Big things are brewing (and distilling) over at Broken Goblet Brewing in Bensalem! If you’re a local craft beer fan, you’ve probably already sipped a pint or two at this beloved spot, but now there’s a whole new reason to visit: The Mixing Room – a brand-new distillery and taproom.

Broken Goblet, in collaboration with the Mutual Respect Brewery Collective (a name that screams local camaraderie), has truly upped the ante. They’ve transformed a once-abandoned space into something special: a 6,000-square-foot hub that’s part distillery, part taproom, and soon-to-be kitchen. And yes, it’s right next door to the original brewery.

Broken Goblet Mixing Room (photo courtesy of Broken Goblet)

A Bit of Background: From Dormant to Delightful

The space originally had a different future in mind. It was meant to house Key Spirits and a pizza restaurant until the pandemic threw a wrench in those plans. The property sat empty for years until Broken Goblet stepped in with their vision. Now, thanks to their hard work, The Mixing Room is alive, thriving, and serving up something for everyone.

This new space is part of the growing Mutual Respect Brewery Collective, which includes:

• Broken Goblet Brewing
• Trauger Brewing
• Lucky Cat Brewing Company
• CaféDilla
• And a soon-to-be-revealed distilling brand (yes, the suspense is real!).

Inside The Mixing Room: Inviting and Intimate

Everything is made with Mutual Respect at Broken Goblet (photo courtesy of Broken Goblet)

So, what can you expect when you walk into The Mixing Room? Think cozy and chill vibes. The taproom offers a mix of seating options:

• Low tables for laid-back hangs
• High-tops for a group night out
• Lounge couches for maximum comfort

With seating for about 75 people and a bar that fits 10, the space is designed to feel personal and relaxing. Whether you want to enjoy a beer in peace or catch up with friends away from the usual buzz of the main venue, this is your spot. As co-owner Mike Sweeney puts it, “This was an answer to the questions, ‘Where do we go to get away from the noise?’ and ‘What if we just want to visit for a beer?’”

Beer, Spirits, and Seriously Good Cocktails

Craft beer lovers, don’t worry – you’re still covered. There are 16 taps pouring beers from all Mutual Respect brands. Grab a pint to stay, or pick up some cans and four-packs to go.

But here’s the exciting part: craft cocktails. While the distillery waits for its official Pennsylvania license, they’re serving drinks made with PA-based spirits. And to make those cocktails sing? Meet Anders, the new in-house mixologist with over a decade of experience working at top-notch speakeasies and whiskey lounges like Philly’s iconic Hop Sing Laundromat and The Local in New Jersey. Whether you’re a cocktail connoisseur or just looking to try something new, Anders has you covered.

Once the distillery gets rolling, expect clear spirits like vodka, gin, and white rum to kick things off. Down the road, they’re planning to dive into aged spirits, fun liqueurs, and maybe even some canned cocktails. If you’re into sipping locally-made spirits, keep your eyes on this space – big things are coming!

A New Taproom, But the Music Still Plays

If you’ve visited Broken Goblet before, you probably know their large music venue space. Here’s the deal:

• The original taproom is now officially the Music Room, a space for private events and live music shows.
• The Mixing Room is your go-to for a laid-back beer (or cocktail) experience.

It’s a win-win: grab a drink and relax in the new taproom, or head next door for live tunes when the mood strikes.

Hungry? CaféDilla Is Coming Soon

No taproom is complete without good food, and The Mixing Room is no exception. CaféDilla – one of the Mutual Respect Collective partners – is prepping to open their full kitchen this spring. For now, they’re serving up a limited menu, with more details to come as things heat up. Keep an eye out for updates because good beer + good cocktails + great food? That’s the trifecta.

The Verdict: Why You Should Visit The Mixing Room

Broken Goblet has always been a gem in the local craft beer scene, but The Mixing Room takes things to the next level. It’s intimate, creative, and brings together beer, spirits, and community all under one roof. Whether you’re stopping by for a fresh pint, exploring their cocktail menu, or just checking out what’s new, there’s something for everyone to love.

So, grab your friends, check out this new space, and support the folks at Broken Goblet and the Mutual Respect Brewery Collective. Cheers to great beer, excellent cocktails, and a little bit of local magic!

For More Information on Broken Goblet

The following comes via Untappd.

Broken Goblet is a brew pub in Bensalem Township, PA. They have 570 unique beers and over 52,000 ratings, with a global average rating of 3.78 (as of 2.29.24). Their Untappd description reads: “Broken Goblet Brewing is changing your perspective of how you experience craft beer. Summer 2014 – We show you that broken can be BEAUTIFUL.”

You can follow them at these social media platforms:

• Broken Goblet – Official Website
• Broken Goblet – Facebook
• Broken Goblet – Instagram
• Broken Goblet – Twitter
• Broken Goblet – Untappd

For More Articles on Broken Goblet Brewing

• Beer Review: This is the Way (Broken Goblet)
• Beer Review: They Burn Them All Away (Broken Goblet)

By now I’m sure you are all sick of your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or even by text or phone or SnapChat or WhatsApp or Zoom or Flim-Flam-Floom or Blue Milk or Bantha Fodder or whatever telling you “May the Fourth Be With You” or some such ‘garbage’ or nonsense right? Maybe you don’t know the difference between a Dianoga and a Ronto? Or remember that the green Nautalan Jedi Master that attacked Chancellor Palpatine / Darth Sidious in Episode III – Revenge of the Sith was Kit Fisto (c’mon…. with a name like that how couldn’t you remember him?), or that the Prune Face guy from Return of the Jedi when they attack the Bunker on the Endor moon was Orriamarko…… Maybe sportsball is more your thing. Either way, pro-Star Wars or anti-Star Wars, or Luke-Warm (ah, see what I did there?) to Star Wars, there is still good beers to be had about Star Wars or similar nerdy things.

So as any reader here to the blog will know, I am a huge Star Wars nerd. Starting back to when I was in 6th grade. Over at a sleep over a friend had Star Wars cards (Decipher’s SW:CCG – Star Wars Customizable Card Game) and he taught me to play. This led me to fall in love with Star Wars by watching the movies, and got me going to a local card shop called Omnidon’s in Hummelstown. This is where I ended up meeting friends D. Scott and R. Dibeler and a whole host of other people too numerous to even begin to list.

As I grew older, I watched the Original Trilogy (OT), the Special Edition Original Trilogy (SE-OT), the Prequel Trilogy (PT) and reading a list of books longer than I have time to type out here. (Authors like Timothy Zahn, Michael Stackpole, Matthew Woodring Stover, James Luceno, etc, etc, etc.). I even named my youngest daughter Mara (those who know – will know).

Flash forward to Disney buying the franchise, and at the time my oldest daughter was 7. I was ecstatic to get to watch new Star Wars movies with her in theater. In preparation we watched episodes 4 (A New Hope), 5 (Empire Strikes Back), and 6 (Return of the Jedi). We saw Episode 7 – The Force Awakens in IMAX at the Whitaker Center. She was hooked. She loved Rey, she loved BB-8 (she was already hooked by Star Wars, already loved R2-D2 and Chewbacca and Yoda). Over the years we saw Rogue One and The Last Jedi in theaters as well, and even Solo before it went to Netflix. (Last day possible in theater to see that one). Sadly, her love for the saga waned a bit after The Last Jedi (she’s not alone there), so we didn’t see Episode 9 – Rise of Skywalker in theater. But, that is part of our “May the Fourth” today – getting to watch it on Disney+ (uploaded to the streaming service today).

Fun trivia fact: my oldest daughter was featured on TV at a Phillies game (Star Wars night). She wore her Rey costume to the game and they had her dance with the Phillie Phanatic and some of the 501st Legion (cosplayers) who were there dressed as Rey, Stormtroopers, Kylo Ren, Vader, Leia, Chewbacca, and Luke.

…So…. whats all this got to do with beer right? Well, yesterday, me and my oldest two daughters made the trek down to Gettysburg to Fourscore Beer Co. For the weekend they were doing a Star Wars themed menu, including the release of ‘Wookie Monster’, a 9% oreo cookie stout; as well as food items – Sarlaac Fries (french fries, beercheese, and cole slaw on top), as well as Mynock Gravy and Biscuits (chipped cream rib-eye gravy and butter biscuits), as well as a cherry tomato and mozzarella salad. We stopped; and I got a food item of each (Lily got the Sarlaac fries and loved them, Olivia-Grace got the salad and ate it as we did the Auto-Tour, and I got the Mynock Gravy and Biscuits – fantastic). Unfortunately, the Wookie Monster was sold out. (As you can imagine, that was going to be a big feature of today’s blog post). [Sigh]. I did get a crowler of the Mango Marshmellow Jahmba. Can’t wait to crack that open and devour it. I’ve yet to have had a bad beer from them.

Here on the blog however, I have done several beer reviews of geeky, nerdy, Star Wars, and other similar movie franchises. Pop cultural references always plays a big role in a lot of breweries beer names and even branding.

My most recent Star Wars themed beer (and beer review) was the above mentioned ‘This is Nut the Fluff You’re Looking For‘.

This was an absolutely amazing 15% Imperial Double Stout by Fourscore Beer Co. Easily a contender for Top 10 (New) Beers I’ve had for this year (granted; this year will probably see me drink less NEW beers than previous years just due to everything going on). The Untappd Description reads: “Brewed with a British Maris Otter base, loads of malted oats and a variety of roasted and crystal malts with a touch of lactose. Heaps of peanut flour were used in the whirlpool and the wort was racked onto a ton of marshmallow fluff prior to fermentation. More marshmallow is added at the end of fermentation along with peanut butter powder. Huge aromas and flavors of fresh peanut butter and marshmallows straight from the bag. A rich malty base of caramel and chocolate tones carry the flavors to the finish. Brewed with Founders Club member Eric Acumen.” If you like peanut butter beers; this will definitely be right up your alley. There is still bottles for sale at Fourscore Beer Co (as of 5.4.20). To read my full review of it, click here: “Beer Review: This is Nut The Fluff You’re Looking For“.

Another fun beer I did a review of was “This is The Way” by Broken Goblet. Another Star Wars themed beer, though this time based off the hit Disney+ show ‘The Mandalorian’ rather than from the movies.

Jokingly calling it a ME-IPA (Mos Eisley IPA) rather than NE-IPA (New England IPA) Broken Goblet made one delicious IPA, be a ME-IPA or NE-IPA or whatever you want to call it. This is a juicy, tasty, easy drinking IPA. No bitter bite, slight creamyness to it, nice flowing beer. You can read my review of it here: “Beer Review: This is the Way“.

And where would I be if I didn’t mention Equilibrium’s “Moon of Vega”. If we’re talking Star Wars, we have to talk Space Balls! If you only ever see two space or sci-fi parody movies (and so far, you only really need to see these two) it best be Space Balls and Galaxy Quest. Anything else is inferior.

Moon of Vega is a collaboration NE-IPA by Equilibrium Brewery and J. Wakefield Brewing; and they absolutely nailed this out of the galaxy. This was a super tasty, delicious NE-IPA that was creamy, hoppy, juicy, dank, and all the things you look for in a NE IPA. A 4pk of this just wasn’t enough. As you can see, I had this during one of our podcasts for “So A Mexican and A Scott Walk Into a Bar…” a podcast ran by some of The Extended Beer Thrillers family – D. Scott and Esteban. To read my beer review of Moon of Vega click here: “Beer Review: Moon of Vega“.

Below is a list of the Star Wars related podcasts we did for So a Mexican and a Scott Walk Into a Bar… (I’m featured on all of these). (Warning, language is Rated R and might not be safe for work.)

• Esoteric Antics: The Mandalorian
• Esoteric Antics: Rise of Skywalker and The Mandalorian Wrap-Up
• Rise of Skywalker: Commentary Track

Don’t worry, there will be plenty more Star Wars podcasts in the future, I guarantee that!

Star Wars announced some big movie and TV show news today too. Taika Waititi is to direct his own feature film for Star Wars. This is super big news. Click the following news article link from Star Wars (dot com) to read more: Taika Waititi to Direct, Co-Write new Star Wars Film.

While not a Star Wars beer, I did enjoy reading a Star Wars book and drinking a wonderful beer in the nice sunny afternoon earlier. The beer was Blue Hippo by Boneshire Brew Works (look for a review of that soon) and the book is Star Wars: Rebel Rising by Beth Revis.

Sorry I didn’t have a new Star Wars beer to review for this, I hope you all still enjoyed the article. Let me know in the comments what your favorite Star Wars themed beers are (or even ones you’ve seen, heard of, or drank). I’m off to watch Rise of Skywalker on Disney+ with my daughter. Cheers, and May the Fourth Be With You. Always.

-B. Kline

Firstly, the other listicles I’ve done:
* Our Most Viewed Articles (September, 2019)
* Some Old Posts (September, 2019)

From our friends at Let Us Drink Beer Blog:

Beer Review: ETA IPA (Wild Leap Brew Co.)

Beer Reviews by J. Doncevic:

Beer Review: Colonization (Adroit Theory)

Beer Review: EBK – Gashadokuro (Ghost 782) – Adroit Theory

Beer Reviews: Envie and Envie 4XDH (Parish Brewing)

Beer Review: Ekuanot Astronaut (BAREbottle Brewing Co.)

Beer Review: Ghost In The Machine (Parish Brewing Co.)

Beer Review: Enigma (Anchorage Brewing Company)

Beer Review: Ectogasm (Drekker Brewing Co.)

After a few months of us doing the beer reviews, I added the category – styles; where you can click through to find your favorite style or if you want to check out reviews for a particular style. I haven’t gotten to go back through and add the old reviews to the new categories, but I will. In the mean-time, we currently have 26 (and growing) in the IPA Category. You can find it by clicking it here: Categories: Style: IPA.

IPA Beer Reviews by B. Kline:

Beer Review: 40th Hoppy Anniversary Ale (Sierra Nevada Brewing Company)

Beer Review: Icicle (New Trail Brewing Co)

Beer Review: Trial by Wombat (Thin Man Brewery)

Beer Review: Furious IPA (Surly Brewing)

Beer Review: Back to Reality (Three 3s Brewing Co)

Beer Review: Petes Secret Stache (Revision Brewing Company)

Beer Review: Loki – Wild IPA (Newfangled Brew Works)

Beer Review: Doppelgänger (Tree House Brewing)

Beer Review: This is The Way (Broken Goblet)

Beer Review: Julius (Tree House Brewing)

Beer Review: The Hog (Boneshire Brew Works)

Beer Review: Citraquench’l (Heist Brewery)

Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewing)

Beer Review: Paradise Lost (Southern Prohibition Brewing)

Beer Review: Fuzzy Nudge (Troegs Independent Brewing)

Beer Review: King Sue (Toppling Goliath Brewing Co.)

And there are plenty more too! From breweries like Boneshire Brew Works, The Millworks, Tattered Flag, South County, New Trail, Troegs Brewing, Anchorage Brewing, Rotunda Brewing, ZeroDay Brewing, Newfangled Brew Works, and so many more! With more getting added constantly.

We’ve been running this blog since late May last year. I (B. Kline) have done a few podcasts (for both beer and pop culture). I am also doing a Beer Education series right now, with a running table of contents. You can see the table of contents (so far) below:

The Beer Education Series:
* Beer Education: Series
* Beer Education: Syllabus
* Beer Education: Introduction
* Beer Education: Module One: The History of Beer Brewing
* Beer Education: Module Two: Barley and Malting
* Beer Education: Module Three: Water

Hopefully (fingers crossed) there will most likely be Module Four released and posted tomorrow.

I hope everyone had a wonderful, hoppy, and happy Easter. It wasn’t my usual, but it was an Easter spent with family. So that in and of itself made it a good day. Got to do some grilling for Easter dinner:

Nothing beats grilling and drinking a wonderful (D)IPA like Time Keeper by Fourscore Beer Co.

So from us here at The Beer Thrillers to your family, we hope you had a wonderful hoppy Easter. Please stay safe, and cheers everyone!

With the success of any pop cultural phenomenon comes a beer dedicated to it. This is the way. Look at the myriad of pop culture themed and named beers throughout the craft beer world. Either current popularity or old nostalgia, beers love using names, themes, ideas, and pop cultural references. That’s the main thrust behind the Evil Genius marketing strategy, beers like Zey Goggles Zey Do Nothing, Santa I Know Him!!!, So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance, etc. A lot of breweries do it, some kind of reference to something else. Either as a homage or as a means of catching popularity and increasing sales. And being the sucker that I am for Star Wars, I fell for this one hook line and sinker. Thank the Maker this was good!

As many know (who either know me, or have been long-time readers of the blog), I am a big Star Wars fan. Been a major part of my life since I was 10 years old, and have loved it since I first came into contact with it. (My current reading pile right now as Battleground II: Inferno Squad by Christie Golden, Anthony Daniels’ Autobiography of his time as C-3PO – I Am 3PO, and Rebel Force Rising). My youngest daughter is named Mara – after Mara Jade (Skywalker). I could go on and on (or show thousands of pictures of my bookshelves in my office filled with Star Wars books, collectables, knick knacks, and Lego constructions), but I think you all get the general idea. (If you want to see my virtual bookshelves where I have all of my Star Wars books listed, you can check out my GoodReads Profile: B. Kline.) Also, I have done quite a few podcasts now with my friends over at So a Mexican and a Scot Walk Into a Bar… through either their WTF Did I Just Watch or their Esoteric Antics channels. I’ll provide links to the individual podcasts at the end of this post.

So as soon as I saw this pop up on some of my beer group feeds, I immediately started reaching out attempting to secure it. Throwing out ISO posts on tons of different groups and sites, finally landed me one. Thanks to Roy Ge who even met me at Boneshire Brew Works to hand deliver it (his first time at the brewery too and he loved it, so double win there). It came as a crowler and set me back just 16$, which was worth it for both the liquid gold inside and the awesome can art.

I enjoy the small nods and homages to the actual universe. Rather than just ticking off the box for the namesake and picture, they went a bit deeper, calling it a “MEIPA” rather than a “NEIPA”. (Mos Eisley IPA rather than New England IPA.) (For those not in the know – Mos Eisley isthe name of the city where Chalmun’s Cantina is that Luke and Obi-Wan visit in Episode IV – A New Hope, where they meet Han and Chewbaca.) Broken Goblet has done some fun and interesting crowler can art in the past, primarily their “Nightmare Fuel” one, which had Gritty’s face on it – even complete with googly eyes pasted to the cans.

Unfortunately I missed out on that one but if they ever come back out with it, I’ll be making sure to grab one of those bad boys. Thats about the biggest Philadelphia thing you can do right there. And for the record – I don’t care what you say, that 13 year old kid had it coming and Gritty is innocent.

But as you can see…. Baby Yoda is growing restless and sick of all this nonsense and wants his (or hers?) beer review. So lets move on and give it to him / her / it / whatever. (And yes, for the record, I know its “The Child”, and I know its not really Yoda, and I know the story behind the character… but it’ll still forever be Baby Yoda to me.)

Beer: This Is The Way
Brewery: Broken Goblet Brewing
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 6.7%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: A hazy IPA hopped with Julius, Idaho 7 and Citra then dry hopped with Julius and Citra
Broken Goblet’s Description: “This Is The Way” is a juicy “MEIPA”, brewed on-planet with Mykyr Neti, Ergesh and Grenade Fungi from Yavin 4, which are very similar to Julius, Idaho 7 and Citra. The brewery dry hopped aggressively “until the Ergesh became angry about the whole thing and bit Bub. Such are the perils of hopping beers with sentient plants”.

As you can see in my picture, I brought two glasses from home to D. Scott’s for the podcast. Had to make it “proper” by drinking a Star Wars beer in some Star Wars glasses and share it with one of the biggest Star Wars nerds I know. (Glasses came as a Christmas gift from Mara, so its all full circle.)

Appearance is a light and surprisingly not very hazy look for a New England IPA. Its relatively clear, and looks more like a general IPA or even “regular beer” as my friends would call it. Not completely transparent, but relatively so, no sediment, and obviously filtered. Pouring from the crowler (which was filled on location at Broken Goblet Brewery and brought to me just two days later and then consumed one day later) it has great carbonation, leaving a wonderful head and even on these small glasses good lacing.

Aroma is a fruity hoppy creamy smell, full of mango, some citrus notes, but pretty much full mango and some peach. I’m not familiar with Julius hops, but I am familiar with Citra and Idaho 7. You can smell the citra hops a mile away (as per usual with the hops) and the Idaho 7 has a nice blend with it. So lets do a little research on Julius hops: ….so far, nothing on either Hopslist or BYO: Compare Hops. HomeBrewStuff also doesn’t list Julius hops. And neither does MoreBeer. For all of these hop notes sites, the only J hops listed are Junga, Jerrylo, and Jester. So I honestly can’t tell you what Julius hops are, what the dry hopping of them adds, or anything really at all about them unfortunately. If anyone knows anything about Julius hops, please leave me some comments letting me know. I know about Tree House’s Julius. (Even did a beer review of it.) But I also know, the Julius beer, does *NOT* use Julius hops. So hopefully someone out there reading this will know something about it and can let us all know. The aroma is strengthened by the dry hopping, and you certainly get a good hop punch out of this.

Taste is super smooth. Creamy and very much like a light New England IPA. Lacking the hazyness and the unfiltered nature, and no real hop bite. This is incredibly smooth, easy drinking, and even for “non-IPA” fans would be very good (they probably wouldn’t even know it was an IPA). This is juicy, very heavy on mango, peach, and hints of citrus hop. Floral but very fruity. Not ripe and not pungent or overpowering, but just good fruit tasting IPA, like a fruit sour or fruit beer, or (non-alcoholic) fruit juice. There isn’t a heavyness to this either, it won’t lay on your tongue, it won’t be too much for you, its just simply tasty, smooth, crisp even, with the right amount of fruit flavor.

My Untappd Review: ****
Global Untappd Review: 4.05 (as of 2.7.20)

Well, thats my thoughts on this…. for anyone else whose had it…..

As always, thanks for checking out the blog. Like I said, I’m a big Star Wars fans, and so are the guys I do the podcasts with (D. Scott, D. Arndt, Esteban, and a random assortment of others who step in and out from time to time like Andy, Andy, Alan, Jared, Josh, etc.). You can check out the full podcast listing here: So a Mexican and a Scot Walk Into a Bar…
For the Mandalorian first-half: Esoteric Antics: The Mandalorian. And for our discussion on Rise of Skywalker and wrap-up of The Mandalorian: Esoteric Antics: Rise of Skywalker and The Mandalorian Wrap-Up.

I have done other Broken Goblet Brewing beer on here, you can check that out here: They Burn Them All Away (Beer Review).

I might be finishing up my series of Tree House beer reviews either tonight, or tomorrow, or Sunday, depending on if I go out tonight, and how everything shapes up tomorrow with the bottle / beer share at Tattered Flag. The last beer in the series is Doppelganger. I have previously done: Sap, Autumn, Haze, and Julius.

Speaking of tomorrow, I (B. Kline) will be attending (with D. Scott) the Breweries in PA beer / bottle share at Tattered Flag. I had done a local for local beer trade with a guy out in Eureka California, sending him Troegs Independent Brewing, Tattered Flag, Pizza Boy, and Boneshire Brew Works beers in exchange for some locals there. He…. kinda screwed me over on his end though. We were both to send out on January 31st (I did and proved receipt). He waited until package was in hand (attempted delivery on the 3rd, but his bar he works at was closed, and so he received it on the 4th), the whole time telling me he was sorry it was taking so long and that he would expedite it. Well, on the 6th, he claimed it’d be 200$+ to expedite it, and thus he would send it regularly. So, now, no ‘interesting’ California beers for the bottle / beer share. I will probably be hitting Breski’s Beverage and pickup something good from the cooler or maybe a big stout to bring. Sorry for those attending that my beers won’t be as interesting or likely as unfamiliar to most of you. I tried, I really did.

And, since we’re on the subject of Breweries in PA, you can check out their initial press release of This is The Way: Broken Goblet Introduces “This is The Way”. And while we’re at it, you can always check out the big article I wrote for them: Touring Through the Harrisburg – Hershey Area – Touring the Breweries That Surround Harrisburg.

With this event tomorrow, I will be doing a write-up / wrap-up on it. Most likely Sunday, possibly Monday. Sunday is a big give-away promotion at the casino, so its going to be a hectic day for me, and one I’ll probably need some beer afterwards. For tonight, maybe tomorrow, not sure, I’m hoping to get to Stoudt’s Brewery before it closes. So maybe me and a buddy will go tonight, or maybe me and D. Scott will go after the bottle share tomorrow, or we might go on a Wednesday or Thursday (my days off) next week. According to my phone, its a 48 – 52 (depending on traffic) travel time from Hummelstown to Adamstown. So not the easiest travel, but not the worst.

Some upcoming beer reviews are: Wild IPA – Loki (Newfangled Brew Works), Doppelganger (Tree House Brewing), Anagnorisis (Boneshire Brew Works), Pink Hippo (Boneshire Brew Works), possibly First Cut (Troegs Independent Brewing), I Cannot Tell a Lie (New Heights Brewing), and then eventually when the beer mail arrives – the California beers.

So please stay tuned for all of that. Also this Saturday is the York Hibrewnation. Would love to hear from anyone going and then afterwards how it went. Sounds great!

I am waiting hearing back from Brad Moyer to do our piece on Liquid Noise Brewing. That will be fun when we get that all set-up. The Mellow Mink one went fantastic and I’m looking forward to doing the same there.

As always, there is a ton of things in the works here at The Beer Thrillers, so please be sure to subscribe, follow, like us on Facebook and Twitter and keep drinking and reading along with us. Please feel free to leave feedback or contact us through our contact page. We love hearing from you guys! Hopefully I’ll see some of you guys at Tattered Flag tomorrow for the beer / bottle share. Thats from 11AM to 2PM and sounds like a blast. Let us know in the comments if you’re going.

Thanks for reading everyone, cheers!

-B. Kline

(Just a quick note, late addition on this, this is going to be a two-part article. First part a look-back at The Beer Thrillers articles of 2019, and the second part about our top beers, top breweries, and other happenings of 2019 for myself personally and the blog, and some of our friends in general. So make sure to check out both parts.)

So its the end of the year… end of decade even…. and thus its time to reflect back on where we came from, how we got to where we are, and where we are going. Humanity, since the inception of time, and creating of calendars and years and New Years Eves and New Years Days have always taken the last few days of each year to look back on their year, their life, and reflected, and thought about how they could better themselves, come up with “resolutions” for the upcoming year, and join in with friends and families as they ring in the new year. “New Year New You.”

We here at The Beer Thrillers are going to do something …. similar. Not fully introspective though, because we don’t take ourselves that seriously. But just a fun look back at the year that was 2019. I can’t speak for my co-writers, but I can say for me, personally, 2019 had its fair share of ups, downs, in-betweens, lefts, rights, diagonals, crosses, bounces, turns, jukes, and jives. But I’m still here and better for it all. But I’m not going to go on and on too much about myself personally.

Rather, I’m going to write about how the blog has done, where we started from, where we’re headed, etc. And yea, I’ll probably get a little personal. But nothing deep or philosophical or introspective. More along the lines of what were some of the best beers, breweries, or events I’ve done of the year. So don’t worry, the blog will uphold the Seinfeld idea of “Nobody learns, nobody grows, nobody hugs”.

I started this blog back on May 17th, 2019. (This year!) It was a Thursday, my girls (my daughters) were at school, I was bored, and trying to figure out what I’m doing / was doing. I needed something for my days off while the kids were at school, something that was fun, something I was passionate about, something that let me feel like I was being creative, using my talents, and something I knew about. I’ve been reading blogs, and news sites, and all kinds of things about beer for so long, and I have a lot of experience drinking… …and writing… that I figured why not combine the two? I was feeling like I was in a rut, my job is the same its been for the past seven years, I wasn’t doing anything outright ‘creative’ and needed an outlet for it, and we are in a review culture. I do all kinds of reviews all the time, in small nondescript and unimportant ways. Like reading books when I’m finished, I write up a review of them when I check them off on GoodReads. Same with Untappd, when I drink a beer, I write up a small (Tweet size) review of it. I also felt, I was in a unique spot to start this up. I was getting to a spot where I knew enough people “on the inside” or “in the business”, and I was also doing stuff beyond just being a consumer; like home brewing, growing hops, helping can at Tattered Flag, being engaged in conversations with home brewers and professional brewers a lot, that I felt like I could provide some interesting conversations and articles to the world.

Mainly…. I was looking to not be bored, and to do something I love doing – writing and drinking beer.

So I started the blog up on May 17th, 2019. Basically having no clue what I was doing. I started up using WordPress and here we are. Its still WordPress, albeit the ‘weaker’ version (fingers crossed come sometime the new year, I switch over to the more advanced version, where I have more control over the site and the appearance). I did a little bit of research, chose a name – which to be frankly speaking – the name “The Beer Thrillers” just popped up to me. Nothing too deep or crazy or interesting behind it. I was honestly conjuring up the idea that it would be me, and a few of my friends writing, thus the “Thrillers” and not “Thriller”. I thought me, Drew, Dan maybe, and a few others would all writing all kinds of blog posts and contributing. Maybe some of the insiders in the business I know too… …while this hasn’t happened exactly; I have enlisted friends and other writers over the year to help out. (More on that as I get to their participation.)

Outside of creating the home page and starting up the site, my very first article on the blog was a beer review of Troegs’ Scratch 375 – The CocoNator. As far as first time articles go, I have no problems with it. Counting the writing of my colleagues and fellow contributors and cowriters to the blog, we’re now up to 130 blog posts (this being #131). I definitely think I’ve come a long way from that first blog. But I also like to think I laid the foundation there. I set up a system for how the beer reviews (I do) are written, presented, and I hope they are written in a fun, interesting, educational, and most importantly entertaining way.

When I started this in May, I had just gotten a couple of cans from my shift manager at work – Jordan and used them a the base for my first few beer reviews. The CocoNator was quickly followed by two South County beer reviews – Painting with Light (May 19th) and Sundrifter (May 30th). Also during this time, from my recent volunteer work helping can at Tattered Flag I worked with and gotten quite a few of their cans (hard work and sweat at their brewery resulted in many cans of whatever beer was being canned that day, as well as lots of other cans they still had from past canning runs). Two of these resulted in the beer reviews of Boulangerie Stout – Imperial Churro (May 22nd) which was a collaboration between Derek Wolf of Wolf Brewing Co. and Tattered Flag and You Hoppin’ On Me? (May 24th).

I was trying to write fast, furiously, and get some articles out there as a starting blog, I knew content was going to be the main driving force (and still is). Quality content even better. Hopefully I provided the quality content. I guess thats all up to you guys to decide, but I like to think I did (or at least, like I said, hope I did). As you can see from my picture of the Imperial Churro; often times in the background or foreground or beside the beers you’ll see some of the recent books I’m reading, as well as my dog Leela – especially if I’m drinking at home where she typically has to get her nose into the business of all involved. On May 27th, I conducted a bit of a science experiment when I found an old (over a year old) Black and Blue Tastee from The Veil. I had gotten a four pack from one of my favorite bartenders – Chris – who had traveled down and muled some back up. I wrapped up May, my first month of writing for the blog, with my first beer review from a bar – Warwick Hotel – on May 31st with a beer review of Cinnamon Toast Crunch by Collusion Tap Works.

May finished, and my first month done; even if I had only started late in the month on the 17th, I felt accomplished with the blog. I published 9 total blog pages; which included the home-page, the author-bio page, the contact page, and other necessary background pages. Word was slowly trickling out about the blog, I was up to 59 visitors and 121 views. Not a bad first month – especially considering it was basically just two weeks (the 17th through the 31st). Lets say I was “pleased as punch” with the start of the blog. June was looking bright!

June started with a beer review from the Bissell Brothers Brewing Company – Baby Genius on June 3rd. Followed up by a bottle of LazerSnake by Three Floyds on June 9th.

On June 13th, I did my first multiple beer review, and my first beer flight review – from Troegs Independent Craft Brewing – of course. What other place would I do my first beer flight review? Troegs was basically my initiation into the craft beer scene when I was ….cough turning 21…. and was the start of my craft beer love. Troegs is still a wonderful brewery, a fantastic venue there in Hershey, and overall holds a definite soft spot in my craft beer loving heart.

June 14th ended up being my first “double blog post” day. Earlier in the day I had stopped in at Tattered Flag to pick up a four-pack, had a beer, and when home, wrote a review, and later that night, with my daughters, I stopped in at Boneshire Brew Works, had a beer, and did a review before bed. At Tattered Flag I had the Abra Collabra beer, and at Boneshire I had the Sunburst beer. A week later I did my first brewery review, when I took my oldest daughter to Gettysburg for the day to visit the battlefields and monuments. Before visiting the sites, we stopped for lunch at the Battlefield Brew Works. A day later I was back at Warwick for another beer and review – Manayunk’s King Crunch.

Around this time, looking to expand, I enlisted the help of a buddy and fellow craft beer aficionado and enthusiast, and Boneshire lover – Josh Doncevic. We had a few talks at Boneshire Brew Works, and we chatted on the Central PA Whalerz group, and discussed this and that and everything beer related, and I thought he’d be a perfect fit for the blog – and he is and still has been. And on June 27th, he took his plunge into the world of blogging with his first beer review Northmont by Yellow Bridge.

A flurry of beer reviews followed – Should Have Put Him in Custardy, a beer flight from Hershey Biergarten, helped close out June and start July with Josh’s review of Ectogasm. June saw the blog grow by massive leaps and bounds, we went from 59 visitors in May to 848 visitors in June with 1100 some views. July was looking to be a great month for The Beer Thrillers, and it certainly delivered some amazing beer reviews! Pink Guava, Inexplicably Juicy, Miami Vice, Old 51, Dillston, Saison and Hurry up and Wait, a beer flight from Tony’s travels up north at the Black Gryphon, Wolf Prints, and Mango Guyabano sWheat Tart.

On July 19th we launched our Twitter page. Which just a few days ago, we hit our 100th follower! (Time for me to plug in here and suggest everyone head over there briefly to follow us, then come back here.) On July 23rd we also started our Instagram page. I will be the first to admit that we don’t do as much with Instagram, primarily because I don’t know enough about it yet. Looking to learn more about it in 2020 and get that page going a lot more.

July continued with some more beer reviews like Enigma, Green Zebra and Next Coast, Good Walk Spoiled, another beer flight from Troegs, and Road Less Traveled. I ended the month by discussing my upcoming road trip with my daughters.

July also saw some fun and interesting events I got to do for the first time. I lost my Ffej of July cherry, getting to make it out to possibly the biggest, baddest, most sickest birthday bash / lawn party ever. Me and Drew also attended the Moo-Funk Home Brew event as well. July was certainly a fun month, but August was looking to be even better.

August started off with a bang, I took my daughters up north PA to visit Elk Country, then we visited Straub Brewery, then we went to Kinzua Bridge and after that stopped at Logyard Brewery and next door to it was Twisted Vine Brewery. That was Day One. Day two saw us hitting the Pittsburgh area. First at dawn we hiked McConnell’s Creek, then went to ShuBrew before going into Pittsburgh proper and visit the city where we did a whole slew of things like see Fort Pitt, take the Duquesne Lift, check out medieval Catholic relics, stop by a Jewish synagogue, see the outfield wall still standing, and we also checked out a few breweries like Cinderlands Warehouse, The Church Brew Works, and we finished the day staying at a motel right next door to Yellow Bridge Brewing. Day Two was a lot busier than day one, but just a much fun.

We didn’t slow down for Day Three. We had a whole host of driving to do on day three. We started at Bushy Run to watch the reenactment and check out the events, then went to the Alleghany Portage and Railroad Museum, and then went into Johnstown to see the Johnstown Flood Memorial and there we checked out the brewery Stone Bridge Brewing. From there we Staple Bend Tunnel Trail and then we stopped and paid our respects at the Flight 93 Memorial. On the way back home to the Hershey area we stopped at Olde Bedford Brewing.

Was a fun three days where we got to see lots of cool places, museums, memorials, monuments, and nine breweries to boot. Can’t beat that!

The beer reviews weren’t going to slow down in August either. Ghost in the Machine by Josh, a beer flight at Twisted Bine, Juicy Fruit sWheat Tart, and Caucus Race 6.0. Then shortly before my oldest daughter’s birthday I took her and my second oldest down to Antietam to see the battlefield there and on the way back home we stopped at Cushwa Brewing. Which I did a brewery review of.

They have since moved out of that building but they are still close by to the location. August still had plenty more beer reviews for you guys starting with Harrishire, Kettle Sour Series – Raspberry, Ghost in the Machine by B. Kline, Good Vibrations, and then I did a dual beer review from two beers I had at a Harrisburg Senators game – a Pineapple Kolsch and a Dry Irish Stout, Reve Coffee Stout, Rye for an Eye (my birthday blog post and beer), and that closed out the month of August. As for events in August, me and my friend Ming went to the Lancaster Brewfest and afterwards went to Mad Chef Brewing (my first time there) which was an overall fun event.

Moving onto September started with my cashing in my birthday taco coupon at Newfangled Brew Works and had a really tasty Kettle Sour from them. In September I wrote a piece for Breweries in PA and also posted it on my blog – the version on the blog is found here: Breweries Around the Outskirts of Harrisburg (9.6.19). It has become one of the most popular pieces on our blog, and I believe it has done very well for the Breweries in PA crew as well. Beer reviews certainly didn’t slow down: a flight of Levante and Tattered Flag beers, a flight of Troegs beers, Fresh Fest and Trail Day Pale Ale, a flight of beers from Mount Gretna Brewery, and Spundae.

September also saw me do our first listicle articles. With two – one celebrating our oldest posts – and one celebrating our most viewed posts. Followed by, as always, more beer reviews – Key Lime Pie, They Burn Them All Away, AuZealand, a flight of Ever Grain beer, Vanilla Ice Cream Stout, and a Sour Blueberry wrapped up September.

October started off with a couple of Boneshire Brew Works beers – Tried and True (Mango) and Iscariot. I then got to attend Dr. Alison Feeney’s seminar and event at Mid-Town Scholar “For the Love of Beer“. Afterwards I went to The Millworks and had a flight. I did a book review of Dr. Alison Feeney’s book – For the Love of Beer. We finally joined Facebook on October 17th, you can find our Facebook page here. We are now up to 154 followers on Facebook, hoping to grow more! Did a beer review of Salted Caramel Moo-Hoo next.

I was contacted back in September by Midwest Coast Brewing Company to do an advertisement article and announcement article about their brewery opening. And I think it turned out very well. This was the first time a brewery reached out to us and asked us to do a piece for them and I think it turned out very well. I did a bit of an interview with the owners / brewers, and talked about their brewery’s opening. This has led to Mellow Mink reaching out to us and inviting us to their place to check them out and do an article (January 2nd we’ll be doing that).

J. Doncevic did a review of Ekaunot by Barebottle. We then covered Rotunda Brewing Company’s rebranding of Irv’s Pub into Rotunda Brew Pub. Also did a news article on Pennsylvania breweries that won at the 2019 GABF. That was my first straight up news article for the blog.

More beer reviews: Athena, Sour Me Peach, Irish Table, Envie and Envie 4X, Yuengling’s Hershey’s Chocolate Porter, and to wrap up the beer reviews of October I did Fatum Series: Member Berries. We also covered Boneshire Brew Works’ 3rd Anniversary Celebration.

November was a crazy month for me. I challenged myself to doing 30 blog posts, one per day – MINIMUM, and I am proud to say I achieved that and met my goal. It was certainly daunting a task, but I did achieve it.

Here’s the list of my articles in November: Pumpkin Stout, St. Thomas, Walker Station Stout, a flight by ZeroDay, King Sue, Intergalactic Warrior, s’Mores LazaRIS, There’s Nuttin Butter Than a Nice Pair of Camo Pants, Secret Machine, Broken Heels, Animal Adjective, 556 Stout, Boat Drinks, a flight of Tattered Flag – Newfangled Brew Works – and Cox Brewing beers, Alpha Abstraction, Double IPA, Lager, Birra Di Levante, Tickle Parts – Passionfruit, a flight of beers from Appalachian Brewing Company, Default Brewing, Darwin’s Salted Forehead, Newfangled Pils, Gotta Get up to Get Down, Paradise Lost, Moon of Vega, Citraquench’l, Azathoth, a flight of Troegs including Mad Elf, and finally a review of Official BBQ and Burgers – Pizza Boy’s second location. WHEW! That was a lot to get out, you can read about it in the November Recap.

November also saw Default Brewing join us here at The Beer Thrillers. Headed by AJ Brechbiel, they are a group of home brewers who will be providing home brewing articles for the blog from time to time. They gave us a welcoming post in November: Cheers from Default Brewing.

I also started up a collaboration with Let Us Drink Beer blog. Where we would be guest writing and contributing to each other’s blogs occasionally. They are down south, and with us being here in PA, it seemed like it’d be a nice fit. Provide some information and beers and breweries that readers might not normally get to see. They posted their first article “Five Must See Breweries in Atlanta” in November.

Josh also wrote two beer reviews in November: Ghost 782 and Ghost 779.

December started off a little slower here for us, probably because I was a bit tired from November, or perhaps just because its the holiday season, I don’t know. But my first beer review was Ice Dreamz. I did a few more beer reviews in December – My Watch Has Ended, The Hog, Scrooge IPA, Sap, and Autumn.

Default Brewing gave us an introduction to their crew: “Meet The Crew at Default Brewing“.

I covered the guest blogging that was going on and Let Us Drink Beer gave us a review of Koki Bunni.

Finally, the last article posted in all of 2019 (outside of this one now) was a travelogue of me and Drew brewery hopping around Harrisburg. Starting at Boneshire Brew Works, and going to The Vegetable Hunter, The Millworks, The Sturges Speakeasy, and ZeroDay Brewing. Was a fun day jumping around from place to place.

Hopefully you enjoyed this look back on 2019 with The Beer Thrillers. The second part of this article will most likely be posted January 1st, possibly before work, possibly after work. I have to leave for work now, and work until (at least) 8PM, and will most likely be going right out to enjoying New Years Eve festivities with my daughters. Tomorrow I work 10-6, and afterwards will be doing a podcast with Esteban about LOST.

The second part of this series will cover top beers, top breweries, and other things about the year for The Beer Thrillers and myself. For example – podcasting.

So make sure you check out part two then as well!

As always, I hope you have a Happy New Year, enjoyed the blog, and continue to do so! Without you, we don’t need to write, so we hope you are having as much fun and entertainment with this as we are!

-B. Kline on behalf of The Beer Thrillers staff.

Some days turn out to be more productive than others. Some days you get lots of things done. Some days you PLAN on getting lots of things done. And some days… you start getting things done… and then you start drinking a 13% Belgian Quad at the bar…… at noon…. ….and there goes the day’s productivity right there.

This was one of those kinds of days.

Up and early at 6AM to get kids ready for school, drop people off at various places, walk younger ones to their school, and then back home to do chores around the house til 10AM. Thats when it was “errands” time. Which required getting to a printer, printing labels, sending beer mail, going to Target, the Hershey Library, and a host of other activities, and get them all done before said kids are done at school.

And of course thats when you get that text from your buddy at noon that just says “Boozin” and nothing more. *Shakes fist* And *shakes fist* at Boneshire Brewery being along the way (sorta…. kinda…. not really….) to Target. So needless to say, one (ie. me) never made it to Target until late at night (same thing with the Hershey Library happening much later as well). But I did get my shipment of beer mail sent before noon. So…. accomplishment and success? ….Calls for a beer! (Or two!)

Beer: They Will Burn Them All Away
Brewery: Broken Goblet Brewing
Style: Belgian Quadruple
ABV: 13%
IBU: No IBU
Untappd Write-Up: THEY BURN THEM ALL AWAY is a 13% Belgian Quad that not-so-subtly knocks you on your butt after you take in the balanced fruit and spice notes against the toasted caramel background. Raisins, plums, and a hint of wine can be expected, as will the giggles and a need to sit down after about 10 minutes.

Nothing like walking into your small-time local brewery right as their opening their doors and getting to smell the wonderful delicious smell of a brewery in operation. Shawn was manning on the bar and welcomed me right away and I took a seat at the bar and we chatted about how his old BBQ truck next-door to Boneshire Brewery (in between Boneshire and the 717 Armory) “Nomad BBQ” has been bought by a group of guys and they’ve rechristened it “Blues BBQ”. He seemed happy it was being put to good use, but at the same time, we said its like driving by your old home. The tree out back you planted has been cut down. There’s different doors and windows. The side-room has new siding thats a different color. They added a patio that doesn’t seem to match. The garden is gone. Etc.

D. Scott finally made his way in and got a Boneshire Brew and the three of us chatted, while Alan Miller (head brewer and owner of Boneshire Brew Works) occasionally popped his head out from out-back hard-working to bring us more brewskies in the future.

Enough about the crap surrounding the event, and more about the beer. This is a good Quad. But good god… you are going to feel it, and you are going to feel it right away. 13% is a good high number (most regular IPAs are around the 6-7% benchmark, DIPAs around the 9% area, and even TIPAs usually around the 10-12% area). So on an empty stomach at noon, 13% is feeling pretty grand and wonderful.

Lets start off with the basics though, aroma – very Belgian, very dark and heavy. You get plum and raisin, you get an underlying boozyness and smells like the empty bottles of wine (freshly emptied, not days old emptied). Stone fruit kind of dark heavy fruit smell. Some spice notes but everything else pretty much blocks it out – the spice just barely peeks through. There is a dark malt note as well, probably caramel, definitely not roasted.

Appearance is jet-black dark. Almost purplish in hue, with a nice thin head to it. Bubbles on top are good and varied. Its not a reflective dark but a more ‘enveloping dark’. (If any of that makes sense…. it does in my head at least, not sure how that translates to you the reader.)

First sip has the characteristics of a Belgian, especially a dark Belgian, but as the booze hits you it picks up and speeds across your tongue and BAM you realize this is definitely a QUAD and not even a DOUBLE. The booznyess is a bit upfront, bit more so than necessary, but probably too hard to hide given the wine notes and the high (13%!!) ABV. The booze burn slowly fades out and you begin to get the notes of plum, raisin, wine, and the malt characteristics of caramel. There is some spices to it (not pepper and not heated, just notes of various kitchen cabinet spices) that adds a bit of a flourish to it. But this is mostly straight forward dark stone fruit taste combined with a wine boozy overflow to it. The mouthfeel is a bit heavy but not cloying and nothing unpleasant. No after taste that disrupts anything either.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.95 (as of 9.21.19)

After this, me and D. Scott had a second (I had the new version of AuZealand by Boneshire – AuZealand 2.0 w/Lactose, and D. Scott had the Harrishire). So needless to say before I knew it, I’m leaving Boneshire at 2:30, just in time to get home, eat, down some mouth wash, brush my teeth, spray myself with cologne, and get the girls from school.

Productivity had to wait til later (and I did manage to get my errands down, just dispersed throughout the day instead of all at once). So all in all it was a successful day.

Look for an AuZealand review coming soon, as well as much more, and with the 6th Annual Lititz Brewfest happening tomorrow (9.22.19) look for some stuff coming out from that. Should be a fun day. The Lititz Brewfest is always one of the best in the state and goes to a great cause, and its due to be a beautiful 88 degree day.

Cheers All!

-B. Kline