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

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:

• Artiface Ales and Mead
• Big Dog Craft Brewery
• Boneshire Brew Work
• Breweries of PA (Facebook Page and Group)
• Chatty Monks Brewing
• Dancing Gnome Brewing
• The Englewood
• Ever Grain Brewing Company
• Evil Genius Brewing
• Fahnestock and Baer
• Four Score Beer Company
• Funk Brewing
• Human Robot
• Lovedrafts Brewing Company
• Levante Brewing Company
• Lions Head
• Liquid Noise
• Mad Chef Brewing
• Moo Duck Brewing Company
• Naked Brewing
• Our Town Brewery
• Pilger Ruh Brewing
• Pour Man’s Brewing
• Raney Cellar’s Brewing
• REHAB Homebrew Group
• Rotunda Brewing Company
• Root Down Brewing
• Samuel Adams (Boston Beer Company)
• Troegs Independent Craft Brewing
• Wolf Brewing
• Seven Sirens Brewing Company
• Shy Bear Brewing
• St. Boniface Brewing Company
• Stickman Brewing
• Stolen Sun Brewery
• Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery
• Tripping Animals
• Wingcraft
• Workhorse Brewing Company
• Yards Brewing
• ZeroDay Brewery

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!

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

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:

• Farewell to Bartley Kaminski
• Hike: Governor Dick (post – funeral services hike)

Some Tattered Flag related articles:

• Beer Review: Tattered Soul
• Beer Share at Tattered Flag
• Beer Review: The Pandalorian
• Beer Review: Social Distancing
• Beer Review: Fatum: Member Berry
• “Tattered Flag 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Editorial Note: This article was originally written and submitted to Breweries in PA. They will be publishing it in roughly one weeks time on their page and FaceBook page. It was written by lead writer here at The Beer Thrillers – B. Kline, and is being posted here as well. This was a guest-article written by B. Kline for Breweries in PA. Since there is some pertinent and timely information included in the article [namely Tattered Flag & Levante’s Tap Takeovers and Can Releases for 9.7.19] this article is being posted here and now. When it is posted on the Breweries in PA website and FaceBook page, links will be provided to the article’s locations there. Likewise, since this was created for their site and blog, as well as written in Microsoft Online Word DOC the formatting may be off in some places. When the mistakes are noticed, we will try and correct them. -The Beer Thrillers staff.)

Breweries Around the Outskirts of Harrisburg 
By: B. Kline 

In the area surrounding Hummelstown (17036), there is several breweries. In all directions, roughly within 5 miles, there is some fantastic breweries in Hershey, Middletown, and the outskirts of Harrisburg like Rutherford and Union Station. I’m going to take a look at a few of these and suggest a nice weekend trip to these locations that won’t take a lot of your time up, and what all events and plans they currently have going on. In this article, we will be taking a look at Troegs Brewery, Boneshire Brew Works, Newfangled Brew Works, and Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery.  

There is a lot of great choices of breweries in Pennsylvania, and even in just Harrisburg itself, there is several fantastic choices. Coming from the small town of Hummelstown itself (where I’m located – B. Kline – writer for the blog The Beer Thrillers). In Harrisburg central there is ZeroDay Brewing, The Millworks, and The Vegetable Hunter. Along the outskirts of Harrisburg in Rutherford you will find Boneshire Brew Works and in a small development off of Union Deposit in Union Station you’ll find Newfangled Brew Works. In Hershey you’ll find Troegs Independent Craft Brewing and Iron Hill Brewery. In Middletown you will find Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery. And soon, in the future in Hummelstown you’ll be able to enjoy some beverages at the old police station by Rubber Soul Brewing.  

I’ve decided to write this in the best route method for driving and convenience. I debated exactly how I wanted to write-up the breweries of Boneshire Brew Works, Newfangled Brew Works, Tattered Flag, and Troegs, and decided this might be the best and most logical way. The times I’ve done this ‘brewery trail’ this is always the way I’ve done it, and it also stops the ‘why was X first and Y last’ arguments. So lets take a look at these four breweries, what they got to offer on tap, what they got going on, and why their worth a stop in and check out. 

Newfangled Brew Works 

Located At: 8001 Union Station Blvd, Harrisburg, PA 17111 
Untappd Link: https://untappd.com/NewfangledBrewWorks 
 

Newfangled Brew Works is located inside Union Station, a recent development built off of Union Deposit Road (a long road that connects Harrisburg to several of the smaller towns in the area like South Hanover Township, Union Deposit, Hoernerstown, and even to Hershey). It is right as you enter into the development in a large building conjoined with its restaurant pairing – Koda. Koda is a high scale restaurant located to the right of the main entrance into Newfangled. Newfangled also has its own built-in Taco Truck tucked away in the back lefthand corner. 

Lets discuss the food first, the taco truck has fabulous tacos, quesadillas, and other taco and Mexican related foods. Artisanal tacos is the best way to describe these, as this is definitely no Taco Bell menu (and a whole heck of a lot better tasting too). Their food menu can be found here: Food, their hours of operation are: Sunday  11AM-9PM, Monday-Friday 4PM-9PM, and Saturday 12PM-10PM.  

Pictured here is the quesadilla taco from the taco truck, with the added beef meat it came to be 7.42$ (pre-tip). Beer picture is the Guava Lemonade Kettle Sour. The taco was extremely delicious and the kettle sour washed it down perfectly. This is the side-porch and patio area to the left of the building (when facing the entrance).  

The brewery itself currently has 16 beers on tap for consumption. Some of their own, and a few others. Of their own currently on tap they have: 

• Passionfruit Blonde Ale – Blonde Ale – 5% 

• Ariana Flockhart – Blonde Ale – 4.9% 
• Blood Orange Blonde Ale – Blonde Ale – 5% 
• Guava Lemonade Kettle Sour – Sour – 5.6% 
• Kettle Sour – Sour – 5.6% 
• Brut IPA – IPA – Brut – 7.7% 

• Double IPA – IPA – Imperial – 8.2% 
• Irish Red Ale – Red Ale – Irish – 6% 
• Saison – Farmhouse Ale – Saison – 6.8% 
• Newfangled American Wheat – Wheat Beer – 5.2% 
• Lager – Lager – 5.2% 

• IPA – IPA – American – 5.8% 
• Stout – Stout – American – 6.5% 

The non-Newfangled Beers on tap are: 

• Yuengling Lager – Lager – 4.5% (Yuengling Brewery) 
• Standard – Cider – 5.5% (Big Hill Ciderworks) 

I have currently had all but their lager, double IPA, Brut IPA, and the blood orange blonde ale. I have enjoyed everything I’ve had so far. Found nothing to be horrible or terrible and no off flavors or infected beers.  

They offer their beers right now in pints or traditional pours, dependent on the style, as well as half pours and flights. Pricing is your normal fair for a craft brewery (5$-7/8$ depending on style and costs to make the beer).  

Currently, Newfangled Brew Works has produced 22 unique beers, and has a global average rating of 3.73. 

Upcoming events for Newfangled are:  

• Live Music – Fridays and Saturdays 7PM – 10PM 
• Trivia – Wednesdays 630PM – 830PM   

Boneshire Brew Works 
Located At: 7462 Derry St, Harrisburg, PA 17111 
Untappd Link: https://untappd.com/BoneshireBrewWorks 

Coming down the road from Newfangled and getting onto Nyes Road it will lead you to Derry Street. From there you take a right hand turn and find yourself after a few blocks at Boneshire Brew Works. Boneshire was started by Alan Miller, Carson Brooks, and Alex Govelovich.  

Boneshire’s brewery is a small little ‘pub’ style brewery. As soon as you enter you feel already a member of a club where everybody knows your name. If you’ve been there once, your second time there, you are a ‘regular’ and quickly become on a first name basis with all of the staff.  

Currently food is limited to a few behind the bar items like pickle flights and bologna, but it is a BYOB environment with a pizzeria just two doors down (to the left of the building is a Crossfit and after that is the pizza shop, how lucky are those crossfit hard-workers being “stuck” between a pizza shop and a brewery?).  

Boneshire currently offers a taplist of their own, as well as a taplist of several breweries from Pennsylvania. Their current taplist is: 

Their own: 

• Dillston – Red Ale – Irish – 5.5% (made with Greystone Public House) 
• Caucus-Race (6.0 Zappa Hops) – IPA – American – 7.5% 

• Harrishire – Smoked – 7.3% (made in collaboration with Harris Family Brewery) 
• AuZealand 2.0 – IPA – American – 6.3% 
• Dark of the Forest (barrel aged) – Stout – Coffee – 10% 
• Derry St. Wheat – Hefeweizen – 5% 
• Good Walk Spoiled – Sour – 4.5%       

Guest tap lists: 

• Jelsa – Mead – Melomel – 12% (Larsen Meadworks) 
• Magic… Under Where? – Pale Ale – 5.5% (Pizza Boy Brewing) 
• Kriek Nouveau – Sour – 6.9% (Free Will Brewing Co.) 
• Brawler – English Mild – 4.2% (Yards Brewing Co.) 

• Pils – Pilsner – German – 4.7% (Stoudts Brewing) 
• Summer Scrumpy – Cider – 5.5% (Big Hill Ciderworks) 
• Fruit Wagon – Sour – 6.3% (Saucony Brewing Company) 
• Java Cask – Stout – Imperial Double – 14.3% (Victory Brewing) 
• Pikeland Pils – Pilsner – German – 4.9% (Slyfox Brewing) 

Boneshire Brewery has a steady string of events going on.  Mondays are D&D nights, Tuesdays alternate between Open Mic Nights and Bar Bingo nights, Wednesdays are trivia nights, Thursdays are live music nights. Their Facebook page has a full list of events with the band names already signed on for each Thursday through October. They also occasionally have live music on Saturday nights. 

Boneshire also does cans to go, in 4-packs of most of their in-house made beers. A few exceptions based on styles and things, but nearly all of their brewery beers are set to go. And typically at much better prices than a pint at the bar. They also do growler fills. 

They currently have 126 uniquely produced beers with a global average rating of 3.82 on Untappd. 

Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery 

Located At: 1 S Union St Middletown, PA 
Untappd Link: https://untappd.com/TatteredFlagBrewery 

Leaving Boneshire we can get right up onto 322 from Derry Street. There we can then turn right and get off at the Hummelstown / Middletown exit and go along Middletown Road (which becomes Vine Street), not much further we’ll turn right onto Main Street and then turn left to get onto Union and we are at our next destination. Middletown’s first (and so far only) brewery and distillery – Tattered Flag. 

Veteran owned and having just hit their third anniversary they have really been pumping out some outstanding beers in recent history. With new brewing crew of Dave Marrow, Justin Hoak, and Cliff Plank, they have been putting out exceptional IPAs (NE IPAS specifically) and sours. They were just voted Harrisburg best Brewery and Distillery.  

They have been doing some excellent collaborations with numerous breweries in the last few months as well. Beers with Wolf Brewing Co. , Levante Brewing, Abomination Brewing, and up and comer Pilger Ruh Brewing.  

They have a downstairs bar that is also their coffee shop as well as the distillery area. It was called the Nuclear Bean but on Untappd they refer to the bar as the Distillery Bar now. They also have their main restaurant and bar upstairs, though you can order food at either location.  

At the downstairs Nuclear Bean / coffee shop / distillery bar, you can order drinks. Their taplist there currently is:  

• NP Project – Kombucha (Renewal Kombucha) 
• Nuclear Bean Nitro Cold Brew – Coffee 

• Blue Raider Kolsch – Kolsch – 5.2% 
• Teutonic Knight Hefeweizen – Hefeweizen – 5.4% 
• Fatum Series Ale – Strawberry – Sour – 6% 
• Because I Was Inverted (Mango) – IPA – Milkshake – 6.6% 
• Makin’ Love at Midnight (2019) – IPA – Milkshake – 7.8%  

• Silent Professional Foxtrot – Farmhouse Ale – Saison – 7.8% 
• New Zealand Hop Test – IPA – Imperial Double – 8% 
• Don’t Cryo’ver Spilled Milk – IPA – Milkshake – 8% 
• TMI IPA – IPA – American – 6.5% 

They also have cans to go, which you can pick up upstairs or downstairs, there list of cans to go currently are: 

• Tattered Abomination – IPA – New England – 7.8% (made with Abomination Brewing) 
• Prepare to be Flabbergasted – Sour – 7% 
• Teutonic Knight Hefeweizen 
• Blue Raider Kolsch 
• O’Dusseldorf Rules – Altbier – 5% 

• Honey I Added More Hops – IPA – New England – 7% 
• Double Knife Fight in Space – IPA – New England – 8% 
• Makin’ Love at Midnight 2.0 – IPA – American – 7.5% 
• Step 1 Brew Beer Step 2 ? Step 3 Profit – IPA – New England – 8% 
• Makin’ Love at Midnight (Sour) – Sour – 7.8% 

• TMI IPA 

Their taplist upstairs currently is: 

• Silent Professional Foxtrot 
• Blue Raider Kolsch 

• Teutonic Knight Hefeweizen 
• DDH Double IPA – IPA – Imperial / Double – New England – 8.4% 
• Swattier Divide (2018) – IPA – New England – 8.2% 
• Step 1 Brew Beer Step 2 ? Step 3 Profit 
• TMI IPA 

• Don’t Cryo’ver Spilled Milk 
• Should’ve Got a Warrant – Sour – 7.6% 
• Stars and Stripes 20.19 – IPA – New England – 7.8% 
• Sparklerz (Meyer Lemon) – Hard Seltzer – 5% 
• Five Sided Puzzle Palace – Stout – Imperial / Double – 12% (Levante Brewing colab) 

• Because I Was Inverted (Mango) 
• Double Knife Fight in Space 
• Groundhops Day – IPA – New England – 6% 
• Honey I Added More Hops 
• Makin’ Love at Midnight (sour) 

• Prepare to be Flabbergasted 
• Tattered Abomination 

Make sure to check out my blog (The Beer Thrillers) for reviews on Prepare to be Flabbergasted, Tattered Abomination, and Makin’ Love at Midnight (Sour) all due to being posted within the next several days.  

I’m not much of a foody, but I do love going to Tattered Flag or helping with their canning run, just to get to eat there. It is top notch gourmet style food. All bases covered, from hot dogs and hamburgers, to salads, to tacos and quesadillas, to steaks, and seafood. Everything is covered and everything is absolutely phenomenal.  

This weekend, Tattered Flag and Levante Brewing are doing their big release. Saturday, September 7^th, starting at 11AM, they will be selling cans of their collaboration with Levante Brewing – Wasted Away Again, a key-lime pie sour. They will also be selling cans of their collaboration with Levante Brewing – Five Sided Puzzle Palace. As well as having several of Levante’s beers on tap in the brewery. Ontop of this, from 1PM to 4PM the Hershey Biergarten in downtown Hershey will be selling their cans and having the beers on tap as well. Tattered Flag and Levante will also be featured at sip of Soma.

Of course I have to mention that you should check out the distillery if you have any inclination in liquors. Dan, the distiller for Tattered Flag is amazing and provides exceptional spirits. (He also does ghost tours in Gettysburg.) 

Tattered Flag Brewery has 351 uniquely produced beers with a global average rating on Untappd of 3.77. 

Troegs Independent Craft Brewing 
Located At: 200 Hersheypark Dr, Hershey, PA 17033 
Untappd Link: https://untappd.com/troegsbrewingcompany 

And last but not least of our little tour is Troegs Brewery. Which at this point, really needs no introduction. They are always some of the top rated beers in the state, and is generally considered “the top” of the craft industry in the state (behind Yuengling). The brewery itself is always jam packed, weekday, weeknight, afternoon, or evening. Some of which is due to its fantastic location next door to HersheyPark, and some of that due to the excellent beers in production, as well as a top of the line brewery tour.  

 They have certainly been expanding too. Adding the foeders and making a larger cellar room. They’ve added a beer garden outfront. And lots and lots more parking. Which somehow still doesn’t feel like its enough! 

They have also branched out and done a lot more of their Splinter Series beers, done more and more regular scratches, and even begun to can some of the scratch beers, and upped the number of rotational/seasonal beers. Releasing some big hits like Lollihop, Golden Thing, and various Scratches in beer can that have all gotten great reviews. 

They have also added an upstairs loft with its own food menu and its own bar (though the taplist is the same as it is in the side-room by the foeders and at the main bar, just slightly more limited). The pizza upstairs is the best new feature total though, hop on that immediately! 

Their current taplist at the main bar is: 

• Perpetual IPA – IPA – American – 7.5% 
• Troegennator Double Bock – Bock – Imperial – 8.2% 
• Sunshine Pils – Pilsner – 4.5% 
• HopBack Amber Ale – Red Ale – Amber Ale – 6% 

• DreamWeaver – Wheat Beer – 4.8% 
• JavaHead – Stout – Coffee – 7.5% 
• Hop Knife – IPA – American – 6.2% 
• Nimble Giant – IPA – Imperial / Double – 9% 
• Naked Elf – English Ale – 6.9% 

• Golden Thing – DDH – IPA – Double – 8.2% 
• Boysenberry Tart Ale – Sour – 4.5% 
• Raspberry Tart Ale – Sour – 4.5% 
• Fest Lager – Lager – Marzen – 6.1% 
• Dear Peter – Farmhouse Saison – 7.6% 

• Hazy IPA (Scratch 387) – IPA – New England – 5.2%  (same as Trail Day Pale Ale)
• Tangerine Passionfruit Guava Tart (Scratch 386) – Sour – 4.6% 
• Krausened Dunkel Lager (Scratch 385) – Dunkel – 5.4% 
• Tangerine Blackberry Guava Tart Ale (Scratch 384) – Sour – 5% 

In Bottles Only: 

• LaGrave Triple Golden Ale – Belgian – 8% 
• Jovial Dubbel Ale – Belgian – 7% 
• Mad Elf Grand Cru (2018) – Belgian Strong Dark – 11% 
• Wild Elf – Farmhouse Wild Ale – 11% 
• Bourbon Barrel-Aged Impending Descent – Russian Stout – 12% 

• Bourbon Barrel-Aged Troegenator – Double Bock – 9.8% 
• Bourbon Barrel-Aged Flying Mouflan – Belgian – 11.5% 
• Dear Peter  
• Farmette – Farmhouse Saison – 6.5% 
• Blackberry Tizzy – Sour – 7.8% 

• Mortal Cherry – Farmhouse Wild Ale – 6.6% 
• Apricot Farmette – Farmhouse Saison – 7.4% 

Troeg also has cider from Big Hill Ciderworks as well as numerous non-alcoholic sodas in bottle (for children and non-drinking drivers).  

Troegs currently has no events listed for this weekend in their brewery. It has seemed they do less and less events in house at the brewery, and more and more out at various places. Most likely due to how full the brewery already is getting plus it expands the brand more to do these events at a wider range of places. 

They do however have a big event coming up on October 4^th weekend – their annual Hop Harvest Fest. Which since putting in the beer garden they’ve been putting to good use with this. Look for more information to come out soon on bands performing and beers they will be releasing. 

If you’ve never been to Troegs Brewery before, make sure you take the walking tour. It’s a quick 5-10 minute self guided tour but you get to see some neat things along the way (like the krausen for DreamWeaver as well as their bottling and canning lines). 

Troegs currently has 385 uniquely produced beers (according to Untappd, which is a bit dated on this, since a lot of their scratches were released before Untappd was created, and they are currently up to Scratch 387) with a global average rating on Untappd of 3.79. 

Thank you for checking out this brief brewery hopping tour around the outskirts of Harrisburg and centralized around Hummelstown. I hope you all found it informative and helpful and will give these four great breweries a look over. They all definitely deserve your time and attention as they are all pumping out some wonderful beers and have great stuff going on at their breweries all the time.  

And lastly, make sure you hop on over to my beer blog – The Beer Thrillers, where me and beer buddy J. Doncevic have been writing some wonderful beer reviews, brewery reviews, trip recaps, beer event reviews, and all kinds of other beer related things in the Central PA area since May. Make sure to stop and check us out and let us know in the comments that you came from here, we’d greatly appreciate seeing you there!  

• B. Kline
• The Beer Thrillers
• https://thebeerthrillers.com/
• http://twitter.com/thebeerthriller/

Between hitting landmarks and parks like Kinzua Bridge, Woodring Farm, Fort Pitt, Bushy Run Battlefield, Flight 93 Memorial, there will be plenty of time for breweries.

The itinerary for the next three days (fingers crossed) are as follows:

Thursday:
* Logyard Brewing Company (Kane, PA)
* Straub Brewing Company (St. Mary’s, PA)
* Clarion River Brewing Company (Clarion, PA)

Friday:
* ShuBrew (Pittsburgh, PA)
* Cinderlands (Pittsburgh, PA)
* The Church Brew Works (Pittsburgh, PA)
* Yellow Bridge Brewing Company (Delmont, PA)

Saturday:
* Stone Bridge Brewing Company
* Olde Bedford Brewing Company (Bedford, PA)

Fingers crossed once again, there will be daily updates of the brewery tours or at least Tweets on our Twitter ( https://twitter.com/thebeerthriller).

Looking forward to getting to explore parts of Pennsylvania and more breweries and getting to write up some reviews on their breweries/facilities and their beers. So stay tuned!

-B. Kline

August Road Trip Series:

• Going on the Road
• The Trip: Day 1 Recap
• The Trip: Day 2 Recap
• The Trip: Day 3 Recap

So an impromptu night out with a friend for a few drinks means…. an impromptu chance to do a beer review (or two). And as you can tell, being an impromptu review session, the pics aren’t quite up to snuff (being out with friends will make it a bit harder to get the best quality pictures, especially because I do more yapping as I drink and forget to grab that nice beautiful shot as soon as I get my beer). But I’ve been wanting to get back to Newfangled Brew Works (was there for their opening and one other time), so I’ve been wanting to show them some love here on the blog and do a review or two of their beers, and the Hurry Up and Wait was a big huge ‘deal’ so that deserves a review.

This is a two-part beer review, so not a full “multiple beer reviews” style post, but two separate beers that I got a chance to have on draft while out with friends and throwing up a review. The Hurry Up and Wait probably deserves its own post, primarily due to the massiveness behind the making of it. But, since that was done by PA Breweries and they have their own blog and Facebook group and page, its probably best that they’ve already done it anyway (and the beer has been out for quite some time now, so a rudimentary posting by me on it should suffice I believe). Just know, if you want a much more in-depth review on the creation of that beer (which was a ridiculous 20+ brewery collaboration with proceeds going to Veterans, which is a fantastic idea) you can track down the creation story and reviews on it by going to the PA Breweries Facebook page or group.

Likewise this won’t be an actual brewery review either, as it was my third (or fourth?) visit to Newfangled and I really didn’t think this was the time to do a write-up for that. But I will throw up some pictures of the place and talk about it a bit.

NewFangled Brew Works has been open for a bit now and been pumping out a good selection of clean, crisp, clear beers. They’ve actually been busy enough that they aren’t even getting a chance to touch their pilot small batch system that they’ve gotten and it sits collecting dust, as they try to keep up and meet demands on their regular production beers.

They like to keep their beer names low-key and simple (IPA, Saison, Double IPA, Brut IPA, Stout, (Nitro) Stout, Wheat Ale #1, Red Ale, etc.) so it should never be too hard to remember for those walking over from the development its built in, or those ordering over to the restaurant Koda. So far (according to Untappd) they’ve produced 15 different named beers, which I’ve had the pleasure of having had 9 of them so far. (Two of which were last night). So let’s get into the first one.

Beer: Saison
Brewery: NewFangled Brew Works
Style: Farmhouse Ale – Saison
ABV: 6.8%
IBU: 25
Untappd Write-Up: Just in time for summer we have a very effervescent saison using Spalter Select and Strisselspalt hops. It pairs well with sunshine on the patio.

Well, we didn’t get a chance to pair this with sunshine due to a massive storm just having rolled through the mid-state (got to drive through a lovely blast of downpour along I-81 to get from the Casino to the brewery), but it did pair nicely with friendship, chatting, and hanging out. Which is the primary purpose of any beer.

I got to meet a friend from/through work Rich Bowra and his son and daughter in law and grandson for a drink (well, two drinks) after work. Luckily for him, looking out the back window of the brewery you can see his house, so he’s in fine walking (or stumbling) distance to get home.

The saison is a nice easy sipping drink. There isn’t really a ton to go on with it though. You get the juniper and it has a nice floral sipping flavor, but there isn’t a ton of flavor.

The clarity is there and its a crystal clear light watery yellow look to it. The aroma is a light airy floral with hint of juniper. There is no head (as there’s not supposed to be one) and it does have the right carbonation to it.

The biggest knock against it is that its possibly too light. There’s not a whole lot of body and there’s not a whole lot of substance and action going on for it. There is a nice underlying dryness to it similar to champagne in a way that brings out the juniper nicely and makes it crisp and a good sipping drink for companionship and chatter.

Overall it is a perfectly serviceable beer that won’t blow anybody’s hair back but will be just enough to sit and sip and chat with.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.6 (as of 7.16.19)

Been wanting to get a chance to review this or at least make a mention of it or two, just due to the sheer amount of breweries involved. This was a gigantic, massive endeavor started by the PA Brewery Facebook group/page and done with 20 some breweries all for Veterans. The proceeds of which went to Veterans and this was created here at NewFangled.

The Beer Busters Podcast has an article on it here that summarizes some of the content nicely: https://beerbusterspodcast.com/breweries-in-pa-announce-details-of-hurry-up-and-wait-state-wide-collab-brew-to-support-veterans/ . So definitely give that a check-out if you want some more background information on the beer, as well as look up the PA Breweries Facebook page and group for more information.

So here’s a list of all the breweries involved in the project:
Production Brewery: NewFangled Brew Works
Breweries involved: Stony Run Brew House, Burgh’ers Brewing, Tattered Flag Brewery, Cox Brewing Company (CBC), Black Forest Brewery, 2nd Story Brewing, Aston Abbey Brewing Company, Blueprint Brewing Co, Couch Brewery, Collusion Tap Works, GearHouse Brewing Company, Hop Hill Brewing Company, Imprint Beer Co, McAllister Brewing Company, Root Down Brewing Company, Shubrew, Stone Bridge Brewing Company, Ten7 Brewing Company, Weyerbacher Brewing Company, Whitehorse Brewing LLC, Seven Sirens Brewing Co.

So as you can see…. just a few breweries were involved in the creation of this. A very diverse and large assortment of breweries from all over the state, all with Veteran workers. Some of the local to Central PA breweries on that list are: NewFangled Brew Works, Tattered Flag Brewery, Cox Brewing Company, and Collusion Tap Works. Also some big names on that list that many will recognize such as Weyerbacher Brewing and Imprint Beer Co.

A lot of hard work and a lot of planning went into the making of this beer and its great to see how it benefits the community and the Veterans.

Beer: Hurry Up and Wait
Brewery: NewFangled Brew Works
In Collaboration with Stony Run Brew House, Burgh’ers Brewing, Tattered Flag Brewery, Cox Brewing Company (CBC), Black Forest Brewery, 2nd Story Brewing, Aston Abbey Brewing Company, Blueprint Brewing Co, Couch Brewery, Collusion Tap Works, GearHouse Brewing Company, Hop Hill Brewing Company, Imprint Beer Co, McAllister Brewing Company, Root Down Brewing Company, Shubrew, Stone Bridge Brewing Company, Ten7 Brewing Company, Weyerbacher Brewing Company, Whitehorse Brewing LLC, Seven Sirens Brewing Co., Newfangled Brew Works
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double
ABV: 8%
IBU: 45
Untappd Write-Up: Made with Deer Creek malt and Yakima Veterans Blend hops. Proceeds from pint sales will be donated to PA Veterans Foundation.

This is a great traditional West Coast bitter IPA. It looks, smells, and tastes like the old school IPAs I grew up on before the haze craze took hold. And this stacks up against those and will stack up to any of the IPAs you grew up on as well.

The beer is a beautiful straw colored darker IPA. Has a wonderful foamy head that hangs for a bit as you drink and the golden straw hue is just dark enough to not let you fully completely see through it.

The aroma is exactly what you are wanting from an IPA. A great hoppy nose filling your nostrils with that wonderful hop smell like you’re in the backend of a brewery. (Which is honestly one of the Top 3 smells of the world.)

The drink is smooth and crisp and bitter like a good IPA should be. Has the hoppy bite and a wonderful flavor. A good dry bitter IPA with a good aftertaste that makes you wanting a second, third, and fourth, is a hallmark of a good beer done well and made well. These are the beers made for summer and made for a good long day of day-drinking and chatting and having a good time.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.97 (as of 7.16.19)

Now a few words on the NewFangled Brew Works brewery and location.

Its built into a dual building just inside of Union Station development off of Union Deposit road (off of Nye’s Road). It shares its space with a fancy dining restaurant named Koda. As I said for Rich and many of the other brewery regulars, its walking distance to their houses here in the development community (which is perfect, no driving). The restaurant attached (Koda) is fine dining and a bit pricey, but from everything I’ve been told incredible food (I’ve yet to eat there).

They got off to a bit of a rocky start when they first opened due to some of the issues of the government shutdown at the time, and getting their own beers setup (they opened with many taps flowing, but all from local breweries like Ever Grain, St. Bonifice, Tattered Flag, and Boneshire; rather than their own). But they have since conquered that and are now actually having trouble keeping up with the demands of the regulars.

They are growing quickly and producing a good number of stable beers. Nothing has been too out there and crazy or ‘hair blown’ but they are producing legitimate, well done, well styled beers, and that is a good consistent presence.

The bar is long and spacious and with plenty of seats. There is also numerous tables along the windows leading up to the small band stage. They host regular (small, local) bands, as well as do regular trivia nights and many more. They also have two ping pong tables setup, cornhole, and a few other brewery games (like giant Jenga and small games for children).

In the backend corner by the back entrance there is a “taco truck” (though its built into the wall) that has the brewery food. Obviously this is mostly taco and related foods.

All in all, if you find yourself out along Nye’s Road or Union Deposit Road or wanting to check out a new brewery, definitely give NewFangled Brew Works a check. If nothing worse you’ll get some decent food, and a nice atmosphere. The beers are nice, flowing, and everyone is very easy going. You won’t be disappointed.

-B. Kline