. This exclusive table will seat 12 guests under the beautifully restored copper top of a vintage German brewery. This table is sure to become a Victory favorite and you might get first crack at it if you sign up to learn more via our Onward To Victory campaign.

Through Onward To Victory we’ll also make you aware of special Victory appearances and local establishments prepared to slake your thirst for Victory while we renovate.

The renovation schedule as it stands now has us open as usual through about February 2. After that we’ll have limited seating and a limited menu to take us through to April, when it looks as though our restaurant will be closed completely to permit the final changes. May will be a cause to celebrate as we re-open!

The look of the beloved home of Victory will be changing, but we ensure you that our new home will be just as welcoming, with more seating and more draft beer lines to enjoy.

Join us as we move Onward to Victory with a rousing cheer for the future!

For contest rules click here >>

As part of our Onward to Victory promotion, we invited our neighbors to celebrate with us. The following have joined us as community partners in our promotion providing great prizes that we are giving to winners of the “The Weekly Six Pack”. We thank these supporters and hope you will to by visiting them whether it’s for an evening out, car repair or your weekly groceries. Onward to Victory!

Applebee's – Thorndale
3479 E. Lincoln Hwy.
Thorndale, PA 19372
610.383.0534
www.applebees.com

Arthur’s Restaurant & Bar at The Inn at Chester Springs
815 North Pottstown Pike (Route 100 & Gordon Drive)
Exton, PA 19341
610-363-1100
www.innatchestersprings.com

Chaddsford Winery
632 Baltimore Pike
Chaddsford, PA 19317
610-388-6221
www.chaddsfordwinery.com

Downingtown Tire & Service
100 Robbins Road
Downingtown, PA 19335
610-269-3680
www.downingtowntire.com

The Drafting Room - Exton
Colonial 100 Shoppes & Offices
635 N. Pottstown Pike
Exton, Pennsylvania 19341
610-363-0521
www.draftingroom.com

Flanigan's Boathouse - Malvern
16 Great Valley Parkway
Malvern, PA 19355
610-251-0207
www.flanboathouse.com

Half Moon Restaurant & Saloon
108 West State Street
Kennett Square, PA 19348
610-444-7232
www.halfmoonrestaurant.com

Iron Hill Brewery - West Chester
3 West Gay Street
West Chester, Pennsylvania 19380
610 738.9600
http://www.ironhillbrewery.com/westchester

Kildare's Irish Pub – West Chester
18-22 West Gay Street
West Chester, PA 19380
610-431-0770
www.kildarespub.com

Power Sports East
620 Pulaski Highway
Bear, DE 19701
302-322-4120
www.powersportseast.com

Wegman's – Downingtown
1056 East Lancaster Avenue
Downingtown, PA 19335
610- 518-7800
www.wegmans.com