Category: Rotunda Brewing Company

  • Embracing the Dark Side: A Guide to Stout Season

    Embracing the Dark Side: A Guide to Stout Season

    Irish Car Bomb Stout on Nitro by Rotunda Brewing

    Embracing the Dark Side: A Guide to Stout Season

    As the leaves turn and the air chills, beer enthusiasts know it’s time to embrace the darker, richer, and more complex flavors of stout season. This beloved time of year is when breweries release their most anticipated stouts, ranging from the robust and creamy to the bold and barrel-aged. In this guide, we’ll explore the allure of stout season, highlight key styles to seek out, and share tips on how to get the most out of these darker brews. Whether you’re a stout aficionado or a curious newcomer, prepare to be enveloped by the warm embrace of stout season.

    The Allure of Stout Season:

    Treats of Strength by Icarus Brewing

    Stout season unofficially begins in late fall and stretches through the winter months, offering a comforting counterpoint to the colder weather. This is when the depth and complexity of stouts truly shine, providing a sensory experience that is both warming and satisfying. Breweries often use this time to showcase their creativity, experimenting with aging processes, ingredients, and blending techniques to produce flavors that range from sweet and velvety to smoky and bitter.

    Key Stout Styles to Explore:

    1. Imperial Stout: Known for its high ABV and intense flavors, the imperial stout is a staple of stout season. Look for variants aged in bourbon, rum, or whiskey barrels for added complexity.
    2. Oatmeal Stout: Creamier and smoother than other stouts, oatmeal stouts offer a gentle sweetness and a silky mouthfeel, making them incredibly approachable.
    3. Milk Stout: Also known as sweet stouts, milk stouts are brewed with lactose sugar, which yeast cannot ferment, resulting in a sweeter, fuller-bodied beer.
    4. Coffee Stout: Perfect for coffee lovers, these stouts incorporate coffee beans at various stages of the brewing process, offering a delightful marriage of coffee and malt flavors.
    5. Pastry Stout: A newer trend, pastry stouts are inspired by desserts and often feature chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon, and other confectionery flavors.

    Tips for Enjoying Stout Season:

    • Pair Wisely: Stouts pair excellently with rich foods and desserts. Try them with chocolate cake, aged cheeses, or hearty stews to enhance the flavors.
    • Serve at the Right Temperature: Unlike lighter beers, stouts should be served at a slightly warmer temperature (around 50-55°F) to fully appreciate their depth and complexity.
    • Explore Local Breweries: Many craft breweries release limited-edition stouts during stout season. Visiting local breweries can provide a unique opportunity to sample exclusive offerings.
    • Host a Tasting Event: Gather friends and host a stout tasting event. It’s a fun way to explore different styles and share the experience with others.

    Conclusion:

    Santa’s Bake by YAH Brew

    Stout season is a time to explore the rich and diverse world of dark beers, offering an opportunity to savor flavors that are as complex as they are comforting. By seeking out different styles, pairing them thoughtfully with food, and sharing the experience with friends, you can fully embrace the dark side of beer. So, as the nights grow longer and the temperatures drop, remember that it’s not just the cold that’s setting in—it’s stout season, and it’s time to celebrate the depth, warmth, and richness it brings to the craft beer community.

    German Chocolate Cake by Wicked Weed Brewing

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

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

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  • Hoppy Easter – Five Great Central PA IPAs (2023)

    Hoppy Easter Everyone!

    Hoppy Easter

    Hoppy Easter everyone! I hope the best for everyone of all religions and dominations have a wonderful and Hoppy Easter today. I am just about to make breakfast using the hop shoots that are popping up and growing, but first wanted to get this fun little IPA article posted.

    (Hoppy Easter – IPAs [2020])

    Cascade Hops Popping Up (2023)

    As you can see above, my cascade hops are already springing up pretty quickly. (You can find images on our Instagram here: The Beer Thrillers – Instagram.) I will be cutting these early shoots to make breakfast this morning, possibly doing a Hop Shoots Omelet, I’ve done this in years past.

    Hop Shoots Omelet

    (That’ll probably be an article for tomorrow then. I’m not a big foodie or great cooker, so fingers crossed it’ll go well.)

    In the meantime, lets take a look at five great Central PA IPAs, of this season. Enjoy!

    Five Great Hoppy Central PA IPAs

    Green Machine – Boneshire Brew Works

    Green Machine by Boneshire Brew Works

    Beer: Green Machine
    Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
    Style: IPA – American
    ABV: 7.2%
    IBU: 75
    Untappd Description: Green Machine! Green Machine! Green Machine! This hop fueled juggernaut smashes your senses with its not-so-delicate bouquet of floral notes, tropical fruits, and pine. Drink up IPA lovers, drink up.

    Global Average Untappd Rating: 3.80 (as of 4.9.23)
    My Untappd Rating: 4.25

    This is one of my favorite IPAs and why I lead off with this one. Its a year round flagship at Boneshire Brew Works, and it is absolutely delicious. If you get the chance to stop in at either of their locations, you have to try it.

    Lollihop by Troegs Independent Craft Brewing

    Lollihop by Troegs Independent Craft Brewing

    Beer: Lollihop
    Brewery: Troegs Independent Craft Brewing
    Style: IPA – Imperial / Double
    ABV: 8.2%
    IBU: N/A
    Untappd Description:

    We Taste: pear, citrus, hint of Melon.

    When we make our annual pilgrimage to the hop-growing hotbed of Yakima Valley, we’re like kids in a candy store. We eyeball the hops on the lines, crush them in our hands and rub them til their oil fill the air. LolliHop brings together three of our favorites. Dry-hopping with Citra and Mosaic layers in notes of orange, grapefruit, and melon, while Azacca in the kettle adds hints of papaya and pineapple. Locally harvested rustic pale malt provides the backbone, and wheat and oats make this beer silky smooth with a touch of haze.

    Global Average Untappd Rating: 4.03 (as of 4.9.23)
    My Untappd Rating: 3.75

    A fan favorite this time of year here in Central PA. Living five minutes from the brewery certainly has its perks. This is one of Drew (of Knights of Nostalgia)’s favorites from Troegs, and his favorites in general. Personally I can’t wait for Nimble Giant season which will be right around the corner.

    Silent Disco by Funk Brewing

    Silent Disco by Funk Brewing

    Beer: Silent Disco
    Brewery: Funk Brewing
    Style: IPA – New England / Hazy
    ABV: 6.1%
    IBU: 62
    Untappd Description: A bowlful of tropical juicy flavors.

    Global Average Untappd Rating: 3.89 (as of 4.9.23)
    My Untappd Rating: 4.25

    This is a fun New England IPA. It might not be their most notable, but its certainly one of their stellar flagship IPAs. They have many other IPAs that are very good as well like Citrus IPA, Double Citrus IPA, Pipe Dream, and Prop, and even a Double Disco. We have previously reviewed their seasonal IPA – Royal Rumble. (As well as another beer from them – Griddle.)

    Broken Heels by New Trail Brewing Company

    (Broken Heels by New Trail Brewing Company)

    Beer: Broken Heels
    Brewery: New Trail Brewing Company
    Style: IPA – New England / Hazy
    ABV: 7%
    IBU: N/A
    Untappd Description:

    A Hazy IPA hopped intrepidly with hand-selected Citra and Mosaic, leading to High Aromatics of luminous Citrus, rich Conifer, and refreshing Tropicals. This beer packs a full mouthfeel with low bitterness that is soft on the palette. Broken Heels is available all day everyday, and reminds us that no adventure is without its risks.
    Pack The Essentials.

    Global Average Untappd Rating: 3.94 (as of 4.9.23)
    My Untappd Rating: 4.25

    Albeit this is a little bit north of Central PA (Harrisburg wise), but its everywhere here. Sheetz, WaWa’s, Rutters, you name it, you can find it in their beer coolers. While I do love hammering some of the tall boys of these, I do typically prefer the Double Broken Heels, a good four pack of the Double Broken Heels will have you feeling all kinds of good.

    We did review this previously here: Beer Review: Broken Heels. Here’s a brief quick excerpt:

    This is like drinking hoppy juicy dank orange juice. It is so full of citrus fruit juicy hop taste and is just so easy to drink. You get a flourish of hop notes as soon as you start sipping, you get citrus, you get the tropical fruits, you get practically no bitterness, you just get a smooth drink. The pilsner malts and the flaked oats gives this a really smooth and tasty brew and just makes it like a wonderful NEIPA that drinks easy. After one sip of this you can quickly see why New Trails Brewing Co. is known for their outstanding IPAs.

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

    We have reviewed a few other New Trail Beers in the past, and I know I can sometimes get a bit cynical of their IPAs tasting the same, but at the end of the day, their IPAs are absolutely wonderful even if they are all very similar. (You can find our review of Icicle here – Beer Review: Icicle.)

    Annville iPA by Rotunda Brewing Company

    Annville iPA by Rotunda Brewing Company

    Beer: Annville iPA
    Brewery: Rotunda Brewing Company
    Style: IPA – New England / Hazy
    ABV: 7.8%
    IBU: 110
    Untappd Description: (Blank)

    Global Average Untappd Rating: 3.90 (as of 4.9.23)
    My Untappd Rating: 4.00

    This is the highest IBU on the list. But thats nothing to hold against this (or to prop it up either I suppose). No Central PA IPA list would be complete without this wonderful IPA on it (so, it might be five on my list, but its not the least, or the last, this list is in no order). This is a delicious, juicy IPA, very tasty, and you can find it at Rotunda Brewing Company’s main brewery in Annville, or their brewpub in Hershey, or at a lot of different bars in the Hershey, Harrisburg, Hummelstown, Palmyra, Annville, Lebanon area.

    We’ve reviewed a couple from them, such as: Juicy Fruit sWheat Tart, Irish Car Bomb Nitro Stout, Chewbacca, and Mango Guyabano sWheat Tart. Please check them out.

    Hoppiest of Easters

    Just want to wish everyone one last time, the Hoppiest of Easters. If you are looking for more great IPA and beer review and related articles from us, please be sure to check these out:

    Thank You For Reading

    I hope everyone has a wonderful day. I’m off to make breakfast for Amy and Scarlet (well, she’s not gonna be eating, but all the same), and myself. Later we are getting my older three girls, and will have a wonderful Easter day. I hope the same for all of you.

    We are currently starting to work on creating maps of all the breweries in each state, starting geographically with Maine. So be on the lookout for these great resources to soon be popping up on the blog. Hoping to get a state done every 2 – 4 days. (Some will be quicker and easier than others, but 50 states, plus Washington D.C., will certainly take some time!)

    We just got the Maine map done, you can see that here: Map of Maine Breweries.

    Currently right now we are in the Finals of our Battle of the Breweries (2023). You can check out the final four breweries left in the Finals Fatal Four Way here and vote:

    In the upcoming two weeks I am going to do a more thorough look at the full tournament, breaking down the votes and how well each conference winner did. I will also do a full write up on each of the breweries in the Finals Fatal Four Way too, where I will list what articles we’ve done about them, and my visits to each of those places.

    Thank you everyone for reading and please like, share, follow, subscribe, all that good stuff you see at the end of every YouTube video.

    Cheers All!

    -B. Kline

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

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

    You can check out our different directories here: Beer ReviewsHike ReviewsBook ReviewsBrewery News, Brewery OpeningsBrewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

    Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookFacebook GroupTwitterInstagramYouTube, 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!

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

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

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

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    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.

  • Brewers and the Industry Look Into 2023

    Tyler Budwash asks some of his friends and co workers in the industry what they foresee for 2023.

    A Look Into the Future

    Let’s take a look into the future and see what the crystal ball sees. Its the start of a new year and with that comes ideas of what the future might hold. People start resolutions (and quickly drop them), people try new habits, people (the horror… the horror…) do “Dry January”, people work out more (for a week or so), etc.

    Every year its a time of reevaluation, looking at the past – in this case the year of 2022 – and looking into the future – 2023 and beyond. Seeing what the new trends will be, and having interviews and articles like this let us take a gauge of all of that. It also then lets us look back at the end of the next year to see what we got right, what we got wrong, and why. Its a great launching point for speculation and thought, as well as serving as a great look back and retrospective and way to see the changes in trends, in the business, in brewing and craft beer in general.

    Tyler Budwash – co owner of the Pilger Ruh Brewing Company out of Pottsvillle Pennsylvania, was nice enough to reach out to me with his chats and interviews with some of his friends and co – workers in the industry. He chatted with the brewers from Robin Hood Brewing Company, Bright Path Brewing Company, Mount Gretna Craft Brewery, Copperz Brewing Company, as well as the labelist and artist for Rotunda Brewing Company, and they all graciously allowed us to share their thoughts on 2023 and beyond.

    I want to say thank you to all involved for this. I will make sure to thank you each individually at the end of the article. Also, if you like the breweries involved here in the article, be sure to check to the bottom where I will have a list of other articles with each of the breweries involved. Thank you.

    Robin Hood Brewing Company

    Robin Hood Brewing Company

    Caleb Peachy is the head brewer of Robin Hood Brewing Company. As per Untappd, they are a Brew Pub out of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. They have 212 unique beers with over 33,000 ratings and a global average rating of 3.7 (as of 1.4.23). Their Untappd description reads: “Robin Hood Brewing Co. is a small-batch brewpub in Bellefonte, PA specializing in IPA’s and high quality experimental brews.”

    When asked about future trends, Caleb Peachy said:

    I think we will still see the trendy beers continue to be king. Such as the hazy IPA’s and fruited sours. But I do think we will start to see some fatigue with the hazy’s. Instead of having all IPA’s on tap, taprooms are going to need to have a variety. We will also continue to see breweries push creativity with what can be put into beers. I’d personally like to see more west coast IPA’s and easy drinking lagers become popular throughout the year. Nothing beats a crispi boi anytime of the year. 

    Caleb Peachy

    For more information on Robin Hood Brewing Company:

    For more articles about Robin Hood Brewing Company, see the end of this article.

    Pilger Ruh Brewing Company

    Pilger Ruh Brewing Company

    Tyler Budwash is the co – owner of Pilger Ruh Brewing Company. According to Untappd they are a nano brewery out of Pottsville, Pennsylvania. They have 159 unique beers and over 6,000 ratings with a global average rating of 3.87 (as of 1.4.23). Their Untappd description reads: “Community Crafted Nano Brewery in Pottsville PA with 12 rotating taps, local wine, spirits, and cocktails. Beer to go available. Ask about our food menu!”

    I’m not sure how the conversation went, but I like to think Tyler Budwash asked himself out loud what his thoughts were going to be on the trends of 2023. This is what he had to say:

    Well let’s start with saying, I don’t think hazy IPAs, fruited sours, pastry stouts, or seltzers are going anywhere and we can officially say lagers are “back”. So in 2023 I think we will continue to see more approachable beers hit taps, as in lower abv and more of the classic styles returning. I’d personally like to see more milds.

    Tyler Budwash

    For more information on Pilger Ruh Brewing:

    For more articles on Pilger Ruh Brewing please check the end of this article.

    Bright Path Brewing

    Bright Path Brewing

    Alex Franco is co – owner and brewer at Bright Path Brewing Company. According to Untappd they are a micro brewery from Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. They have 20 unique beers and 2,900 ratings with a global average rating of 3.7 (as of 1.4.23). Their Untappd description reads: “Small craft brewery located in Jim Thorpe, PA focusing on lagers and session ales.”

    Tyler Budwash asked Alex Franco what he foresees in 2023, and this was his response:

    For 2023 I think lagers continue to grow but I hope that beer drinkers catch up to brewers. Hazy IPAs are everywhere and hard to distinguish between most of them so I hope beer drinkers start to see the wide array of beer styles and branch out to try different things.

    Alex Franco

    For more information on Bright Path Brewing:

    For more articles on Bright Path Brewing, please see the end of this article.

    Mount Gretna Craft Brewery

    Mount Gretna Craft Brewery

    Brad Moyer is the brewer of Mount Gretna Craft Brewery. According to Untappd they are a micro brewery from Palmyra, Pennsylvania. They have 193 unique beers with a total of 19,000 ratings and a global average rating of 3.64 (as of 1.4.23). Their Untappd description reads: “Hand-crafted beer inspired by a place where people share culture, art and ideas amid the lakes, trails and forest – historic Mount Gretna.”

    When asked by Tyler Budwash what he saw coming in 2023, Brad Moyer said:

    I think the thing I see most coming is diversification of Beer styles there’s been a lot of breweries recently, who hang their hat on 1 to 2 styles and that’s all they do. Now I’m not saying that they don’t do them well , it’s just people are demanding more these days and we are seeing a resurgence of lots of lagers and other styles that were one time not so sexy to brew. In a market where there is literally a brewery every 5 to 10 miles you have to be doing something that sets yourself apart and if you hang your hat only on, let’s say hazy IPA people will come but ultimately will want different choices and venture up the road.

    Brad Moyer

    For more information on Mount Gretna Craft Brewery:

    For more articles on Mount Gretna Craft Brewery, please see the end of this article.

    Rotunda Brewing Company

    Rotunda Brewing Company

    Stevie Glick is the artist and can labelist for all of the beautiful can art you see from Rotunda Brewing Company. Their logos, artwork, and can labels adorn their social media and their promotional material as well as both brewery locations (the brewery and restaurant in Annville and the brew pub in Hershey). Rotunda Brewing Company is a micro brewery out of Annville Pennsylvania with 458 unique beers, 83,000 ratings and a global average rating of 3.94 (as of 1.4.23) according to Untappd. Their Untappd description reads: “Stop by at 11am on Saturdays to get your RBC 32 oz Crowlers TO GO! Quantities are limited and go fast! We are conveniently located at 245 West Main Street, Annville PA. Parking is available in the back. Call us today with any questions as we have a very knowledgeable staff on hand that can handle any beer questions you may have!”

    When confronted by Tyler Budwash and asked about the future, this is what Stevie Glick had to say:

    I don’t see much changing at all honesty.
    Maybe everyone fine tuning their skills with heavily fruited sours.
    We’re adding nitrogen to a lot of things – especially the Swheat Tart series 

    I most definitely see the bigger craft brewing company’s from the surrounding states are either setting up shop in PA or are finally getting some stretch with distro into their surrounding states. 

    Covid brought us Aslin Brewing Company, Trillium Brewing Company, and Other Half Brewing; and that’s amazing but may also bring the little breweries competition selling out of six pack shops. 

    I’m hoping to see more collaborations between little brewing companies and bigger ones. 

    And lastly. no one’s ever going to stop trying to push the boundaries of what should or could be in beer or what can be made from it – so who knows maybe a new unique style may pop out again that no one thought of. 

    Stevie Glick

    For more information on Rotunda Brewing Company:

    For more articles on Rotunda Brewing Company please see the end of this article.

    Copperz Brewing Company

    Copperz Brewing Company

    Justin Kershner is the brewer for Copperz Brewing Company, a brew pub out of Hamburg Pennsylvania. Based on Untappd they have 38 unique beers, 2,100 ratings, and a global average rating of 3.68 (as of 1.4.23). Their Untappd description reads: “Opened in December 2021, our 5bbl brewhouse supplies 10 rotating taps with a wide variety of styles. Full kitchen offering great food and a limited bar featuring PA liquors.”

    When asked by Tyler Budwash what he thinks 2023 will hold, Justin Kershner stated this:

    Ha, I wish I knew where it was heading. That’s kinda the fun part right? We don’t know. Just gotta roll with it.

    Justin Kershner

    For more information on Copperz Brewing Company, check out their social media pages:

    More Articles

    Looking for more articles we’ve written here on The Beer Thrillers about the above breweries? Check these out below:

    Robin Hood Brewing Company

    • Our Trip up to Bellefonte and Beyond (Hiking James Cleveland Trail, Visiting Axemann Brewery, Robin Hood Brewing Company, Short Bus / The Bus Brewing Company, and Shy Bear Brewing Company) (December 10th, 2021)

    Bright Path Brewing Company

    • Visiting Jim Thorpe with Friends (Bright Path Brewing Company and Stoker’s Brewing Company) (June 25th, 2021)
    • Brewer Interview: An Interview with the Bright Path Brewing Brewers
    • Bright Path Brewing Company Opens in Jim Thorpe

    Pilger Ruh Brewing Company

    Mount Gretna Craft Brewery

    Rotunda Brewing Company

    Copperz Brewing Company

    • Hike: Pinnacle Rock (Hamburg, Pennsylvania)

    Brewer Interviews

    One of my favorite (B. Kline writing here) features of the blog, and one of my favorite things to do is get to interview brewers, people in the industry, and just people in general for the blog. The following is a list of interviews we’ve done for the blog.

    Thanks For Reading

    Firstly I’d like to thank Tyler Budwash who reached out to me and did ther interviews and talked to his friends and co – workers. He messaged me wanting to do this end of the year / looking forward to 2023 and reached out to the fine folks above about it. We are always glad here at The Beer Thrillers to showcase and support the brewers and breweries that don’t always get ‘mainstream’ attention, and the attention and support they deserve. Especially with some of these being local and Pennsylvania based breweries, its nice to give them the attention and shout outs that they don’t get from other blogs and sites and groups on the web. Thank you Tyler for reaching out to them and for writing the article. (I, as B. Kline, did just editing, and adding this ending to the article.)

    With that, I would like to thank Caleb Peachy, Brad Moyer, Alex Franco, Stevie Glick, and Justin Kershner for answering Tyler’s messages and questions.

    Peel back the cover of the blog a bit, I started editing and formatting the article this morning at 8AM to try and have it done by 9AM so I could get ready for work… when 9:20AM rolled up and I realized “oh crap I’m gonna be late” and had to put it on hold to after work. So my apologies for not getting this out this morning, but I jumped on it right after work, and despite WordPress’s best attempts at being super slow and glitchy for some reason at just the moments I didn’t need or want it to be, here it is.

    I hope you all enjoyed the article. Please make sure to stop out at these great breweries. We will be definitely hitting some of these places in the near future.

    Let us know in the comments what you think will be the trends of 2023 and going forward in the world of craft beer. Think it will eventually become “The Year of the Lager” despite a big blog and group saying for four years that it will be? Think we’ll get even heavier stouts? More fruity sours? Who knows! Let us know your thought and opinions.

    Also, please like, subscribe, and follow the page. Also make sure to check out our social media pages and follow us on there. Thanks so much for reading!

    Cheers All! And a very Happy New Years!

    -B. Kline

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

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

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    The Beer Thrillers are a blog that prides itself on writing beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, news (especially local to the Central PA brewery scene), as well as covering other topics of our interests – such as hiking, literature and books, board games, and video games which we sometimes stream with our friends over at Knights of Nostalgia. We are currently listed as #7 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #9 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. Thank you for reading our site today, please subscribe, follow, and bookmark. Please reach out to us if you are interested in working together. If you would like to donate to the blog you can here: Donate to The Beer Thrillers. Thank you!

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  • Drunk Phils Fans and Rotunda Brewing Company Team Up With ‘Jam The Batter’ Collaboration

    Jam the Batter (sWheat Tart) – A collaboration between Rotunda Brewing Company and Drunk Phils Fans

    Drunk Phils Fans and Rotunda Brewing Company Teaming Up

    As an avid Philadelphia Phillies fan (god have mercy upon my soul), I’ve always followed various Philly related blogs and pages (like Crossing Broad, Drunk Phils Fans, etc, etc.), and obviously I’m quite an avid drinker and beer fan as well (shocker right?!?) so I immediately jumped when I saw Drunk Phils Fans was teaming up with a beer – and with local favorites Rotunda Brewing Company of all breweries. Such a perfect fit!

    So I immediately reached out to Drunk Phils Fans to get the low-down on their page, the beer, and everything else.

    The Drunk Phils Fan

    You will most likely know Drunk Phils Fans from their Facebook page: Drunk Phils Fans. They currently have 24, 977 likes and 26, 588 followers. So needless to say they have been around and garner quite a bit of attention. You can follow their website here: Drunk Phils Fans .com.

    So I asked them some questions about how they started up, what they are, what they are up to, and how their beer collaboration with Rotunda Brewing Company came to be.

    (For brevity’s sake, I will have The Beer Thrillers abbreviated to ‘TBT’ and Drunk Phils Fans abbreviated to ‘DPF’ after the first usage.)

    The Beer Thrillers: How did you start the Drunk Phils Fans page? (How long ago, when/where/how, etc.) How has it evolved since then?
    Drunk Phils Fans: This all started as a blog, which was named the same and first post was in 2010. I then started a FB group in 2010 and then switched over to a page once the group hit 1000 followers. The idea for the blog was to highlight some past Phillies season and players (mostly “forgotten” players, as well at to talk about prior and upcoming games. The FB page was always intended to be some of the talk and chatter you may hear at the local pub from intense Phillies fans. On Point, sometime irreverent analysis of the front office, games, players, opponents, etc

    Rob G is an original member that is still providing content. The page evolved by adding in some talented authors: Chris D, who does all of the meme work and we added Waz, Al, Russell, Sean and Ashley as people providing content and helping to manage the page. I can’t point to a single element of how or when the page became more popular, but I constantly hear that people go to our page because of great content and valid observations/talking points about the team. Some of our posts did go “viral” with over a million views, but the growth was organic by building the audience through content.

    TBT: How did this beer idea come up? Did you reach out to Rotunda Brewing? Did they reach out to you? What interested you in this beer and this brewery?
    DPF: It has always been a dream of mine to have a beer that I created or somehow named/linked with me. I figured once the page got a large enough audience, it would be more enticing for a brewery to collaborate with us.

    My wife and I went to Hershey this winter for a weekend getaway and toured some of the Hershey area breweries. Rotunda was on my list for two reasons: 1. A DPF fan, Brent, is a manager at Rotunda and offered a brewery tour for me and an insight on their process and facilities and 2. Rotunda has a GREAT lineup of different styles of beers, all highly rated and respected on Untappd, so I knew I had to try them. With Brent being a big DPF fan and me being a fan of Rotunda, I think it was a good match and I do not remember who “made the first move” while talking collaboration. To me it seemed mutually advantageous.

    TBT: Stevie Glick absolutely nailed it with the logo. Just want to throw that out there right now, he does their artwork for them, and is absolutely phenomenal.

    TBT: Did you have any input on the beer; style, ingredients, recipe, etc? Did you help them brew it?
    DPF: We did have input on style. I am not a particular fan of IPA, so I did not want this beer to be of that style. I am a huge fan of darker beers and stouts, but wanted a beer for the summertime. So we collaborated with the sWheat line that Rotunda is well known for and created a fruited sour at 5.9%. We did send Rotunda about 30 name ideas for the beer, of which “Jam the Batter” won because of the double entendre of jam in the baseball sense and the fruit we are adding to the beer often seen as a jam. I did not physically help with the brewing process, mostly because of proximity to Rotunda from my home in Philly. However, it is something I would like to be involved with in the next go round!

    TBT: What are some of your favorite breweries? Favorite beers? Go to beers? Preferences when it comes to alcohol in general?
    DPF: Fave Breweries: I will do a top 5 in the Philly area no particular order. Rotunda, Imprint, Human Robot, Troegs, and 2SP.

    Fave Beers: This answer could be really long, so I will try and give the Cliff Notes. If I go to a corner bar that does not have craft beers, I will have Miller High Life, In the summer, I am a huge Hefeweizen fan. My fave is Weihenstephaner. In the Winter, especially leading up to Christmas, I look forward to the Troeg’s Mad Elf release. Otherwise, I spend a lot of the winter trying different dark beers (Stouts and Lagers). I have recently gotten into Rum and Bourbon Barrel Aged Stouts even more and will always try them when available. I am also a Union season ticket holder and recently really liked 2SP’s Delco Lager. Supremely drinkable with a lower ABV.

    TBT: Any other big plans with the page? Any other beer related collaborations in the works / in the future or anything you are interested in trying or wanting to do?
    DPF: We are currently having a beer release party at Rotunda on May 21st at their Annville location from 1-4. We are also having some Phillies Watch Parties at local bars: May 25th at Jerzees Glenside and June 26 at Nick’s Roast Beef Cottman along with a special guests, Corner Sports Podcast where I will be in the show with them live on-site 1-3, followed by the Phillies game at 4. We would also like to do these watch parties at interested breweries in the near future. As far as the future of the page, we hope everyone loves our Rotunda collaboration and would love to collaborate with them or another Philly / Montco / Bucks brewery for a playoff beer for the Phils! I’d like to be more hand on to learn the process and work that goes into each step. I guess the big dreams would be a brewery of our own at some point. I dreamed of having a beer and that came true, so who knows!

    sWheat Tart Series

    Rotunda Brewing Company has been well known for their sWheat Tart series for a while. (We’ve even covered a few various sWheat Tarts here on the blog for beer reviews. You can read them here: Juicy Fruit sWheat Tart – Beer Review and Mango Guyabano sWheat Tart – Beer Review.) It is possibly their most popular line of beers, and they have done just about every imaginable flavor profile and combination with them. Definitely be on the lookout for this series whenever you see them in cans or whenever you visit either of their brewery locations in person (the Annville Brewery or the Hershey brewpub.)

    Rotunda Brewing Company Tailgate

    On May 21st (2022), the Rotunda Brewing Company is hosting a Tailgate party to celebrate the release of ‘Jam the Batter’. From their Facebook page:

    “We’re releasing a collaboration beer with our friends at, Drunk Phils Fans and throwing a kick ass tailgate at our Annville location, this Saturday from 1-4 pm! Wear your best philly gear and drink some of our new Jam The Batter sWheat Tart, loaded with thick mango, pineapple & strawberry puree! More details to come! Drunk Phils Fans Rotunda Restaurant & Brewery

    Rotunda Brewing Company (Facebook)

    It looks to be a fun time, and I might be able to squeeze it into my busy schedule and stop out for a bit. Hope I get to see some of you out there. And we can all root on the Phillies and drink some delicious beers.

    Philadelphia Phillies

    I would be amiss to make this article, and not mention the Phillies even a little bit. They are currently sitting at 17 – 18 and 5.5 games behind in the NL East. Its a long season, and the Mets are looking tough this year, but we also all know how the Mets are…. so hopefully late season Phils can kick it into overdrive. Looks like we are coming out of a current slump and are starting to hit stride. (And my dad recently put down a 100$ wager at Hollywood Casino that the Phils will win the division, so for his sake, lets go Phils!).

    The bats are finally starting to warm up with what we all thought they should be. Defense will be a struggle all season. And hopefully by trade deadline we can shore up the pitching staff and make this team a true contender. Long overdue for another deep playoff run and hopeful World Series.

    More Information and Links

    For more information about the event and beer release, you can check out the various sites:

    Thanks For Reading

    The May 21st date might just be as busy as the May 14th date was for me. First off, its my daughter’s 13th birthday. (So, preemptive and early Happy Birthday to Lilyana Rose.) Also, its the day of the Imprint “Haze” brewfest, as well as the Drunk Phils Fans and Rotunda Brewing Company’s beer tailgate. As well as a host of other personal stuff for me and other staff members here at The Beer Thrillers.

    I would like to say thanks to the Drunk Phils Fans for letting me reach out to them and talking to them and exchanging e-mails. I can’t wait to try their beer. They are great people over there (and at Rotunda as well), so its looking to be a great thing all the ways around.

    As always, I do greatly appreciate you all reading this. Let me know your thoughts, opinions, and ideas. Comments, suggestions, and otherwise. Always love to hear from my readers! Either by comment here on the blog, or through e-mail or our contact page. Let us know your thoughts!

    Cheers all! And lets go Phillies!

    -B. Kline

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

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

    Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookFacebook GroupTwitterInstagramYouTube, 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!

  • Looking for good local stouts or green beer this St. Patty’s Day?

    Liquid Noise’s “A Little Extra – Goin’ Green”

    Ready to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day 2021? Since… well… we really didn’t get to last year? Suddenly got an extra 1,400$ in your bank account on St. Patrick’s Day morning and not knowing what to do with it? Why not help out those restaurants that have been hurt for this past year!

    Its incredibly crazy to see how its been a year since COVID mitigation efforts started, since shut downs were instituted, and we were all locked inside our homes watching Tiger King on Netflix. Looking back at the memories of the blog and my own and seeing just how little we were all prepared for everything happening… how things unfolded, watching event after event get cancelled, shut down or lock down after shut down and lock down, protocols instituted, changes to restaurants, etc…. its so crazy and surreal and unbelievable to look back on. What a time to be alive?!

    Reminds me of Frodo and Gandalf discussing “crazy times to be alive in”:

    Frodo: I wish it need not have happened in my time.
    Gandalf: So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

    But here we are, a year out from all those shenanigans (ahh, what a great word to use on St. Patrick’s Day), and its time to celebrate. So what do you do? Let’s help out our local craft breweries instead of just jumping into the Guinness and Irish Car Bombs, let’s look at some of the great craft brewery offerings!

    Stouts

    There is no shortage of amazing stouts in the area; and by area, I am speaking of my area – which is the Central PA area. Think Hershey, Harrisburg, Middletown, Hummelstown, Annville, Palmyra, Mechanicsburg, etc.

    There are plenty of great stouts and we can look at some of them right here. Let’s start with my home town of Hummelstown.

    Rubber Soul’s 317 Stout
    Rubber Soul just released a brand new coffee stout to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, and its named 317 (…if you can figure out why they named it that, please let our intern know, he’s very confused about the name, because the area code is 717).

    317 Stout by Rubber Soul Brewing Company

    Click here to read our Beer Review: 317 Stout (Rubber Soul Brewing Company).

    It is a lovely, roasty, toasty, coffee stout. Its a Stout – Irish Dry, and its only 4.9%. The Untappd listing for it is:

    Beer: 317
    Brewery: Rubber Soul Brewing Company
    Style: Stout – Irish Dry
    ABV: 4.9%
    IBU: None
    Untapped Description: Roasty and smooth with a cold coffee finish from the Elementary cold brewed coffee.
    Global Untappd Rating: 3.81 (as of 3.17.21)

    This would make for a lovely chaser to some Jamison Whiskey, or possibly even could be a wonderful substitute for a Guinness in a Irish Car Bomb.

    Troegs Independent Craft Brewery
    Let’s stroll over to Hershey now and see just how many different offerings Troegs has in the stout division. (Hint – there’s a few).

    First up: JavaHead Stout:

    JavaHead Stout by Troegs

    Beer: Java Head
    Brewery: Troegs Independent Craft Brewery
    Style: Stout – Coffee
    ABV: 7.5%
    IBU: 60
    Untappd Description: JavaHead is like a day at Tröegs; it’s hard to tell where the coffee ends and the beer begins. This creamy oatmeal stout is infused with locally roasted, cold steeped coffee through our HopBack vessel, releasing subtle hints of cocoa, roasted nuts and dark mocha.
    Untappd Global Average Rating: 3.7 (as of 3.17.21)

    They also have two versions of their Chocolate Stout; regular and on Nitro. My preference is the Nitro (but I also tend to prefer Nitro most times in general, so take that for what it is). They are the same beer.

    Troegs Chocolate Stout

    Beer: Chocolate Stout
    Brewery: Troegs Independent Craft Brewery
    Style: Stout – Milk / Sweet
    ABV: 7.1%
    IBU: 41
    Untappd Description: Our lush and layered Chocolate Stout showcases the best of an anthology of malts and grains: the soft, coffee-like bitterness of roasted barley, the rich caramel notes of Special B, the subtle sweetness of chocolate malt, and the silkiness of oats. Cocoa nibs add the depth of dark chocolate, and a touch of Madagascar vanilla puts a bow on this roasty winter warmer.
    Global Untappd Average Rating: 3.79 (as of 3.17.21)

    The Nitro version has a different description:
    Six different malt varieties, cacao nibs, dark chocolate, lactose, oats, and vanilla combine to produce a decadent Chocolate Stout. Dispensing via nitrogen yields a lush, velvety texture and rich, smooth finish.
    It also has a higher global rating – 3.94. (As of 3.17.21)

    Grand Cacao by Troegs

    This is their latest newcomer to their stout market, and it is possibly my favorite. You can see our review of it here: Beer Review: Grand Cacao (Troegs Craft Brewing).

    Beer: Grand Cacao
    Brewery: Troegs Independent Craft Brewing
    Style: Stout – Milk / Sweet
    ABV: 6.5%
    IBU: None
    Untappd Description: Welcome to Grand Cacao. This deliciously decadent stout is built on a foundation of rich chocolate malt, caramel malt and roasted barley. Cold-steeping on Peruvian cacao nibs and natural vanilla doubles down on the smooth symphony of chocolate, and a splash of milk sugar delivers a velvety sweet and creamy finish.
    We taste: milk chocolate, roasty grain, hints of sweet cream.
    Global Untappd Average Rating: 3.63 (as of 3.17.21)

    Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery
    Lets bounce over to Tattered Flag in Middletown now, who have never had any shortness of wonderful stouts on their menu. Just looking at their Untappd menu they currently have at their brewery in Middletown:

    • Leprechaun Wraith
    • Peppermint Wraith
    • Coconut Stout
    • War Bonds Breakfast Stout
    • Black is Beautiful

    And they have a guest tap of Our Town Brewery’s “Bar Room Hymnal”. Which, I was just at last Friday. You can check out my trip to the Lancaster Breweries in one of my latest travelogues here: “Hiking Turkey Hill Point and Visiting Lancaster’s Newest Breweries – Cartel Brewing, Our Town Brewery, and Big Dog Brewing”.

    Let’s look at Leprechaun Wraith:

    Leprechaun Wraith by Tattered Flag

    Beer: Leprechaun Wraith
    Brewery: Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery
    Style: Stout – Other
    ABV: 12%
    IBU: None
    Untappd Description: Our Pastry stout base aged in ex Irish whiskey casks for months before conditioning in stainless over marshmallow cream and vanilla. Its like an Irish Car Bomb in a bottle!
    Global Average Untappd Rating: 4.01 (as of 3.17.21)

    Sounds perfect for tonight’s at-home festivities!

    Boneshire Brew Works
    Boneshire Brew Works has a wonderful stout of their own that they have for March each year, called Grattan Irish Stout. This is one that is definitely worth a pickup of a 4-pack every year, or at minimum a pint on draft.

    Grattan Irish Stout by Boneshire Brew Works

    Beer: Grattan Irish Stout
    Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
    Style: Stout – Irish Dry
    ABV: 4.5%
    IBU: None
    Untappd Description: This stout is traditionally dry and super drinkable. Beware of the Leprechaun while drinking this one.
    Global Untappd Average Rating: 3.9 (as of 3.17.21)

    Be sure to read our review of it here: Beer Review: Grattan Irish Stout (Boneshire Brew Works).

    Rotunda Brewing Company
    We would be amiss if we didn’t mention Rotunda Brewing Company’s stout – aptly named: IRISH CAR BOMB. We got to have this before their Kegs and Eggs event last year; right before the shut down (just mere days before the shut down). You can read about the event here: Kegs and Eggs (2020) at the Batdorf – Rotunda Brewing Company.

    And you can read our review of the beer here: Beer Review: Irish Car Bomb (Rotunda Brewing Company).

    Irish Car Bomb by Rotunda Brewing Company

    Beer: Irish Car Bomb
    Brewery: Rotunda Brewing Company
    Style: Stout – Irish Dry
    ABV: 5.5%
    IBU: None
    Untappd Description: On Nitro.
    Global Average Untappd Rating: 4.17 (as of 3.17.21)

    Rotunda’s Brewery Pub in Hershey also has a few other stouts on hand if you want to give them a try:

    • Lady Morrigan Nitro Stout
    • Grasshopper Brownie Imperial Stout
    • Death by Decadence
    • Car Bomb: Imperial Stout (not the same as the one above)

    Green Beer

    Maybe you don’t want a stout, maybe you don’t like doing Irish Car Bombs and don’t feel like dropping Jamison and Bailey’s into a local craft brewery’s stout. Maybe you just want a good… old fashioned…. green beer?

    Well, you are still in luck!

    Staying with Rotunda, they released a green beer at their brew pub in Hershey called Green Goodness.

    Green Goodness by Rotunda Brewing Company

    Beer: Green Goodness
    Brewery: Rotunda Brewing Company
    Style: Sour – Fruited Gose
    ABV: 6.9%
    IBU: None
    Untappd Description: Kettle sour with lactose and conditioned on 7 fruit and vegetable purees.
    Untappd Global Average Rating: 4 (as of 3.17.21)

    Liquid Noise
    Now let’s head across the river to Marysville and see what they have to offer for St. Paddy’s Day. They’ve gotten quite a bit of buzz lately about their recently released green beer in celebration of St. Paddy’s Day. They were even featured on ABC27 News: Liquid Noise on Good Morning ABC27 News.

    Liquid Noise’s St. Patrick’s Day beer: A Little Extra – Goin’ Green

    Beer: A Little Extra – Goin’ Green
    Brewery: Liquid Noise Brewing Company
    Style: Blonde Ale
    ABV: 5.5%
    IBU: 30
    Untappd Description: Light in body, green in appearance. What else Do you expect on St. Pattys Day?
    Global Untappd Rating: (No Average formed yet. Not enough check-ins yet.) (3.17.21)

    So let’s celebrate St. Patrick’s Day

    Ok, now its time to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day! And lets do it safely everyone. Still obey precautions and rules and laws. What is everyone planning on doing today? What are your big plans for the day? I’m thinking low-key for myself, as I have a lot of writing to do, and not sure on what all to do tonight. But I might be persuaded to go out and enjoy myself some St. Paddy’s beer. Where at? Maybe a nice dinner with bangers and mash? Or Shepherd’s Pie? Who knows! I have about 2% Irish in me, but on St. Patrick’s Day we’re all Irish for the day! So let me know in the comments what you are planning to do for celebrating St. Patrick’s Day!

    As always, be safe, be careful, and use Uber or Lyft if going out and celebrating too excessively. Be sure to mind the precautions, and rules, we’re almost there. The light is at the end of the tunnel. April 4th we all will be back to a far more normal world (I cannot wait to drink at a bar again!). Until then everyone, cheers and slainte!

    Slainte!

    -B. Kline

    Be sure to keep following the March Madness and our Battle of the Breweries (2021) Brackets. We are down to the remaining 12 breweries, so hop over and vote!

    Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookTwitterInstagramYouTube, 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.

  • Top Five Articles

    Top Five Articles

    Its time for another list of ‘top articles’ from our blog. And what better time then Football Sunday? Its the first full NFL Sunday of football games, so I figured today’s not a bad day to start things off with a list of some of our top articles. I like to do lists every so often so newer visitors and followers and fans of the blog can see some of our older and more popular articles. Give them an idea of the scope of the blog – we’ve been here since May 2019, and we’re up to 230+ some articles. We are currently ranked #9 on FeedSpot’s Top 100 Beer Blogs as well as #11 on FeedSpot’s Top Pennsylvania 30 Blogs. As of 9.13.20 we currently have 715 likes and 753 followers on our Facebook page. On Twitter we currently have 227 followers and on Instagram we have 134 followers. We just started and launched a YouTube Channel (due to post our first video soon), and before even posting a video we are up to 6 followers. We have a Facebook group as well, which currently has 71 members. We also just started an Influencer Page, where you can check us out as well.

     

    I have done a few lists before and will post them at the end of this article.

     

    So this article will be broken down into a few Top 5 lists. Top five beer reviews, top five industry news, top five articles (non-beer review). So lets break it down and see what all we got to show for seventeen months of blogging!

     

    Top 5 Beer Reviews on The Beer Thrillers

    1. Beer Review: Dillston (Boneshire Brew Works)
    Dillston by Boneshire Brew Works

    First published on July 15th, 2019. This is our most viewed beer review.

    2. Beer Review: The Hog (Boneshire Brew Works)

    The Hog (Boneshire Brew Works)

    Noticing a trend here with Boneshire Brew Works beers and the popularity of the reviews for them. This was published on December 22, 2019.

    3. Beer Review: Harrishire (Boneshire Brew Works and Harris Family Brewing)

    Harrishire by Boneshire Brew Works and Harris Family Brewing

    Did I mention that Boneshire Brew Works beer reviews are popular on here? This time it was a collaboration with the Harris Family Brewery that will soon be opening in Harrisburg. I can’t wait for their opening, been looking forward to them for a long time. This was first published on August 18th, 2019.

    4. Beer Review: Mango Guyabano sWheat Tart (Rotunda Brewing Company)

    Mango Guyabano sWheat Tart by Rotunda Brewing Company

    J. Doncevic’s first on this list. This was published on July 18th, 2019.

    5. Beer Review: Caucus-Race 6.0 (Zappa Hops) (Boneshire Brew Works)

    Caucus-Race 6.0 using Zappa Hops by Boneshire Brew Works

    And once again, rounding out our top 5 viewed beer reviews, is another Boneshire Brew Works beer. Four out of five, an impressive showing. Who knows though, maybe by the next time I do a list article like this they will be beat by another beer or brewery. The This is The Way beer by Broken Goblet gets a lot of search views. So you never know. This was first published on August 13th, 2019.

     

    Top 5 Non-Beer Review Articles

    1. A Sneak Preview of the New Rubber Soul Brewery
    Rubber Soul’s new brewery under construction in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania

    I was invited out for an early preview and look around the new Rubber Soul brewery that is nearing its completion (now in September 2020). This was my article previewing the brewery and brewing company. It was published on February 29, 2020.

    2. Brewery Visit: Mellow Mink

    Mellow Mink logo

    Back in January 2020 (feels like ages ago now), me and J. Doncevic were invited out to Mellow Mink brewery by Matt Miller (co-owner and head brewer) for a tour and visit. Was a fantastic time and we absolutely loved it. Article was published on January 22nd, 2020.

    3. The Grand Opening of Hemauer Brewing

    Hemauer Brewing Company’s logo

    The celebration and announcement of Hemauer Brewing Company’s Grand Opening. Article was published on April 27th, 2020.

    4. Breweries Around the Outskirts of Harrisburg (9.6.19)

    An article I originally wrote and published elsewhere and then published on my own blog as well. About the breweries (at the time) in the immediate Harrisburg area. Article was published September 6, 2019.

    5. Brewing a Traditional Lithuanian Farmhouse Ale – Keptinis

    Keptinis mashing

    Karl Larsen’s fantastic and amazing blog post for us about brewing Keptinis. If you are a home brewer this is absolutely a must read. This article was published on May 2nd, 2020 for us.

     

    Another fantastic read is Andrew Parys’s piece on What Makes a Great Quarantine Brewery. That was published on May 2nd, 2020 as well.

     

    Some list articles we’ve done in the past:

     

    Well thank you everyone for reading. Hopefully you’ll find some great articles to read and hopefully you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane!

     

    Until next time.


    Cheers!

    -B. Kline

     

    The Beer Thrillers
  • Hoppy Easter – IPAs

    Hoppy Easter – IPAs

    In honor of Easter (and what a weird Easter this is too), and since we’ve all been stuck inside all day. I figured I’d do a listicle of some of the IPAs we’ve reviewed. I’ve done a few other listicle articles (not too many, as I’m not a huge fan of them), but I figured its been a while, and since its Easter, lets do a “hoppy” one about the various IPAs we’ve reviewed.

    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:

    ETA IPA by Wild Leap Brew Co.

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

     

    Beer Reviews by J. Doncevic:

    Colonization by Adroit Theory

    Beer Review: Colonization (Adroit Theory)

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

    Envie and and Envie 4XDH by Parish Brewing

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

    Beer Review: Ekuanot Astronaut (BAREbottle Brewing Co.)

    Ghost in the Machine by Parish Brewing

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

    Enigma by Anchorage Brewing

    Beer Review: Enigma (Anchorage Brewing Company)

    Ectogasm by Drekker

    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:

    40th Anniversary Ale by Sierra Nevada

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

    Icicle by New Trail Brewing

    Beer Review: Icicle (New Trail Brewing Co)

    Trial by Wombat by Thin Man Brewing

    Beer Review: Trial by Wombat (Thin Man Brewery)

    Furious IPA by Surly Brewing

    Beer Review: Furious IPA (Surly Brewing)

    Back to Reality by Three 3s Brewing

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

    Pete’s Secret Stache by Revision Brewing

    Beer Review: Petes Secret Stache (Revision Brewing Company)

    Loki by Karl Larsen at Newfangled Brew Works

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

    Doppelganger by Tree House Brewing

    Beer Review: Doppelgänger (Tree House Brewing)

    This is the Way by Broken Goblet

    Beer Review: This is The Way (Broken Goblet)

    Julius by Tree House Brewing

    Beer Review: Julius (Tree House Brewing)

    The Hog by Boneshire Brew Works

    Beer Review: The Hog (Boneshire Brew Works)

    Citraquench’l by Heist Brewing

    Beer Review: Citraquench’l (Heist Brewery)

    Moon of Vega by Equilibrium Brewing

    Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewing)

    Paradise Lost by Southern Prohibition Brewing

    Beer Review: Paradise Lost (Southern Prohibition Brewing)

    Fuzzy Nudge named by Ffej by Troegs Independent Brewing

    Beer Review: Fuzzy Nudge (Troegs Independent Brewing)

    King Sue by Toppling Goliath

    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!

     

    Have a Hoppy Easter!

     

     

     

     

     

  • Beer Review: Irish Car Bomb Nitro Stout (Rotunda Brewing Company)

    There is nothing quite like starting your day off with 9AM Irish Car Bombs…. unless their Rotunda Brewing Company’s Irish Car Bomb Nitro Stouts!

    Its March 14th, Pi Day, and doom and gloom, national hysteria, societal collapse, is all impending and collecting around the fringes of our collective consciousness. The end is nigh. What do you do? …Simple. Irish Car Bombs at 9AM awaiting Kegs and Eggs.

    Now, obviously, this is not a “traditional” Irish Car Bomb. BUT…. it is called Irish Car Bomb (Nitro Stout) and it is better than a Guinness at being the same thing. You could easily do the ‘real’ Irish Car Bomb with this beer, and it’d be better than using a Guinness (also a lot more filling, richer, and probably lead to even more car bombs than the traditional Guinness approach).

    For those not in the know, an Irish Car Bomb is a drink / shot. You have a full pint (or for some a half-pint) of Guinness. You then drop a shot of either half and half of Bailey’s and Jameson or straight up Jameson into the pint, and chug all (both pint and shot) as one. Its delicious, its tradition, and its pretty much the only way I do shots anymore unless harassed and harangued into doing some by co-workers when out and about at dive bars with them. (See Tuesday night / Wednesday morning for proof of that.)

    But, this could easily replace the Guinness in those shots, and would be much better. Its smoother, tastier, creamier, more delicious, all around better than a Guinness while being pretty much the same thing.

    Comparison sake:
    Guinness Draught:
    Style: Stout – Irish Dry
    ABV: 4.2%
    IBU: 45
    Untappd Description:

    Swirling clouds tumble as the storm begins to calm. Settle. Breathe in the moment, then break through the smooth, light head to the bittersweet reward.

    Unmistakeably GUINNESS, from the first velvet sip to the last, lingering drop. And every deep-dark satisfying mouthful in between.

    Pure beauty. Pure GUINNESS.

    Guinness Draught is sold in kegs, widget cans, and bottles. The ABV varies from 4.1 to 4.3%. Guinness Extra Cold is the exact same beer only served through a super cooler at 3.5 °C
    Global Untappd Rating: 3.79 (as of 3.16.20)

    Rotunda Brewing Company’s Irish Car Bomb Nitro Stout:
    Style: Stout – Irish Dry
    ABV: 5.5%
    IBU: No IBU
    Untappd Description: (Blank)
    Global Untappd Rating: 4.31 (as of 3.16.20)

    So stat wise; you go from a 4.2% to a 5.5% ABV. No mention of IBU in the second so can’t really compare. And also no description, so if your looking for information on the beer going in, your getting a blank. But I can tell you… which one is better. So thats just what I’ll do.

    So lets run this beer down and drink up for St. Patty’s Day and for The End of Times. So cheers to the end of all things and for the doom of society!

    Irish Car Bomb (Nitro Stout) by Rotunda Brewing Company

    Beer: Irish Car Bomb (Nitro Stout)
    Brewery: Rotunda Brewing Company
    Style: Stout – Irish Dry
    ABV: 5.5%
    IBU: None Listed
    Untappd Description: (blank)

    First off, you can tell this is creamy. Just look at that picture! Nitro is one of the best things that has ever happened to beer, and this proves why. It provides a wonderful robust creamyness to this already good looking beer. It is dark, Razor Ramon hair black, midnight black, your ex’s soul black. It has a super rich, creamy head to it. The whole appearance of this looks frothy, rich, creamy, decadent. (Don’t worry, it lives up to it.)

    Aroma is malty, rich, and creamy. You are going to see the word ‘creamy’ a lot in this review. Maybe I should have led off about that getting people to do a drinking game everytime they see the word creamy in the review. An Irish Car Bomb (shot included) everytime they read the word creamy in this review? ….Ah you poor schmucks would be dead by the end of the review then! Anyway, back to the aroma….. this has a deep malt smell, roasted malt, with vanilla, the nitro brings out that and the deep roasted malts and also highlights the caramel malts a bit as well. All around this smells as delicious as it looks… and it certainly does…. look….. creamy.

    Creamy. Creamy. Creamy. Creamy. This. Is. Creamy. Oh… did I mention; that its creamy? You guys still alive out there doing the drinking game? Because if so…. its creamy. Despite its 5.5% ABV, this is a strong, dark, deep, rich, full, and filling beer. Its basically brewed on the same premise as a Guinness draught. To be filling, full, and a damn good stout. The ABV doesn’t matter because the beer itself is so full and rich. And with the nitro, it makes it so creamy, and even more rich and full. This is both a beer you could drink TOO many of and also not be able to drink TOO many of. Depending on time of day, mood, food, stomach, etc. You get the dark, roasted malts, the caramel malts, the roast and darkness of this brew really kick into ultra-drive as you drink it down. The richness from the nitro lending a strong sweetness to it is very nice. It does differ from Guinness where there’s not really a lot of bitterness to this. It might be more malty, and it might be more high ABV, (4.2% to 5.5%) but its certainly a lot sweeter. Not in a bad way, but for a traditional Irish Dry Stout some might prefer some level of bitterness to this, where here its pretty more nonexistent. This is a full, and delicious beer, as it warms you get even more essence out of it, and it just broadens and opens up more, offering the fullness of its vast flavors and ingredients. This is a wonderful beer at 9AM to start your day with breakfast, and even better to be the kick-off lead-in beer before doing a Kegs and Eggs mini-brewfest! (It certainly helped stave off the gloom and doom anyway!)

    My Untappd Rating: ****.50
    Global Untappd Rating: 4.31 (as of 3.16.20)

    Like I said, March 14th (Saturday), was the Kegs and Eggs (2020) brewfest and event at The Batdorf and Rotunda Brewing Company in Annville, Pennsylvania. I am working on the write-up of the event as we speak, and it might get posted tomorrow, or Wednesday. Currently, my job is still open (the only Casino in the state to still be open despite the pandemic going on), so I am still working. I don’t know when I’ll be shut down, if I’ll be shut down, or whats going on. There’s a lot of uncertainty at my job right now, especially since we’re the only ones still open. Ohio Casinos are shut down, Maryland casinos are shut down, the other PA casinos have voluntarily closed…. but we are still open. Financially, health, ethically, there is so much uncertainty at our job right now. Getting to work on the blog is providing a nice escape and stress release for me.

    So you can look forward to seeing a Kegs and Eggs (2020) event write-up by myself. I hung out with J. Doncevic, D. Scott, and we caroused our way through sampling from a myriad of breweries in a confined space. Also hanging out with guys from Rotunda Brewing like Kevin, Bryan, and hanging out with Bart from Hop Headz and so many more great people.

    I have talked to Karl Larson recently, and he has expressed interest in writing for the blog. So he might start writing soon… or he might not. Either way, no pressure on him. He does have a fantastic Wee Heavy for me to try and review for the blog, that he’s won a National Award for, so I can’t wait for that.

    I think I will also be trying to wrap-up my Coronavirus / COVID-19 article. And give ways to help out local breweries. As they are going to be hurting the most from all of this. So please, if you are able to support your small time local breweries (like Boneshire Brew Works, Moo-Duck Brewery, Rotunda Brewing Company, ZeroDay Brewing, etc.), please find ways to help them out where you can. We all need to stick together to get through this.

    Also, if you’re new to the blog, please follow us on FACEBOOK and TWITTER and INSTAGRAM. Also click the FOLLOW and SUBSCRIBE here on the blog. And don’t hesitate to leave feedback in the COMMENTS or through our CONTACT PAGE directly. We love to hear from you guys!

    Thank you for reading, cheers, and Happy Stone Cold Steve Austin Day!

    -B. Kline

  • Valentine’s Day Beers

    Chocolate Cherry LazaRIS by Boneshire Brew Works from their firkin tapping last night at their brewery. Happy Valentine’s Day!

    In the Hershey – through Middletown and Harrisburg area, you go to a brewery, you can find yourself a chocolate covered…. strawberry or cherry something or other. Tattered Flag, Rotunda Brewing Company, Troegs Independent Craft Brewing, Boneshire Brew Works, and you can even make a variant at Lancaster Brewing Company. So, I’ve gone and done the legwork for all of you. I’ve traveled to the places, seen the sights, experienced the sounds and the smells, and I drank the beers, so you don’t have to …. or so you can know which ones you might like best. Or, so you can too. Either way…. whew, this is a tough gig. But I guess I’m the only one man enough for it.

    So what all beers are we going to be taking a look at today? We’re going to be taking a look at: Chocolate Cherry LazaRIS by Boneshire Brew Works, Beautiful Trauma by Rotunda Brewing Company, Chocolate Cherry Stout by Troegs Independent Craft Brewing, Because I Was Inverted (Chocolate Cherry) and Because I Was Inverted (Chocolate Strawberry) by Tattered Flag, and finally Double Chocolate Covered Strawberry by Lancaster Brewing Company.

    This is going to be a multiple-beer-review article posting. It’s a total of six beer reviews; and from five different breweries. All from the Hershey-Middletown-Harrisburg area. (Hershey’s contributions are Troegs’ Chocolate Cherry Stout, and Rotunda’s Beautiful Trauma [Rotunda Brew Pub in Hershey], Middletown’s contributions are the Tattered Flag beers, and Harrisburg’s are the Boneshire and Lancaster Brewing beers.) Most of these will still be on tap today. And possibly even the firkin at Boneshire Brew Works might not have kicked and still might be available. The Troegs Chocolate Cherry Stout was also canned yesterday (2.13.20) and still might be available in cans as well. Beautiful Trauma is still available in cans, and you can get it on draft and in crowlers at their Rotunda Brew Pub (as well as at The Batdorf attached to their brewery in Annville).

    Let’s start with Middletown and break down the two beers from Tattered Flag. They have two offerings for us, and both are somewhat similar. Because I Was Inverted is their signature line of Milkshake IPAs, that they’ve done with a variety of different flavors (or adjuncts). Some notables were Mango, Kiwi, Plum, and they released two recently – Chocolate Covered Cherry and Chocolate Covered Strawberry. Both were canned and put on draft.

    Because I Was Inverted (Chocolate Covered Strawberry)

    Beer: Because I Was Inverted (Chocolate Covered Strawberry)
    Brewery: Tattered Flag
    Style: IPA – Milkshake
    ABV: 7.2%
    IBU: None Listed
    Untappd Write-Up: Because I was Inverted (BIWI) black milkshake IPA blends sweet lactose with midnight wheat to bring you a subtle bitterness followed by a silky finish and earthly yet fruity notes of Mosaic. Conditioned with cocoa and strawberry puree just in time for Valentines day!

    This looks like its a stout, but it tastes so much different. Appearance for this is dark black with a light foam head. Its Razor Ramone hair black (ahhhh, a term I haven’t gotten to use in a long time, been a while since I’ve reviewed a black / dark beer), fully opaque, and looking nothing like an IPA, let alone a milkshake IPA. Good carbonation, good head, and it leaves good lacing.

    Aroma is pretty interesting. You definitely get notes of chocolate, and faint notes of strawberry. You get vanilla, and you get slight faint fruity hoppy notes. Nothing outstanding on the hoppy notes, nothing that blows you away, its all very subtle letting the chocolate come out much more prevalent in aromas.

    This is very smooth, very tasty, very creamy. Its a bit heavy on your tongue in a way most IPAs aren’t. Strong chocolate, strong malt backbone, very vanilla and lactose and creamy, with some strawberry. The strawberry is probably a bit too subtle given that it should be more prominent, but its not too bad, and you do know its there. Strawberry can also be an overpowering addition that sometimes makes a beer far worse. There is no hop presence in taste. No bitterness, just smoothness and creamyness.

    My Untappd Rating: ****
    Global Untappd Rating: 3.69 (as of 2.14.20)

    Because I Was Inverted (Chocolate Covered Cherry)

    Beer: Because I Was Inverted (Chocolate Covered Cherry)
    Brewery: Tattered Flag
    Style: IPA – Milkshake
    ABV: 7.2%
    IBU: None Listed
    Untappd Write-Up: Because I was Inverted (BIWI) black milkshake IPA blends sweet lactose with midnight wheat to bring you a subtle bitterness followed by a silky finish and earthly yet fruity notes of Mosaic. Conditioned with cocoa and sweet cherry puree just in time for Valentines day!

    This might sound a lot like deja vu, but nearly everything for the above beer can be said for this one as well. Appearance is the same as the above, dark black, jet black, Razor Ramone hair black, nice foamy small head, nice lacing, good carbonation. Interspersed bubbles.

    Aroma is pretty much the exact same as well. Instead of faint strawberry, you get faint cherry. Still heavy chocolate, some vanilla, faint faint faint hop, with the cherry a bit more prominent than the strawberry, but only barely, and it could just be my nostrils more open to that particular smell.

    Taste is again similar, and again the only real difference is cherry puree rather than strawberry puree. Its noticeable the difference, in the same way you can notice mango instead of peach, or orange instead of kumquat. Heavy chocolate notes, vanilla notes, no hop presence, no bitterness, just super smooth, with a heavy mouthfeel. Slight cherry, possibly lighter than the strawberry, which is odd because I felt there was more of a nose of cherry on this than the strawberry had, but could all be tricks of the mind.

    My Untappd Rating: ****
    Global Untappd Rating: 3.72 (as of 2.14.20)

    Lets move on to Hershey and their offerings, we’ll start with Rotunda Brewing Company’s Beautiful Trauma.

    Beautiful Trauma

    Firstly, let’s do a big shout out to Steve Glick for the great artwork on this. If you’ve seen the artwork from Rotunda Brewing, its all courtesy of Steve Glick, and he is absolutely killing it. Fantastic artwork.

    Beer: Beautiful Trauma
    Brewery: Rotunda Brewing Company
    Style: Stout – Pastry
    ABV: 8.9%
    IBU: None Listed
    Untappd Write-Up: Imperial stout conditioned on strawberry puree, cocao nibs, and milk sugar.

    Rotunda has been making some beautiful beers and this is no exception. Its dark black like a stout pastry should be. Fully opaque. A nice foamy head that did go away pretty quickly, but had the interspersed bubbles. There was nice lacing on the glass as you drank (or gulped) this beauty down.

    Smell is fantastic. Its pure pastry. You get wonderful notes of cocao, lactose, vanilla, it smells like pastries. It smells creamy, it smells sugary, it smells sweet. Then you get hit with the strawberry under it all, and it comes up pretty strong at you, stronger than in some other versions of this beer (from other breweries).

    Tasting this, you almost want to finish it all right away… but have to pull yourself back so you don’t over-indulge and drain it too fast. This is like drinking a chocolate covered strawberry pastry. You get strong grain, strong chocolate, strong vanilla, strong sugar, strong strawberry, in an absolutely wonderful blend. Its heavy on your tongue but not cloying. Its super smooth and hides its 8.9% ABV rather well.

    My Untappd Rating: ****.25
    Global Untappd Rating: 3.83 (as of 2.14.20)

    Moving on to the next Hershey beer….

    Chocolate Cherry Stout by Troegs Independent Craft Brewing

    As you can see I drained this one a bit too much before taking a picture of it. (Ran into my cousin while at Troegs, and quickly got to drinking and talking more than taking a picture of it.)

    Beer: Chocolate Covered Cherry Stout
    Brewery: Troegs Independent Craft Brewing
    Style: Stout – Milk / Sweet
    ABV: 7.8%
    IBU: None Listed
    Untappd Write-Up: This special Valentine’s release starts with big, vibrant, red Balaton cherries. They’re sweet. They’re tart. They’re juicy. Now wrap those thoughts in a warm, roasty chocolate stout and drizzle with vanilla. It was this cherry cordial daydream that set our brewers on this path, and lo and behold, dreams do come true.

    As similar to all of the above, this was a dark beer. Fully opaque. Outside of the firkin from Boneshire Brew Works, this had the biggest and most resilient head to it. Foamy off-white (leaning towards brown) creamy head that retained for quite a while. Nice full looking body. Dark black but with a hint of brown to it.

    Aroma on this one was far more cherry than any of the others so far. Most likely due to the usage of real fruits rather than purees. This had a sparkling cherry smell to it. You get good notes of chocolate and you get vanilla and sugary notes as well. The malts are a roasted sort that you pick up on as well, with almost a caramelized smell to them.

    This one is tart but stout tart. You get a tartness from the cherries up front that then transitions into chocolate and its heavy. Some vanilla, some cream, some sugar, but the chocolate, kind of a bitter, cooking chocolate, is the most heaviest after the tartness of the cherries subsides. Its a very nice juxtaposition between the two that works very well into a blended stout here that makes its sum far more than its parts. This is re-drinkable easily, but not a full four pack by yourself in one sitting type. Two at most I’d say, but at its 7.8% ABV thats probably a good thing. This has a full thick body like a nice brickhouse (if you know what I mean, and if you’re having a good Valentine’s Day, hopefully you do) and it has a wonderful mouthfeel. Nothing cloying. The bitterness works nice with the creamyness. The tartness works great with the chocolate.

    My Untappd Rating: ****
    Global Untappd Rating: (as of 8:30AM, 2.14.20, there isn’t enough of a global Untappd rating yet, when there is, I’ll edit this and add it in).

    Now let’s go into Harrisburg, and start off with Lancaster Brewing Company.

    Double Chocolate Covered Strawberry by Lancaster Brewing Company

    Beer: Double Chocolate Covered Strawberry
    Brewery: Lancaster Brewing Company
    Style: Stout – Imperial / Double Milk
    ABV: 5.75%
    IBU: 29
    Untappd Write-Up: Mixture of Double chocolate milk stout and strawberry wheat

    Firstly, you won’t typically see this on the menu at Lancaster Brewing Company in Harrisburg (off of Eisenhower Boulevard). But if you ask for it, they’ll make it. Short story on it, is that its 50/50 Double Chocolate Stout and Strawberry Wheat. Then on top they drizzle strawberry sauce. (Thus the appearance in the picture.) Troegs used to do something similar with Mad Elf and their Chocolate Stout as well as Mad Elf and Dreamweaver (Chocolate Elf and Mad Dreams respectively). Cuvees or mixing beers has been a long practice with varying results.

    Appearance for this is going to be odder than most. The beer itself is fifty percent Lancaster Brewing’s Strawberry Wheat and fifty percent Lancaster Brewing’s Double Chocolate Stout. It also has the drizzle of strawberry sauce on top. So it almost has the look of a large mixed drink rather than a beer. The chocolate stout overpowers the wheat beer and makes this a black, dark, stout looking beer. Its not quite fully black due to the wheat beer, but it is still fully opaque. The mixture makes a head that doesn’t retain once the drizzle eats through it.

    Smell is all over the place too due to the mixture. You get strong strawberry, strong chocolate, strong milk, strong strawberry drizzle, strong wheat. You get a lot of strong aromas all hitting you at once. Their all attacking from all sides with strong fronts and your nose has no combat for it, no defenses, and no way to guide them correctly to their proper places. Its just all a bit much.

    Taste is interesting. I’m a fan of their Double Chocolate Stout, but not a fan of their strawberry wheat (at all, just one of the beers I’ve never enjoyed). But this is actually a pretty good mixture of the two, and the stout does away with the flavors and reasons I’m not a fan of the strawberry wheat. The drizzle makes it super sweet and super strawberry, but the stout provides a nice dark backbone, a nice chocolate malty support structure for the strawberry to play on. Lancaster Brewing could probably make a good strawberry stout that would be better than this rather than having to use the subpar strawberry wheat to make the mixture.

    My Untappd Rating: ***.75
    Global Untappd Rating: 4.19 (as of 2.14.20)

    And finally, our last Harrisburg, and our last beer on the list:

    Chocolate Cherry LazaRIS

    Beer: Chocolate Cherry LazaRIS
    Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
    Style: Stout – Russian Imperial
    ABV: 9.5%
    IBU: None Listed
    Untappd Write-Up: Our Russian Imperial Stout, LazaRIS, with chocolate and cherry added.
    Firkin.

    Firkin. Firkin. Firkin. Firkin. Firkin. Its just such a wonderful word. I don’t know (or remember) if the last time Boneshire produced this variant of LazaRIS if that was in a firkin as well; but this time it was.

    I will admit, I love LazaRIS and there hasn’t been a variant of it yet that I haven’t loved either. I had this variant (Chocolate Cherry) first back in March 2017, and now again on February 13th, 2020.

    Appearance is dark black like all of the above. Fully opaque, but with probably the biggest and most profound head of all of them. Could be because of the firkin or the beer, either way, it had a nice white brown foamy creamy head with interspersed bubbles and wonderful lacing on the glass as you drank this down. This is jet black, Razor Ramone hair black, Snoopy writing about a dark and stormy night black, black like the souls and hearts of some on Valentine’s Day. (Ooh, I like that last one, might have to remember to use that one more often!)

    Aroma is heavy stout, heavy Russian Imperial Stout. Lots of deep dark malts. Lots of heavy grain, but it gets tempered with by the addition of the chocolate and cherry in this. You get strong cocao, strong chocolate, strong cherry that rounds out the usual smell of LazaRIS. This is just an extremely aromatic beer in all of its variants. Which I think is one of the biggest reasons I love this beer so much, I love smelling, inhaling, and savoring a beer before I even take that first sip, and LazaRIS is perfect for that.

    Taste is immediate dark, immediate heavy, powerful malt, powerful dark grain, roasted, caramelized to a degree, and then you get the new additions, the chocolate, the cherry, the cocao, the heavy hitters come out firing on all cylinders and punching in every direction like the Tazmanian Devil. A whirling dervish of flavors assaults you suddenly, you get the chocolate, the cherry, the malt, the rich roasted notes, and they get you and hit you hard. There is so much to enjoy in this beer as you get all of these flavors in spades.

    My Untappd Rating: ****.50
    Global Untappd Rating: 4.08 (as of 2.14.20)

    Ok, so lets break down the beers I reviewed here, and give some stats on them. First, my Untappd Ratings for all of them:

    * Because I was Inverted (Chocolate Cherry) – ****
    * Because I was Inverted (Chocolate Strawberry) – ****
    * Beautiful Trauma – ****.25
    * Chocolate Cherry Stout (Troegs) – ****
    * Double Chocolate Covered Strawberry – ***.75
    * Chocolate Cherry LazaRIS – ****.50

    By style:
    * Because I was Inverted (both variants) – Milkshake IPA
    * Beautiful Trauma – Pastry Stout
    * Chocolate Cherry Stout – Milk Sweet Stout
    * Double Chocolate Strawberry – Double Milk Sweet Stout
    * Chocolate Cherry LazaRIS – Russian Imperial Stout

    ABV:
    * Because I was Inverted (both variants) – 7.2%
    * Beautiful Trauma – 8.9%
    * Chocolate Cherry Stout – 7.8%
    * Double Chocolate Strawberry – 5.75%
    * Chocolate Cherry LazaRIS – 9.5%

    So thats the breakdown of all of the Valentine’s Day beers in the Hershey / Harrisburg / Middletown area. Did I miss any? Let me know! Hopefully you’ll have as much fun finding these and trying them out as I did.

    Cheers everyone!

    -B. Kline

  • End of the Year – 2019

    End of the Year – 2019

     

    (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