Wedding DJ at Philadelphia Brewing Co. in Philadelphia, PA

The Space

Housed in the original 1885 building constructed for the Weisbrod & Hess Oriental Brewing Company, Philadelphia Brewing Company runs its event spaces inside a still-working, 38,000 square foot production brewery, the oldest and largest operation of its kind left in the city. The event spaces sit inside that history: a Tasting Room that holds up to 130, a smaller Plume Room for about 30, and a patio for around 25, so the building offers genuinely different sized rooms rather than one space split by curtains.

The brewery closed in 1939 after Prohibition finished off what was already a struggling business, and the building sat before William Barton, Nancy Barton, and James McBride founded Philadelphia Brewing Company in July 2007 and brought brewing back to the same walls. It is a working production brewery first, event space second, which means the room a couple rents is the same room where the beer they are serving actually gets made.

Capacity & Layout

With 130 seated in the Tasting Room and 150 standing across the building, this suits a mid sized wedding rather than a large one, and because the Tasting Room, Plume Room, and Patio are separate spaces, a couple can spread a day across rooms, ceremony in one, cocktail hour in another, reception in the Tasting Room, instead of resetting one room three times.

The beer garden, expanded in 2019 to 2,000 square feet with seating for about 60, is open year round weather permitting and works as either a ceremony site or an overflow space during the reception. Multiple spaces can be combined for larger events, so the effective capacity flexes depending on how much of the building a couple books rather than being fixed to one room's maximum.

Amenities

The full bar runs on the brewery's own beers alongside other beverages, which is a real draw for a couple who wants their reception drink menu to actually be house made rather than sourced from an outside vendor. Food is more hands off: guests can bring their own or work with brewery approved vendors, and food trucks are available on select days, so catering takes more planning than at a full service venue.

The property is pet friendly, dogs are welcome in the beer garden with bowls kept behind the bar, a detail that matters for a couple who wants a dog in the wedding party or simply wants guests to be able to bring one. The building is also part of the former Weisbrod & Hess Brewery complex listed for historic preservation, so the exposed brick and industrial details throughout are original rather than styled to look that way.

Location & Getting There

The brewery sits in Kensington, with a parking lot on Frankford Avenue directly across from the main entrance, straightforward for guests driving in rather than relying on street parking in a dense neighborhood. Regular hours run Sunday through Tuesday 11am to 11pm and Wednesday through Saturday 11am to midnight, giving a sense of how late the space typically stays open on its own.

Between the enclosed Tasting Room, the smaller Plume Room, and the open air beer garden and patio, a wedding here moves through some genuinely different acoustic settings in one day. The Tasting Room's brick walls and industrial ceiling give a DJ a room with some natural reflection to work with, while the outdoor beer garden calls for speakers angled to carry across open seating rather than bouncing off any walls at all.