The final of the “video game streaming night” collection of beers to be reviewed. This is the fourth from that series. Also, just like I did last November (you can read up on it all in the November Recap 2019) in honor of NaNoWriMo I will be doing a blog post each night. It will mostly be beer reviews, but some will be different, brewery reviews, events, news, etc. This year will also be a bit different, as I have a road trip coming up around the 11th. (Driving out to Indianapolis to visit the Vonnegut Museum and Library on his birthday.)

This series of beer reviews comes from the night a week ago when playing at Drew’s for his Knights of Nostalgia streaming page. You can visit his page and follow by clicking the name. The other beers of the series were:

• Fruit Monster (Great Notion Brewing)
• Isolation Anniversary Beer (Aslin Beer Company)
• Pixels (Seminar Brewing)

Last year for November, I challenged myself to try one new beer each day (30 new beers), and to do one new blog post each day (30 new blog posts), as well as try and get my 10,000 steps each day, and even try and walk at least one mile. Ironically, the only day I didn’t make my 10K step count was the 2nd day of the month (early morning issues, work, and going straight to a Halloween / remembrance party at a friend’s house) led to me not hitting my 10K that day. (Six years ago today we lost a very good friend – Doug; Doug the Slug, and last year Myers had a party to celebrate his life as well as Halloween, but due to COVID this year, that’s not in the cards.)

So for the first blog post of November 2020, it will be the final beer of the series I recently did – which was four incredible beers I picked up at Breski’s Beverages and drank for the streaming night on Knights of Nostalgia. (This was technically from The Barley Mow in Reading, not one of the ones I got from Breski’s, but I do believe I’ve seen Elder Pine Brewing and Blending at Breski’s before.)

Be sure to check out the streams sometimes. It’s Drew’s page and he is the lead streamer on it, I sometimes accompany him, as do other people like Rome, Kelsey, Rory, Dan, Youngblood, Kerrie, Esteban, and others. Its a lot of fun, its typically older games – NES, SNES, Atari, Sega, etc, but with some newer games (like Friday the 13th, or some of the Final Fantasies he’s done, or recently we did The Last of Us). It can get vulgar and sometimes the humor runs ‘dark’ or ‘blue’, but nothing is made to purposefully offend anyone or to upset the masses. Its definitely worth a watch at least once and see if it’s your cup of tea or not.

So this Villeinage beer is one I picked up at The Barley Mow in Reading from our Reading trip. You can click here to read more about it: “The Birthday Trip to Reading – The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.”

I have never heard of the word of “Villeinage” and honestly assumed it was a made up word, but, when writing it out, it doesn’t get the little ‘red scribble line’ under it, meaning its a real word, so I looked it up on Dictionary.com:

villeinage

or vil·lain·age, vil·lan·age, vil·len·age

noun

• the tenure by which a villein held land and tenements from a lord.

• the condition or status of a villein.

Dictionary.com Definition Villeinage.

This all led to me then wondering exactly the true definition of Villein. I have a pretty good idea from the above, and I don’t think its an evil mastermind or evil doer. But lets see.

Dictionary.com:

villein

noun

• a member of a class of partially free persons under the feudal system, who were serfs with respect to their lord but had the rights and privileges of freemen with respect to others.

Dictionary.com Definition of Villein.

There you all go, now this has been both an educational beer review, as well as hopefully entertaining, as well as providing you with the actual review of the beer itself. You never knew you’d get so much out of just one single beer review did you? You’re welcome.

Ok, lets get on with it, and get to the beer review.

Beer: Villeinage
Brewery: Elder Pine Brewing and Blending
Style: Farmhouse Ale – Saison
ABV: 4%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Table-strength Saison brewed with an insane amount of spelt malt & raw wheat for the creamiest body a 4% abv beer can offer. Heavily dry-hopped w/ Pacific Jade at a staggering rate of 3lb/bbl for bright citrus notes that meld perfectly with the stone fruit, banana and bubblegum aromas & flavors derived from our house saison yeast.

Dry hopped saison got my interest piqued right away. And I believe is why I ordered a can of this while Drew ordered some food and I had a draft while we were at The Barley Mow during our Reading trip. Also, always kind of interested in how flavorful beers can be at the lower spectrum of ABVs, 3%, 4%, 4.5%, etc.

Appearance for this is light, yellow / golden. It looks like a cross between a saison and an IPA, but more on the lighter, effervescent saison side. There is a lot of ‘bubblage’ in this bad boy, almost champagne like. A little bit of head to it and nice lacing on the glass.

The nose on this has some interesting differences to it. There is a citrus hop note from the dry hopping, there is also a very yeasty, kind of funky smell that emanates from the house yeast that Elder Pine Brewing and Blending uses, there is some wheat, bread, almost a spent grain note, a sweet almost to ripening banana, and a slight bit of lemon.

This is super light, airy even, the 4% is forefront in the mind because of how light, refreshing and drinkable this is. First tasting notes are funky saison, sweet to ripe banana – almost banana bread like, a yeasty champagne note, there is a lot going on with this as you can tell. Its got the classic funkyness of a saison, but with an edge to it, from the dry hopping, almost giving it a New England IPA style tasting to it. The dry hopping adds some juicy citrus, lemon notes to this that I think blends pretty well with the notes from the yeast and the saison and the raw wheat. There is some notes of stone fruit, a wee bit of bubblegum flavor but very (extremely) subtle, but it blend with the citrus and lemon of the hops into a nice combination. Nothing is super strong or overpowering or too much, and the degrees of the complexity to this all work together and stay in synch. Its also interesting that with the low ABV I feel like it keeps it lighter than it probably really is (like a trick of the brain type thing). It has a light crisp almost pilsner like finish, and there is some zest, some funk to it that gives you a nice aftertaste to this. This is a very interesting beer and was a good ending beer to my night of good beers.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.79 (as of 11.1.20)

As I said earlier, I like to make November a challenge month for me. And like I did with last year, I’m doing the same again this year – attempting to do the following each day in November:

• One new beer
• One new blog post
• 10,000 Steps
• One mile walk (or run)
• Try to do some kind of lifting

Every other day I’d like to have a book read, so fifteen books read in November. I’m up to 76 so far for the year, so I’m a bit behind, as my reading goal for this year is 105 (meaning I need 29 more books to read, so 15 in November and 14 in December).

Its 10:50PM now, and I’ve gotten my walk in, gotten my steps in, did some light lifting, and finishing my beer. Despite having a recent string of drinking nights (Wednesday – after a ten hour day at work I walked down to Rubber Soul and met Drew and A. Parys, and then walked to Howling Henry’s; Thursday – a streaming session with Drew and Rory; Friday – Boneshire Brew Works’ 4th Anniversary Celebration; Saturday – Halloween and the yearly Halloween party at Justin and Aimee’s). But I’ve survived, and going slow with just a small beer tonight. It’s ‘Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale’ by The Atlantic. Nursed this while reading and writing and having this god awful Eagles / Cowboys game on in the background.

Thanks for reading everyone!

To see the others of this series check them out here:

• Beer Review: Pixels (Seminar Brewing)
• Beer Review: Isolation Anniversary Beer (Aslin Beer Company)
• Beer Review: Fruit Monster (Great Notion Brewing)
• Beer Review: Villeinage (Elder Pine Brewing and Blending)

You can also see some of our other beer reviews here:

• Beer Review: Dreams of Orgonon (Human Robot)
• Beer Review: Unicorns Stomping on Lanternflies (Saucony Creek Brewing Co)
• Beer Review: Griddle (Funk Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: Out of Order: Blue Milk (RAR Brewing)
• Beer Review: Up the Creek Extreme Ale (Thomas Creek Brewery)
• Beer Review: Hershey’s Chocolate Porter (Yuengling Brewery)
• Beer Review: Dropout (Rubber Soul Brewing)
• Beer Review: Pigtoberfest (Boneshire Brew Works)

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Influence. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Out of work and waiting for my car to be fixed (dropping 515$ on new brakes, lines, etc), what to do… what to do…. Oh I know… go enjoy some great food and a flight of beers, because…. why not?

So thats exactly what I did. I found myself with two hours to kill, a good book in my hand, and an appetite for both food and beer. And in the Hershey area there is a lot of options to pick from while waiting out a car repair. Seeing as how its been a while since I had been in Iron Hill (other than picking up their release of the Black is Beautiful beer) I decided to stop in and try out a flight, since I was sure there’d be new beers I haven’t tried yet. And luckily there was. One of which was one I had been waiting to try – Dutchboi.

Firstly, as I’ve said many on times here on the blog, I am by no means a foodie, but I still would like to take the time to mention the food. It was extremely delicious. Out of all the things, at least with the COVID restrictions of requiring me to ‘have’ to buy food with my beer, at least its making me / letting me try some delicious foods at places like Iron Hill, or Troegs, or The Englewood, etc; where otherwise I would be just ordering my beers and skipping on the food entirely.

But, let me say, this chicken sandwich (and the fries) were absolutely delicious. Half of it filled me up, and I saved the other half for another night. Wonderful beer that went really well with my beers….

Which is why your here, so lets get to it and discuss my flight of beers!

Beer: Brambleberry
Brewery: Iron Hill (Hershey)
Style: Farmhouse Ale – Other
ABV: 4.6%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: (Blank)

Well, not a whole lot to go on with this, no description, the notes on the menu said it was a “farmhouse saison, slightly funky, slightly tart, but full of flavor”. And that was about it. So…. quick spoiler – this was sadly my least favorite of the flight. I was hoping for a berry flavored saison, but didn’t quite get that. This is what Wikipedia has to say about brambleberry (under the page heading of ‘Bramble’): “A bramble is any rough, tangled, prickly shrub, usually in the genus Rubus, which grows blackberries, raspberries, or dewberries.^[1] “Bramble” is also used to describe other prickly shrubs such as roses (Rosa species).^[1] Bramble or brambleberry sometimes refers to the blackberry fruit or products of its fruit, such as bramble jelly.^[2]

In British English, bramble usually refers to the common blackberry, Rubus fruticosus. R. fruticosus grows abundantly in all parts of the British Isles and harvesting the fruits in late summer and autumn is often considered a favourite pastime. An especially hardy plant, bramble bushes can also become a nuisance in gardens, sending down strong suckering roots amongst hedges and shrubs and being particularly resilient against pruning. Many consider R. fruticosus a weed due its tendency to grow in neglected areas and its sharp, tough thorns which can be hazardous to children and pets.^[3]” (Source: Bramble.)

This doesn’t seem to fit that mold too much. Color is what you typically see in a saison or tart sour. But not a fruited sour or anything like that. No black coloring or anything to resemble a blackberry; this looks exactly like your typical farmhouse or farmhouse ale or saison. Wheaty, light golden to yellow color. Small amount of head to it, but with a taster that’s nothing to truly discuss because by the time of pour and its brought over and with the smaller pour size, heads and foam can be definitively off from what would be a normal pour.

Smell has that farmhouse yeast smell, that tart, funky, ‘off’ to some people, ‘on’ to other people smell. It has a crisp nose to it that you can pick up on immediately. Not a whole lot else to say on the smell, there’s no berry, no fruit odors, just the wheat and yeast smell.

Taste is…. well… its crisp. It is smooth. But it has kind of a bite to it. A funky, weird, tart but not the normal farmhouse or saison tart, kind of an off tartness to it. Like a bad berry tart funkyness, but not fully that bad or off. Like some blueberry beers where it gets the funky blueberry rather than the fruity – tart blueberry, but not quite to that full level. It has a definitive lingering taste to this that isn’t pleasant but isn’t completely unpleasant, more or less just kind of ‘ugh’. Nothing is completely horrible about it, but nothing is completely great about it and bordering past the ‘good’ into a category of just ‘do not like’ due to the aftertaste and all around weird funkyness / tartness to it. I wouldn’t say its a bad beer or a poorly made one, but just off, and not my cup of tea or style so to speak. I do love Farmhouse Ales and Saisons though, so this was a bit disappointing because of that.

My Untappd Rating: ***
Global Untappd Rating: 3.69 (as of 8.25.20)

(A Different picture than the above, apparently I only took the flight picture for the first two drinks)

Beer: Blueberry Yum Yum
Brewery: Iron Hill (Hershey)
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 6.3%
IBU: 5
Untappd Description: This kettle sour uses blueberries, graham cracker pie crust, vanilla beans, and lactose to trick your taste buds into thinking you’re drinking a fresh pint of blueberry cobbler.

This was much better. Much, much, much better. Definitely enjoyed this one.

Color is spot on for a fruited sour, especially any heavy in one of the major berries (blueberry, raspberry, blackberry). It has that purplish beautiful glow, incandescent one might say. Light foamy head, nice bubbles, pop, almost like a champagne type pop to it.

The nose is wonderful, tart, blueberry, fruited sour smell. You know exactly what you are getting with this. A great finishing flourish of vanilla, some bread crumb, and a hint of something more, something earthy – ish, something more than just the fruit and vanilla but not bread. Hard to pinpoint on that, but it detracts nothing from the aroma or the beer.

This starts off fully vanilla and blueberry then tapers off into blueberry only real quick. It has the very heavy fruited sour vibes to it, which is perfect and just what I wanted out of this, especially after appearance and smell. The vanilla fades away quickly, and leaves you with the tart but not too overly funky blueberry, which is where this really shines through. Full blueberry flavor with just the hint of bread crumbs and vanilla at the end. If you like bright, full, tasty blueberry tartness, then this is exactly what you are looking for it. Not really funky, not the over ripe blueberry, but the ‘just right’ ‘ just ripe’ blueberry tartness that really brings out that wonderful flavor – that I know personally, I love, not sure about everyone else, but I prefer the ‘tart’ blueberry over the ‘funky’ blueberry. From talking to a lot of people, that seems to be the preferred, but I’m sure there’s some who enjoy the more ‘funky’ blueberry tastes than the ‘tart’ blueberry tastes. To each their own. But I certainly loved this brew and would highly recommend it to any sour or tart lovers.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.63 (as of 8.25.20)

Beer: Dutchboi
Brewery: Iron Hill (Hershey)
Style: Stout – Other
ABV: 7.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: One off cask aged stout. Cinnamon, vanilla, serano pepper

This was the one I was most looking forward to with my flight. I had seen the Facebook and Instagram posts with the whoopie pies being mashed in, so I was certainly intrigued. My Pennsy Dutch side of me was all kinds of intrigued.

Color is the stout maxim; dark, black, cold, like my soul and heart (ask around, they’ll tell you). Or, as my personal saying is – “black like Razor Ramon’s hair”. Take that as you will, and depending on your level of interest in Scott Hall or wrestling you’ll understand it. But, this looks like any other stout really. Black, light foam head, in a taster glass, could almost be beer or coffee or motor oil, who knows. (These are all just jokes and not knocks on the beer or stouts; they just don’t typically have too much variance in color.)

Aroma kicks things off and separates this from other stouts. Definite notes of ‘whoopie pie’ on this. Vanilla, cinnamon, bready, with hints of the oak cask system used. I didn’t really pick up any pepper. Once again, going back to Wikipedia, this is said about the serrano pepper: “The serrano pepper (Capsicum annuum) is a type of chili pepper that originated in the mountainous regions of the Mexican states of Puebla and Hidalgo.^[1] The name of the pepper is a reference to the mountains (sierras) of these regions.^[1]” (Source: Serrano Pepper) I didn’t really pick up any hint of heat or pepper or anything (either smell or taste, which we’ll get to in just a bit).

Taste is delicious on this. Its got all that dark heavy stout flavoring you love (if you love stouts) but its not too heavy and high ABV like some stouts (eyes up Weyerbacher). At 7.5% its in the same tier and level as Perpetual IPA by Troegs Brewing (7.9%). So this isn’t going to be killing you but will be leaving a good buzz (on a full pour). The oak cask comes off with this nice, lending it some darker notes, but it also has a slight airy, fluffy, creamyness perhaps the ‘whoopie pie’ part of it. There is a bit of the creamy vanilla that makes this smoother, but there is some bite, perhaps thats the pepper but I attributed it to the cinnamon. I don’t think any one flavor is overly powerful and overrides the other, more of a nice gentle blending that leaves this a very good and tasty stout. This would probably be better as a bottle, than a taster or even a can or crowler, with a good pour into a glass. But I certainly still enjoyed it.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.9 (as of 8.25.20)

This brings us to the final beer of the flight, and as it turns out, my favorite of the flight. (Perhaps a surprise, perhaps not a surprise. I was anticipating liking either the Dutchboi or the Blueberry Yum Yum more, but I’m also a big fan of bourbon stouts and heavy stouts too…. so I guess this wasn’t really a surprise in hindsight.)

Beer: Bourbon Chocolate Stout
Brewery: Iron Hill (Hershey)
Style: Stout – Imperial / Double
ABV: 10%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: (Blank)

It is interesting, looking over the Untappd reviews for this, it seems to jump from people giving it 1 cap reviews to four or five cap reviews, and not a whole lot of wiggle room on their reviews. Either a hate it or love it beer I suppose. Personally, I enjoyed it. Perhaps its not for everyone, perhaps its the very heavy bourbon notes, or the bitterness, I’m not sure, but we’ll get to all that.

As always, this looks, acts, and more importantly… again… looks… just like a duck —- err, I mean, a stout. Dark, black, velvety, creamy possibly looking, slight foam head. Black as the night.

Aroma is strong bourbon, light chocolate. You get a definite nose of bourbon right out the gate, and then you get some of the chocolate, some bready earthy tones, and a bit of a dark, rich, bitter smell that is probably the chocolate coming back through.

Taste is where its going to jump on people. Strong, very heavy strong, initial bourbon bite and very alcoholic taste right out of the gate. Like drinking a strong Weyerbacher barrel aged stout, this jumps right in at you and grabs you. Some might say its too strong, or too bourbon, or too alcohol, but I definitely enjoyed it. I think it tapers off pretty steadily after that initial sip (perhaps its just me getting used to it, not sure), but it leads off into the bittering of the chocolate, like baker’s chocolate, and this might be off putting to some people too. This isn’t a creamy Hershey’s like chocolate, this is more of the baker’s chocolate, bitter, but with that still characteristic chocolate taste. The bourbon flavor I think blends nicely with that bitterness, but that could possibly be ‘too much’ for some people. It does clock in at 10% and you certainly taste and can feel it, so it does have a strong, over powering feel and effect as well. Certainly more of a sipper than a guzzle or quick drink. And at a full glass that would be the best approach, especially with its 10%.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.51 (as of 8.25.20)

Welp, that was my delicious flight and food. Got the car back, and just a mere 515$. The upcoming days should be interesting, on Thursday (8.27.20) will be my 35th birthday (officially old / half my lifetime / mid-life crisis / one foot in the grave / gaining speed down the hill) and me and my buddy will be heading out to West Reading / Wyomissing / Reading area to hit a few breweries. So look for that in a future post. You can read about it a bit here: “Visiting Reading.“

Saturday I will be attending The Englewood’s beer release, they are finally having their own beers on tap, and will be checking that out. So be on the look out for a review of their beers (most likely in a multiple beer review like this). I was out there before on the day they opened, which you can read here: “A Taste of Englewood“.

You can read a past beer review of Scrooge IPA by Iron Hill if you are still in the mood to read about Iron Hill Brewery and their beers in Hershey PA.

As always, lots of good stuff coming here to the blog, so be sure to like, follow, subscribe, and do all that fun stuff so you can read all about whats going on!

Cheers and see ya all at some point soon!

-B. Kline

On February 8th, 2020, Tattered Flag and Breweries in PA co-hosted an event at the Tattered Flag Brewery in Middletown PA. It was a ticketed event and promoted across Tattered Flag’s social media and Breweries in PA’s social media (their Facebook page and their Facebook group). Tickets were free. Welcome to all that were to come out. According to Justin (brewer for Tattered Flag) 62 tickets were given out. Myself and my friend were two of those tickets, and so let me take you through the event.

Let’s back this up a bit from the time of the event. Starting with the event itself. It was first announced near the beginning of the year. Luckily it was a Saturday I was able to get off from work (a rarity in my case). And my friend D. Scott was also off and along for the idea. So, the premise of the event is simple – bring 2-3 (or more) beers. Everyone who comes to the event, does so, and once the event is underway you place your beers in the corresponding coolers (IPA, Sours, Wheats and Kolsches, Stouts), and then after everyone has grouped up, you start cracking beers and sampling and moving on.

The premise is simple and neat. Anyone whose ever done a beer / bottle / can share or swap at home with friends, its the same premise just on a much larger scale. (A 62+ person scale that is.)

Leading up to the event my friend stopped at Breski’s Beverage and picked up a four-pack of larger beers to bring with. He grabbed Thief Share (2016) by Strange Roots Experimental Ales, Blue Farm (2017) by Free Will Brewing Co, a German Chocolate Cake Stout from a brewery I’m drawing a blank on, and New Holland’s Dragon’s Milk (2019).

I had set up to do a beer trade with a guy from Eureka California. We were both set to send our packages on either January 31st, or February 1st. (I sent on 31st and showed proof.) He unfortunately, kept saying he would get to it… and get to it….. and he kept NOT getting to it…. and NOT getting to it. Finally, he promised he would expedite it next day to make up for its tardiness…. and I get a message from him “Sorry, it’d be 200$+ to expedite, so I sent it regular. Sorry it won’t be there in time.” …..Massive annoyance and disappointment on those fronts. So at last second, I had to figure out what I was bringing.

Unfortunately I had just ran through my cans from Tree House brought home by my friend D. Arndt. If I would have known…. I would have brought the Sap, Autumn, Julius, Haze, or Doppelganger I had. So I likewise stopped at Breski’s Beverage and picked up some beer for the event. I got Grimm Artisanal Ale’s I Still Love the Old World (2018), Lickinhole’s Virginia Black Bear, Clown Shoe’s Coffee Sombrero, and Trial by Wombat (mainly for the name and picture).

Saturday morning comes and I do my typical morning chores and errands and take Leela (my border collie) for a run. D. Scott is Ubering to Tattered Flag, and I’m going to meet him there. Planned to get there at 10:40, but ended up getting there closer to 10:50 with our tickets and my beer and meet him just inside the door. He shows me the beer he’s bringing and we go over our small sample size. At just a bit before 11AM, Justin comes through and tells everyone to follow him down into the brewhouse.

Since 2018 I’ve done some volunteer canning work with Tattered Flag – though recently they’ve stopped using volunteers now that their employee force is big enough to keep it all done in-house, so I’m quite familiar with their brewhouse and back of the brewery operations and location.

At the time, there’s not too many people yet. Maybe 15-20. Justin goes over the rules. (Big rule: don’t touch any valves. Little rule: throw your trash away. Big rule: DON’T TOUCH ANY VALVES. Little rule: put your beers in their appropriate tubs.) They had bussing tubs with a label for each: IPA, Sour / Saisons, Wheats / Kolsches, and Stouts. Bigger bottles were kept in the front or where room was for them.

The guys from Breweries in PA introduced themselves. And then we were off to the races (…or beers). Talked with the lady from Breweries in PA and she was saying how the Dayman can was the last “known in the wild” can to exist, due to them getting hit with a Cease and Desist from Disney. And we talked about Disney with recent news, and how past places have gotten hit with some C & D’s.

After sampling Dayman, and then Nightman, I saw a lovely looking Smoked Porter big bottle. Unfortunately I forget the name of it, and it appears I never checked it into Untappd (something I didn’t do too good of a job of). (Just like pictures, unfortunately I took no pictures of the event either, so I have no pictures of my own, and had to try and remember the beers I tried for Untappd later on.) So whoever brought the big bottle Smoked Porter, I’d love to know what it was. ….but also… oh boy that carbonation! As soon as I popped the cap on it, it just gushed. Foam everywhere, so much so that I had to set it down under the table over the grate, it just wouldn’t stop, for a good solid 2 minutes it kept going. (So yes, I apologize for being ‘that guy’, but….. it wasn’t my fault!)

Me and D. Scott kinda hovered over the Stouts area. Talked to Justin and his girlfriend Aimee, about recent events with Tattered Flag, as well as Hibrewnation that took place, as well as the upcoming Prototype Brewery and Meadery and the Prototype Invitation Brewing Event.

After a few more samples, me and D. Scott headed back into the caverns a bit, where there was more space, as by now we were likely up to about 40+ people in attendance. And out by the brite tanks and fermenters it was getting pretty crowded. After a bit, the guys from Breweries in PA brought a few of the bussing trubs out into the side-room where we used to do the labeling for Tattered Flag’s canning run. They brought out a few beers of each type as well and so there was now a more mixed variety in the different areas.

While in the side-room, I branched out a bit from my stouts and sours and had a few IPAs. Bearded Iris’ Homestyle, Psycho Simcoe by Three 3’s, Ex Novo Brewing’s Spirits of the Dead, and Double Luv by East Branch Brewing. Hanging out, talking with D. Scott and some of our fellow drinkers in the area, we also cracked open the Black Tuesday (2017) by The Bruery, which was amazingly fantastic. While discussing the ridiculously high ABV on it (19.5%), one of the guys talked about the beer he brought from Nimble Hill, a Maple Stout in their Mysteria Series, that was a 25%. I’ve always been a huge fan of big ABV beers…. so my ears and eyes and nose, and mouth, all perked up. The kind gentleman went back and got it and brought it out. After a bit of a struggle getting the cork off of it, we each drew a good sample size of it (and I won’t lie and say I didn’t have two samples of it).

The description on Untappd for it reads:

MAPLE SYRUP STOUT
This super limited creation is an off shoot of Turbo Diesel.
But instead of using hops, we added a few gallons of maple syrup and a dash of molasses and fermented it to the limits.
The result is a thick dessert stout with a strong maple syrup and imperial stout finish, followed by hearty warming from the 25% abv. Served without carbonation for a smooth and velvety finish.

It was smooth, dry, but with an amazing maple syrup flavor. Tasted like drinking a maple syrup wine. It was pretty much fantastic. And the nice 25% ABV to it, certainly didn’t hurt. I would like to throw a shout out to Ryan Haraschak. Fantastic, gorgeous gem to bring to the bottle share! Kudos my man!

We also tried a gentleman’s RIS Homebrew that was wonderful as well. And somehow, quickly, we realized we were approaching the end of the time for the bottle share, so me and D. Scott went back by the fermenters to try some of the beers still over there.

While hanging out there, and chopping on some tortilla chips, the Harris Brewery guys came in. Got to talk to Harris guys for a long time about their upcoming brewery, black culture in brewing and craft beer, Allison Hill, the impact their hoping to make, the old Coke-Cola building / factory on the corner of 19th and Derry, the obstacles their having to overcome for their brewery, their GoFundMe vs. the Kickstarter, and much more. We also drank from their growler of their collaboration with The Vegetable Hunter which was fantastic. If you would like to support the Harris Family Brewery, and add to their GoFundMe you can do so here:

Harris Family Brewery Start-Up Go Fund Me

As the time dwindled down, we quickly tried to sample a last few beers. There was an Intuition Ales that I tried with a large dragon on it (wax sealed originally, no idea on the name), as well as two Hegemony Anniversary Beers from St. Boniface. Also back to back Black IPAs; one from Pour Man’s Brewing – Black Market, and the other from Heavy Seas – Night Swell. Also tried the 2SP and WaWa coffee stout – Winter Reserve. As well as a last sampling of the Candy Hearts by New Trail Brewing.

As it wrapped up, they told us to take anything we wanted that was unopened. Seeing my Lickinghole Virginia Black Bear unopened I grabbed that, as well as an IPA from Mainstay Brewing and one of the bakeries from The Bruery. My buddy grabbed a couple and we put them in the six-pack holder and took them out to my car and then came back in to use our free beer and food discount.

Tattered Flag with the (free) ticket, being the gracious host was giving one free pour with the ticket as well as 10% off food. D. Scott got an order of loaded chips, and I got Because I Was Inverted (Chocolate Covered Strawberry). His free drink was either the Custardy Tropic Like Its Hot or the Custardy Black Crumble. We had also sampled these in cans during the bottle share.

My list of beers sampled (that I was able to record on Untappd) was:
* Nightman (Stable 12 Brewing Company)
* Schmoojee Strawberry Orange Banana (Imprint Beer Co)
* Bible Belt (2019) (Evil Twin Brewing)
* Frucht: Fruit Punch (The Bruery Terreux)
* Churro Sombrero (Clown Shoes)
* Autumn Friend (Forest & Main Brewing Company)
* Spirits of the Dead (Ex Novo Brewing)
* Psycho Simcoe (Three 3’s Brewing Co.)
* Black Tuesday (2017) (The Bruery)
* Maple Stout, Mysteria Series (Nimble Hill Brewing)
* Double Luv (East Branch Brewing)
* Kriek Marriage Parfait (2015) (Brouwerji Boon)
* Black Market (Pour Man’s Brewing Company
* Night Swell (Heavy Seas Beer)
* Pack & Brass Coffee IPA (Wallenpaupack Brewing Company)
* I Still Love the Old World (Grimm Artisanal Ales)
* Bourbon Barrel Aged Hegemony Anniver7ary Reserve (Blue Wax) (St. Boniface Craft Brewing Co.)
* Bourbon Barrel Aged Hegemony Anniver8ary Reserve (Blue Wax) (St. Boniface Craft Brewing Co.)
* Cold Pro (Union Craft Brewing)
* Winter Reserve Coffee Stout (2SP Brewing Company / WaWa)
* Candy Hearts (New Trail Brewing Co.)
* Homestyle (Bearded Iris)
* Custardy: Blackberry Crumble (Tattered Flag)
* Custardy: Tropic Like Its Hot (Tattered Flag)
* Thief Share (2016) (Strange Roots Experimental Ales)
* Blue Farm (2017) (Free Will Brewing Co.)
* Gingerbread Crunchee (Other Half Brewing Co.)
* Double Vice Coffee Porter (Grist House Craft Brewery)
* Chili Nelson Hazy Habenero (The Vegetable Hunter)
* Winter Wassailand (The Vegetable Hunter / Harris Family Brewing)
* Dayman (Stable 12 Brewing)

These are the ones I remembered / checked-in on Untappd anyway. There were so many more I didn’t get to try, some I definitely wanted to. I saw some Aslin cans, I believe 4th Anniversary Sours, that I missed out on, as well as a few Other Half’s and similar. In the comments – for those of you who went – I’d love to see what you brought, had, and what was your favorites.

This was a fantastic event. I’ve been to some friend / home beer bottle / can shares, and its always a blast. Passing around beers, sampling, and talking about beer and just hanging out with good people. The craft beer community is an exceptional and diverse community and its so great to talk to so many different people. Bottle shares are like mini-brewfests in a way, sampling a ton of different beers from different places / breweries that you most likely won’t get into contact with. Its not a bad way to kill a Saturday morning, thats for sure.

My favorites that I got to sample were: Black Tuesday (2017) by The Bruery and the Nimble Hill Maple Stout Mysteria (the 25%). D. Scott said his favorite was also the 25% Maple Stout as well as the Custardy: Blackberry Crumble.

It was great of Tattered Flag to put up some of their own beers in the share, a great gesture on their part. Also, humorous note, I think I did see a Blue Moon in one of the tubs, not 100% sure though, but I think I did. Kudos to whoever brought that. I did think it’d be funny to bring a single Coors Light bottle or Miller Lite High Life bottle and sneak it in, but didn’t know how it’d go over.

As you can see from the kill shot, there was a ton of great beer brought in, and sampled and served. Breweries from all over Pennsylvania, as well as numerous other big breweries like Other Half, Bearded Iris, Aslin, Dogfish Head, Brewery of Omnegang, Grimm Artisanal Ales, as well as some homebrew, and some heavy PA hitters like Free Will, Tattered Flag, Strange Roots, Imprint Beer Co, Dancing Gnome, Troegs Independent Craft Brewing, and New Trail, and even upcoming brewery Harris Family. It was a wonderful and diverse selection, bottles, bombers, growlers, crowlers, cans, and even wine bottles.

Interested in reading some reviews of beers from some of these places, you can check out my beer blog: The Beer Thrillers. We’ve reviewed beers from Tattered Flag like: Should Have Put Him Into Custardy, Inexplicably Juicy, Pink Guava, Fatum Series: Member Berries, and more. New Trail’s Broken Heels. Broken Goblet’s This Is The Way, Burn Them All Away. Boneshire Brew Work’s The Hog, Dillston, Harrishire (with Harris Family), Sunburst, Good Walk Spoiled, Road Less Traveled, and more. Wolf Brewing collaboration with Tattered Flag – Imperial Churro and collaboration with Imprint – Wolf Prints. Rotunda Brewing’s sWheat Tarts: Mango Guyabano and Juicy Fruit. Troegs Independent Craft Brewing’s Fuzzy Nudge, Coco-Nator, and Scratch 400. You can check out our brewery visit and recap (and review) of Mellow Mink and their Scarlet Sunrise. Or our brewery reviews of Battlefield Brew Works and Cushwa Brewery. Or the recent, unfortunate news of the closings – Crystal Ball and Stoudt’s.

You can also read our other article on Breweries in PA: Touring the Breweries that Surround Harrisburg. (Also located here: Breweries Around the Outskirts of Harrisburg.)

We are currently listed on FeedSpot’s Top 100 Beer Blogs at #9, and have been there for a few weeks now (moved up from #11). (If you would like to write for us, you can contact us through our contact page. Or if you would like us to write for you.)

You can check us out on Facebook as well as Twitter. Or just search for us – Facebook – The Beer Thrillers – and on Twitter – @thebeerthriller.

The blog is ran by me – B. Kline, and mainly written by me, but other writers for the blog include J. Doncevic, AJ Brechbiel (of Default Brewing). We also have Let Us Drink Beer Blog do some contributions as a guest writer.

I also do podcasts with D. Scott and Esteban – So a Mexican and a Scot Walk Into a Bar… where we discuss beer, pop culture, movies, TV shows, and much more. Always hilarious and always insightful, so make sure to check that out as well.

(Ok, that concludes the article for Breweries in PA. The rest from here on out, is just for the Beer Thrillers faithful and my blog only. Its also a little more personal and detailed than the above, so keep reading if you want to hear more.)

So as per usual with me, after the beer share event, my night didn’t end. It was about 3:30-4PM by the time we finished up at the Tattered Flag bar. Way too early to call it a day. Being in the area, we decided to check out the Lancaster Brewing spot off of Eisenhower Boulevard in Harrisburg. Neither me nor D. Scott had ever been there. And this checks off a “new brewery location” that I want to do each month. (January was Liquid Noise Brewing, so February will be Lancaster Brewing, and hopefully March – before they close up – will be Stoudt’s.) Its funny that neither of us have ever been here to this location. Its so close, and we’ve jumped and hit all of the Harrisburg breweries numerous times before.

While there we met up with friends D. Arndt, Youngblood, and Youngblood’s girlfriend. I did a flight, D. Scott got a draft of their eggnog, and I have no recollection of what the others got. My flight included:
* Jam Series #22 Mexican Style Lager
* Jam Series #21 Gingerbread Spiced Brown Ale
* Lancaster Lager
* Jam Series – Track #20 Eggnog Blond
* Jam Series – Track #19 Chili Smoked Baltic Porter
* Winter Warmer

All were pretty tasty. I enjoyed the Smoked Porter the most with the Spiced Gingerbread coming in second. Wasn’t a huge fan of the eggnog blond, but I’m not a fan of eggnog so kind of knew that going into it. Drew loved his, but then again, he’s a huge eggnog fan. So mileage may vary on that type of beer.

Finally around 730-8PM or so we left and went to D. Arndt’s house, where we hung out with him and his fiance Kat and his dogs (the one of which is a Corgi named Indiana Bones). While there he had a can of Intemperance by Tree House which was absolutely delicious.

Look for me to be adding the Intemperance to my series on Tree House. Also, most likely tonight Doppelganger will be going up to finish what was originally the series. But now, with the addition of Intemperance, the series will be going from 5 to 6, making it a nice easy and sensible six-pack. Makes sense for a beer blog (a beer blog making sense?!), I like it.

So, this was supposed to be written and was supposed to go up Sunday, the 9th. But… work was crazy, as it was a ticket promotion give-away and we were swamped there, and afterwards, I was supposed to go to D. Scott to watch the Oscar’s (and drink the remaining of the beer share beers), but… Haley forgot the crowler of Rotunda Brewing Company’s ‘Beautiful Trauma’ that I got her, so I had to swing back to work and then deliver it to her at Irgo’s Tavern. Where I then proceeded to stay and play pool with several co-workers until 1AM. So obviously… no posting that night.

Then Monday I did go over to D. Scott’s and we watched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (finally got around to seeing it, fantastic movie, and Tarantino is still just as good as he always was). So once again, no blog posting Monday. But, last night I did start this, and sadly, only after editing, getting to finish it this morning. Sorry for the delay in things, but I rather edit and make sure I like the way blog looks, and that there’s no misspellings or grammar problems or anything (though I’m sure one or two will still sneak through). There’s two ways to write:

“You either write sober and edit drunk, or write drunk and edit sober.”

I also finally got that California beer mail Tuesday. Looks like some delicious brews to drink down and dive into and review for you all.

So definitely expect to see some beer reviews come out of that 10-pack. There’s a lot of tasty ones (I am super looking forward to the Chocolate Donut porter.)

Blog news – I am going to be trying to get 2 blogs up a day for the next few days to catch up some of the beer reviews I’m behind on. Fingers crossed anyway. This blog post is also going up on Breweries in PA’s website, so you’ll be able to check it out there (albeit abbreviated). Once its live, I’ll come in and edit this to include it here.

Tomorrow (Thursday, the 13th), I have yet another funeral to go to. This time my Uncle (mother’s brother in law) passed away. (Last Thursday was a funeral for my Great Uncle, my father’s Uncle.) In the evening Funck’s in Palmyra is doing a tap takeover for New Trail. I might be stopping out for that (might not, depends on time). New Trail makes some great beers, so I’d love to check it out.

Some beer reviews that are due up are Doppelganger and Intemperance, New Heights I Cannot Tell a Lie, Boneshire Brew Work’s Anagnorsis, Revision’s Pete’s Stache, Rivertown’s Triple Belgian, and much more. So be on the lookout for a lot of beer reviews coming at you in the upcoming days.

Like I said earlier in the post (mainly for the Breweries in PA page), please check out our Facebook, Twitter, and other social medias, and please click follow, like, subscribe, both on those platforms and here on the blog itself. You can enter your e-mail at the bottom to get notifications immediately whenever a new blog post hits the internet, and we’d greatly appreciate it. We also love it when you use the ‘rating’ at the bottom so we know how we are performing, and click the LIKE down below as well. Also, even more importantly, we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, feedback. So leave us a comment, or two, or three, or forty-four. I try to respond and reply as quickly as I’m able to. And if you ever want, you can contact us at our contact page and leave me a message.

Thanks everyone so much for reading, and hopefully you enjoyed it, and if you were at the event, hopefully you had as much of a blast as I did (and D. Scott). (Which speaking of, be on the lookout for some new podcasts on LOST Seasons 3 & 4, Fullmetal Alchemist, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and potentially / possibly / hopefully BoJack Horseman.)

Cheers everyone!

-B. Kline