Tired Hands’ Philly beer garden opens tonight

UPDATE: Tired Hands will open their High Harvest Biergarten tonight at 5 p.m., as planned:

The original posting continues below:

There were rumors all summer long: Ardmore-based brewery Tired Hands is bringing a beer garden to Philadelphia, and could open its doors in Kensington as soon as Friday.

The company hopes to open its long-awaited High Harvest Biergarten at 2213 Frankford Ave. at 5 p.m. Friday, Tired Hands owner Jean Broillet IV told the Inquirer in a phone interview Thursday. That depends upon an inspection from the city, however, and the opening could be pushed as late as Wednesday. Fans can follow updates via High Harvest's Instagram page.

"My sincere hope and desire is for a beautiful, sunny Friday opening," Broillet said. "We are trucking along with it."

Currently, that means building tables and making other final preparations to the 7,000-square-foot space.

Once the space is operational, Tired Hands fans will be able to get 12 of the company's beers on tap,  distributed via what Broillet calls a "far out beer trailer" in the center of the space. Cans of the brewery's popular beer Alien Church will also be available if there is enough cold storage space, Broillet added. As a first for the company, beer will be available from all of Tired Hands' Ardmore locations, including its fermentaria, brew cafe, and dispensary, which serves an oak barrel aging program. Typically, you'd have to visit each of those location individually to get specific beers.

"Beer from all of our production facilities will be available," Broillet said. "Change is a constant with us. We like fresh ideas with beer, so the lineup will be changing consistently."

Brews will be available for on-site consumption only. That means no takeout, and no beer releases as with their fermentaria, so if you want some Hands to take home, you'll still have to make a trip out to Ardmore. The garden won't be able to sell takeout brews legally, and Broillet says he wants people "to get here and focus on being here," rather than on "what they can get home and cherish."

The garden will also have some food available in the form of what Broillet calls "snackies," which includes Side Project Jerky, a local company with flavors like pho beef jerky, as well as other small items. Broillet is also working with nearby bar and restaurant Martha to create a system where garden-goers can order takeout from the restaurant and have it delivered to the beer garden, but its implementation is not yet certain.

After its initial opening, Broillet said, High Harvest will be open 5 to 10 p.m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, and from noon to 10 p.m. on weekends. It will not be open on Mondays and Tuesdays.

The length of the beer garden's season is also up in the air, with Broillet hoping to keep it open "as late as we can until the weather becomes too cold." High Harvest will reopen next year under a different theme.

"The thinking is that the new season allows for us to breathe new life and identity into so it isn't the same thing year in, year out," Broillet said. "I think it is a nice outlet for our company to take it slow and seasonal and make it new and exciting."

Launched in 2011, Tired Hands has quickly become one of the most prevalent breweries in the Philadelphia area, and often sees lengthy lines develop outside of its Ardmore Fermentaria during its weekly beer releases. Its brews are available on tap across the Philadelphia region, and the company has racked up several awards for its unusual and innovative brews.

"We are approaching [the beer garden] the same way we hope people approach it," Broillet said. "Laid back and letting the space speak for itself."