Local beer and “dirt cheap” do not often appear in the same sentence, but that changes when the folks at Evil Genius Beer Co. decide to run one of their seemingly ridiculous deals.
For one day only — or until supplies are exhausted, which they likely will be — the Fishtown-headquartered brewery is offering customers the chance to buy an entire case of beer for just $5. That’s 24 cans of good Philadelphia brew. And no, it’s not expired, or diacetyl-stricken. At least not yet.
“It’s a nice way for us to keep inventory fresh and drive people who may not have been to our Fishtown location to swing on by,” Trevor Hayward, who cofounded the company with Luke Bowen back in 2011, told Billy Penn.
Assuming the website doesn’t pull a Ticketmaster, you’ll be able to order these $5 cases starting at 9 a.m. Friday morning. Not all types or labels will be part of the sale, but there will be a good variety, the brewery assured astounded fans on social media.
Evil Genius has actually pulled this stunt a few times before, per Hayward: when the brewery first switched from bottles to cans, and a couple other occasions since then.
This time around, about 500 total cases are up for grabs — and they’ll go fast, likely selling out in under 2 hours.
Keyboard warriors can go wild; there’s no limit on the number of cases you can buy. You just have to remember you’ll have to pick up the stuff yourself and find a way to get it home from the taproom at 1727 N. Front St., which is open Fridays from noon to midnight.
After that, as the brewery’s TikTok/Insta promo video suggests, you can do whatever you want with it, including “throw it on the ground.”
Evil Genius is all about making customers laugh. Its beers are named with pop culture references, from the guava IPA called #adulting to the chocolate peanut butter porter known as Purple Monkey Dishwasher. There’s a pretzel-infused oktoberfest collab with Auntie Annie’s called Is Butter a Carb, and an popular holiday saison called Santa, I Know Him.
The schtick works. Hayward and Bowen recently expanded distribution to Ohio, Michigan, and Virginia, and stores in Baltimore will sell their first Evil Genius cans this April. West Virginia is next on tap, with a summer launch planned.
It all comes back to Philly, though, and the Fishtown taproom, which opened in 2017 in a refurbished auto shop under the El.
If you want to pick up your $5 case deal, that’s where you’ll have to go. If you manage to get an order in. May the odds be ever in your favor.
