Beer Review: Road Less Traveled (Boneshire Brew Works)
Thursday night was another fine evening spent at Boneshire Brewery (obviously the home of Boneshire Brew Works) on Derry Street in Rutherford (just outside of Harrisburg PA). If you ever find yourself in the area, do yourself a wonderful duty and stop in. First off its a fantastic brewery owned by three great guys (Alan, Carson, Alex) who are all giving their best effort, and brewed by a very talented head brewer (Alan Miller) and with a tremendous staff (Owen, Jason, Alexis, Jim, Jared, etc.).
The vibe of the brewery is like a drinking hole. Every town, every neighborhood has one, and this is Rutherford’s, but the great thing is, its ‘everyone’s’. Because as soon as you enter, you feel at home, you’re made to feel at home, and you are treated like you are at home.
(For more information on Boneshire Brew Works, you can check their Untappd page here: https://untappd.com/BoneshireBrewWorks or their Facebook or Twitter pages. They are definitely worth a look up and check out. You can find some of their cans at places like the Hershey Biergarten and you can find their kegs on tap at places like The Warwick Hotel, Black Gryphon, Bear’s Den, Funck’s, etc.)
So moving on from the mushy mushy plug-plug for the hard working guys at Boneshire, let’s get into one of their better IPAs and one of my favorites from them. Doing some research, the beer was first released on October 19th, 2018, and its quickly become a staple for Boneshire and one of their more well received IPAs (alongside Caucaus-Race #5). They have released a few variants of it (I believe around the time of the initial release of Road Less Traveled back in October 2018; a peach, a mango, and a few others.)
Beer: Road Less Traveled
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 7.3%
IBU: 75
Hops: (original batch) – Mosaic, Citra, Azacca
(latest batch) – Caliente and Comet
Untappd Write-Up: This cloudy hop bomb is brewed with loads of flaked oats, flaked wheat, a. Then hopped with Mosaic, Citra, and Azacca. It’s damn tasty!
*Newest batch hopped with Caliente and Comet hops.
Its interesting to note that the most recent batch released (the one I am reviewing) was done with Caliente and Comet hops as opposed to the original being Mosaic, Citra, and Azacca. Would be curious to have a can of each to do a side-by-side comparison. I’ve had both versions, but don’t know if mentally recalling the original batch and tasting the newest, I could give you a difference (granted, there’s a 6-7 month time difference, and granted I’d be going off memory, and drinking memory at that, and well, a thousand other factors). So perhaps one day we’ll get a side by side, and perhaps even a third hop iteration of the beer to do a whole flight of.
But for this review, it is the Current – Latest – Batch, and it was drank on 7.25.19. So it was with Caliente and Comet Hops.
What I can tell you is this simple – this is a fantastic, delicious beer.
The coloring is a golden cloudy orange. Spot on for New England IPAs. Filtered, so there’s no sediment and floaters, but just cloudy, hazy, and looking delicious.
The aroma is very hoppy. Floral, citrus hop burst at you. Not too familiar with Caliente hops so I can’t give you a concrete depiction of them. Comet is very grapefruit and citrus forward. Which makes it a good replacement for Citra and Mosaic. Doing a quick Google search on Caliente, I found this: ” Caliente means “hot” in Spanish. That is, temperature hot and not spicy hot. It isn’t clear exactly why this particular variety was named that but it appears to be reasonably well received by the craft brew market featuring in quite a few commercial brews to date. There is some difference of opinion on it’s exact tasting notes but it has been said to impart flavors of citrus, peach, pine and even cherry along with distinct aromas of stone fruit and mandarin. Subtle aromas of peach have also been documented.” (Courtesy of: http://www.hopslist.com/hops/dual-purpose-hops/caliente/ )
I can see why Caliente and Comet were picked to pair together. Both giving off citrus notes, but in different varieties adds a very nice touch to this beer. Tasting it you get very powerful citrus notes. The grapefruit comes through, and you get a more fruity note as well, which is probably the Caliente offering you the notes of peach or mandarin. It makes the beer overall a very fruity citrusy hop haze tasty NEIPA.
And you can quickly see (and taste) why this is a favorite of the local Boneshire crew (some refer to them as “Boneheads” …. your mileage may vary on that one).
I certainly highly recommend it, and completely recommend giving Boneshire a visit. The facility/brewery is a nice, small, close, “home pub” feel, and you can walk back and see the fermenters (and usually see Alan back there working and sweating up a storm), there is games in the corner for kiddos, a cooler / refrigerator for take-home (as well as them being able to make you 16oz cans to go at the bar), and there is nearly daily events going on. (Mondays are D&D nights, Tuesday is trivia, Wednesdays are bingo, and Thursdays are music). They also do open mic nights, as well as occasional Saturday night music events as well. So there’s always something happening and going on.
And of course, there is a always great Boneshire beer on tap, as well as several (6-8) PA craft brewery guest taps. There is also local cider and wine. As well as non-alcoholic craft sodas.
My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.91 (as of 7.28.19)
So until next time, drink up and let us know how we’re doing here on the blog! We are always looking for comments, feedback, anything. Be nice to hear from all of you out there reading. Thanks for reading and enjoy!
-B. Kline
(Editors note: There is only 1 L in Traveled. I must have had to edit that word on here about 20 times, including the title of the article. Be on the look out people, the English language is always trying to trip you up!)
