Cox Brewing Company (CBC) - The Beer Thrillers

Cox Brewing Close Out Party

B. Kline — Sat, 30 Dec 2023 00:36:00 +0000

Cox Brewing Company Close Out Celebration

As many of you might know, unfortunately, Cox Brewing Company is closing at the end of the year, making Sunday, December 31st their last day of business. (You can read our full article here: Cox Brewing Company (CBC) Announces Closure At End of the Year)

Tomorrow – December 30th, they are throwing an all out party and going away celebration. The garage will be packed, jamming out, and everyone will get to say their final goodbyes to one of the great Central PA breweries. So come out and wish these veterans and this veteran owned brewery a fond farewell.

Last Weekend

Just a reminder, we are throwing an all-day party tomorrow, Saturday, December 30 (12-10), in hopes of kicking what beer is left and celebrating the wonderful community we built together these last eight years! There will be free food, swag giveaways, and live music.

Dan Jamison 3:00-5:00

Grant Bryan 5:30-7:00

Jordan Silva 8:00-10:00

As long as we have beer left, your last day to say goodbye to the garage is Sunday, December 31, from 12-5.

It’s been one heck of a ride. We’re feeling nothing but gratitude for all of you. Thank you for the love and support for our family business.

Cheers, Nick & Desiree, Tim & Audrey
Cox Brewing Company – Facebook Post

Cox Brewing Company Closure

See our article: Cox Brewing Company (CBC) Announces Closure At End of the Year for more news, but here is an excerpt.

Cox Brewing Company has been brewing for over eight years in the Rheems / Elizabethtown area of Central Pennsylvania. A huge proponent of home brewers, always offering assistance, as well as running events and local home brew meet ups, as well as participating in the Lititz Brewfest with giving prizes to home brewers.

Their closure will be felt in the brewing community as well as the home brewing community. A staple at many Central PA brewfests – like the Reinaissance Faire Brewfest at Mount Hope, at the Autos and Ales Brewfest in Hershey, the brand new Hershey Brewfest, the Fort Hunter Brewfest, the Lititz Brewfest, the old Lancaster Brewfest, and many more.

For More Articles From The Beer Thrillers

For more articles from The Beer Thrillers that we’ve written about Cox Brewing Company, check out the following:

For More Information on Cox Brewing Company

For more information on Cox Brewing Company – check out their Social Media Platforms. But first, Untappd describes Cox Brewing Company thusly:

Cox Brewing Company is a micro brewery from Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. It has 155 unique beers and over 14,500 ratings. It has a global average rating of 3.76 (as of 12.29.23). It’s Untappd description reads: “Cox Brewing Company (CBC) is a veteran-owned brewery located in Elizabethtown, PA in the village of Rheems.”

Find them on social media at the following:

Brewery News

Interested in finding out about many other brewery openings, new locations, closings, movings, and in general brewery news? You can check out our links below:

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.

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MAPS OF BREWERIES

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Cox Brewing Company (CBC) Announces Closure At End of the Year

B. Kline — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 02:36:30 +0000

Cox Brewing Company Announcement

Just moments ago Cox Brewing Company (CBC) made the unfortunate announcement – that their brewery will be closing at the end of 2023. Just twenty minutes ago on Facebook they posted a “Brewery News” update, stating that December 31st, 2023 will be their last day.

This is the second veteran owned brewery to be closing in the Central Pennsylvania area (with Tattered Flag closing in Middletown, Dauphin County).

The Announcement

At 9:33 PM on 10.11.23, Cox Brewing Company posted the following on Facebook:

After running this family business for 8.5 years, we’ve decided that December 31, 2023, will be the last day we are open. With the rising cost of goods and services coupled with a 2024 military deployment, it’s time to let go.

Our families are incredibly proud of what we’ve been able to build together for the members of this community – we know it is more than just a place to drink craft beer. Our garage is sacred ground, and this decision was not easy for us.

We have watched love grow here and friendships develop; we also lost friends who were like family, and miss them. It has always been our priority to make the garage comfortable for our Veterans and first responders.

We dedicate these last three months to our loyal customers. We are grateful (especially during the shutdowns) for your support, showing up, and choosing Cox Brewing Company.

So, some good news…

Wednesdays are back, we have a lot of beer to drink, and the parties and events will continue! So come over, get some pints, visit with the BEST brewery staff in this business, and help us finish strong! We will not go gentle into that good night. We’ll see you at the garage.

Cheers and with much gratitude,

Nick and Tim
Cox Brewing Company (CBC) – Facebook Post

Cox Brewing Company

Cox Brewing Company was one of our absolute favorite stops and breweries. I’ve gotten to meet so many great people there and at the many different hang outs and parties at both the Rheems location as well as their Elizabethtown location next to the Pizza shop.

I will miss sitting with Ron Bell and others and listening to great stories and getting home brew advice.

Amy also enjoyed the location as well, and we had a tremendous time recently when we had brought Scarlet along.

I wish nothing but the best for Nick and Tim and hope the deployment is safe, and wish them the best in their future endeavors. Hopefully only good and better things to come from them, the area, the brewers of the area, as well as so much more. We know this decision couldn’t have been easy and I’m sure it was a fraught and tough decision.

For More Articles From The Beer Thrillers

For more articles from The Beer Thrillers that we’ve written about Cox Brewing Company, check out the following:

The Battle of the Breweries (2023)

Cox Brewing Company had a fantastic showing in this year’s Battle of the Breweries; losing to fellow veteran owned brewery – Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery in the Conference Finals.

Voting is still going on (for about three more hours) for the tournament finals. You can vote here:

The Battle of the Breweries (2023) – Finals Fatal Four Way (Voting Page)
The Battle of the Breweries (2023) – Conference Finals (Results Page)

For More Information on Cox Brewing Company

Cox Brewing Company (CBC) – The Garage – Brewery Sign

For more information on Cox Brewing Company – check out their Social Media Platforms. But first, Untappd describes Cox Brewing Company thusly:

Cox Brewing Company is a micro brewery from Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. It has 152 unique beers and over 14,100~ ratings. It has a global average rating of 3.76 (as of 10.11.23). It’s Untappd description reads: “Cox Brewing Company (CBC) is a veteran-owned brewery located in Elizabethtown, PA in the village of Rheems.”

Find them on social media at the following:

Brewery News

Interested in finding out about many other brewery openings, new locations, closings, movings, and in general brewery news? You can check out our links below:

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.

MAPS OF BREWERIES

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

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Cox Brewing Company: Back to Their Roots

AmyMWolfe — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 00:56:06 +0000

Our trip to Cox Brewing Company

Our Trip To Cox Brewing Company

It was in between rain downpours we got to stop by the Cox Brewing Company yesterday. It was the hardest weekend to try to plan with this everchanging weather in Central Pa. But somehow it worked out in our favor and we got to enjoy a quick afternoon in CBC. With our 5-month-old in tow we decided to stop in.

We tried the Tropic Lightning and The Big red one. You know me, I couldn’t resist a snack to go with the brews. We shared the Gene Wenger’s meats and fine foods snack pack. It was the perfect combination of sweet bologna and Colby jack cheese. This was part of the offering for the “garage snacks” menu.

Tropic Lightning

Tropic Lightning (beer closest to Amy and Scarlet)

From Untappd:

Beer: Tropic Lightning
Brewery: Cox Brewing Company
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 4.3%
IBU: 11
Untappd Description: This tropical fruity kettle-sour ale made with passion fruit, mango, and pineapple purees (contains lactose).

The Tropic Lightning was light and fruity. From Untapped: This tropical fruity kettle sour ale made with passion fruit, mango and pineapple purees (contains lactose). With a 4.3% ABV it doesn’t kick your butt much. And on the muggy day it was on Saturday it was incredibly soothing. And while snacking it paired very well with the sweet bologna.

The Big Red One

The Big Red One (beer closest to camera)

From Untappd:

Beer: The Big Red One
Brewery: Cox Brewing Company
Style: Strong Ale – American
ABV: 7.5%
IBU: 68
Untappd Description: (Blank)

The Big red one was a good change from the kettle sour, this was strong and tad higher of an ABV at 7.5% according to Untapped. It had a great combo of tastes that tossed me back and forth between malty but roasty at the same time.

Cox Brewing Company – The Garage

Cox Brewing Company – The Garage – Rheems

We have been to the Elizabethtown (Pizza Town) location a couple of times, and Ben has been to the garage a few times in the past, but this was my first time visiting the garage in Rheems.

Enjoying our nibbles and the brews we were tucked in a garage bay in Rheems, PA. There was pub style seating, seating at the bar and some regular seating as well. It brings you back to the feelings of kicking back in your friends’ garage and enjoying some beers together. Their spot at the garage is friendly and you feel like you are part of their cheers meet choppers vibe.

From Ben’s article:

The garage in Rheems is their original location, and for many old school Cox Brewing Company fans and patrons they’ll remember it fondly. Its a big large open venue with an inside garage that feels very much like Cheers meets Choppers. I have fond memories of some of their anniversary events hanging out with Ron Bell and others at the garage. Looking forward to getting to come back out to the old shop.

You’ll be able to find the brewery up on the hill, back behind the house, in a garage / building bay. The address is:

276 Heisey Quarry Road, Building 1 – Bay 5
Rheems / Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania
Cox Brewing Company Returning to Their Roots

We decided to end our visit with a B-52 Belgian Dubbel and this was a decision we knew we made very well. To top off the visit with the toe-curling B-52 was perfection. It is listed on Untapped with an ABV of 8% and it is so smooth you’d never know. And to quote our long lost writer, Josh Doncevic: “For having such heavy flavors and notes, this is a beer that disappears from your glass and you’re left wondering where it all went and why it’s all gone.” I sit here regretting my choice to not get a crowler fill before we left.

(You can read Josh Doncevic’s B-52 Belgian Dubbel review here: Beer Review: B-52 Belgian Dubbel (Bottle-Conditioned, 2017) – Cox Brewing Company (CBC).)

It’s 2017 and a friend of mine has asked me to join him and his father at a small brewery in Rheems, PA. Back then I had never heard of Cox Brewing Company, much less tried any of their beer. However, it’s local brewery and I’m more than willing to check a new place out. We pull into an industrial and farm looking part of town and up to what appeared to be a hole in the wall. The kind of place that only those that were “in-the-know” frequented. And there we were, walking into a crowded and cramped garage that was abuzz with conversation. The whole time I was wondering just how good the beer was, but after the first sip, all doubt fled through that same garage door and I began enjoying myself. Spent a few moments scanning the chalkboard menu and spotted something very interesting. I was going to choose by name, and then I noticed the style. WOAH! “Dubbel” Now there’s something you don’t find very often. While being very happy to see the style, I have to admit I was still a bit of a sceptic. My personal experience with US brewed Belgian styles has been a bit spotty at best. Not many breweries seem to be able to replicate the unique taste found in Belgian beers. So naturally, I did what any beer nerd would do: I ordered a pint. I remember being very glad I was sitting down as much fresher versions of the flavors I’ll depict later washed over me. I enjoyed it so much that I vowed then and there that I would be back to buy two bottles, because only a fool would buy one. I returned a week later, making good on my promise. One of those bottles was had two years ago, and thought it unlikely that it would get any better.
Beer Review: B-52 Belgian Dubbel (Bottle-Conditioned, 2017) – Cox Brewing Company (CBC)

I would recommend to put CBC on your list of brewery stops and more than once. With the friendly atmosphere, slamming beers and yummy snacks it is good parts of what we all hope to find in a brewery.

Drink More Beer!
– Amy

For More Information on Cox Brewing Company

For more information on Cox Brewing Company – check out their Social Media Platforms. But first, Untappd describes Cox Brewing Company thusly:

Cox Brewing Company is a micro brewery from Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. It has 144 unique beers and over 13,300~ ratings. It has a global average rating of 3.76 (as of 4.16.23). It’s Untappd description reads: “Cox Brewing Company (CBC) is a veteran-owned brewery located in Elizabethtown, PA in the village of Rheems.”

Find them on social media at the following:

For More Articles From The Beer Thrillers

For more articles from The Beer Thrillers that we’ve written about Cox Brewing Company, check out the following:

The Battle of the Breweries (2023)

Cox Brewing Company had a fantastic showing in this year’s Battle of the Breweries; losing to fellow veteran owned brewery – Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery in the Conference Finals.

Voting is still going on (for about three more hours) for the tournament finals. You can vote here:

The Battle of the Breweries (2023) – Finals Fatal Four Way (Voting Page)
The Battle of the Breweries (2023) – Conference Finals (Results Page)

Amy’s Column Series

Since getting back to writing for the blog after a short hiatus, Amy has started up a weekly column style writing for the blog. You can find these articles here:

I’ve Missed Drinking (A Look at Non Alcoholic Beers)
Beer and Pretzel Review: Legends and Lore (St. Boniface Brewing Company) and Garlic Parm Pretzels (Pretzels.com)
Peanut Butter Eggs, Easter, Beer, and YAH Brew’s Shimmy Shake (Beer Review)
Cox Brewing Company: Back to Their Roots
You can find all of Amy’s articles here: Amy’s Archive of Articles.

Thank You For Reading

Thank you for reading everyone! (B. Kline jumping in again to close out the article.) We always greatly appreciate everyone reading our posts, and Amy has been so thrilled by the responses and comments her column posts have been getting.

I want to once again point out The Battle of the Breweries (2023) is wrapping up tonight at 11:59:59 PM EST. But you can still vote (well… until midnight anyway), check out the following to vote:

The Battle of the Breweries (2023) – Finals Fatal Four Way (Voting Page)
The Battle of the Breweries (2023) – Conference Finals (Results Page)

We have lots of great new articles here on the blog, a detailed look at each of the breweries involved in the Finals Fatal Four Way:

Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery
Allusion Brewing Company
AleCraft Brewing Company
Mad Chef Brewing

We’ve also wrapped up the Map of Vermont breweries, so that brings us up to three maps done so far. You can find them here:

Thank you all very much for reading. If you enjoyed the article, don’t hesitate to like, share, or comment, and make sure you subscribe and follow and bookmark the blog and site!

Cheers All!

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. 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!

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.

Beer Review: B-52 Belgian Dubbel (Bottle-Conditioned, 2017) – Cox Brewing Company (CBC)

joshdoncevic — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 21:21:25 +0000

It’s winter here in PA, and making it more apparent than ever that it is that time of year is SNOW. On the ground. Actual white, powdery, cold, SNOW. The fact that the temperature has plummeted into the lower 30’s is just the icing on this very chilly cake. With projected depths of 24″ in places, it’s time to settle in and ride out this “Snowpocalypse”. However, at the time of writing this, we’re sitting at modest 2″ just after 5pm. As with the colder months, glasses of heavier and thicker alcohols must be filled, if only to trick the brain into thinking we’ll get warmer. Stouts are typical and almost expected this time of year, but I’m not one to always follow the trend. Winter Ales exist for a good reason, though the subject of this review goes a step further. I’m especially referring to Belgian beer styles. Dubbels, Tripels, and Quads are among those heaviest of hitters. Three beer styles that can range anywhere from 9-15% and still come off impossibly smooth and delicate. Just don’t try to stand up too fast…or at all if you’ve had more than one. Perhaps then it seems fitting that I suggest you sip those styles of beers on a “night in” when you’re able to get regrettably pants drunk and don’t have to be seen or heard from at any local venues or watering holes. Wait…this is 2020, so what the heck am I talking about?! Let’s crack open a bottle and find out.

The mighty B-52 Stratofortress

Just before we crack on, I would like to set the scene a little. The beer that I am about to write a review for is the better part of three years old. Because of that, I am going to elaborate more than normal as this is decidedly not an IPA and as such, deserves a little more time and effort spent waxing philosophic. You’ll want to strap in.

The Beer

Beer: B-52 Belgian Dubbel (Bottle-Conditioned, 2017)
Brewery: Cox Brewing Company (CBC)
Style: Belgian Dubbel
ABV: 7.7%
IBU: 10
Untappd Description: A smoked Belgian Dubbel, bottle conditioned one year before release and aged with raisins.
Enjoy In: Tulip, Snifter
Enjoy At: 50-55 degrees Fahrenheit or 30,000ft

The last dram

The Review

It’s 2017 and a friend of mine has asked me to join him and his father at a small brewery in Rheems, PA. Back then I had never heard of Cox Brewing Company, much less tried any of their beer. However, it’s local brewery and I’m more than willing to check a new place out. We pull into an industrial and farm looking part of town and up to what appeared to be a hole in the wall. The kind of place that only those that were “in-the-know” frequented. And there we were, walking into a crowded and cramped garage that was abuzz with conversation. The whole time I was wondering just how good the beer was, but after the first sip, all doubt fled through that same garage door and I began enjoying myself. Spent a few moments scanning the chalkboard menu and spotted something very interesting. I was going to choose by name, and then I noticed the style. WOAH! “Dubbel” Now there’s something you don’t find very often. While being very happy to see the style, I have to admit I was still a bit of a sceptic. My personal experience with US brewed Belgian styles has been a bit spotty at best. Not many breweries seem to be able to replicate the unique taste found in Belgian beers. So naturally, I did what any beer nerd would do: I ordered a pint. I remember being very glad I was sitting down as much fresher versions of the flavors I’ll depict later washed over me. I enjoyed it so much that I vowed then and there that I would be back to buy two bottles, because only a fool would buy one. I returned a week later, making good on my promise. One of those bottles was had two years ago, and thought it unlikely that it would get any better.

Fast forward those two years and I finally popped the cork on the last bottle that had been sleeping in my cellar ever since. It doesn’t feel like it’s been three years, but with the way 2020 has gone, time is a mere construct, and a fickle one to be sure. Regardless, after carefully coaxing the cage and cork from the glass bottle, the sound of bubbles frothing and bursting echoed forth from the long neck to the tune of a Geiger counter. The effects of the beer contained within wasn’t quite so nuclear, though it will blow away the day’s stress or the frigid temperatures outside. This is a sipping beer in much the way that relaxation and a comfortable lounging chair are the quintessential furnishings of an in home get-a-way. The bottle reads 7.7% but with the way it drinks, you’d swear it was hovering just above the mid 5% range. Either way this beer doesn’t wash down the throat like either of those as it slips easily beyond the tongue and tonsils (if you still have them), down the esophagus and into a waiting stomach. Tickling your nose isn’t the sensation of bubbles popping but the rich, almost candied essence of raisins toiling and rising with a very mild and light smoke. And now to look at the gentle fluid now occupying space in your vessel of choice. A gorgeous, deep ruby red hue briefly accompanied by a coarse, thin, light brown head that evaporates shortly after being poured. Open the hatch, over the gums, and bathe your tongue in liquid bliss, as the taste buds pull out sweet notes of the raisins your nose sniffed out, laced with a subtle, yet comfortable smokiness. The concept might sound a little weird at first, but I assure that this combination not only works, it’s downright delicious. For having such heavy flavors and notes, this is a beer that disappears from your glass and you’re left wondering where it all went and why it’s all gone. Don’t stand up. Allow me to repeat myself a little louder: DO. NOT. STAND. UP. Not only will you likely stumble if you’ve downed the bottle yourself (which I may or may not have done in this case), but you’ll ruin the cozy, warm feeling you’ve likely built up while reclining in your favor chair. Allow the rich flavor to linger and envelope you as you sink deeper into that recliner. Relax and let your mind wander. Oh for that last sorrowful dram of sweet release, how does it linger. A slow flavor evolution that ends with hints of milk chocolate. Odd? Yes, but given that raisins appear in the flavor profile, chocolate only bolsters the thickness of this flavor. This was well worth the wait, so perhaps I should be happy there was snow as I would have left this one to age even further. Prost!

Only proper glassware will do

My Untappd Score: ****-1/4
Global Rating: 4.21/5 (as of 12/17/2020)

PROST!

J.Doncevic

End of the Year – 2019

BKline — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 14:46:39 +0000

(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”.

Scratch 375 – CocoNator by Troegs Independent Craft Brewery

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.

Boulangerie Stout – Imperial Churro by Tattered Flag and Wolf Brewing Co.

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).

Canning Day at Tattered Flag

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.

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.

Baby Genius by Bissell Brothers

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.

A flight of beers from Troegs Brewery

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.

An interior picture of the Battlefield Brew Works brewery.

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.

Northmont by Yellow Bridge, J. Doncevic’s first beer review here on The Beer Thrillers.

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.

Straub’s Brewery in St. Mary’s

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.

The altar at Church Brew Works

Olde Bedford Brewing in Bedford PA

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.

Cushwa Brewing in Maryland

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.

Taco and a Beer – a fantastic birthday treat, even belatedly

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.

Midwest Coast Brewing

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.

My hop arbor in the rain

November Recap

BKline — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 00:04:57 +0000

November was certainly one interesting month! The Beer Thrillers pumped out an incredible volume of blog posts – 34 in total. From four different people. Two being brand new writers for us. Myself – B. Kline – I pumped out 30 blog posts, one per day. It was quite the adventure, quite the journey. My blog posts averaged 1016 words per post, and there was 30 from myself alone, from beer reviews, brewery reviews, news, tidbits, events, and all kinds of things in between. From a large host of locations, from beers in bottle, draft, and can, from several new breweries, and many old standby’s of the blog. And just like I challenged myself to do a new blog post each day, I had also challenged myself to drink a new beer each day (new as in new to me, and a unique beer to myself), so this was certainly a very interesting, challenging, and fun month.

Some days the blog posts were easy. Other days not so much. Some days I had the blog post done at 7:30 or 8AM… other days I’m struggling to get the blog post done, and wrapping it up at 11:58PM.

I never truly felt like I had burnt myself out…. until I came to doing this recap blog post. Thats why its now December 7th and its getting posted; when this was meant to be posted on December 1st. And I still don’t think I’m ‘burnt out’. I think its a case of ‘start-up issues’. The hardest part about any blog post is starting the blog post. Like writing anything, the hardest part is the beginning, is putting ink to paper, or to type those first few words. So, as the time stretched from December 1st… to December 2nd…. to December 3rd…. I hesitated and procrastinated more and more, and this post went further and further by the wayside. So for that, and for the fact that the blog as a whole hasn’t had a single post in December, and no new blog post in a week, I apologize. For those of you who were looking forward to this recap posting of my “November NaNoWriMo Challenge”, I apologize. And yes, I know I’m not REALLY doing a NaNoWriMo, and I know I’m not using the term correctly.

But this is the recap post, and it is finally going live. I apologize for its tardiness, but hopefully you will enjoy it all the same.

I met all three of my self-set hard challenges for November, and fell short of a soft-challenge for myself. My hard challenges were: 1) One new blog post per day, 2) One new unique beer per day, and 3) One 1-mile or more walk per day. These challenges I completed. (Figured the 1-mile or more walk would counter-balance the fact I was drinking every day.) The soft challenge I failed was hitting my 10K steps per day. And I only failed that one day…. ironically the second day of the month. I only got 8.8K steps that day, mainly due to a friend gathering and party and having gone to it right after work.

But you all don’t really care about the challenges, and just want to see the recap right?! So here’s whats going with that. I’m going to make a list here of the dates (November 1st, November 2nd, November 3rd, etc.) as headings, and then underneath it, list the different blog posts we posted that day (mine, J. Doncevic’s reviews, AJ’s Default Brewing post, and the guest writing blog post by Let Us Drink Beer). I will also list what new unique beer I had each of those days (or in the cases of some days, ‘unique beers’). So lets to it!

NOVEMBER 1st:

Blog Posts:

Beer Review: Pumpkin Stout (Newfangled Brew Works)

Unique Beers:

Pumpkin Spice Stout (Newfangled Brew Works)
Catchin’ Feels (Tattered Flag)

Pumpkin Stout by Newfangled Brew Works

NOVEMBER 2nd:

Blog Posts:

Beer Review: St. Thomas (Pizza Boy Brewing Co.)

Unique Beers:

Rose Cider (Wyndridge Farm)
Blood Orange Cranberry Tart Ale (Troegs Independent Brewing)
Strawberry (Delp Brother’s Home Brewing) (Friend’s Homebrew at the party)

St. Thomas by Pizza Boy Brewing Co.

NOVEMBER 3rd:

Blog posts:

Beer Review: Walker Station Stout (Pretoria Fields Collective)

Unique Beers:

Wicked Watermelon (Redd’s Brewing Company)

Walker Station Stout by Pretoria Fields Collective

NOVEMBER 4th:

Blog Posts:

Multiple Beer Reviews: Sogni D’oro, Wastin’ Daylight, Market Research, Peach Novelty, Oktobock, Lucky Cat Lien (ZeroDay Brewing Co.)

Unique Beers:

Secret Machine – Key Lime & Tangerine (Dewey Beer Company)
Intergalactic Warrior (Toppling Goliath Brewing Co.)
King Sue (Toppling Goliath Brewing Co.)

Flight of beers from ZeroDay Brewing

NOVEMBER 5th:

Blog Posts:

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

Unique Beers:

Wicked Black Cherry (Redd’s Brewing Company)

King Sue by Toppling Goliath Brewing Co.

NOVEMBER 6th:

Blog posts:

Beer Review: Intergalactic Warrior (Toppling Goliath Brewing Co.)

Unique Beers:

Wicked Apple (Redd’s Brewing Company)

Intergalactic Warrior by Toppling Goliath Brewing Co.

NOVEMBER 7th:

Blog Posts:

Beer Review: S’Mores LazaRIS (Boneshire Brew Works)

Unique Beers:

There’s Nuttin’ Butter Than a Nice Pair of Cam Pants (Westbrook Brewing Co.)

S’Mores LazaRIS by Boneshire Bew Works

NOVEMBER 8th:

Blog posts:

Unique Beers:

Broken Heels (New Trail Brewing Co.)

Ghost 782 by Adroit Theory

There’s Nuttin’ Butter Than a Nice Pair of Cam Pants by Westbrook Brewing Co. and Edmund’s Oast Brewing

NOVEMBER 9th:

Blog Posts:

Beer Review: Secret Machine – Key Lime & Tangerine (Dewey Beer Company)

Unique Beers:

Schwarzbier (The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery)

Secret Machine – Key Lime and Tangerine by Dewey Beer Co

NOVEMBER 10th:

Blog Posts:

Beer Review: Broken Heels (New Trail Brewing Co.)

Unique Beers:

Adjective Animal (WISEACRE Brewing Company)

Broken Heels by New Trail Brewing Co.

NOVEMBER 11th:

Blog Posts:

Unique Beers:

Tattered Dreamz (Tattered Flag)
Twin Mount .50 (Newfangled Brew Works)
Government Overspending (2019) (Tattered Flag)
Seven. Point. Six. Two. (Tattered Flag)
556 Stout (Cox Brewing Company – CBC)

Adjective Animal by WISEACRE Brewing Company

Colonization by Adroit Theory

NOVEMBER 12th:

Blog Posts:

Beer Review: 556 Stout (Cox Brewing Company [CBC] )

Unique Beers:

Boat Drinks: Pina Colada Berliner (Crosstown Brewing Company)

556 Stout by Cox Brewing Company (CBC)

NOVEMBER 13th:

Blog Posts:

Beer Review: Boat Drinks: Pina Colada Berliner (Crosstown Brewing Company)

Unique Beers:

Alcatraz Sour Apple (Johny Bootlegger Beverage Company)

Boat Drinks: Pina Colada Berliner by Crosstown Brewing Company

NOVEMBER 14th:

Blog Posts:

Multiple Beer Reviews: Tattered Dreamz (Tattered Flag), Twin Mount .50 (Newfangled Brew Works), Government Spending 2019 (Tattered Flag), Seven.Point.Six.Two (Tattered Flag), 556 Stout (Cox Brewing Company)

Unique Beers:

Alpha Abstraction Vol. 8 (Wild Leap Brew Co.)

Veteran’s Day flight at Tattered Flag

NOVEMBER 15th:

Blog Posts:

Beer Review: Alpha Abstraction Vol. 8 (Wild Leap Brew Co.)

Unique Beers:

Double IPA (Newfangled Brew Works)
Lager (Newfangled Brew Works)

Alpha Abstraction Volume 8 by Wild Leap Brew Co.

NOVEMBER 16th:

Blog Posts:

Beer Review: Double IPA (Newfangled Brew Works)

Unique Beers:

Birra di Levante (Levante Brewing Company)

Double IPA by Newfangled Brew Works

NOVEMBER 17th:

Blog Posts:

Beer Review: Lager (Newfangled Brew Works)

Unique Beers:

Syndicate City Sour Peach (Johny Bootlegger Beverage Company)

Lager by Newfangled Brew Works

NOVEMBER 18th:

Blog Posts:

Beer Review: Birra Di Levante (Levante Brewing Company)

Unique Beers:

Tickle Parts – Passionfruit (Levante Brewing Company)

Birra di Levante by Levante Brewing Company

NOVEMBER 19th:

Blog Posts:

Beer Review: Tickle Parts – Passionfruit (Levante Brewing Company)

Unique Beer:

Great American Apple Pie (Stout Brewing Co.)

Tickle Parts – Passionfruit by Levante Brewing Company

NOVEMBER 20th:

Blog Posts:

Multiple Beer Reviews: Mechanicsberry, Bargain Black IPA, Embers Remain, Ragged Edge Espresso Stout (Appalachian Brewing Company)

Unique Beers:

Mechanicsberry (Appalachian Brewing Company)
Bargain Black IPA (Appalachian Brewing Company)
Embers Remain (Appalachian Brewing Company)
Ragged Edge Espresso Stout (Appalachian Brewing Company)

Beer flight from Appalachian Brewing Company

NOVEMBER 21st:

Blog Posts:

Default Brewing

Unique Beers:

Newfangled Pils (Newfangled Brew Works)
Nitro Stout (Newfangled Brew Works)

NOVEMBER 22nd:

Blog posts:

Beer Review: Darwin’s Forehead Salted Brown Porter (Fonta Flora Brewery)

Unique Beers:

Darwin’s Forehead Salted Brown Porter (Fonta Flora Brewery)
NVP (Nitro Series) (Breckenridge Brewery)

Darwin’s Forehead Salted Brown Porter by Fonta Flora Brewery

NOVEMBER 23rd:

Blog Posts:

Beer Review: Newfangled Pils (Newfangled Brew Works)

Unique Beers:

Gotta Get Up to Get Down (WISEACRE Brewing Company)

Newfangled Pils by Newfangled Brew Works

NOVEMBER 24th:

Blog Posts:

Unique Beers:

Paradise Lost (Southern Prohibition Brewing)

Gotta Get Up to Get Down by WISEACRE Brewing Company

NOVEMBER 25th:

Blog Posts:

Beer Review: Paradise Lost (Southern Prohibition Brewing)

Unique Beers:

Crowd Control (Southern Prohibition Brewing)

Paradise Lost by Southern Prohibition Brewing

NOVEMBER 26th:

Blog Posts:

Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

Unique Beers:

Citraquench’l (Heist Brewery(

Moon of Vega by Equilibrium Brewery

NOVEMBER 27th:

Blog Posts:

Beer Review: Citraquench’l (Heist Brewery)

Unique Beers:

Scratch 394 – Mango Tangerine Lime Tart Ale (Troegs Independent Brewing)
Scratch 395 – Pineapple Passionfruit Guava Cherry Tart Ale (Troegs Independent Brewing)
Scratch 396 – Dry-Hopped Pale Ale (Troegs Independent Brewing)
Mad Elf 2019 Vintage (technically not a ‘new’ beer, but my first of this year’s vintage) (Troegs Independent Brewing)
Coco-Nator (non-scratch version) (Troegs Independent Brewing)

Citraquench’l by Heist Brewery

NOVEMBER 28th: (Thanksgiving)

Blog Posts:

Beer Review: Azathoth (Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company)

Unique Beers:

Azathoth (Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company)

Azathoth by Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company

NOVEMBER 29th:

Blog Posts:

Multiple Beer Review: Scratch 394, Scratch 395, Scratch 396, and Mad Elf (Troegs Independent Brewing)

Unique Beers:

Not My Style, Might Rate Anyway (Pizza Boy Brewing Co.)
Visions of Yesterday (Pizza Boy Brewing Co.)

My sampler flight from Troegs Independent Brewing

NOVEMBER 30th:

Blog Posts:

Official BBQ & Burgers: Pizza Boy Secondary Location
Five Must See Breweries When Visiting Atlanta (Let Us Drink Beer)

Unique Beers:

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Gose (Westbrook Brewing Co.)

The food spread at Official BBQ and Burgers, with a beer from Pizza Boy Brewing Co. (Visions of Yesterday)

Reformation Brewing (photo courtesy of Let Us Drink Beer)

Whew, what an exhausting month November was. I think part of the reason it took me so long to get the energy to do this recap post, was knowing the amount of formatting involved and the photos…. and now that the challenge is over, a malaise kind of settled over me. Like my job was completed. I started this post this morning before work, and had to finish it now after an extra hour or so of work on it this evening. I still want to put in some statistics of the month, for the blog, and for myself, and will most likely come in and do the edit for that later tonight or tomorrow. I will also add the tags and categories. But for now, I just want to get this live and up on the internet. Its 7PM and this is long overdo.

I would like to thank my contributors and co-authors on this blog for making this month (and all the time in general) go so well, and for providing so much help, fun and entertaining blog posts to read, and for helping so much with the blog! Thank you J. Doncevic, AJ Brechbiel (Default Brewing), and Let us Drink Beer Blog. My blog post for Let us Drink Beer’s blog will go live tomorrow and I will provide a link here for that in the statistics edit I will do. In the meantime you can read their post about their upcoming additions to their blog here: Let us Drink Beer: Exciting Additions Coming Soon!

Cheers and I hope you all enjoyed all of our blog posts in November. Heres to the rest of 2019, and then on to the future, 2020, and the next decade!

-B. Kline

EDIT:

Some statistics from the month here at The Beer Thrillers:

Blog posts:

Unique authors:

4
B. Kline, J. Doncevic, AJ – Default Brewing, and Let Us Drink Beer

Visitors and Views:

2,767 Unique Visitors
6,293 Total Views

Twitter Followers:

95
(Goal was 100, just missed it)

FaceBook Followers:

Most Vewied Posts:

Breweries reviewed/beers of their’s reviewed:

Boneshire Brew Works
Tattered Flag
Newfangled Brew Works
Cox Brewing Company
Adroit Theory
Troegs Independent Brewing
Pizza Boy Brewing Co.
Levante Brewing
WISEACRE Brewing
Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company
Southern Prohibition Brewing
Heist Brewery
Toppling Goliath Brewing
Dewey Beer Co.
ZeroDay Brewing
The Millworks
Appalachian Brewing Company
Crosstown Brewing
Fonta Flora Brewing
Westbrook Brewng Co.
Equilibrium Brewery
Pretoria Fields Collective
Wild Leap Brew Co.
New Trail Brewing

Styles:

IPA
Double IPA
Black IPA
Brown Porter
Stout
Pilsner
Lager
New England IPA
Belgian Dubbel
Sour – Fruited
Sour – Other
Fruited Beer
Gose
Sour
Belgian Strong Dark Ale
Pale Ale

Some personal stats for me:

Unique Beers:

Total Beers:

Breweries Visited:

Boneshire Brew Works
Tattered Flag
Troegs Independent Craft Brewery
ZeroDay Brewing
The Millworks
Official BBQ and Burgers – Pizza Boy’s Secondary Location
Newfangled Brew Works
Appalachian Brewing Company

New Restaurants/Bars:

The Gin Mill
Official BBQ and Burgers

Again, thank you all for reading. This post has now been updated with tags and categories. Please leave a like, a comment, and please follow us!

Thank you everyone!

Cheers!!

-B. Kline

Multiple Beer Reviews: Tattered Dreamz (Tattered Flag), Twin Mount .50 (Newfangled Brew Works), Government Spending 2019 (Tattered Flag), Seven.Point.Six.Two (Tattered Flag), 556 Stout (Cox Brewing Company)

BKline — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 04:47:02 +0000

My flight of 5 beers from Tattered Flag (as well as their collaborations with Newfangld Brew Works and Cox Brewing Company) on Veterans Day

Monday was Veteran’s Day and it was a bit of a busy day for me. At least at work it was; as usual most Monday holidays tend to be a bit busier at work. So after work I jumped right on I-81 and drove the 26 minutes to get to Tattered Flag. And to be honest, I couldn’t think of a better place to be Monday night than at Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery. A veteran owned brewery with veteran employees on Veterans Day sounded like a perfect idea to me.

As anyone who has been familiar with this blog knows, I did the 556 Stout review already, (two days ago in fact), but I will gloss over it at the end of this flight review. Needless to say it’s my favorite of this flight.

Also, anyone who has been checking in with us daily has seen that I am doing a blog post per day the entire month of November. This is day 14 and this is my 14th blog post of the month. It is also blog post #100 (if counting small posts discussing our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts, and counting our two listicle posts – Old Articles and Most Popular Articles). And its amazing to see that today we also hit 100 likes on our FaceBook page with a total of 102 followers counting RSS. We also pushed up to 80 on Twitter. So today is a bit of a milestone in that sense. So I would like to take the time right now to thank everyone who has read any of the posts, commented, liked, followed, subscribed, up-voted, thumbs-upped, retweeted, or anything else. We greatly appreciate it. It means a lot to me and J. Doncevic. Thank you!

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, lets move on to this wonderful beer flight!

Tattered Dreamz – a sour collaboration between Tattered Flag and Wolf Brewing Co.

First up on my flight is Tattered Dreamz. This sour behemoth is a collaboration between Tattered Flag and Wolf Brewing Co.; created for the Brewsgiving Brew Fest. This is a special collaboration brewfest where each beer you have there is a beer created by breweries in a joint collaboration effect. Tattered Flag worked with Wolf Brewing Co. at the brewfest. Other breweries that did brews together included Pilger Ruh with Snitz Creek, as well as Liquid Noise and Cold Spring, Hidden Stories, Lindgren Brewing, Cave Brewing, Rotunda Brewing, and many others. Always sounds like a killer and fun event and one I’ve been wanting to check out for a while but unfortunately due to work I haven’t yet. The winners compete for tag championship belts. Last year Tattered Flag and Wolf Brewing Co. won and this year they came in second place.

This beer is worthy of second place minimum. Its a terrific high end, high ABV, sour that will just blow you away.

Beer: Tattered Dreamz
Brewery: Tattered Flag
Collaborator: Wolf Brewing Co.
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 10.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: A Collaboration with Wolf Brewing Co. This fruit imperial sour was brewed with Apricots, Peaches, Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Vanilla.

First off, its a rarity to see or find sours that cross the 8% threshold. Especially ones that are done this well. The few 8%+ ones I’ve had ended up tasting too boozy or just being a bit too all over this place. Not the case for this beautiful gem.

Appearance is a soft orange. Similar in look and coloring and appearance to that of hazy NEIPAs; it has the unfiltered opaque look with a sugary-ness left over on the glass as you drink it similar to a lot of other fruited sours and smoothie sours. The lacing on the glass s legit and well, and at initial pouring there is a thin ring of head to it. A small look of sediment but nothing too bothersome.

Aroma is kind of similar to milkshake IPAs and fruited sours. You get notes of vanilla, notes of apricot and peach. A lot of apricot aroma as you inhale deeply on it. Small traces of the cinnamon and nutmeg but almost imperceptible and subtle. Not a whole lot of nose on those flavors. The vanilla is noticeable and gives it a nice creamy smell to it that like I said gives kind of a nose of milkshake IPAs.

Taste is just phenomenal and will blow you away. This is extremely delicious. Easily drinkable and with how delicious it is, and at the high ABV that it is, this is just scary. My initial quick Untappd write up on it reads: “ Extremely delicious sour. Vanilla and apricot heavy with notes of peach. Not a whole lot of nutmeg and cinnamon but a slight spice finish. ” And this pretty much holds up; just needs some explaining. It is extremely delicious (and it is a sour, duh). You do get mostly vanilla and apricot from drinking this especially at the start. The vanilla and lactose makes it smooth, and gives it a creamy taste. Apricot takes the forefront of the flavors with some peach coming in. The cinnamon and nutmeg is very minute however. Which is probably a good thing because I’m not sure how those flavors in abundance would have affected the taste of this, and this is so damn good as it is right now, I’d think it might make it worse. The mouthfeel for this is smooth and thick, very heavy, very textual, lovely. Nice pulp left on the glass after drinking.

This is still currently on tap at Tattered Flag; not sure how much they made in addition to what they made for the Brewsgiving event, so it might not last long. I believe they did a minimal canning run for this as well. So make sure to stop in and grab a draft (or cans if they did canning / have any left). You won’t regret it!

My Untappd Rating: ****.50
Global Untappd Rating: 4.17 (as of 11.14.19)

Another sour from Wolf Brewing Co we reviewed: Wolf Prints.

What a great way to kick off this flight. And moving on….

Twin Mount .50 by Newfangled Brew Works with Tattered Flag, Cox Brewing Company, and 717 Armory

In honor of Veterans Day, three local breweries, as well as a local armory all joined forces. All three breweries are veteran owned, as well as the armory. Those breweries are: Tattered Flag, Newfangled Brew Works, and Cox Brewing Company. The armory is 717 Armory. All four joined up to brew three different beers, giving each brewery their own one as main credit, and the other two breweries being listed as collaborators on each one. Those three beers are: Twin Mount .50 (Newfangled lead), Seven.Point.Six.Two (or 7.62) (Tattered Flag lead), and 556 Stout (Cox Brewing Company lead). The beers will be on tap at each of their locations, and all of them are on tap at Tattered Flag. On Veterans Day they also did a special sampling session at the 717 Armory (located on Derry Street in Rutherford, right next to Boneshire Brew Works and the BBQ food truck), where they also gave veterans a free hour on the range.

Tattered Flag’s beer is an IPA (the 7.62 IPA), the Cox Brewing Company is a stout (the 556 Stout), and Newfangled Brew Works’ beer is a Belgian (the Twin Mount .50).

Beer: Twin Mount .50
Brewery: Newfangled Brew Works
Collaborators: Tattered Flag, Cox Brewing Company, 717 Armory
Style: Belgian Tripel
ABV: 9%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: Belgian Tripel brewed as an all Veteran Collaboration with Tattered Flag, Cox Brewing Co and 717 Armory.

Belgians, Tripels, Quads, Dark Belgians, Dubbels, any and all Belgians are one of my favorite styles (when done right obviously). It always just has wonderful taste, wonderful notes, wonderful characteristics, and isn’t done that often, that it makes it such a fantastic style. And this is certainly no exception.

Appearance is similar to that of the Tattered Dreamz but translucent rather than opaque. Not hazy, filtered rather than unfiltered, no sediment or pulp or sugar on the glass. Thin ring of head that looks good and shows a nice carbonation. Good lacing on the glass as you drain it down. The coloring looks slightly more IPA-ish than a normal Belgian, but I think thats due to its sweetness. Which is unusual for a Belgian, but not unheard of, and not in a bad way.

Aroma is all about that yeast. That typical Belgian yeast brings out a forefront yeasty smell on the aroma that is typical for Belgians and is just classic. If you like the style you can note it a mile away, even without knowing what style or what kind of beer you are smelling or tasting. There is also a sweet smell to this that ties in I think with the coloring, and certainly ties in with the taste.

Taste is your usual Belgian. Very high note of the yeast strain that is common to Belgian. You get a lot of coriander and the usual Belgian spices. But this has an overarching theme of sweetness to it. An underlying taste to it that is just sweet and makes this a very smooth Belgian. I’ve had a few like this in the past and its a nice change of pace to that of regular Belgians. It adds a nice complexity to an already dense and complex beer style and just creates a bit of a different mouth feel and flavor than one you normally expect or are prepared to expect in the beer.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.97 (as of 11.14.19)

Another Newfangled Brew Works beer we reviewed: Pumpkin Stout or Guava Lemonade Kettle Sour.

Moving on to a regular IPA from Tattered Flag, and solely their own creation, no collaborators for this one.

Government Overspending 2019 by Tattered Flag

I know from talking to the guys at Tattered Flag that this is a different version than last year’s. They tweaked and changed the recipe of it enough to feel confident calling it “Government Overspending 2019” rather than just continuing with “Government Overspending”. Interestingly though, I couldn’t find the original check-in for this on Untappd (No Government Overspending listed anyway on the app) and I don’t believe I had it; or if I did, I don’t recall it, and unable to look it up. So I’m not sure if they ret-conned it and retroactively changed the name of the old version, or if it got deleted, or if it never really existed like I thought it did. Not sure. But I do know from talking to the actual brewers and owners, that this is a second version of this beer. Regardless of whatever the prior version was called.

Beer: Government Overspending 2019
Brewery: Tattered Flag
Style: IPA – Triple New England
ABV: 10.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: Its time to overspend again. This year we used a ton of Galaxy in this years version of Government Overspending. Then we used more Galaxy Citra and Mosiac to Triple Dry hop this beer.

So right there, from the Untappd write-up you can tell its the second year of it. Just no idea what happened to the original version of this in the app.

(So… I’m not crazy… …maybe…. sorta…. …possibly…)

Anyway….. back to the beer…. appearance wise… its a golden orange, hazy, unfiltered, as per the NEIPA style. This is probably slightly more on the yellow spectrum then most NEIPAs, especially TIPA (Triple IPAs) ones. Again, as per with the rest of the beers of the flight, the carbonation was good, giving it a nice foam head, small ring of diverse bubbles, and followed by good lacing on the glass.

Aroma is straight hop. Juicy hop. Fruity citrusy hops. Galaxy is really a wonderful hop and has quickly become one of my favorites. Even before reading the write up on this, from aroma alone I could pinpoint Mosaic and Galaxy. They are such distinct, wonderful hops and provide such great aroma and taste. The triple dry hopping really brings the hop aroma to the front.

Taste is pure hop juicyness. No bitterness. This is soft, pillowy, very dank, delicious hop brew. All kinds of wonderful hop notes and citrus and juicy hop flavors play over your mouth as you drink this down. The high ABV is barely noticeable.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 4.02 (as of 11.14.19)

We’ve done several IPAs from Tattered Flag in the past: You Hoppin On Me? , Banana Milkshake IPA, Inexplicably Juicy, and Multiple Beer Review – Levante and Tattered Flag.

Seven.Point.Six.Two or 7.62 IPA by Tattered Flag with collaborators Newfangled Brew Works, Cox Brewing Company, and 717 Armory

Tattered Flag’s turn to take the lead on one of the collaborations from Vet Collab day. And of course they’d make an IPA. …or maybe a sour… or… or…. But yea, Tattered Flag has become known for their IPAs (and sours) in recent years, and for good reason: they are pumping out some amazing IPAs (and sours).

Beer: Seven.Point.Six.Two (7.62) IPA
Brewery: Tattered Flag
Collaborators: Newfangled Brew Works, Cox Brewing Company (CBC), 717 Armory
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 7.62%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: Seven.Point.Six.Two a 7.62% NEIPA made with veterans blend hops The 2019 Veterans Blend is comprised of five different Pacific Northwest-grown varieties including Simcoe®, Loral® and Ahtanum®. It will perform well in any hop forward beer, providing a well-balanced mix of tropical, citrus and herbal aromas. Proceeds go to wounded warriors family support fund. Collaboration with Cox and Newfangled brewery.

It is always heart warming, and awesome, and amazing to see when beers and breweries give some of their proceeds and money earned to charities. Especially ones in such need like Wounded Warriors. Just a great showing by Pat (owner of Tattered Flag) and the others from Newfangled, Cox Brewing, and 717 Armory, to do this. I cannot fully endorse this more.

This has more of that typical NEIPA look than even the Triple NEIPA (Government Overspending 2019) had. This has the hazy, opaque, unfiltered, glowy orange juice like look to it. And once again, nice carbonation, and nice lacing. Good theme going for the day on both of those fronts.

Aroma is very floral hoppy. A nice selection of different style of hops brings out a very well rounded aroma to this. Sometimes a wide variety of hop can provide for too much of a jumbled aroma, with competing smells of floral or herbal or citrus or pine, (same thing can happen with taste, too many bitter vs. citrus hop blends that don’t pan out well), but here this all works well, its a nice varied combination to make a layered floral hoppy bouquet. It just works.

Taste is similar to aroma, as is often the case. Its a floral hoppy cornucopia of hop flavors and tastes. I like this a bit more than Government Overspending (2019) primarily due to it having a bit of a bitterness to it, kind of uncommon for NEIPAs, but there is just a bit of a bitterness bite to this that provides it with a kick and a punch to it that is lacking from Government Overspending. I like that, and despite it, there is also a smoothness to this, probably some lactose or other smoothing agent in the beer (possibly vanilla as I get slight notes of it, which could also be lactose, or could also be a sign that this is beer #4 in a flight of 5).

This compares nicely to the recent New Trails Broken Heels I had.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.23 (as of 11.14.19)

556 Stout by Cox Brewing Company (CBC), with Tattered Flag, Newfangled Brew Works, and 717 Armory

Ok, so I reviewed this one separately, and in more depth just a few days ago. You can read that review here: 556 Stout by Cox Brewing Company (CBC).

But, I will give the bare-bones information on it here:

Beer: 556 Stout
Brewery: Cox Brewing Company (CBC)
Collaborators: Newfangled Brew Works and Tattered Flag
Style: Stout – American
ABV: 5.56%
IBU: No
Untappd Write-Up: Vet Collab Stout with Newfangled and Tattered Flag

Fast forward through a lot of the review, to just my thoughts on the taste (if you want to read more, check out the other article, its far more in-depth):

” Taste is what really drives this. It is immediately amazing. Wonderful flavor profile, wonderful mouth feel, wonderful taste, wonderful notes and characteristics, and …. wonderful any other cliche catch-all terms that you want to use. Its sweet, its malty, its caramel, its dark, its heavy, its low key and not boozy, and only a 5.56% ABV (get it… … …you know… since the name is 556… they made sure to work the OG and sugars to make it 5.56% ABV). This all combines perfectly and into one wonderful stout. A perfect cold weather stout, a perfect warm weather stout, a perfect all year round stout. But more importantly, a perfect Veteran’s Day stout. “

Some other stouts we’ve reviewed are: S’Mores LazaRIS, Walkers Station Stout, Vanilla Ice Cream Stout, Salted Caramel Moo Hoo, and Irish Table.

My Untappd Rating: ****.75
Global Untappd Rating: 4.1 (as of 11.14.19; on the previous article, there wasn’t enough ratings yet to give it a global rating).

(I will point out that the 556 Stout was my absolute favorite of the flight. And if I had to rank my flight of 5, it would go like this:

1. 556 Stout
2. Tattered Dreamz
3. Seven.Point.Six.Two (7.62) IPA
4. Twin Mount .50
5. Government Overspending

Thats not to say any of the lower ordered ones were bad, just how this flight went. And considering my ratings for them, you can see that it was an amazing flight!)

Well, I’m shooting a buzzer beater with this one. Finishing this up right now its 11:40. So just barely getting this to print (or to screen) before the deadline and maintaining my blog post per day. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little bit smoother and I get my post up sooner. I am also going to be doing more work / editing on this in the morning. So if you read it now, and then re-read it around 9AM, there will be some edits, links added in, and other things. I’ll note them here at the ending in an “UPDATE: EDIT” section.

Thanks for reading everyone. Thanks for getting us to 100 blog posts. And thanks for getting us to 80 Twitter Followers and 102 FaceBook followers. We appreciate each and every one of you!

UPDATE / EDIT: Ok, so starting at 6AM when I woke up… well… ok… 630AM after I watched The Mandalorian’s newest episode…. I went through and linked up things to their correct places. This should look better. No content changes, just cosmetic changes. Last night I was pretty tired and feeling kinda lazy to do a lot of the HTML / inside / behind the scenes work of the blog, and just posted up the writing side of it. Now it looks more accurate. Sorry for those who read the original version and didn’t see the links. (Not a huge change made.)

Also, just to reiterate we are on the Top 100 Best Beer Blogs currently sitting at #11. We debuted at #137 and second week went to #11 and have sat there ever since. Would be great to gain some momentum and move up! Be sure to check out the site, and click back to us, not sure if it helps, but it certainly can’t hurt anyway.

We’re making a lot of big strides here at The Beer Thrillers. We just hit 100+ posts, 100+ followers on Facebook, and 80+ Twitter followers. Coming in with the new year we are looking to move over to a full blog status, adding a home brewer to our writing staff, and possibly one or two more writers to our staff. Lots and lots of content for lots and lots of people to read, so make sure to like, subscribe, follow, and do all the fun stuff so you can see all our hard work! We appreciate you checking us out, and thanks for making all of this hard work so much fun!

Cheers All!

-B. Kline

Beer Review: 556 Stout (Cox Brewing Company [CBC] )

BKline — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 03:11:06 +0000

556 Stout by Cox Brewing Company (CBC), Tattered Flag, and Newfangled Brew Works – served at Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery in Middletown, PA

So yesterday was just kind of one of those days. Long day at work. Went directly to Tattered Flag and had me a flight. Spending the night at a veteran owned brewery with several veterans who work there, on Veteran’s Day sounded like a fantastic idea. For veterans they were doing free burger or half rack of ribs as well as a beer, and they just put on tap a bunch of veteran / military themed beers brewed along with two other veteran owned breweries in the area – Cox Brewing Company and Newfangled Brew Works.

Yesterday’s flight at Tattered Flag

The flight I had was Tattered Dreamz (collab with Wolf Brewing Co.), Twin Mount .50, Government Overspending 2019, Seven.Point.Six.Two and then this stout – 556 Stout by Cox Brewing Co. The collaborations each got headlined by one of the breweries: Twin Mount .50 is Newfangled Brew Works first, with collab credits to Tattered Flag and Cox Brewing, Seven.Point.Six.Two is credited to Tattered Flag with collab credits to Newfangled and Cox, and the 556 Stout is credited headlined by Cox and collab credits to Newfangled and Tattered Flag.

This review will be centered around the 556 Stout. Tomorrow I will likely be doing the full flight review (and will link to this; and have this link back to that; so if you check this article out in two-three days you’ll see a link to the flight article).

I will break out a spoiler and say this was my favorite of the bunch. The whole flight was really good though, with a great Belgian, a couple wonderful IPAs, and a good high ABV sour as well. Its just that this one blew me away the most and thus why I’m giving it an individual review.

The 556 Stout

For those who don’t know, and I haven’t had a chance before this to do a Cox Brewing Company (CBC) review, here is some basic background info on them:
Cox Brewing Untappd
Cox Brewing FaceBook
Cox Brewing Twitter
Cox Brewing Website

Their Untappd page lists them as having 90 unique beers, 6,505 ratings, and a global rating of 3.68. Their bio on the page reads: Cox Brewing Company (CBC) is a veteran-owned brewery located in Elizabethtown, PA in the village of Rheems.

They are a must-stop see at every Renaissance Faire brewfest and Littitz Brewfest. At the Lititz Brewfest they even sponsor to have a home brewer who they selected at the home brewer’s portion of the event to come brew for a day with them. The owners are great people and are very active in the home brewing community and are big help to many home brewers in the area.

So let’s get into this delicious beer.

Appearance is dark black like a good normal stout, with nice lacing, and a good head. The head is thin white with porous bubbles that are spaced and varied. The lacing lasts on the glass and the look stays the same under light.

Aroma is a good caramelized stout. Heavy malts, nice aromas, you get mostly the heavy malts and a caramel sweetness to it.

Taste is what really drives this. It is immediately amazing. Wonderful flavor profile, wonderful mouth feel, wonderful taste, wonderful notes and characteristics, and …. wonderful any other cliche catch-all terms that you want to use. Its sweet, its malty, its caramel, its dark, its heavy, its low key and not boozy, and only a 5.56% ABV (get it… … …you know… since the name is 556… they made sure to work the OG and sugars to make it 5.56% ABV). This all combines perfectly and into one wonderful stout. A perfect cold weather stout, a perfect warm weather stout, a perfect all year round stout. But more importantly, a perfect Veteran’s Day stout.

My Untappd Rating: ****.75
Global Untappd Rating: (None yet. Unfortunately there’s only been 8 total ratings, so obviously too soon to get a global rating.)

I certainly can’t recommend this beer enough though. Make sure you find your way to Tattered Flag, Newfangled Brew Works, or Cox Brewing Company, where it will be on draft at all three of these locations. This is an amazing beer. Some even got to try it as a sampling at the 717 Armory yesterday, a very cool thing and another collaborator with the breweries on these beers and making Veteran’s Day so positive for many veterans in the area.

We here at The Beer Thrillers want to thank and salute all veterans who have served, and have given the biggest sacrifice possible, as well as to all those who still serve our country and defend its ideals and people. We thank and appreciate you for all you have done, for all you do, and for all you have given and sacrificed. Thank you.

Please make sure you venture out and support these great veteran owned breweries. They deserve it, and you deserve some great beer, so check them out.

Cheers All!

-B. Kline