Baby’s First Ffej

I never thought I’d bring a baby to a beer fest/local band concert festival, but here I am stroller and baby in tow.  Let me back up quick.  We quickly noticed if a song was playing somewhere, especially any singing and dancing on TV Scarlet’s face would light up.  I like to think it was all the concerts I attended, including last year’s Ffej of July when she was in the womb.  But I think it really started with Ben would sing to her through my belly every night. 

(You can see this, and other videos we have at our YouTube Channel here – The Beer Thrillers on YouTube.)

For the newbies; what is Ffej?  As described on the Ffej of July page “Ffej of July began its life as a modest party thrown by myself and my wife, Brandi, at our residence. The impetus for the event took shape when I realized we had a huge yard and did nothing with it other than cut the grass. So, in 2003, FOJ was born and has since become the infamous epic backyard bash we all know and love!”

(Note – this is a attendance by knowing event; you can only attend if you know someone who knows someone. If you know Ffej or know a good friend of Ffej’s you are welcome to come. This isn’t a free for all anyone can come right out the gate frat party.)

At the last minute we brought my mom, so it was also Grandma SueAnn’s first FOJ.  With a bunch of classic rock cover bands and the entire vibe of FOJ I new my mom would love hanging out.  We got to sample beer from Bailey Mountain Brewery, Covered Bridge, Troeg’s Rusty Rail, Pizza Boy and Shy Bear.  The Bender’s Barleywine from Pizza Boy was most excellent.  It comes in on Untapped with a 11% ABV and a 4.09 rating.  Again, the Untapped score is way to low of a score.  This malty sweet beverage dances over your tongue and the caramel finish hides that sneaky 11%.  Then on Saturday we got to sample brews from Fluffy Bunny, Shy Bear, Meduseld Meadery, PA Alers, Troegs Brewing Company, and Fahnstock & Baer. (We didn’t keep a perfect list of what all we drank over the weekend, we were far too busy enjoying the music, hanging out with friends, chatting, chilling with Scarlet, enjoying the grub, and having an awesome time to worry about checking in everything we got to try on Untappd.)

Even though the vibe is laid back, as we all sit in our lawn chairs, Scarlet got to bang her head with a quiet riot cover and then she mellowed out to the Solar Federation.  If you are lucky enough to get invited to this private event (and remember – don’t show up uninvited – only show up if you are invited) don’t forget your lawn chair!  I hope this helped you catch the FOJ!

Drink More Beer!

-Amy

Amy’s Column Series

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

• Brewfests with Anxiety (Amy’s original weekly column start)
• I’ve Missed Drinking (A Look at Non Alcoholic Beers)
• Beer and Pretzel Review: Legends and Lore (St. Boniface Brewing Company) and Garlic Parm Pretzels (Pretzels.com)
• Peanut Butter Eggs, Easter, Beer, and YAH Brew’s Shimmy Shake (Beer Review)
• Cox Brewing Company: Back to Their Roots
• Amy’s Day Off
• It Was All A Dream (A Visit to YAH Brewing)
• Just Another Weekend (A Hike at Saint Pete’s Trail and Hares Hill Brewing)
• I’m Pretty Darn Lucky (Happy Mother’s Day)
• Ready to Kick of the Summer
• Beer Review: Beer Devil IPA (Niagara Brewing Company)
• World MS Day
• Have you ever picked a beer based on the can art?
• Happy Father’s Day
• What is Your Summer Time Go To Beer?
• Holiday Weekend and Bomber Bottles
• Baby’s First Ffej
• You can find all of Amy’s articles here: Amy’s Archive of Articles.

(And please take a moment to fill out Amy’s survey on her ‘Holiday Weekend and Bomber Bottles‘ column.)

Thank You For Reading

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Cheers.

-B. Kline

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If your in the know, your in the know. One of the greatest parties – by invite only – is running two days this year. Ffej of July is back after a year break due to COVID-19 and is back better than ever. First night is in the bag and I personally had a blast, and I know everyone that went with me did too.

For the first time, Ffej of July is a two day event this year. With the first event happening on a Friday and then the main event all day Saturday. I just got home from night one, and here’s a quick recap of the day.

Due to having be the DD this year, I picked up Drew and Rome at his place, and we then made it to Annville for the party. We brought our contributions and put them in the sunroom and made our introductions to Brandi and Ffej. Running into Deuane and his wife, and several others.

It wasn’t looking good for a bit. From about 4:30PM to about 5:40PM it was a straight up massive thunderstorm in Hummelstown, and pretty much everywhere else in the vicinity (including Annville). But luckily the rains and the clouds dispersed, and we were able to have one kick ass party.

As we pulled into the parking lot area around 7:10PM, two guys were hanging out asking about the party. First rule of Fight Club…. err… I mean Ffej of July… well… wait, thats not really true either. Ok, here’s the thing, you can talk about Ffej of July, but you can’t just show up with “rando’s” from the Sheetz parking lot. You can bring guests, but its cool to do so with announcing them, and they must all be introduced to Ffej and Brandi. And obviously they must be cool people you can vouch for, because if anything happens, its on you.

After picking out our spot by the tree like we did last – two years ago – Ffej of July, Drew and Rome hit the beer cave and grabbed some suds, and we got down to listening to the bands. I milled around talking to people and we later made our way down to the Wheel of Zonks and other fun activities and then hung out at our spot. Rome had an eggplant sandwich and we all had Giant Center popcorn. Jason Miller and his wife Sherri showed up near the end, as well as Kelsey (from Drew’s stream) and her fiance Ben. So we had a jamming little section and loved the night’s music with UZO ending it – melting off our faces as they always do. (Thank god faces grow back!)

For those coming tomorrow, see ya out there, and happy Ffej of July everyone!

-B. Kline