Much like the beers they make, the plan that eventually turned into Philadelphia’s Fermentery & Blendery Form (Form) took time. If you talk to some homebrewers who get bitten hard by the bug and decide to hang their own shingle, some will talk in terms of weeks or months, with the longest stretches coming from writing a business plan and then waiting for the equipment to arrive. Talk with Ethan Tripp, one of Form’s cofounders, and he talks in terms of years, and they didn’t even have to wait for a brewhouse to be installed because the blendery doesn’t have its own.
Tripp got his start like so many others before him. Working in an office, he casually mentioned to a coworker his interest in homebrewing and was gifted a copy of Charlie Papazian’s The Joy of Homebrewing in return. As he embarked on a homebrewing journey with friends, they found themselves mirroring their own beer experiences.
“Papazian is a romantic and convincing guy,” Tripp says. “He portrayed this perspective of having this home craft—almost in the old homesteading way that was appealing—and as a dabbler and multi-hobby person, I thought this sounded cool.”