Victory Brewing Partners With Longwood Gardens To Brew Garden Beers

Longwood Gardens and Victory Brewing released the latest of their collaboration brews on July 4, 2026, in honour of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States and the continued celebration of how beer meets botany.

Longwood Gardens

Longwood Gardens is less than an hour’s drive west of Philadelphia, in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Covering more than 1,100 acres and featuring 13,000 different plants, Longwood Gardens is the most-visited paid attraction in the Philadelphia area–about 1.7 million people visit the Gardens every year. In 2025, the Gardens was named the best botanical gardens in the United States.

Longwood Gardens has welcomed the botanically-interested since 1906, when the Gardens were established by philanthropist Pierre du Pont. There are many named garden areas within Longwood, from the Flower Garden Walk–which du Pont himself created in 1906–to the Bonsai Courtyard opened in 2024. In 2015, Longwood Gardens opened it Beer Garden and in conjunction therewith, started working with Pennsylvania’s Victory Brewing to brew beers with ingredients sourced from Longwood Gardens botanical bounty.

Victory Brewing

Victory Brewing was founded in 1996 in Downington, Pennsylvania, less than an hour northwest of Philadelphia and less than 30 minutes north of Longwood Gardens. In addition to a taproom at their original Downington location, Victory now boasts taprooms in Parkesburg, Philadelphia and Kennett Square in Pennsylvania, as well as one in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Since 2014, Victory Brewing has been part of Artisanal Brewing Ventures, the 11th largest craft brewery in the United States, according to the Brewers Association. Victory Brewing has won awards at the world’s largest beer competition.

Pollinating A Unique Beer Idea

Coincident with the opening of the Beer Garden at Longwood Gardens, in 2015, the Gardens began offering seasonal specialty beers brewed by Victory, using ingredients from and showcasing botanicals grown on the Gardens grounds. Other regular Victory Brewing beers are also available, year round at the Beer Garden.

The special brews have become one of the favorite projects for Joe Slavick, director of brewing operations at Victory. “When I started at Victory, this was one of my first projects,” he said via telephone. In addition to making the beer, Slavick presented at Longwood Gardens at a “Meet the Brewer” event. Longwood continues to host Meet the Brewer events from time to time.

“We bring our family here,” said Slavick. “It’s a cool to have a connection to Longwood.” Slavick notes that many people who visit Longwood Gardens also visit Victory’s Kennett Square taproom, just a nine-minute drive away.

A Culinary Experience

Past beers brewed by Victory for Longwood Gardens have included beers made with lemon, honey, grapefruit, blackberry, peach, nectarines, strawberry, cherry, black raspberries and hibiscus.

For their latest collaboration, released on July 4, 2026, Longwood Gardens supplied Victory with kumquats, a citrus fruit about the size of a grape. With it, Victory made Citrus Shandy, a 5.5% ABV beer made primarily with light pilsner malt and hopped with Simcoe hops. Slavick says the beer contains a little orange puree and grapefruit puree in addition to the kumquats, to give the beer extra citrus punch.

Victory Citrus Shandy is available at Longwood Gardens, in the Beer Garden and in their restaurant, 1906 at Longwood Gardens. 1906 is an upscale restaurant driven by the Gardens. The culinary team regularly meets with Longwood Gardens botanists in the Idea Garden, gaining inspiration from the ingredients grown there. The Idea Garden includes the Ornamental Kitchen Garden where ornamental plants that can be used in food are grown. The purpose of the Ornamental Kitchen Garden is to demonstrate that plants can be both decorative and nutritious.

The fact that these garden-inspired dishes can be enjoyed in 1906’s spacious dining room overlooking the Main Fountain Garden and paired with Victory’s Citrus Shandy creates an immersive experience. Diners are surrounded by plants, eat food from the garden and also drink its fruits.

Citrus Shandy is also available at Victory’s Kennett Square location and only one keg is available at Victory’s Downington location, as a special treat.