2024 - The Beer Thrillers

Best in Beer – Farm Show Awards (2024)

B. Kline — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 20:35:00 +0000

The 108th Annual Farm Show

On Friday – January 5th, 2023 – the 108th Annual Pennsylvania Farm Show kicked off at the (historic?) Farm Show Arena / Expo Hall / Building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The annual event brings people from all across the states in various agricultural industries to Harrisburg; to showcase, to compete, to interact, intermingle, and have a good time.

It also usually brings bad weather as well. As was apparent Saturday (January 6th) when we did our podcast with Lew Bryson for his “Seen Through a Glass“.

Friday was primarily just the food market and a few other events. The milkshakes were out, the talk of all the land, as always, and there was also free parking Friday so the food court was absolutely jammed pack. There was also a rodeo hosted on Friday.

Today – Tuesday, January 9th, they announced the winners of the Beer Competitions.

Farm Show – Best of Beer Awards

The Farm Show introduced the Best of Craft Beer Awards in 2019. This makes it the fourth year of them doing the awards (the awards went virtual in 2020).

You can read the rules for entry here: Department 34 – Beer Awards Rules and Entry Information.

Over the years there has been numerous winners from across the state. In this year’s competition, 44 breweries across 26 Pennsylvania counties submitted 255 beers to be judged, with 32 different breweries placing in the top 3 of these categories.

Let’s get to this year’s winners:

Best in Beer Winners – 2024

First, you can see the full list of entries and winners directly from the Farm Show’s site here: Department 34 – Craft Beer Entries (PDF). The PDF page is a bit confusing and shows all entries, how many points they received, if they are PA Preferred, and if they won a medal. No mention of categories or anything.

I will help you out here and break down the categories (best that I can) and show who won what place, and will list if it’s PA Preferred (more on what that is afterwards).

For a full list of all Farm Show competitions, and winners, you can view their Results page here: 108th Annual Farm Show Results.

Category:	Brewery:	Beer:	Style:	Award:
Light American Ales and Lagers	BruDaddy’s	A-Town Light	American Light Lager	1st
Light American Ales and Lagers	Wolf Brewing	Golden Gaze	Cream Ale	2nd
Light American Ales and Lagers	Wallenpaupack Brewing	Paupack Cream Ale	Cream Ale	3rd
Light International Beer	Spring House Brewing	Grease the Poles	Alternative Grain Beer	1st
Light International Beer	McCall Collective	Speakeasy Series – Kentucky Common	Kentucky Common	2nd
Light International Beer	Wolf Brewing	Rhein Lock	International Pale Lager	3rd
Czech Lagers	Stoker’s Brewing	Plzyenský Drozd – Czech Pilsner	Czech Premium Pale Lager	1st
Czech Lagers	Antifragile Brewing	Rational Flaneur	Czech Pale Lager	2nd
Czech Lagers	Wolf Brewing	Dusk til Dawn	Czech Dark Lager	3rd
Light German Beer	Locust Lane	Farmhouse Pils Lager	German Pils	1st
Light German Beer	Hemauer Brewing	Helles Lager	Munich Helles Lager	2nd
Light German Beer	Locust Lane	Kolsch Ale	Kolsch	3rd
Malty German Lagers	Wallenpaupack	Festbier	Festbier	1st
Malty German Lagers	Lavery Brewing	Vanguard Lager	Vienna Lager	2nd
Malty German Lagers	Lost Tavern Brewing	Das Lagerhosen	Festbier	3rd
Dark European Beer	Rough Edges Brewing	Mr Yum	Schwarzbier	1st
Dark European Beer	Boal City Brewing	Doppelbock	Doppelbock	2nd
Dark European Beer	Saucony Creek	Rye Bock	Dunkels Bock	3rd
Dark European Beer	Otto’s Brewpub	Schwarzbier Lager	Schwarzbier	Honorable Mention
American Blonde and Pale Ales	GearHouse Brewing	Canary in the Coal Mine	Blonde Ale	1st
American Blonde and Pale Ales	Aldus Brewing	American Blonde Ale	Blonde Ale	2nd
American Blonde and Pale Ales	Wolf Brewing	American Pale Ale	With a Little Help From My Friends	3rd
American IPAs	McCall Collective	American IPA	Wayward West Coast IPA	1st
American IPAs	GearHouse Brewing	American IPA	Ninja Boots	2nd
American IPAs	Dock Street Brewing	American IPA	Golden IPA	3rd
Hazy IPAs	Second Sin Beer	Hazy IPA	Burgerstaxx	1st
Hazy IPAs	Bent Run Brewing	Hazy IPA	Pearl O’My Eye	2nd
Hazy IPAs	Antifragile Brewing	Hazy IPA	Moonlit Grotto	3rd
European Wheat Beers	Wallenpaupack Brewing	Weissbier (Hefeweizen)	Hawley Hefeweizen	1st
European Wheat Beers	GearHouse Brewing	Weissbier	Hefe Weight	2nd
European Wheat Beers	Wolf Brewing	Weissbier	El Hefe	3rd
Traditional English Ales	Two Rivers Brewing	Strong Bitter	Old Squire Abel’s ESB	1st
Traditional English Ales	Two Rivers Brewing	British Brown Ale	Bankers Brown Ale	2nd
Traditional English Ales	Olde Bedford Brewing	Strong Bitter	Dog Bollocks ESB	3rd
British Ales	Appalachian Brewing	Scottish Export	Jolly Scot Scottish Ale	1st
British Ales	GearHouse Brewing	Irish Stout	Sally O’Mally	2nd
British Ales	Hemauer Brewing	Irish Red Ale	McFadden	3rd
Strong British and American Ales	ZeroDay Brewing	Double IPA	Double Rodeo	1st
Strong British and American Ales	Wallenpaupack Brewing	English Barleywine	Sixth Anniversary Ale	2nd
Strong British and American Ales	Aldus Brewing	Double IPA	Can I Kick It? (IPA)	3rd
Belgian Ales	Stoker’s Brewing	Belgian Dark Strong Ale	KINDLING KWAD	1st
Belgian Ales	Dock Street Brewing	Saison	Bindlestiff	2nd
Belgian Ales	Yorkholo Brewing	Belgian Golden Strong Ale	Barn Beer	3rd
Fruit Beer	Allusion Brewing	Specialty Fruit Beer	In Another Castle	1st
Fruit Beer	Boom City Brewing	Fruit Beer	Last Raft Raspberry Wheat Ale	2nd
Fruit Beer	Lavery Brewing	Specialty Fruit Beer	Liopard Oir	3rd
Fruit, Herb, Vegetable	Twisted Elk Brewing	Fruit, Herb, Vegetable	Kona Dream	1st
Fruit, Herb, Vegetable	ZeroDay Brewing	Fruit, Herb, Vegetable	OOO Spooky	2nd
Fruit, Herb, Vegetable	Spring House Brewing	Fruit, Herb, Vegetable	Kerplunk!	3rd
Specialty Spice / Herb / Veg Beer	Shy Bear Brewing	Autumn Seasonal Beer	Emmie Voorhees	1st
Specialty Spice / Herb / Veg Beer	Saucony Creek	Autumn Seasonal Beer	Maple Mistress	2nd
Specialty Spice / Herb / Veg Beer	Otto’s Brewpub	Autumn Seasonal Beer	Small Batch Series Ale: Pumpkin Ale	3rd
Specialty Wood Aged Beers	Aldus Brewing	Specialty Wood Aged Beer	Red Rye Revival	1st
Specialty Wood Aged Beers	Chatty Monks / Pagoda City Brewing	Specialty Wood Aged Beer	Rum – Barrel Aged Jester’s Song	2nd
Specialty Wood Aged Beers	Yergey Brewing	Specialty Wood Aged Beer	Three Kings And A Bourbon Street Wench	3rd
Sour and Wild Ales	Locust Lane	Fruit Lambic	Cherry Preserves Sour Ale	1st
American Ambers, Browns, and Porters	Boom City	American Porter	Muddy River Porter	1st
American Ambers, Browns, and Porters	Bent Run Brewing	American Brown Ale	Deerfoot Nut Brown Ale	2nd
American Ambers, Browns, and Porters	Bent Run Brewing	American Amber Ale	Allegheny Amber Ale	3rd
Smoke and Wood Aged Beers	Lost Tavern Brewing	Wood Aged	Barrel Aged – If Time Is Money	1st
Smoke and Wood Aged Beers	Yorkholo Brewing	Rauchbier	Yorkholo Lager	2nd
Smoke and Wood Aged Beers	Lavery Brewing	Classic Style Smoked Beer	Belfast Black Smoked Porter	3rd
Mixed-Style and Experimental Beers	Wallenpaupack Brewing	Mixed Style Beer	For The Love Of Lager: Italian-Style Pilsner	1st
Mixed-Style and Experimental Beers	Fegley’s Brew Works	Mixed Style Beer	Pilsner Noctumo	2nd
Mixed-Style and Experimental Beers	Chatty Monks Brewing / Pagoda City Brewing	Experimental Beer	Hey Bae Rose	3rd
PA Preferred	Wallenpaupack Brewing	Hazy IPA	Avery Mt. Fresh Hop DIPA	1st
PA Preferred	Olde Bedford Brewing	IPL	Ranch Life IPL	2nd
PA Preferred	Olde Bedford Brewing	Fruited Sour	Becky’s Bistro Wild Blackberry Sour	3rd
Best in Show	Stoker’s Brewing	Belgian Dark Strong Ale	KINDLING KWAD	Best in Show

All of the 2024 Pennsylvania Farm Show Winners

PA Preferred

PA Preferred is a big deal, but even a bigger deal around Farm Show time. The breweries and brewers who do it make a big mention of it and a big “to – do” about it. The point of it is to use all Pennsylvania products, from the malt and grain to the hops and to the water and everything else in between. There is becoming more and more of a bigger push to go “all Pennsylvanian” with breweries. Troegs Brewing, Wallenpaupack Brewing, Logyard Brewing, Boneshire Brew Works, Hemauer Brewing, and several others are striving to make more and more of their beers this way.

For More Information on the Farm Show

For More of our Award Articles

Looking for more articles about breweries and brewers winning awards? Check these out:

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

Thanks again for reading everyone. Take some time to check out the site, we greatly appreciate it. We have affiliates and sponsors with Pretzels.com and Beer Drop.com, which can save you money on their products if you are interested. Check out our articles on them. Make sure to check out our beer reviews, brewery reviews, Amy’s weekly column, book reviews, hike reviews, and so much more.

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you! You can also reach out to us at our direct e-mail address: thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

We are working on a massive project here at The Beer Thrillers. We are creating a map of all of the breweries across the United States. State by state we are adding maps of all of the different states with every brewery in each state. (We will eventually get to the US Territories, as well as the Canadian Provinces, and possibly more countries; as well as doing some fun maps like a map of all the breweries we’ve been to, and other fun maps.) You can find the brewery maps here:

MAPS OF BREWERIES

We are also working on a project of creating printable and downloadable PDFs and resources to be able to check and keep track of all of the breweries you’ve been to. So stay tuned for that project once we are finished with the Brewery Maps of the US States.

You can check out our different directories here: Beer Reviews, Hike Reviews, Book Reviews, Brewery News, Brewery Openings, Brewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Facebook Group, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Influence. As well as our brand new Tumblr page. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

You can now find us on our Discord Server here: The Beer Thrillers (Discord Server). We’ve also joined LinkTree to keep track of all of our social media pages, as well as hot new articles we’ve written.

The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

We have partnered with an affiliateship with Beer Drop.com. You can check out that partnership and receive great discounts, coupons, and more here: Beer Drop. Going here and logging in and ordering will help you receive your discounts and coupons as well as help support our page. Thank you for helping to support The Beer Thrillers and to help us maintain the site and blog and to keep it running.

The Beer Thrillers are a blog that prides itself on writing beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, news (especially local to the Central PA brewery scene), as well as covering other topics of our interests – such as hiking, literature and books, board games, and video games which we sometimes stream with our friends over at Knights of Nostalgia. We are currently listed as #7 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #8 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of January 2023.) Thank you for reading our site today, please subscribe, follow, and bookmark. Please reach out to us if you are interested in working together. If you would like to donate to the blog you can here: Donate to The Beer Thrillers. Thank you!

You can also check out our partnership and affiliation with Pretzels.com, where ordering pretzels and using our affiliate code – AFFILIATE CODE IS THEBEERTHRILLERS20 – will help you get wonderful pretzels and help us maintain and keep this blog running. Thank you!

If you would like to reach out to us for product reviews, beer reviews, press release writing, and other media – please contact us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com. Thank you.

(Thank you for reading. The opinions, thoughts, and expressions of each article posted on The Beer Thrillers represents the author of the content and only themselves. It does not express the opinions, beliefs, or ideas held by The Beer Thrillers or any company in which the author themselves work for. Each piece of written content is written by the creator(s) listed in the authorial section on each article unless otherwise noted. Their opinions, comments, and words on screen do not represent any company in which they work for and / or are affiliated with or any non – profits that they contribute to. Thank you.)

The Ultimate Guide to Exploring Craft Beer in 2024: Trends, Breweries, and Must-Try Beers

B. Kline — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 04:55:02 +0000

A flight of beers at the bar.

Introduction:

Craft beer enthusiasts rejoice! As we embark on 2024, the craft beer scene is more vibrant and diverse than ever. With an ever-growing number of breweries, innovative brewing techniques, and a plethora of styles to explore, there’s never been a better time to be a beer lover. In this ultimate guide, we’ll dive into the latest trends shaping the craft beer industry, spotlight some of the best breweries making waves, and highlight must-try beers that deserve a place on your bucket list. Whether you’re a seasoned aficionado or a curious newcomer, this guide is your passport to the exciting world of craft beer in 2024.

Craft Beer Trends to Watch in 2024:

Sustainability and Eco-Friendly Brewing: As consumers become more environmentally conscious, breweries are adopting sustainable practices, from sourcing local ingredients to implementing energy-efficient brewing processes.
Non-Alcoholic Craft Beers Gain Popularity: With health and wellness trends on the rise, non-alcoholic (NA) craft beers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, offering delicious alternatives without the buzz.
Innovative Ingredients and Fusion Styles: Brewers are getting creative with unexpected ingredients (think fruits, spices, and even seaweed) and blending traditional beer styles to create entirely new taste experiences.

Top Craft Breweries to Visit in 2024:

New Heights Brewing Company, Nashville, TN: Known for their bold IPAs and innovative seasonal releases, New Heights is a must-visit for those seeking cutting-edge craft beers.
Eco Brew Co, Portland, OR: Leading the charge in sustainable brewing, Eco Brew Co offers an impressive lineup of eco-friendly beers that are as good for the planet as they are for your palate.
Fusion Craft Ales, San Diego, CA: If you’re intrigued by the idea of beer that breaks the mold, Fusion Craft Ales specializes in blending styles and incorporating exotic ingredients for a truly unique tasting experience.

Must-Try Beers of 2024:

Galaxy Hopper IPA, New Heights Brewing Company: A hop-forward IPA with vibrant notes of citrus and tropical fruit, showcasing the best of Galaxy hops.
Green Future Lager, Eco Brew Co: A crisp, clean lager that’s not only refreshing but also brewed entirely with renewable energy and sustainable practices.
Mango Chili Wit, Fusion Craft Ales: This adventurous witbier combines the sweetness of mango with a hint of chili heat, creating a perfect balance of flavors that’s both refreshing and exciting.

Craft Beer Pairing Tips:

To enhance your craft beer experience, consider pairing your beers with complementary foods. For example, the bold flavors of an IPA pair beautifully with spicy dishes, while the subtle nuances of a Belgian witbier are a perfect match for seafood. Experimenting with pairings can unlock new flavor profiles and elevate your craft beer journey.

Conclusion:

A flight of craft beers.

The craft beer landscape in 2024 is teeming with innovation, diversity, and passion. By exploring the latest trends, visiting standout breweries, and sampling exceptional beers, you’re not just enjoying a beverage; you’re participating in a global movement that celebrates creativity, community, and craftsmanship. So, raise a glass to the craft beer revolution – your next favorite beer is waiting to be discovered. Ready to dive deeper into the craft beer world? Follow our blog for the latest brewery reviews, beer tasting guides, and insider tips on navigating the craft beer scene like a pro. Cheers to your craft beer adventure in 2024!