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Saint Benjamin ready to start brewing in Kensington

Tim Patton and Christina Burris hope to add to the city's beer scene starting next month when they fire up their brewing equipment with an eye toward providing their first beers during Philly Beer Week (May 30 to June 8).

Tim Patton and Christina Burris hope to add to the city's beer scene starting next month when they fire up their brewing equipment with an eye toward providing their first beers during Philly Beer Week (May 30 to June 8).

Saint Benjamin Brewing Company, in a 19th-century building at 1710 N. Fifth St. in Kensington, will be a nanobrewery (three barrels, or 93 gallons).

Patton dabbled in homebrewing and cashed out his share of the online coupon and deal website Dealcatcher.com in 2009. Burris, an architectural conservator, became a homebrewer in 2005 after moving to Philadelphia in 2002 to study historic preservation. After immersing herself in the local brewing community, she became determined to open a brewery.

They met at a 2011 Philly Beer Week "Beer Camp" for homebrewers when she dug his Transcontinental (California Common with 5.4% ABV).

Saint Benjamin's Transcontinental will be one of the company's inaugural releases, along with the brewery's Liason (Lavender Saison with 6.0% ABV), Foul Weather Jack (English Mild with 4.5% ABV) and Wit or Witout (Belgian Wit with 5.4% ABV).

Initial batches will go to bars and restaurants, and they aim to sell growlers to walk-up consumers by the summer.

The company plans a brewpub on site.

The name combines Patton's love for Belgian abbey beers and a reference to Benjamin Franklin.