Cushwa 5 Year Anniversary - The Beer Thrillers

Brewfests with Anxiety

AmyMWolfe — Sun, 23 Jan 2022 15:45:32 +0000

At the beginning of the Cushwa 5th Anniversary Celebration (brewfest)

Panic Attacks

I went to a crowded Brewfest and I didn’t have a panic attack. This is huge. No, this is a massive victory for me, my anxiety, and feelings of inadequacy in social settings.

As an avid beer lover being able to attend a Brewfest and sample many brews is a mecca of the craft beer drinking lover. Let’s be honest, when you are in a large crowd and can barely move even the social butterfly will feel some twinges of nervousness.

What often leads to a bad situation is I know I will feel less anxious if I drink more, thus often leading to a less than enjoyable evening. Not to mention the “clean up” of an evening that I drank too much to mask my panic attacks.

I still remember one of my first panic attacks as a young 20 something. I walked into my small, hometown bar. All those parked in their regular spots at the bar and those enjoying an evening out in groups at tables all turned to look who just walked in the door. I felt a tightening around my neck and I was able to inhale very little oxygen.

(Heads up – this is a loud alarm)

I didn’t step into a small bar for many years after that. 20 years later that exact moment of walking into that bar still give me anxiety inducing flashbacks. I can now power through them but it’s a struggle. I’ll often seem distracted, unhappy or unengaging with my drinking/dining companions and then the depression will hit.

I made sure before the outing to the Cushwa 5 year anniversary bash I had plenty of time to find time to breathe, find calmness and rest. If there is anything to say about covid/quarantine concerns it has forced events to be outside more and sometimes with tents and much more spacing. As an anxiety riddled 40 something woman this extra space helps make me relaxed.

Me (Amy) at the Cushwa brewfest

Anxiety

I also treat my anxiety with medical marijuana. I had a small tincture spray to help alleviate any situations that felt like “too much”. It immensely helps keep panic attacks at bay. But also, I can treat my anxiety/panic attacks and still be a functional human being for the rest of the day.

I made sure my fellow event attendee knew my anxiety inducing situations. I got out of close spaces, and walked outside by myself when I needed a “breath”. Many props to Cushwa Brewing Company for the excellent layout of the event booths/tables and the entire event was organized. Those volunteering and working the event were all friendly and helpful.

I love social situations and meeting people, especially over some good brews. Being able to attend a Brewfest, NOT have a panic attack and socialize while enjoying myself made this a wonderful weekend getaway.

Cheers everyone!

Drink more beer,

-Amy

Thanks For Reading

Want to talk about your panic attacks or anxiety? You can leave a comment here, or on our social media pages, or even leave me a message through our ‘Contact Us’ feedback form. I’d love to hear from you about it!

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Big 3 Day Weekend: Saturday Recap

BKline — Sun, 23 Jan 2022 15:25:41 +0000

Cushwa 5th Anniversary Party

What a Day

First…. let me just say: WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYY! Ok…. thats out of my system, and now we can move on.

Woah, what a day! First, waking up, waiting around til our Uber came for us to take us to the Historic Springfield Barn, where we waited out the end of the VIP segment (12 – 1) and then were allowed in around 12:50.

The brewfest / anniversary celebration was a massive blast. Easily one of the best brewfests I’ve ever been to. While it was downright freezing, it was also a complete blast, and was absolutely phenomenal. I will give a full follow up article, where I discuss all the amazing beers we had at the brewfest, and go a bit into the planning, the barn, etc. But just let it be known, it was a fantastic setup and well run brewfest.

Post Brewfest Beer Share

The original plan was going to be post brewfest to Uber to Cushwa and Homaide Breweries. But my friend thought it would be a bit much… so we Ubered back to the hotel. Deuene and his wife Carolyn told us at the brewfest they were staying at the same hotel (Red Roof Inn). We also ran into a few of the guys from the Central PA Whalerz group (Roy Ge, Derek Cosner, Nate Drake, etc).

After getting dropped off at the hotel and walking to our room, we realized they were all in the room right next to us. (123 and 122). So we popped in, brought over the JREAMs we got from Burley Oak, and prepared to pound out a crazy beer share. I put on the Bengals game, and we had a complete blast watching the Bengals win, grilling (on a portable skillet) hamburgers, having cheeses, meats, and crackers and pretzels.

We cracked over 20 some different cans, from Monkish, Other Half, Equilibrium, Fourscore, Dewey, Burley Oak, Aslin, Tin Barn, and numerous others. At the beer share, the Bengals won in the most incredible fashion. I also ended up hitting 5K unique check ins on Untappd as well.

We ended up walking down to the Waffle House around 10PM or 11PM or so. Before heading back, and finding out San Fran beat Green Bay, and then proceeded to head back to my room and crashing out.

Big 3 Day Weekend Articles

Big 3 Day Weekend
Big 3 Day Weekend: Friday Recap
Big 3 Day Weekend: Saturday Recap
Big 3 Day Weekend: Sunday Recap
Cushwa 5th Anniversary Celebration

Thanks for Reading

Today is going to be a fun day visiting battlefields, some more breweries, and heading home. I’ll post a recap up tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Big 3 Day Weekend

BKline — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 13:00:00 +0000

Breweries and Events for the big 3 day weekend

Big Weekend

Got a big weekend lined up for us here at The Beer Thrillers. With the kingpin of the trip being the Cushwa 5 Year Anniversary Celebration.

Just about to head out as soon as my friend arrives. Today might be the biggest part of the trip, with the plan being:

Friday

Leave Home
Stop at the bank
Get gas at Sheetz

Then its time to hit the breweries:

Dogfish Head Brewery
Burley Oak Brewery
Tall Tales Brewery
Burnish Beer Co
Loakal Branch Brewery
RAR Brewing
Cult Classic Brewery
Street Car Brewing
City – State Brewery
Audacious Ale
True Respite Brewery
Harper’s Ferry Brewing
Antietam Brewery

And then end the day at our hotel. And then Saturday, the main event begins:

Saturday

Uber from Hotel to Historic Springfield Barn for the Cushwa Brewfest
Uber to Cushwa Brewery
Walk to Homaide Brewery
Uber back to Hotel

Sunday

Sunday will be a bit more of a peaceful day, as far as drinking goes. It will still be a fun and eventful day.

Leave Hotel
Antietam Battlefield
Harper’s Ferry
Harper’s Ferry Brewery (if we don’t get to it on Friday)
Abolitionist Ale Works
Charlestown Casino
Appalachian Trail C.O. Canal Towpath
Milkhouse Brewery
Fourscore Beer Co
Gettysburg
Home

We’ll see how it goes. Tomorrow morning before the brewfest, I’ll give a recap of how Friday (today) went. And then Sunday morning, I’ll give a recap of the brewfest. And then after Sunday some point, I’ll do a full article of our travels just like my previous travelogues. Be sure to check in for all of it!

Thanks For Reading

Thanks for reading everyone. Hope you can follow along with our wacky adventures, and hopefully we’ll get to most of the breweries on the list. (I always overbook the itineraries.)

Be sure to check in each day with the recaps!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Cushwa Brewing Company 5th Anniversary Celebration

B. Kline — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 03:25:00 +0000

Cushwa Brewing Company 5 Year Anniversary Celebration

Five Days Away

We are five days away from the five year celebration. So its a perfect time to run it down and get hyped about it. Sadly, the VIP and the general admission tickets have been sold out (for quite some time), but for those of us able to go (myself and writer friend) it will certainly be an event not to be missed. The first brew fest of the year (for us anyway) and we can’t wait for it!

This one certainly looks like a doozy and one that will be remembered for quite some time.

Let’s take a look at the brewery’s Facebook photos as a gallery to get an idea:

What the Event Is

Cushwa 5 Year Celebration Event

Firstly, as you can see – the VIP and General Admission are both sold out. You might be able to find tickets second hand online, but be very cautious of scammers. Cushwa has posted on their photos page that they have caught some people selling fake or scammed up tickets.

The VIP session is 75$ and lasts from 12 – 5, (giving the attendee an extra hour), as well as a second glass and a specialty bottle. The bottle alone really makes the extra 25$ worth value right there, but add in the perks of an extra hour of drinking, plus a second glass, and its definitely worth it.

The general admission is from 1 – 5, comes with a commemorative taster glass (like most brewfests do), and allows unlimited sampling. For both sessions there is over 50 breweries, which we will get to in just a bit.

There is also DD (designated driver / aka ‘non drinking buddy’) access to the event as well for just 5$.

Who All is Invited

List of Participating Breweries

So, this is one hell of a list of breweries that is coming and serving up liquid gold for everyone. With many stand – outs.

The full list of breweries include:

Adroit Theory
Amani Brothers
Aslin Brewing
Barrel Culture
Bearded Iris
Black Flag Brewing
Bluejacket Brewing
Branch and Blade
Burnish Beer Co
Charles Towne Fermentory
Commonwealth Brewing
Crooked Crab
Crooked Run Fermentation
Dancing Gnome
Definitive Brewing
Deciduous Brewing
Dewey Beer Co
Divine Barrel
Ever Grain Brewing Co
Finback Brewing
Fourscore Beer Co
Good Word
Graft
Heavy Reel
Heist Brewing
Homaide Brewing
Imprint Beer Co
Inu Island
Kings
Mortallis
Mountains Walking
Ocelot Brewing
Odd by Nature
Oozlefinch
Other Half Brewing
Prototype Brewing
RAR Brewing
Resident Culture
Sapwood Cellars
Schilling
Sojourn
Southern Grist
Suffolk Punch
Thin Man Brewing
Triple Crossing
Troegs Independent Craft Brewing
Untold
Vitamin Sea
Wet City
Widowmaker
Beer Zombies
The Maryland Mob

Woooooooheeeeeeeeeeeee!!! Thats a line up! Some stand out favorites and interests are definitely Adroit Theory, Barrel Culture, Bearded Iris, Deciduous, Dewey Beer Co, Finback, Fourscore, Good Word, Mortallis, Ocelot, Oozlefinch, Other Half, RAR, Southern Grist, Triple Crossing, and Vitamin Sea.

But you certainly can’t go wrong with any from that list! Its a nice combination of Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and Pennsylvania breweries, as well as some other heavy hitters thrown into the mix.

Food

Food Vendors

The food options are:

Food For Thought
The Highroller Lobster Co.
Rad Pies

So there is some variety and enough food choices to be had for the four or five hour sessions. (If you see me veering for the lobster in a drunken haze, just kick me away so I don’t trigger my shellfish allergies. Thanks!)

Anything Else Fun?

DJ and Glassware Also Announced

There will also be a DJ on hand – DJ Bizzy, and just recently announced Thicc Bois Glass will also be on hand selling some dope hand blown glassware. They’ve worked with Tattered Flag and a few other breweries in the past to make some really fantastic glassware.

Pumped

Are you pumped? Are you going? I’m pumped. I have finally gotten my days changed at work – and now have off Friday and Saturday (rather than Thursday and Friday); only took me 10 years of working at the casino, to finally get up to having off a weekend day. I also put in a special request and got the Sunday off for travel home.

With the can release for Burley Oak the day before (Friday – Jan. 21st), we are looking to make this quite a trip. Coming down from the Hummelstown area to get to Burley Oak, and then make our way over towards Cushwa (a bit over three hours across Maryland, after driving three hours to Burley Oak), we will be stopping and hitting some fabulous breweries on the way. Then spending the night in the Williamsport area, before stopping by Antietam and maybe Monocacy Battlefields (again), and a few more breweries before making our way back home up into Pennsylvania.

Be sure to check out our travelogues and travel stories here on the blog for many of our wacky adventures through the Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia states that we’ve had the recent months. Also, be sure to check out the following Cushwa articles:

Thanks For Reading

Will you be attending? Know anyone who is? Thoughts on the brewfest or the line up of breweries? Let us know in the comments or on our various social media platforms! Can’t wait to hear from you!

(Also, be sure to stay tuned for a special ‘cold’ beer review tomorrow, and another Star Wars beer review on Wednesday, which will likewise be a ‘cold’ beer review.)

Cheers!

-B. Kline