Brewerytown earned its namesake in the mid to late 1800’s when it was home to a number of breweries. Prohibition chased many of the original breweries out of the neighborhood in the early 20th century, and Brewerytown remained largely devoid of them since. That is until late last year, when Crime and Punishment Brewery (2711 W. Girard Ave.) opened its doors for business.

Mike Wambolt, one of the founders of Crime and Punishment, was just out of college and, like many recent graduates, was not where he thought he would be, “I couldn’t get a job,” Wambolt said, “I was painting walls for Vangaurd, that mutual fund company. I just painted white walls all day.” With Wambolt’s student loans going into repayment, he decided to double his shifts, working from 6am until 11pm.

“I would read Crime and Punishment on my breaks and I was just feeling the existential angst of Raskolnikov. The dark and dreary nature of the book was just hitting me.”

During this time, Wambolt was home brewing, and getting better and better at it. At first, friends and owners of other local businesses like the Fishtown-based Pizza Brain were encouraging Wambolt to take his brewing to new heights. Crime and Punishment, while still in its home-brewing phase, started serving their beer during First Fridays at Pizza Brain to promote their name.

“That was our first Iteration of, ‘hey, come try our beers, come try what this thing is,’” Wambolt said. “We would brew two half-barrels of beer and bring them over. It was a catalyst. We started getting press— really early press.”

Dan Grivjack, one of the original partners and one of the kitchen managers, further described the importance of Pizza Brain to the development of Crime and Punishment.

“They were always pushing us. They had to go through a lot of the city stuff for us and they kind of went through a lot of it for us,” Grivjack said, referring to the myriad of zoning and licensing requirements a new business with both food and alcohol needs meet in order to open.

“At least for me, Joe Hunter, the cook over there [at Pizza Brain] is somebody who’s just vibrant, has a lot of energy and is willing to talk and answer [any questions] for us about the kitchen.”

It was not long before Wambolt realized some of these friends –who would later become partners in the business– were interested in investing money into Crime and Punishment. During this time Wambolt met Mike Paul, who helped Wambolt turn a home brewing operation into something larger. “I was still brewing on my stovetop at home and Mike [Paul] had a full system, like 15 gallon propane burners, pumps and everything,” Wambolt said. Since then, Wambolt and Paul have been perfecting Crime and Punishment’s recipes together.

Once the project started to pick up momentum, Crime and Punishment was approved for a grant for $50,000 from the city, which was enough to pay for a kitchen. Wambolt and his partners had a meeting in July of 2013 to discuss when Crime and Punishment would open its doors.

“That’s when I was saying, ‘oh yeah we’ll be open in April 2014.’ [Philadelphia Magazine’s] FooBooz was printing that. I had no idea what I was talking about. Like, I had to do this NPR interview in January of 2014 and any time I was interviewed over that first year, I was so ignorant saying, ‘yeah, we’ll be open in a couple of months,’ not knowing that those next few things don’t happen as quickly as I would like or as you think,” Wambolt said. “It’s so slow and methodical and—“ “Brutal,” Grivjack interjected. They even brewed a beer called Red Tape in honor of the actual red tape the fledgling brewery had to endure.

The space that holds Crime and Punishment Brewery was transformed over 2 years from a vacant space to a fully operational brewery and kitchen. “There’s $25,000 of plumbing, $14,000 of electrical work, $50,000 of general construction, not to mention tanks,” Wambolt said. “We just bought 8 new tanks,” Grivjack said, “$50,000 there.” On cue, Wambolt laughs, “I thought it was over!”

“The whole time though, Mike [Paul] and I knew we were making some of the best beer in Philadelphia,” Wambolt said, “and that’s what kept driving us every day.”

Now that Crime and Punishment has worked through those admittedly “brutal” parts of opening a business, they have turned their focus to the community they inhabit. Wambolt has been living in Brewerytown for 6 years and expressed a passion for having an overall positive influence on the neighborhood and city they call home.

One of the non-profits Crime and Punishment works with is Give and Go Athletics, a community organization that helps kids learn life skills while helping provide intramural sports programs in the area. Last year, Crime and Punishment had a fundraiser in which it raised money to supply uniforms for the year. “They’re called The Brewers, it’s pretty funny” Wambolt said.

Crime and Punishment also brewed a beer to raise money for the Catholic Worker House in Kensington, a non-profit that provides free healthcare to the disadvantaged in the area. “It was called Jesus Wept, and a dollar of every one of those beers [sold] goes to Catholic Worker House.” They also work with local non-profits CineSPEAK, Northern Light and Neighborhood Bikeworks.

With Crime and Punishment growing so rapidly, it begs the question: what’s next? “Honestly, I’d like to see the growth slow down a bit,” Wambolt laughs. The craft beer game is a crowded field, which is not lost on Wambolt, Paul, and Grivjack. To them, the underlying concept moving forward remains the same, “Beer is for everyone, that’s what I’m all about,” Wambolt said, “that’s what it’s been since day one.”