Despite Philadelphia Brewing Company’s clear signage and fenced-off area, the City of Philadelphia workers completely cut down a hop garden on Tuesday morning, mistaking it for weeds.

Philadelphia Brewing owners have said they will lose tens of thousands of dollars in revenue as a result of the removal of these hops.

This hop garden was growing hops in an 18×70 foot adjacent lot on Frankford Avenue, for a beer the brewery makes every year called “Harvest From The Hood”. Over thirty plants and about 60 pounds of hops were due to be harvested in a few weeks to make this beer, and the brewery has confirmed the beer will not be made this year.

For a decade, Philadelphia Brewing has been releasing this fall beer and says it is made to honor their neighborhood by using hops exclusively grown in Kensington.

As a follow-up to the incident, a city spokesperson said the following in a statement:

“Regrettably, due to miscommunication and staff error, the hops were removed as they were initially marked as a violation as it appeared the lot was overgrown. We are reaching out to Philadelphia Brewing and NKCDC to explain the situation, apologize and explore what we can do to rectify this situation. We’re also engaging with staff on the ground to ensure that proper procedures are followed in the future.”