The CBC Commemorative Beer for the 2026 Craft Brewers Conference & BrewExpo America has been announced, and it is exactly what you would want from a beer made for this moment: clean, technically precise, deeply collaborative, and brewed right here in Philadelphia by Yards Brewing Company. The beer is called “Of the Brewers. By the Brewers. For the Brewers.” — a 4.7% ABV pale lager available to the public at the Yards taproom at 500 Spring Garden Street in Northern Liberties, on a first-come, first-served basis.
The CBC itself runs April 20–22, 2026, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, and is expected to draw more than 10,000 attendees from across the country. This marks the first time the conference has returned to Philadelphia since 2016. The timing is significant: the event coincides with America 250 and Philly 250, the 250th anniversary of American independence, making the city’s selection as host feel less like coincidence and more like a statement.
What Is the CBC Commemorative Beer?
The CBC Commemorative Beer 2026 is a SMaSH lager — single malt, single hop — a format that strips craft brewing down to its essentials and demands that every ingredient earn its place. The recipe features Spalter Select hops, donated by IGN Hopfen, which deliver herbal, grassy, and gently hoppy aromatics.
Bestmalz Heidelberg Malt, provided by The Country Malt Group, was selected specifically for its performance in pale lagers. At 4.7% ABV, the result is crisp, focused, and built for the kind of sessionable enjoyment that a multi-day industry conference actually calls for. This is not a beer trying to be clever — it is a beer trying to be excellent, and the SMaSH format is the most honest way to demonstrate that.
Yards Brewing Company: A Natural Choice
Yards Brewing Company was the right brewery for this collaboration, and not only because of its 30-plus years in Philadelphia. Founded in 1994 by Tom Kehoe and Jon Bovitt in a Manayunk garage, Yards has been a consistent presence in the city’s craft beer identity since before most of the current generation of craft beer drinkers was paying attention.
The brewery hosted the Pennsylvania collaborative brew day on Friday, February 27 at its 500 Spring Garden Street facility, bringing together brewers, industry partners, and representatives from across the supply chain to brew the CBC Commemorative Beer together. Yards’ philosophy — that great beer is made by Philadelphia, not merely in it — fits perfectly with what this beer is trying to say.
The CBC Commemorative Beer as a True Industry Collaboration
What elevates the CBC Commemorative Beer beyond a simple limited release is the breadth of the supply chain collaboration behind it. Hart Print is donating and digitally printing the cans using direct-to-brite technology that enables advanced gloss, matte, metallic, and texture capabilities — packaging innovation that pushes the format forward.
Zuckerman Honickman is providing the can ends. The Royal Group is donating the can trays. Hach is supplying dissolved oxygen testing to ensure quality and stability. IGN Hopfen and The Country Malt Group contributed the core brewing ingredients. Every tier of the brewing supply chain is represented, which is exactly the point. This is a beer that demonstrates, in physical form, what the craft brewing community looks like when it works together.
The Can Design: Revolutionary Philadelphia in Every Detail
The CBC Commemorative Beer can design draws directly from Philadelphia’s revolutionary history. Inspired by early American woodblock-print aesthetics and bold block typography, the artwork references Benjamin Franklin’s press — printing as a vehicle for spreading ideas, just as taverns and public houses were the places where those ideas were debated over pints.
A subtle nod to Franklin’s “Join, or Die” serpent reinforces the spirit of unity that defines the brewing community. The illustrated cityscape centers on a colonial-era tavern surrounded by Philadelphia landmarks. The design was developed specifically to leverage Hart Print’s digital can printing capabilities, exploring texture and contrast within the woodblock visual language. It is one of the better-considered beer package designs to come out of Philadelphia in recent memory.
The Brewers of Pennsylvania played a central role in bringing this collaboration to life, and the organization’s involvement puts the CBC Commemorative Beer in a broader context worth understanding. Pennsylvania is home to 533 breweries — the third-largest beer-producing state in the country, behind California and New York. The state produces more than 2.6 million barrels annually, second highest in the U.S. by volume, and contributes $5.2 billion to the national economy from craft beer alone. Philadelphia hosting the CBC in a year that marks 250 years of American independence is not incidental — it is a recognition that this city has been at the center of American brewing culture since before the country formally existed.
How to Get the CBC Commemorative Beer
Every registered CBC attendee can pick up a can at the conference in the Grand Hall of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, next to the Brewers of Pennsylvania booth, April 20–22. For those not attending the conference, the CBC Commemorative Beer will be available on draft at Yards Brewing Company during CBC week at 500 Spring Garden Street, Northern Liberties. Public taproom supplies are limited and first-come, first-served. If you’re planning a full Philadelphia beer weekend around the conference, pair it with our roundup of National Beer Day 2026 in Philadelphia for more on what the city is pouring right now.
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