Lakefront Brewery’s Baltic Porter

Lakefront’s new Brewers’ Reserve Baltic Porter Aged in Port Barrels releases this Friday, while supplies last, only at the brewery.

The tenth in the series for Lakefront Brewery, their Brewers’ Reserves are packaged in 12 oz. cans and are only available at their Beer Hall. These limited rare beers allow their brewhouse wizards to experiment with niche-barrel-aged styles concocting inspired treats for your enjoyment.

A descendant of the English Porter, Baltic Porters offer a more robust and sweeter flavor profile perfect for some time spent in a port wine barrel. This dark, cocoa-brown, cold-fermented lager, weaves together layers of malt, toffee, and molasses. The port wine barrel-aging adds flavors of oak plank, vanilla, dried fruit, and marzipan. The ideal pairing for your favorite winter comfort meal or that cozy night by the fire.

Lakefront will be releasing this Brewers’ Reserve this Friday, December 20^th just in time for the holidays and any last-minute gifting needs. This liquid gold comes in at a session-able 6.5% and becomes available in their online ordering menu starting at 9am that day, when you can schedule a pickup time over the weekend. The cans will also be available for purchase at their main bar when they open their doors at 11am, while supplies last. Single cans to-go will run you $3 + tax. A 6-pack will cost $15 + tax.

Click HERE to access their online ordering menu on December 20^th.

Lakefront Brewery

LEEEEEEEEEEETSSSSSSS GEEEEEEEEEEEEET READY TOOOOO RUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMBLE!!!!!!!

Ok, its that time of the year, when its one of the few WWE PPVs I check in for anymore (its basically this and WrestleMania). WrestleMania is a definite watch for me, but the Royal Rumble match(es) itself is always one of the funnest hours / hours and a half of wrestling a year.

In years past co-workers (and I) have done ‘Rumble Pools’, where you draw a random number and whichever wrestler comes out at that number, if he wins, you win. Since they started doing the women’s Rumble match itself, we’ve also included it, so you get two chances (20$). I picked Thursday for my Rumble spots…. and I got: #7 for the Women’s Rumble….. and then…. #7 for the Men’s Rumble. Crazy, that out of 30 possibilities, I managed to get both number 7s in each Rumble (30 possible x 30 possible).

So let’s go #7! Coincidentally, thats also the line they are giving in the Chiefs / Bengals AFC Championship game on Sunday (Chiefs are a 7 point favorite). So maybe 7 will be my number this weekend when Bengals subvert expectations on Sunday and win by 7… and both the men’s and the women’s 7th entry win their Rumbles tonight… …maybe. (No wrestler has ever won the Rumble at the 7th spot.)

We are nearing the pre-show (started writing this review at 5:15PM, whilst doing chores, and after I finished my dog walk with Leela – and holy crap was that cold – and workout, and by the time I get this done, it will most likely be going on 7PM), so, I’ll give my predictions while we’re at it. The Royal Rumble (2022) card (as per Wikipedia):

My Predictions

My predictions for this card:

• Reigns over Rollins
• Miz and Maryse over Edge and Beth Phoenix
• Lynch over Doudrop
• Bobby Lashley over Brock Lesnar
• Ronda Rousey returning and winning the Women’s Royal Rumble
• Brock Lesnar being a surprise entrant (or taking the place of someone else) and winning the Men’s Royal Rumble

We’ll see in just a few hours how close I am to these predictions!

Funk Brewing yesterday posted a great video on their TikTok and Facebook acounts. (Tried to embed it, but it didn’t seem to want to work for me due to being a Facebook video rather than a YouTube video, but if you click the link it will take you to the video, its all of 23 seconds, and then you can pop right back over here.) Watch the video here: Funk Brewing Company – Royal Rumble – And That’s the Bottom Line.

Wrasslin

I’ve covered good ol’ fashioned ‘wrasslin’ a few times here on the blog. First with the Stone Cold IPA and then with Couch Brewery‘s Macho Man beer. Also did the March Madness from 2021 in a wrestling format.

I loved watching the old WWF growing up, and ECW, and WCW, and then got into all of the various independent promotions over the years (especially ROH Wrestling), (original) NWA:TNA, CZW, IWA:MS, XPW, PWG, Chikara, ECCW, as well as the Japanese Puroresu (プロレス) (NJPW, AJPW, NOAH, etc.) and the Mexican Lucha Libre (AAA) as well as everything else in between (shoot videos, tape trading, etc.). So its definitely always been a joy, even as I’ve gotten older and it became much more of a backburner type thing (behind all of my thousands of other hobbies – nerdy ones like Star Wars, 40K, books, board games, card games – and less nerdy ones like fantasy sports, hiking, etc.), as well as just the responsibilities of getting older and having kids and jobs and life itself.

But its fun to get to dive back into it now and again, like today and get to review a beer about it. Which, at this point I’m sure you are all sick of my rambling and just want to get to the rumbling… of the beer review that is!

Beer Review

Beer: Royal Rumble
Brewery: Funk Brewing
Style: Porter – Baltic
ABV: 8.2%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: (Blank)

Funk Brewing Company is a microbrewery from Emmaus Pennsylvania. They also have a taproom in Elizabethtown, PA. According to Untappd they have 500 unique beers with over 236,000 ratings, and a global average rating of 3.85 (as of 1.29.22).

Lets start with the look of this bad boy. Big frothy foamy head with individual bubbles of varying sizes. Jet black…. like Razor Ramone’s hair. A full looking bodied drink, stout and deep and heavy like a big burly man in his underwear about to throw you around a ring.

Aroma is slightly smokey / smoked, with what I would characterize as a ‘bitter’ aroma. Thats not probably on any BJCP judge form or anything, but almost like a sense of it before actually drinking it, kind of like looking at a really black coffee and sniffing it, you have a strong sense that its just got some bitterness to it. Some caramel notes in a deep whiff.

Slammed to the mat, thrown across the ring, and tossed right over the top rope! All in the first sip? Nah, not really, I luckily grabbed onto the rope and pulled myself back in, skinning the cat to get back in. Superkicked by Shawn Michaels afterwards…. Five Star Frog Splashed by RVD…. and still in this boys! Ok… back to reality…. This is a good porter. Not a blow you out of the ring or blow you out of the WWE Universe porter, but its a good porter. Its smooth, its dark, its got some roasty, some caramel, some bitterness, some flavors, but its just not quite as complex as I was hoping, just not quite as full bodied as The Big Show. Its certainly no Spike Dudley or Rey Mysterio (in size) either, but its …lacking a little bit of more OOMPH to put it over the top. I would gladly drink it again. Its a great beer, its just not a blow you away beer. And there’s nothing really outright wrong with that. Its not watery or paper thin, but its not got a real deep mouthfeel or flavor to it. The flavors of roasted malt, caramel malt, with a tinge of smokey bitterness, is all there, but just not quite as strong as I’d like. Maybe its going from can to glass, maybe its just my expectations (with a name like Royal Rumble eliciting thoughts of huge muscular bonecrushing men pummeling each other), or what, it just doesn’t quite reach the full flavor spectrum. There is nothing wrong with the beer – no off flavors, no bad aftertaste, no cloyingness, nothing that makes you not outright enjoy it, just not as deep and complex and rich as I was hoping for.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Average Untappd Rating: 3.87 (as of 1.29.22)

Finished Just in the Nick of Time

And like that, I skinned the cat, and pulled myself back into the ring… to get this article done at 6:57PM, just before the show kicks off at 7:00PM on Peacock. What perfect timing! Ok, while I quickly upload this to the social medias and the universe, you can scroll down to check out all of the other nerd culture beers we have reviewed, and I’ll catch you guys later!

Nerd and Popular Culture Beer Reviews

Star Wars:

• Beer Review: The Pandalorian (Tattered Flag)
• Beer Review: Wookie Monster (Fourscore Beer Co)
• Beer Review: Out of Order: Blue Milk (RAR Brewing)
• Beer Review: Out of Order: Tatooine Tart (RAR Brewing)
• Beer Review: Out of Order: RAWRGWAWGGR (RAR Brewing)
• Revenge of the Fifth / Cinco de Mayo
• May the Fourth Be With You
• Beer Review: This is Nut the Fluff You’re Looking For (Fourscore Beer Co)
• Beer Review: This is the Way (Broken Goblet Brewing)
• Beer Review: This is the Whey (Bolero Snort Brewery)
• Beer Review: Java the Stout (Jackie O’s Brewery)
• Beer Review: The Mangolorian (Brewery Fire)
• Beer Review: BoBull Fett (Bolero Snort Brewery)
• Mead Review: The Meadalorian (Space Time Mead and Cider Works)
• Beer Review: Let the Haze Flow Through You (Black Flag Brewing Co)
• Book Review: The Jedi Path and The Book of the Sith (Daniel Wallace)
• Book Review: Guardians of the Whills (Greg Rucka)

Rick and Morty:

• Beer Review: Peace Among Worlds (Cushwa Brewing Company)

Space Balls:

• Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

Game of Thrones:

• Beer Review: Game of Thrones: My Watch Has Ended (Omnegang Brewery)

The Simpsons:

• Beer Review: I Voted for Kodos (Second Sin Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: I Voted for Kang (Second Sin Brewing Company)

Back to the Future:

• Beer Review: Back to Reality (Three 3s Brewing Co)

Scrooged:

• Beer Review: Scrooge IPA (Iron Hill Brewing)

A Christmas Story:

• Beer Review: The Soft Electric Glow of Sex (RAR Brewing)
• Beer Review: You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out! (Eight and Sand Beer Co)

Pro Wrestling:

• Beer Review: Broken Skull – Stone Cold Steve Austin’s IPA (El Segundo Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: Macho Man (Couch Brewery)
• Beer Review: Royal Rumble (Funk Brewing)

Matrix:

• Matrix Monday

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

• Beer Review: Terpenes in Time (BAREBottle Brewing Co)

Seinfeld:

• Beer Review: Jon Voight’s Car (RAR Brewing)
• Beer Review: Airing of Grievances (Black Flag Brewing Company)

Other:

• Beer Review: Super Villain (Urban Village Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: Pixels (Seminar Brewing)
• Beer Review: Villeinage (Elder Pine Brewing and Blending)
• Beer Review: Intergalactic Deals (Levante Brewing)
• Beer Review: Galactic Space Circus (Creature Comforts Brewing Co)

Thanks For Reading

As always everyone, thanks for reading. Try and stay warm (my phone currently says its 18 degrees with a real feel of 4). And make sure to root on the Bengals tomorrow to beat the Chiefs! Have a great weekend everyone! (And lets go #7 and #7 in the Royal Rumbles tonight!)

Cheers!

-B. Kline

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you!

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Good happy snowy Super Bowl Sunday morning. Oops… “Big Game” Sunday. (Sits by his mailbox tapping his foot waiting for the cease and decease for using the term SUPER BOWL…. oops!)

Yet again another snowy day here in Central PA in 2021. Unlike previous years where we got relatively little snow, this year we’re actually getting the snow the weathermen and women have been calling for. Thank goodness…. (he says sarcastically). But with the snowy weather comes shoveling, and with shoveling comes snow shovel beer(s).

And I present you this morning’s snow shovel beer – a Blown Gasket variant by Braxton Brewing Company as part of their experimental brewing and experimental batches section of their brewery – Braxton Brew Labs.

I had stopped at Braxton Brewing Company when I was in Cincinnati on my trip. Braxton Brewing Company is just across the river in Covington Kentucky. I picked up a few four packs and six packs (Oktoberfest being one), and talking with the bartender he offered me a couple (two) crowlers (for free) (and without even mentioning the blog) to go. Was a fantastic time there and I absolutely loved the brewery. Beautiful building, fantastic atmosphere, amazing workers and all around high quality beers. I highly recommend the place if ever in the area, and talk to all the workers you can, they are all wonderful people.

For a quick recap of my time in Cincinnati you can check out the article here: Indy Trip Recap – Day Five – Cincinnati and Kentucky.

Make sure – if you get the chance – if / when visiting Braxton Brewing Company that you say “hi” to Adam the bartender, tell him I sent you. I can’t wait to come back and hang again for some beers. Extremely great guy and so very helpful too.

Braxton Brewing Company

Ok, so let’s dive in and go straight into the brewery behind the beer before getting to the beer review proper itself. As I’ve stated in several recent past beer reviews, I’m making a point to highlight the breweries behind the beers now. As a way to distinguish our beer reviews here on The Beer Thrillers, as well as to let people know the “behind the beer” and get to see who makes the delicious brews their imbibing in. Too rarely do some people know anything about who make their beers.

This is a great way to get some recognition to these breweries and workers who we review here on the blog and who make the fantastic beers we love. They deserve that recognition for all their hard work; and Braxton Brewing Company is certainly no exemption to that.

According to Untappd – Braxton Brewing Company is a regional brewery located in Covington Kentucky. I visited the brewery there in Covington. They also have a barrel house. Untapped says they have 647 unique beers, with a global average rating of 3.75 out of 253K ratings (as of 2.7.21). Their Untappd description reads: “From a humble start, a love for brewing has become an entrepreneurial obsession. Melding technology and tradition, at Braxton ideas are born and fermented.” They are a hop skip and a jump (just across the river) from Cincinnati Ohio.

You can follow them on their media pages here:

• Braxton Brewing Company Facebook
• Braxton Brewing Company Twitter
• Braxton Brewing Company Instagram
• Braxton Brewing Company’s Business Website

The brewery’s venue on Untappd can be found here. They are a verified venue on Untappd, so you can stay up to date on their beer menu. They also have the Braxton Labs in Newport Kentucky, the Braxton Barrel House in Fort Mitchell Kentucky, and Braxton Brewing Cincinnati in…. Cincinnati Ohio (shocker right?). All of their locations are verified venues.

Don’t Blow a Gasket

I had gotten a crowler of this and enjoyed it immensely, and only after doing some digging did I see that its not just an experimental brew, but its also a part of the series for Blown Gasket. (Pays to do some research sometimes when doing beer reviews huh?) I don’t think it makes much of a difference that its a variant of Blown Gasket, but in case, for anyone familiar with Blown Gasket and Braxton Brewing Company, I’ll give the specifics for the original here.

Beer: Blown Gasket
Brewery: Braxton Brewing Company
Style: Porter – American
ABV: 7.5%
IBU: 20
Untappd Description: This robust porter is a darker offering with a noticeably roasty aroma. Supportive notes may include bready, toffee-like, chocolate, and/or sweet aromas. A moderate hop aroma containing no fruity esters. Dark brown to almost black in color, with a beautiful tan head with excellent retention. The flavor profile is of moderately strong malt character, followed by roasty-dryness throughout to the finish. Medium hop bitterness, and low to moderate hop flavor to balance the roasted malts. This is a medium/medium full bodied beer.
Untappd Global Average Rating: 3.78 (as of 2.7.21)

I provide this here just to give some baseline information on the beer behind the beer, or the genesis of the beer I am reviewing. (Do with this knowledge as you will….)

Beer Review: Chocolate Covered Pretezel

Ok… finally, about time I get down to the review? Ok, simmer down folks, here we go, (you know you could have just easily skipped to this right? Yea…. yea… yea….). Ok, first, lets get the specs out of the way, then dive into the beer itself.

Beer: Braxton Labs – Chocolate Covered Pretzel
Brewery: Braxton Brewing Company
Variant: Blown Gasket
Style: Porter – Other
ABV: 8%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Description: (Blank)

What does a snowy day call for? Shoveling unfortunately, but what does shoveling call for? A deep, dark, tasty beer. And for me, that means stouts, porters, barleywines, brown ales, coffee beers, and anything minimum 8%. Gotta warm those cockles as you shovel in shorts right?

Breaking this down as I usually do – appearance (then aroma, then taste / overall discussion); let’s jump right into that appearance. As usual with porters, they can look very similar to stouts and be indistinguishable at times. Sometimes they can have a browner look, but this is a pure black near stout like porter. The picture doesn’t do the carbonation justice because I poured it and realized I didn’t have my phone on me for the picture so I had to go and retrieve it, but there was a nice lovely foamy head. An off white brown tinted foam head, and great carbonation. A thin quarter inch head with various and diverse bubbles. As I drank the several glasses of it (it was in a crowler afterall), it left lovely lacing on the glass. As per my usual definition of dark black beers – “Its Razor Ramon hair black.”

This has a nice rich, dense smell to it. Very bready, very heady, a fair bit malty. A nice chocolate undertone to it, like a baker’s chocolate, but its more background to the bready, and even earthy notes. There is a slight roast note to the aroma but its certainly muted and not overpowering and comes through with the breadyness not behind the chocolate.

This was a delightful beer to drink, especially starting early morning while shoveling on Super Bowl (errrr…. Big Game) Sunday, and getting to drink throughout the day. Its got a deep, full body to it, and nothing about it is watery or thin or light or airy, even though its “only” 8%, it feels full, rich, deep, and dark. It looks and tastes like a heavy hitter even though it only clocks in at 8%. Like getting hit by a 280 lb boxer but the dude only weighs 220…. which…. is still more impressive than being punched by a 140 first time boxer…. but you know what I mean. Its still got a good jab going for it. I think the chocolate is interesting in this. It seems its “in sips”. I dunno quite how to fully describe that, but first sip seems very heavy baker’s chocolate, but then you’ll drink and sip and not taste it again until sip number six, and then you get some muted hints of chocolate. Like somehow its not even throughout the beer, like its in swirls hidden here and there. Hard to describe that. Perhaps its my own taste buds, or perhaps its just how the process is with baker’s chocolate or a bitter chocolate – you don’t notice it until the previous bittering wears off? Not sure. But its not a detriment, just an interesting noticing on my part. (I could also be totally wrong about all of it, maybe my taste buds just don’t know what their doing, as if its their first day on the job or something, who knows.) There’s a very nice bready taste to this, a roasty note, some good malt flavor as well. I think it certainly nails the “pretzel” part of “chocolate covered pretzel”. It has that lovely cooked pretzel taste, with a bit of the baker’s chocolate to go over top of it. This isn’t a massively complex beer, but its far from a simple beer, and there is a lot of nice notes to it. The mouthfeel just feels right too, (see what I did there?), its not watery, its not thin, but its not too heavy, its just right. There is nothing cloying to it either, its smooth with the only bitterness coming from the baker’s chocolate and it isn’t unpleasant. This is definitely a wonderful and delicious beer, I would recommend it far more as a “sipper” and at room temperature than cold (despite my picture of it sitting in the snow), it got better after I drank a few sips outside while shoveling, and came back inside and let it warm up. A crowler is the perfect amount and size for this.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.86 (as of 2.7.21)

Super Bowl LV

So whose everyone got tonight? Tom Brady and the Buccaneers or Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs? The GOAT vs. The KID? The returning Super Bowl Champs vs. the elderly Tom Brady and a bunch of up and comers? Hopefully it should be a good game. My team – the Bengals – were long way out, (as usual for every year; I mean, our last playoff win was before the first text was ever sent), so I’m just interested in a good game.

Whose everyone taking money on? Any good bets or side bets or prop bets? I made a 5$ wager straight up (1 for 1) on The Bucs, and I made a 2$ bet (pays 7 to 1) on Tom Brady being named MVP. We’ll see how it all plays out. Fingers crossed that I become 19$ richer by the end of the game.

Let me know your thoughts or opinions on the game, the NFL Season of 2020 – 2021, Braxon Brewing Company, the beer, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Ohio, or whatever else is on your mind. Always love hearing from you guys.

And as always, make sure to hit the follow and subscribe. As well as check out our social media pages.

Thanks for reading everyone and stay safe out there with the snow and enjoy the Big Game tonight!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

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!

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

I would dare say this might just be one of the best Milk Porters on the market. Creature Comforts introduced Koko Buni Milk Porter in October of 2014 as their first seasonal beer. There have been a few tweaks along the way; however, it’s basically the same recipe today as it was back then. It was a big hit then and is still a much anticipated release today. What makes it so special? All the ingredients are perfectly harmonized and balanced start to finish.

As is typical of Creature Comforts, they source some local ingredients for additions to the recipe; coffee beans from 1000 Faces Coffee and cocoa nibs from Condor Chocolates in Athens, GA. They reached outside of Georgia to Ethereal Confections of Woodstock, IL for additional cocoa nibs. The results are a silky smooth Porter with just the right amount of cocoa nibs and coffee to play well with the roasted and chocolate flavors from the dark malts grain bill.

Koko Buni is jet black and pours to a fluffy tan head exhibiting very good retention. You won’t encounter any hops aromas in the nose; but you be delighted in the distinct coffee, cocoa and roasted malt notes that drift lazily from the frothy head. The mouth-feel is full bodied, soft and silky smooth. Every sip brings complex, yet balanced mix of roasted malt, coffee, and chocolate flavors laced with coconut. There is a very mild baker’s chocolate-like bitter sweet character that flows start to finish. The finish is very pleasing and medium in length.

As you can tell, this is definitely a favorite Porter of mine and I look forward to it coming out every year mid to late fall. This is one of those beers you feel right at home with on a snowy winter evening in front of the fireplace; but also don’t mind pouring right into your favorite coffee cup on a cold Saturday morning. Creature Comforts has made a nice supply of 12 oz. cans available throughout it’s markets.

Thanks for reading. Until next time…Let Us Drink Beer!

As always – Please Drink Responsibly.