Introducing the Triple Bottom Womxn's Collective

Dear Readers,

It’s been a while! We’re now almost 6 months into being open, and — while we’re still making improvements every single day — we feel like we’ve caught our breath a bit and can begin to return to some of the big ideas that inspired Triple Bottom from the beginning.

Today, the first day of Women’s History Month, I am very excited to introduce the Triple Bottom Womxn’s Collective — a series of salons and pop-ups featuring amazing womxn-owned and led businesses throughout Philly.

Beer to me is about community and bringing people together across experiences to share joy. At Triple Bottom, we try to live this every day by treating each other and our customers with respect and kindness, and actively extending welcome to all our guests.

We also look for opportunities to lift up the great work of others — their art, activism, businesses, and more — through our own efforts here at the brewery. You’ve seen this in how we built our menu with other small, local food artisans, and in how we selected the photos on our walls from talented local photographers via an Instagram competition. You’ve seen this in one-off events, like our Fair Chance Holiday Market, or fundraisers for our neighborhood school. You’ve seen it in our ongoing partnerships with community organizations, through attending their meetings and introducing our customers to their work through our voting coasters. And finally, through our deep relationships with our Fair Chance employment partners, and the way we’re devoted to building a team of all stars with a huge variety of experiences.

As a woman-owned business ourselves, we’re so grateful for the support we’ve gotten from other women in our community and are psyched to pay it forward by shining light on the work of women and women-identifying folks working hard to make a positive impact in our city.

This month, March, is Women’s History Month and we’re rolling out the Collective in a big way, with at least three events a week (in addition to our regular events — hello St. Patrick’s Day!). These events include pop-ups with local food crafters, artists, and social justice organizations. The Collective will live beyond March, and we welcome all your ideas for ways to grow it.  Take a look at the calendar below or check out our Facebook Events page to see all the amazing things happening here this month, and please help spread the word!

It’s going to be a great spring here. We’ll see you in the taproom!

-Tess

The Joys and Challenges of a Month at Triple Bottom

It’s officially been one wonderful month since we opened Triple Bottom. Since then, there’s barely been time to eat and shower, much less pause and reflect. I’m so grateful to every one of you who has come by to have a beer. We love meeting you, getting to know our regulars, seeing you all bring such good vibes into the space, and hearing your ideas and advice as we keep trying to make Triple Bottom better. This community of neighbors, collaborators, and visitors from far and wide has been tremendously generous and welcoming to us, and we are so fortunate to be a part of it.

I’m also feeling humbled by the challenges we are taking on — some of which we anticipated, and some of which have caught us by surprise. We knew we were signing up for long hours and, for the most part, those hours fly by because (wouldn’t you know it) running a brewery is actually really fun! We knew that our bootstrap budget meant we’d be repurposing our desks as festival tables, filling and seaming 600 cans by hand in preparation for Oktoberfest, and returning UHauls at 1am because we don’t have our own vehicle big enough for a tent. We knew our mission meant we’d be taking some extra time and care to make sure our team members have what they need to shine — and we also knew that they would shine. They are the heart and soul of Triple Bottom and every day we are in awe of their dedication, thoughtfulness, and service.

The challenges we didn’t know about rarely slow us down for long, but one in particular keeps arising — and finding a solution that is safe and just is certainly keeping me up at night. We’ve been open for five Fridays. On three of those Fridays, we’ve had the same visitor come in and ask for money or food. He needs both of those things, undoubtedly. And he, and so many other Philadelphians, needs a longer-term place of safety and support to regain his health and start building towards stability.

We see all that, as almost any business would. And as a fair chance brewery, we have spent an enormous amount of time learning about and picking apart the unjust systems that lead to experiences like this person is having. Some of our team members have had to navigate those same systems.

But, we also see that when this person comes in, he yells at our guests. He has been aggressive. He has made threats to our team members. He is in need of a safe space, but so are our customers and team. And when he refuses to leave, we have felt that the safest thing we can do for everyone is ask the police to come walk him out because our priority is and has to be creating safe space for all of you. As clear as that is to us, I can tell you that calling the police on someone is a horrible feeling.

I am writing this in part to help myself process it all. In part, to say thank you to our guests and team for the patience and empathy you show as we figure out the best way to create a safe space for you all at Triple Bottom. And in part, because we as a city need to do better. Given a choice, our Friday visitor would not be coming in, yelling and asking for money. In an ideal world, he’d be coming in to order a drink or some food, and spend some time with his friends. We’re trying to find a long-term solution for this one person so he can get the support he needs, while also acting in the moment to create safety and comfort for our guests and team. And we’re also thinking about how we, as a business, can do more to break down the systems of injustice that lead to these situations in the first place. We welcome your ideas as we grapple with this.

Our patio in the fall is glowy and wonderful.

We also continue to welcome you to come hang out with us. Because, despite a handful of difficult moments, Triple Bottom is proving to be the place of joy and community that we hoped it would become. As we think about our role in big issues like poverty, we also think about our role in creating opportunities to celebrate and have fun over great beer.

We’ll be introducing at least two new beers over the next two weeks, and have so many more in the works. Our opening tap list focused on sessionable brews, and now we’re integrating some more experimental recipes. Our shelf of ingredients currently includes juniper berries, cardamom, and dried Persian limes — among other exciting flavors. 

We continue to add to our food menu (our latest addition of Stargazy pies might change your life). Happy hour is on Tuesday through Thursday, and also on Sunday as you settle into the Eagles game on our big screen. We have Quizzo, cheese and beer pairings, and Civics on Tap all coming your way. 

It’s been an INCREDIBLE first month. We are so lucky to be here with all of you. Can’t wait to see you soon.

-Tess

From the Bottom, Up: June 5, 2019

Bill and I unveil our new Triple Bottom tees at Philly Beer Week!

I’m trying to find a metaphor to describe the energy and exhaustion and willpower and teamwork that define these last few weeks for us. It feels like a relay, maybe, except we’re all carrying a whole bunch of batons and people from the crowd are handing us more, and also helping us carry some of them, and we’re out of breath, and laughing at how mad this is, and everything is happening all the time. It’s mostly great, but we could all use a three-day nap.

Kyle watches over our collaboration beer at Tannery Run.

On Friday, we participated in our first ever Philly Beer Week event. We brewed a very hoppy New England IPA with our friends at Tannery Run, and named it Gleeok because Tannery Run names their beers after dragons, and Gleeok is a dragon with three heads, and we have three bottom lines. (I had to Google this.) Opening Tap of Beer Week was the first big beer festival where I’ve ever poured beer. We’ve had our beers at small community events for the most part, so an event with more than a thousand beer lovers was a whole new experience. It was so fun to set up and share beers with all the other brewery folks who’ve advised us along the way, and make new brewery friends throughout the evening. And even though we didn’t brew the beer on our own system, it still felt like a milestone to have beer with our name on it out in the world in such a big way. The first time of many!

We’ll be using thrifted chairs that we paint with some Triple Bottom colors. Here’s Sola doing a trial run!

Right now, brewing beer is a momentous occasion for us, as we still wait for our water to be hooked up to our tanks. We are very impatient for this to be a daily occurrence, but for now we’re navigating all the challenges of a complicated build-out, getting our furniture together, setting up payroll, taxes, and insurance, and finalizing the training schedule for our new team. We’d been pushing to be open this spring, but it was not meant to be. So here’s to Triple Bottom opening in Summer 2019. It’s going to be the best summer ever. 

Cheers,

Tess

From the Bottom, Up: February 21, 2019

At Triple Bottom Brewing, we believe everyone in every community should have the opportunity to craft something great. That’s the vision that we’re striving for each day. It brings the magic to our brewing and compels us to produce only beer that really sings and makes us proud to share it with you. It inspires our fair chance employment practices, which are dedicated to creating opportunities for people with tremendously diverse experiences to learn and grow with us. And it speaks to our love of our community, and our determination to play a part in making it ever stronger, more joyful, and more connected.

Early versions of our new logo, with a very wonky hop in the middle trying to masquerade as a house.

Well, we just crafted something great that we’re excited to share with you: a new logo! It’s been in the works for a long time, and you may have noticed some iterations on some of our homemade labels over the last year. Our logo is the way we introduce ourselves to you, and it took hours and hours of conversations and stacks and stacks of sketches to figure out how we wanted to make that introduction, with the simplest, more core idea about who we are and an image that represents that.

And then we finally landed on it: Triple Bottom is about being home. It’s a promise that we’ll do our best to help you feel welcome with us, no matter where your real home is. It’s the comfort that you can count on us to always have your favorite beer in the fridge (well, on tap). And it’s an aspiration that we hope to be a community center, just as our community has been central to who we are and how we’re building Triple Bottom.

Our new logo holds all of these ideas in its simple lines. It’s a celebration of Philadelphia — from the skyline of Center City to the row houses of West Poplar and Passyunk, Fishtown and Fairmount, Kensington and Point Breeze.

What we love about our new logo is that it works in many colors. You’ll be seeing a lot more of this turquoise in the future :)

At the center of the logo is a hop flower, which gives beer so much of its flavor. This hop has three leaves — one for each of our bottom lines. These three leaves are really important to us, because they represent the three things that we measure our success by: our impact on our community, our impact on our planet, and our ability to make people happy with beer. These three bottom lines are why we are called Triple Bottom Brewing Company!

You’ll still see elements from our first logo on some of our products and merchandise. It was designed by my incredibly talented cousin, (shout out to Partner Projects!), and is very much a part of who we are. And you’ll see our new logo more and more as we bring it to life on our can labels, glassware, t-shirts and more!

Many thanks to Yuliya Kim, our patient, thoughtful, and skilled designer who worked with us over months to create our new logo. It really does feel like home.  

From the Bottom, Up: January 30, 2019

Last week was a heck of a week. At the end of it, our brewing system was sitting safely in our brewery, getting comfortable and staying out of the way as we continue to do other work in the space. It is SO beautiful. We keep touching the tanks gently as we walk past them, as if it’s hard for us to believe that they are really ours. That, before too long, they’ll be filled with delicious beer.

Brewer in paradise, after the storm.

In the midst of the week, though, we seemed to be in a firestorm of things not going quite right. It was pouring rain. Some of our tanks were on a truck outside our building. The other truck, which had left British Columbia four days before the truck that was in front of us, was somehow not yet in Philadelphia. And when I say “us,” I mean just Kyle, because I was down with an incredibly inconvenient flu, and Bill was out of town for work. And so Kyle, standing in front of this truck filled with 2,000 pound tanks, was on his own. And the forklift that we had hired was broken.

I’m honestly still a little fuzzy on the details of what happened on that dark day. Perhaps that’s for the best. All I know is that, as the sun went down and the tanks were still on the first truck, and the second truck was still missing in action, Kyle told me they were going to Yards.

Thank goodness for the wonderful people at Yards, and for our good fortune to work in an industry where such a sense of community reigns.  We kept our tanks in Yards’ warehouse overnight. Kyle and the rigging guys had a good meal with some good beers. And we started again the next day.

Our boiler and fermenter wait on our loading dock.

Friday dawned cold but sunny. The second truck had materialized at some point in the night, with the cheeriest truck driver you could imagine. I was well enough to show up and provide encouragement and enthusiasm from a safe distance. And, over the course of 12 slow but deliberate hours, all nine of our tanks — plus a boiler and a whole bunch of pipes — inched their way through our doors.

We still have some work to do before the tanks are hooked up. Important things like electricity and plumbing are still missing from our space. But the tanks are there. They radiate hope and excitement and a twinkling sense of progress. We walked away from them on Friday night exhausted and frustrated. We returned to them on Monday morning with something near to reverence. These are ours. They are the engine of our little brewery. And their arrival launches us one giant step closer to opening our doors, so that this can be your brewery too.

Exhausted. Excited. Equipment owners. Meet the first tank that came through our doors!

From the Bottom, Up: December 17, 2018

Hi. Sorry. I know the number one rule of having a blog is that you have to write said blog. Must remember that.

A lot has happened since we last wrote! Maybe you’ve been following along on Instagram — we’ve started sharing awkward little video updates there more frequently. We made our most recent update last weekend, in the freezing cold of Bucks County, PA, where our pilot system lives. We spent the day outside, brewing a bright and delicious lager for the Sustainable Business Network’s annual meeting coming up in January. A lager is a great beer to brew this time of year, especially when the fermenters are in an un-insulated garage, because lagers ferment at lower temperatures than ales. This makes the fermentation process take longer, and can make them a bit more finicky to produce. We think they’re worth the extra work, and we can’t wait for you to try ours!

Our new brewing system is arriving in the next month or so, so our brew day last weekend was also our last hurrah on our pilot system. Now it’s all hands on deck to get our space ready to receive our new tanks.

Bill and Kyle at our first brew day. October 8, 2016.

But we didn’t want to move on to our bigger, better brewing system without honoring the time we’ve spent with our pilot system. It’s the system that got us started. The first time we all brewed together was just over 2 years ago on that system. For me and Bill, it was the biggest batch of beer we’d ever brewed — a Saison that turned out delightfully fruity and spicy, and led to fun taste testing events over Thanksgiving meals. For Kyle, this system was hundreds of times smaller than what he’d been used to at Stone Brewing Company. It needed to be completely dismantled at the end of every brew day, and then engineered all over again for the next one. Just this past weekend, one of the electric pumps broke, and we had to keep moving our single functional pump around to different parts of the system, depending on which stage of the brew process we were in.

Most days, something didn’t go as planned and Kyle had to troubleshoot as Bill and I tracked down tools and kept the wort from boiling over. I learned not to stand too close to the 20-gallon kettle in a puffy coat, because your coat will start melting and you’ll have to wear it patched with duct tape from then on out. Bill learned where all the nearby lunch spots are and kept us well-fed and on task. Kyle learned that the local police don’t mind our brewing in the driveway, but definitely want to try the beer when it’s ready. 

We brewed in all weather — from 30 degrees to 90 degrees, and rain and snow and sun. It helped us learn to work together. It made us really excited to brew indoors. We couldn’t have gotten started without our little pilot system, and we’re beyond excited for what’s ahead.

Team Triple Bottom at our final brew day in Bucks County. December 9, 2018.

Find Your Fire.

We launched our crowdfunding campaign for Triple Bottom Brewing Company nearly two years ago, a week after the 2016 election. It’s wild to retrace the progress and set backs of the last two years, and realize how far we’ve come. We’d been planning the launch of the campaign for months, not thinking at all about our timing being so close to the election. But then the election went a different direction than we had hoped and expected. The world seemed unrecognizable.

In that week after the election, our preparations for launching Triple Bottom gave me direction. They helped me find my fire — the thing that burns within me, lights me up, gives me hope and determination, fuels my action. That fire, combined with the fire of so many others, has kept me going, and has kept Triple Bottom growing.

But whoa, the last two weeks have been hard. We’ve celebrated a lot of great milestones with Triple Bottom — a zoning use permit, a state brewing license, a newly excavated floor! — but what has been happening in Washington is staggering.

Here’s what gives me hope: I know that there is fire in me, and I believe there is fire in you, too.

My fire is the belief that when people care about each other, with open eyes and open hearts, our world is better. And that idea of caring is big. It’s about showing up for your community day in and day out, ready to celebrate the good things and be present for the hard things. It’s about standing up for and with people whose voices aren’t always heard, whose strengths may not be seen, and helping to shine a light on them. It’s about really looking to understand how what we do affects the people and the planet around us, and then working hard to make sure the ripples we’re putting out in the world are positive.

Triple Bottom is the result of my fire, and Bill’s fire, and Kyle’s fire. It’s a place where people can take care of each other, in small and big ways: a delicious beer, a joyful moment, the dignity of a meaningful job. It’s a place that celebrates all that Philly is: a city of believers, advocates, fighters, survivors, caregivers, creatives, explorers, learners, and leaders. We all have fire in us. So if, like me, you have been feeling pretty rough these last few weeks, I hope you find your fire. Take care of yourself, and each other. Do something great. Do something good. We’re here, cheering you on.

From the Bottom, Up: August 28, 2018

Imagining our floor plans becoming reality!!

Have you ever wired nearly $100k to someone in another country and hoped for the best? If you have, odds are you’ve also started a brewery. If not, I envy you the sleep you haven’t lost over the last few days. Evidently, it can take almost a week for the wire to go through, so I’ve basically been holding my breath for days, hoping that I didn’t read any account numbers wrong. (This may sound dumb to you, but I used to get points off on math tests after doing the calculations right and then flipping the numbers when I wrote down my answers, so my concerns feel pretty valid at this moment.)

All this stress means something big has happened: we just ordered our brewing equipment! (Wait, more exclamation points, please. - !!!!! -) We’re so excited for our ten-barrel brewing system to arrive, all the way from British Columbia. Those little circles on our floor plans that show where the fermenters will be are actually going to be real, steel tanks! Producing new equipment has a pretty long lead-time, so until our shiny new brew house arrives in a few months, we’re continuing to test recipes on our pilot system — figuring out what we will be pouring for you when we open. (Let us know if you have any ideas!)

Any given batch on our pilot system can make about 15 gallons of beer, or roughly half a barrel. When our equipment is installed, we’ll be able to brew 20 times as much beer — and we can’t wait. Bill and I were only ever home brewers, so to us, the 15-gallon system that Kyle designed is leaps and bounds more thrilling and “professional” than the 5-gallon pot we were using on our stove. Kyle, though, is used to working at commercial breweries, with things like temperature control and a mill where you can crack your own grain. Until we have those abilities, we are still essentially home brewing. And while that’s great, it means that we lose a lot of control over the brewing process. Kyle’s recipes so far have led to some really delicious beers, but we’re never quite sure exactly how long the fermentation or carbonation processes will take, and our ingredients are limited to what we can buy from smaller vendors, like homebrew stores. Even with a strong local homebrew scene, this can still lead to some challenges. 

Our pilot system at work.

A couple weeks ago, we gathered in Kyle’s parents’ driveway early on a Sunday morning to brew a new wheat beer. When we went to add our malts, we realized that the grains hadn’t been cracked well when we purchased them. The brew stores around us were all closed, so we decided to see what we could make with what we had. After a long brew day in the sun, it was clear that we hadn’t been able to get enough sugar out of our malts and the beer wasn’t going to be up to our quality standards. We re-brewed it the next weekend with better milled grain, and we feel a lot happier with the new batch’s prospects. With all new beers — whether they are crafted on a big commercial system or a driveway homebrew rig — there is an element of “wait and see.” Brewing is, after all, an art and a science, and we love the balance of precision and creativity that goes with it. So, we’ll wait and see about our wheat beer. And we’ll continue to hustle to get Triple Bottom open, because “wait and see” might work for making beer, but it doesn’t work for making breweries.

Lautering our wheat beer. (This is the one that didn't work out.)

Sometimes, in moments of frustration, like when we spend a day sweating and getting sunburned with nothing to show for it, we look forward to our future brew house with relief. It can’t get here fast enough.

Most days, though, we look forward to our future brew house with joy and excitement. It can’t get here fast enough.

And neither can that wire confirmation. Can’t wait to celebrate with a fresh wheat beer.

From the Bottom, Up: July 24, 2018

Last weekend, we poured beers at 915 Spring Garden for the first time, and it was amazing to see our home come alive.

A selection of labels. We've been working on a new look, and are excited to share it soon.

We got the chance to share our space and our plans with a handful of supporters who have been with us since day one. With caution tape all around us, and new holes in the floors and walls (yay for progress!), we poured a tripel, stout, and Kyle’s newest IPA, snacked on our favorite pizza, and imagined what Triple Bottom Brewing Company is going to look and feel like when we open our doors. Spoiler: it’s going to be really great. Even with wires popping out of the walls in strange places and giant pieces of construction equipment tucked here and there, this already feels like a place we want to hang out in with you.

Behind the scenes, we continue making slow and steady progress on our zoning. Last week, we dropped off some additional information for the review of our application. We’ve had a pretty good experience with the Department of Licensing and Inspections so far, but dropping our little roll of documents — containing real pieces of our hearts and souls and bank accounts —  into the bottom of a poorly labeled bin that looks suitable only for trash is an experience that, let's just say, could have been improved.

L&I, as we can now call Licensing and Inspections because we are officially regulars, has a wildly intimidating reputation. They are the gatekeepers for much of the progress people try to achieve in Philadelphia. They are bound by hundreds of pages of codes and regulations that are nearly impossible to interpret unless you have worked in this realm for a long time. And they work in the dark basement of Philly’s Municipal Services building, where even the upper floors can be a bit gloomy, but at least they have windows. Mayor Kenney, get L&I some windows!

Despite all this, I have actually really enjoyed most of my experiences with L&I so far. My first started out rocky, bit two hours later, the visit ended with fascinating conversations about my reviewer’s family history, and some well-intentioned life advice (which I often receive because I’m a young-ish woman and people like to give me life advice). As with so much on this journey of building Triple Bottom, you never really know what’s going to happen, but being nice in the face of frustration and confusion has led to some pleasant surprises. Now let’s hope we’re pleasantly surprised by what happens to our beloved roll of documents, left forlornly at the bottom of a trash bin in a dark city basement. 

From the Bottom, Up: June 25, 2018

These last few weeks have been really exciting for Triple Bottom, and we’ve been trying to figure out the best way to share some of our excitement with you. A lot of the momentum that’s building isn’t something we can polish up and put in an eye-catching social media image. It’s not always even directly related to beer, because Triple Bottom is so much bigger than beer.

Reviewing plans with the PA Liquor Control Board.

Right now, we’re spending a lot more time looking at floor plans, filling out financial data, and meeting with community organizations than we are actually brewing beer. We’re designing skill-building programs to support the personal and professional development of our team across a wide array of experience levels, and we’re brainstorming ways to collaborate with our community. We received our federal brewers license a few weeks ago, and are in the process of applying for our state license. We have floor plans drawn, and light fixtures picked out. Our logo is evolving as we start to think more about our identity as a company (stay tuned for updates here!). We’ve gotten to know our neighbors much better, and continue to meet many more — from the West Poplar RCO to the Asian Arts Initiative to the gentleman who works at the copy shop. We’ve become much more comfortable in the waiting rooms at the Department of Licensing and Inspections. And we’re imagining our starting lineup of beers and getting very excited thinking about the day we get to pour our first pints.

Social media sometimes gives me anxiety, because it makes me feel like I have to present a really flashy and cool snapshot of what’s new at Triple Bottom, and show that we’re building momentum all the time. And we are building momentum, but it’s not all in the sense of visible progress or big events or new brews. A lot of our progress has been in learning and listening. And that’s not cool and flashy, and not what most breweries talk about in their social media posts.

Solstice sun on the rear of our building.

So we’re going to try sharing more of what’s going on behind the scenes. We’ll still post about our beers, of course, because they are delicious, and help people connect with each other, and are the backbone to the vision we’re crafting. But for us, it’s bigger than beer, and so we’ll also be sharing a bit more of the day-to-day challenges and inspirations that we encounter and learn from. After all, we believe communities are stronger when they are more inclusive. You are a big part of our community — so we want to include you as much as we can. We’re not totally sure what this new approach to storytelling will look like but it feels more honest, gives us more of a chance to shine light on the people and organizations we work with, and allows you to see more clearly into our work in progress. Maybe once we open we’ll try to be cool again. For now, here we go.