Tuesday 30th of April 2013 09:03:09 PM

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Victory has a large, really nice looking brewpub located on the same site as their large scale brewery. They've got a very large assortment of beers on tap, so even though I had a sampler I didn't feel like I got to try enough of their offerings. Also, the names of their beers aren't necessarily representative of the beer style, so its a little bit difficult to pick out exactly what you want.

The beers I had were all very tasty - this is obviously a place that knows what they're doing in terms of brewing. I'd definitely go back just for the beer.

I also had food there, which was better than your typical pub fare.

Sunday 15th of July 2012 09:17:52 PM

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There is something for everyone here. Some of THE best beer in the Philadelphia area. Storm King Stout & Hop Devil are my favorites. The brewery tour is great (and free!), but you don't get any samples. You are, however, encouraged to bring some brew with you. If you get a change, go to Youtube and search for "Victory Brewing Company - Growler Machine"...so cool to watch! On top of the great beer, the food is amazing! Totally worth the trip to Downingtown!

Monday 21st of November 2011 01:00:15 AM

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Victory is a rather large microbrewery with an extensive offering of fine beers. My favorites are Golden Monkey Tripel (9.5% - nice!), Hop Devil (6.7%), Hop Wallop (8.5%), Old Horizontal Barleywine (11%), Storm King Stout (9.2%), and Yakima Glory (8.7%). If you are in southeast PA, I highly recommend visiting their Downingtown Brewery for a meal and sampler of their beers. They will have a dozen or more on tap, and the variety of well-crafted beers is very impressive. No matter what your favorite style of beer, you're sure to find something delicious! My top pick is their most recent anniversary ale, Victory Twelve (12%), which has been extremely popular at local beerfests.

Sunday 26th of June 2011 06:02:47 PM

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Yesterday, I was part of a 25-person (or so) group that made prior arrangements for a visit to Victory and an "exclusive" brewer's tour, followed by lunch on our own. We arrived in a school bus about 30 minutes before opening and waited in the parking lot.

We are a homebrew club and several members brought some of their beer to share with the group and sample. Since we couldn't get in the brewery right away, about 5-6 members had their samples in Solo cups and were discussing beer in the parking lot immediately adjacent to where the bus had been parked.

At about 11:30, we were "greeted" by a Victory employee who was doing his best impression of Field Marshall Goering by standing on the steps above us and barking orders to the troops. Goering was apparently miffed by the beer consumption in "his" parking lot. He threatened us with banishment -- that is, until he realized that we had yet to fork over the $10/head for the brewer's tour -- plus the promise of lunch and drinks for a group of 25. You could almost hear the ka-ching of the cash register go off in his head.

After he felt we were suitably verbally berated for daring to drink beer -- at, of all places, a brewery -- we were allowed to enter the Victory dictatorship. However, no one seemed to know anything about our group -- even though we had made prior arrangements and were expected. Worse, they didn't seem to care that they didn't know. Sentries were posted at strategic sites to watch our every move.

Our tour guide wasn't a brewer at all. She managed the gift shop. Our "exclusive" tour? Lackluster at best. Then, when one of our group was ejected during lunch for some unexplained non-conformance (we think he didn't properly salute our server) -- that was it. We went to Iron Hill West Chester where we were made to feel at home and had no further problems.

The best business decision Victory made of late was to curtail brewery tours -- that will significantly reduce the public's exposure to perhaps the worst customer service and we're-better-than-you-are attitudes that I've encountered in quite some time. Oh, and the beer? Incredibly ordinary. Nothing to emulate or write home about. $1.50 for samples. Not the atmosphere or camaraderie that you expect from craft brew people. They don't even offer an AHA discount! C'mon!

If you have a choice between going to Victory and getting root canal -- pick root canal. It's way more pleasant.

Tuesday 18th of August 2009 07:51:57 AM

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I've been going to Victory for awhile now... Before they renovated they had a dozen or so taps... and the beers were very well done most of the time... Now that they renovated, their "house" beers are still great... a couple of them are staple beers for me... but they are trying to keep 20 beers on CO2 and 4 hand pumps... The "regular" sessionals are usually good, but their specials that they are brewing to keep all the taps full are not up to their normal standard... That doesn't keep me away though... Just don't expect 24 STELLAR beers is all I'm saying! Ever since I've been going there, the service is pretty shotty... It's always crowded so I guess they figure that people will come anyway... Sometimes I have to order a beer when I still have half a pint left just because it takes them that long to get it to you... It's really family oriented now that they renovated and there are usually a ton of kids running around which is fun. The bar area is really big with lots of standing room if all the seats and booths are taken. They do tours on Saturdays at 4 I think and they have a really wide selection of stuff in the gift shop. The food is reasonably priced and most of it is pretty high quality but it usually is slow coming when you order. Good appetizers, Trice Fries, Hot Wings, Pub Pretzel... Im giving the atmosphere a 4 because it's really loud. They could do something about the acoustics.

Sunday 11th of May 2008 06:28:20 PM

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I just visited Victory for its grand reopening weekend. They've put in $6 million into renovations and this place was packed! Let's just say that you can see where the money went. For starters, they now have 4 beer engines which are always a welcome addition. Also, they have a new growler filler which fills a 68oz growler in about 30 seconds. They had 20 taps on each side of the bar and probably 10-12 in the middle of the bar. This adds up to 50ish taps with 4 casks for *tons* of beer. They have new beer menus which really explain in detail the styles of beer and a bit of background on each. Their menu is still really good (try their burgers with the hop devil sauce!) The only downside I can possibly think of is the fact that it's still a huge warehouse-style building. Which means that noise echoes a lot in here. If you are anywhere in the general area of Downingtown do yourself a favor and visit Victory Brewing Company.