Category: Breweries in PA

  • The Best Pennsylvania Breweries for Summer Beers

    The Best Pennsylvania Breweries for Summer Beers

    Best Breweries in Pennsylvania for Summer Beers

    Its Hot Out There – Time For a Beer

    Its hot out there – and today has been no exception – here at The Beer Thrillers HQ its 95 degrees with a real feel of 100 – 102 degrees (Fahrenheit). So whats the best way to cool off? Grabbing a delicious, refreshing beer from one of our favorite breweries here in Pennsylvania of course!

    So with it being the hot summer months – the dog days of summer as some would call it – I decided to come up with a list of some of the best Pennsylvania breweries with some refreshing summer offerings.

    Summer is here, and that means it’s time to enjoy some great craft beers. Pennsylvania is home to some of the best breweries in the country, and many of them brew a variety of summer beers that are perfect for enjoying on a hot day.

    In this article, we will take a look at some of the best Pennsylvania breweries for summer beers. We will discuss the different types of summer beers that are available, and we will recommend some of the best beers from each brewery.

    Types of Summer Beers

    There are many different types of summer beers available, but some of the most popular include:

    Pale Ale

    Pale ales are a great choice for summer because they are light and refreshing. They are typically brewed with a variety of hops, which gives them a citrusy or fruity flavor.

    IPAs

    IPAs are another popular choice for summer. They are hoppier than pale ales, but they are still light enough to enjoy on a hot day. IPAs come in a variety of styles, so there is sure to be one that you will enjoy.

    Sours

    Sour beers are becoming increasingly popular, and they are a great choice for summer. They are tart and refreshing, and they can be made with a variety of fruits.

    Session Beers

    Session beers are lower in alcohol content than other types of beer, making them a great choice for those who want to enjoy a few beers without getting too tipsy. Session beers come in a variety of styles, so there is sure to be one that you will enjoy.

    Kolches, Hefeweizens, Witbiers, etc.

    Some of these can easily fall under the Session Beer label. Many Kolsches, Hefes, Wits, and Light Beers (Pilsners, Lagers – think your craft beer alternatives to Bud Lite, Coors Light, Miller Lite, etc.); they usually have lower ABV, are more refreshing, and have more softer ingredients, with some even containing fruit or being more sweet too.

    The Best Pennsylvania Breweries for Summer Beers

    There are many great Pennsylvania breweries that brew summer beers, but here are a few of our favorites:

    Troegs Independent Craft Brewing

    Troegs Independent Craft Brewing

    Tröegs Independent Craft Brewing is a large brewery located in Hershey, Pennsylvania. They brew a wide variety of beers, including many summer favorites. Some of their most popular summer beers include Perpetual IPA, Dream Weaver, Sunshine Pils, Nimble Giant IPA, and their hop cyclone series – Hopora IPA, Lollihop IPA, and Field Study IPA.

    Victory Brewing Company

    Victory Brewing Company

    Victory is another large brewery located in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. They brew a wide variety of beers, including many summer favorites. Some of their most popular summer beers include Summer Love Pale Ale, Dirt Wolf IPA, and Golden Monkey Belgian Tripel. As well as Cloud Walker IPA and the sour version of Golden Monkey – Sour Monkey.

    Forest and Main Brewing Company

    Forest and Main Brewery

    Forest & Main Brewery and Brew Pub is a small brewery located in Exton, Pennsylvania. They brew a wide variety of beers, including many experimental beers. However, they also brew some great summer beers, such as The Botanist, a dry-hopped saison, and The Swim, a hazy IPA.

    Vault Brewing Company

    Vault Brewing Company

    Vault Brewing Company is a small brewery located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They brew a wide variety of beers, including many IPAs and sour beers. However, they also brew some great summer beers, such as The Squeeze, a hazy IPA, and The Haze, a double IPA.

    Brew Gentlemen

    Brew Gentlemen

    Brew Gentlemen, this brewery is located in Braddock, Pennsylvania, and they brew a wide variety of beers, including many experimental beers. However, they also brew some great summer beers, such as Eighty-Eight Session IPA, Helltown Pilsner, and Excursion Hazy IPA.

    Conshohocken Brewing Company

    Conshohocken Brewing Company

    This brewery is located in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, and they brew a wide variety of beers, including many summer favorites. Some of their most popular summer beers include Summer Crush Session IPA, Watermelon Wheat, and Bohemian Pilsner.

    Hidden River Brewing Company

    Hidden River Brewing Company

    This brewery is located in Nottingham, Pennsylvania, and they brew a wide variety of beers, including many sour beers. However, they also brew some great summer beers, such as Raspberry Wheat, Pineapple Sour, and Kölsch.

    Snitz Creek Brewing Company

    Snitz Creek Brewing Company located in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and they brew a wide variety of beers, including many German-style beers. However, they also brew some great summer beers, such as Kolsch, Helles, and Hefeweizen. They have a fantastic lemon and blueberry sour, and have done some shandies and radlers in the past.

    Summertime in Pennsylvania

    Summertime in Pennsylvania can certainly be hot, but it doesn’t mean you can’t cool off with some of these fantastic breweries. They all have different great options for you to try and refresh while sitting in their wonderful breweries or even to take home and try. Either way – stay out of the heat and enjoy their delicious beers.

    These are just a few of the many great Pennsylvania breweries that brew summer beers. With so many great options to choose from, you are sure to find the perfect summer beer to enjoy on a hot day.

    A Series of Craft Beer Articles

    This is just one of several in a series of over arching ‘craft beer’ related articles. Several alone in a ‘flagship’ series. In the next few weeks there will be some more that come out as well. I would like to have this general level of different ‘craft beer articles’ that everyone can kind of jump to and read and use for informative purposes, and give a better understanding for the other articles on the site.

    Some of these articles are about definitions (like “What is Craft Beer?“) and others are about Craft Breweries in general like the Top 50 Producing Craft Breweries, etc.

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

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

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

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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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  • Brews and Bands for Bart

    Brews and Bands for Bart

    Block Party of the Summer

    How do you recognize one of the baddest and coolest party throwers around? By throwing one of the biggest and baddest bashes ever in his honor! Thats just what’s in store this Saturday at Tattered Flag. We’ve discussed Bartley Kaminski here on the blog before, in numerous different ways, but recently with his passing, and with the event here and various events in the distant past.

    This event has been planned out for quite a while now, but has really blown up with Bart’s passing. Tons of breweries adding their names to the list, and lots of other additions, and add – ons and groups adding to it and showing up in various ways to help the cause. It looks to be one hell of a bash, and one hell of a way to salute, and remember Bart and to throw one final rad party in his honor and memory.

    Bartley Kaminiski

    We talked about Bart before here, and talked about his passing previously here: Farewell to Bartley Francis Kaminski. He founded Kollision Media, Hop Hedz Gear, and has been referred to as “The Willy Wonka of Beer Events”. I could go on and on about him here. He was just a great guy, the life of the party without being too much, and everyone who knew him, or even just met him at one event or the other has amazing memories or stories to tell about him. My buddy talks about Bart’s green – suit or green – man appearance at the Atlantic City Brewfest all the time. There was very rarely an event in the Central PA area where you didn’t see a Hop Hedz Gear stand or Bart himself. And I guarantee you there was at least one person walking around in a tee shirt or hoodie that he made.

    I can’t do him justice here discussing his amazing life, but we can do him justice by having one heck of a party in his honor.

    Brews and Bands for Bart

    The final brewery list for Brews and Bands for Bart posted today (Wednesday 8.11.21)

    Look at that line-up! And word is there might be more additions to come and stuff, even though this is the “finalized” list. And I’m sure some might have their own little additions or add ons or secret hidden stashes too.

    Here is a full list with all of their Untappd links:

    Word is also Lancaster Brewing Company, North Country Brewing, and maybe one or two more will be unofficially added. That is one hell of a lineup right there! With breweries from out of state like Tripping Animals (Florida) and much more.

    And let us not forget the bands part of this event as well!

    The music lineup for Brews and Bands for Bart at Tattered Flag this Saturday (8.14.21)

    Also, as posted by Hop Hedz Gear on social media:

    In addition to the 40+ breweries that will be attending the fest, we would like to thank our group of vendors who will be a part of the event! Thanks so Whimsical Wonders By Kris, Thicc Bois Glassware, D&S Cigar Lounge, Dutch Country Soft Pretzels, and Feathers Feed and Jerky. Be sure to stop by these booths, as all sales will have a portion of proceeds donated to the cause!

    When, Where, How

    When is this amazing block party bash? This Saturday, from noon to 4PM. Where is it? At Tattered Flag Brewery on South Union Street in Middletown, Pennsylvania (Dauphin County). How do you get tickets? Check out Hop Hedz Gear, or go here: https://shop.hophedzgear.com/products/brews-and-bands-for-bart

    (UPDATE: Tickets have sold out. On the day of, they will have roughly 100 tickets for purchase at the door. This will be the only way to attend the event now.)

    Tattered Flag and Breweries of PA Collab

    “Hard Pills to Swallow” Tattered Flag and Breweries in PA Collab

    Make sure to check out the Breweries in PA tent to find the special Hard Pills to Swallow Tattered Flag collaboration that they made just for the event. It is also available in cans, and you can purchase it through the statewide shipping “Supply Drop” that Tattered Flag offers.

    More Information, Facebook Event Page, and Beer Thriller Links

    For more information, you can read the event page description here:

    “As you may know, in late February, Bart Kaminski was diagnosed with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer with Sarcomatoid DIfferentiation. A rare form of cancer that quickly spread to his adrenal gland, lymph nodes and surrounding bone marrow.To support Bart’s growing medical expenses, we are throwing a unique brewfest! It will take place on Saturday, Aug. 14 in the block in front of Tattered Flag Brewery and Still Works in Middletown. The event is $40 (in advance) or $45 the day of the event and that gets you a pint can glass and unlimited samplings. Food will be available for purchase.This event is co-sponsored by The Beer Busters Podcast who will be recording live at the event.We are going to have a fantastic line-up of bands! Noon – 12:45 p.m. – Shannon Bobb acoustic
    1:00 – 2:15 p.m. – Colt Wilbur Band
    2:30 – 3:45 p.m. – The Martini Bros.Breweries will be announced every few days. Here are the breweries that have already been announced:Artiface Ales & Mead
    Big Dog
    Boneshire
    Breweries Of PA (TF Collab)
    Chatty Monks
    Dancing Gnome
    Englewood
    Evergrain
    Fahnestock & Baer
    Four Score
    Funk
    Human Robot
    Lovedrafts
    Levante
    Lions Head
    Liquid Noise
    Mad Chef
    Moo Duck
    Naked Brewing
    Our Town
    Pilger Ruh
    Pour Man’s
    Raney Cellars
    REHAB
    Root Down
    Rotunda
    Samuel Adams
    Seven Sirens
    Shy Bear
    St. Boniface
    Stickman Brews
    Stolen Sun
    Tattered Flag
    Tripping Animals
    Troegs
    Wingcraft
    Wolf
    Workhorse
    Yards
    Zeroday

    Please help us do everything we can to support Bart!

    Location: Tattered Flag Brewery
    1 S Union Street, Middletown

    The Capital Region’s first co-branded and co-located Craft Brewery & Craft Distillery.
    @tatteredflagbsw
    www.tatteredflagbsw.com

    The Event Page can be visited here: Brews and Bands for Bart Event Page.

    Some previous links to articles on The Beer Thrillers where we discuss Bart Kaminski:

    Some Tattered Flag related articles:

    Thank you everyone for reading! And hopefully see you all out and hope everyone finds it in them to contribute and donate. It really does go to a good cause and will help the family immensely. Cheers all!

    -B. Kline

    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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  • 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