Beer Review: Pigtoberfest (Boneshire Brew Works)

In honor of Boneshire Brew Works celebrating their fourth anniversary tonight, I’ve decided to wait a day or two to do the final of the streaming session’s beer reviews, and instead put this review up. Also, earlier I threw up a throwback post of our beer review of This is The Way (by Broken Goblet) due to today also being the premier of Season 2 of The Mandalorian, on our Facebook page. Which, do yourself a favor, and watch it. (As soon as you finish reading this review.)

In a year where everything has happened from plagues to fires to Oktoberfest being cancelled in Germany, its great to get to celebrate Boneshire Brew Works turning 4 tonight. And its great to be celebrating it with what looks like a fantastic tap list. (I have four new ones to try out on the tap list I see.) They have, what I will have to do a review of – primarily because Alan (head brewer / co-owner) said he would never make – a smoked pumpkin bear (Gourd Damnit) as well as two new English Curse variants (one with Graham Crackers and one S’mores) – as well as a variant he’s done in the past – English Curse with Hazelnut. As well as several of their regular offerings – English Curse (regular), Tried and True, Devil’s Burden. Also, a new IPA is on the tap list – Slight Miscalculations (Mango). Interested in checking that one out as well. So, definitely a lot of great beers to try, come on out tonight and check them out. They are celebrating their 4th Anniversary all weekend.

At the end of the article, I’ll put up some of the links to our other beer reviews, and some of the news articles about Boneshire Brew Works we’ve done, like their expanding into a second taproom in Harrisburg (soon-ish).

But for now, let’s dive into this brewski.

Beer: Pigtoberfest
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: Festbier
ABV: 5%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Behold the finest Festbier this side of the Rhine. Prost!

Its hard to see from the picture because of the mug club mug, but the beer looks every bit of a cross between a marzen and a festbier. Whereas marzens tend to be more amber, festbiers tend to be a bit more on the golden side of the scale. The two styles can slightly start going towards each other (some marzens could be a bit lighter, some festbiers could be a bit darker), but typically, marzens are more amber, and festbiers are more golden. This is a bit of a mixture, it has some slight darker looks to it, but mostly golden. Perhaps the mug is distorting my view of it too, so there could be some of that, it might be lighter than I’m thinking it is, or giving it credit for. There was a slight foamy, creamy head that dispersed relatively quickly.

Aroma is bready, heady, with some spices thrown in. There’s some honey notes to it, but mostly the fall spices and the bready notes come through the most. A bit of brown sugar perhaps to round things off, hard to pinpoint it exactly.

The taste is locked on for festbier. You have your honey, your dough, your fall spices, your malt, your bread, your brown sugar, all to give it the various complexities. The complexities for this work in conjunction with each other, so its great. Sometimes a beer can be too complex or have too many ingredients, and it just doesn’t work. Here, you don’t have too many ingredients, but you do have differences and complexities, and they work together and work well. There is definite notes of honey, dough, spices like cinnamon or nutmeg, brown sugar and the malt for sweetness. There is a breadyness to it from the dough and the malt, the honey and sugar and malt give it some sweetness, and the spices give it a bit of a fun, interesting kick. This is a wonderful and great fall weather beer, and will be great tonight on their anniversary, with the rainy, dreary, damp, wet, cold weather. This will taste just right and warm you up perfectly. Make sure you stop in and try it, along with the other goodies Alan has going at Boneshire Brew Works tonight.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.82 (as of 10.30.20)

Like I said above, this whole weekend Boneshire Brew Works is celebrating their 4th Anniversary of being open. So please, come on out, support local beer and breweries and local hard working families, and drink some delicious beers.

Some Boneshire Brew Works articles:

• Boneshire Brew Works Expanding With a Second Tap Room
• Beer Review: Pandemic Pills
• Beer Review: Blue Hippo
• Beer Review: Long Tongue Liar
• Beer Review: The Hog
• Beer Review: s’Mores Lazaris
• Boneshire Brew Works Celebrates Their 3rd Anniversary
• Beer Review: Iscariot
• Beer Review: Tried and True (Mango)
• Beer Review: The Dillston
• Beer Review: Sunburst
• Beer Review: AuZealand 2.0
• Beer Review: Harrishire
• Beer Review: Caucus Race 6.0
• Beer Review: Road Less Traveled
• Beer Review: Good Walk Spoiled

Maybe I’ll see you out there tonight, I’ll most likely there around 6:30-7PM. Cheers!

-B. Kline

You can also see some of our other beer reviews here:

• Beer Review: Dreams of Orgonon (Human Robot)
• Beer Review: Unicorns Stomping on Lanternflies (Saucony Creek Brewing Co)
• Beer Review: Griddle (Funk Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: Out of Order: Blue Milk (RAR Brewing)
• Beer Review: Up the Creek Extreme Ale (Thomas Creek Brewery)
• Beer Review: Hershey’s Chocolate Porter (Yuengling Brewery)
• Beer Review: Dropout (Rubber Soul Brewing)

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