Like I said before, I can’t turn up a good pun beer, especially when its a Godfather themed beer pun. How can you resist when the name of ‘Growfather’ the hop cone looks great on the can and kind of works in a reverse way of the puppet look from the novel, the font is the same / near same as the book and movie, and its by a good brewery like Stickman Brews?

Its like the can made me an offer… and I couldn’t refuse it. (I know… I know… low hanging fruit, but I couldn’t turn it up.) This is just one of those iconic lines, like Vader telling Luke he’s his father (oh my god… spoilers!), like a little boy telling Bruce Willis he sees dead people… (The Fifth Element?), etc. Its constantly punned, constantly quoted, and done. I couldn’t refuse doing it either.

There’s nothing personal about doing the joke, its just strictly business. …oh no… I went and did it again, reaching out and hitting the lowest hanging fruit on the tree. Like picking the hops near the bottom of the vine instead of at the top. Ugh. Sorry…. maybe I’ll grab some coffee and come back and re-start this beer review….

Sigh. Oh, sigh. Well, lets move on, shall we? Maybe I can right this review and get it going correctly so my family doesn’t turn against me…

Well…. I’m done. Thats it. I give up. I just can’t do this review. I… just… this just keeps going on… and on… and on…. and on…

Ah hah! Gotcha. You thought I was going to keep the gag going didn’t you? That I would just keep continuing doing .gif /memes of The Godfather indefinitely didn’t you?

Alright, alright, alright. I’m done. Lets get to reviewing this beer shall we?

Beer: The Growfather
Brewery: Stickman Brews
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double New England
ABV: 8%
IBU: None
Untappd Description:

Just what you would expect from George Martorano, The GrowFather. This Double IPA is crazy dank, full of orange, citrus, and peach notes from all Pacific Northwest hops. Full bodied and smooth, with a silky mouthfeel from oats.
* Contains lactose

Stickman Brews is a micro brewery from Royersford Pennsylvania. They make some tremendous beers and their beer can art is usually stick figure drawings, typically done by Bartley Kaminiski. He does work for Pizza Boy, Hemauer, etc, and does a wonderful job. He also runs Hop Hedz Gear and does a lot of promotions and events for breweries and places. Great and funny dude too. Not sure if he did the work on this logo, but if he did, kudos and job well done.

As you can see from my picture (which I took in front of my hops even though they are done for the year, I didn’t take them down… until after I poured this glass, and then got to work on taking them down and chopping up the vines and composting them), this is a beautifully golden hued Double IPA in the hazy New England vein. Its opaque and hazy, its bright orange and golden, and it had a wonderful smallish head that poured out nicely and gave it a gorgeous froth top. Carbonation was on point for the can.

This has a wonderful hop aroma right out the gate, as soon as you crack it open and pour it. Pacific Northwest has some of the best hop smell and is a favorite hop for me. You get citrus, orange, and peach. Sometimes with the right conjunction with other hops you can really use Pacific Northwest to bring mango out too (from the other hop variety) and give it a wonderful peach / mango aroma and flavor. For this – (The Growfather) you get a lot of orange and peach with some citrus. There is no earthy, grassy, or piney hop notes, and its very heavy orange, peach, citrus. Gives it a very dank and powerful and hop dense aroma.

Oh this tastes just like a good New England double IPA should right out the gate. So bright and flavorful and tasty immediately. Hop explosion full of orange, peach, and citrus immediately hitting your tastbuds as soon as you take the first sip. This is smooth and easy to drink too. I crushed it while working on the hops, cutting down the vines and my hemp string, and cutting and chopping them up for mulching and composting. (I had already picked the hops, had just left the vines up a bit longer for nourishment.) This wasn’t overly strong, but it wasn’t light easy. But it was certainly smooth. You felt the 8% at the end, but not while drinking. The peach and orange and citrus really go well with the silky smoothness and it has no true hop bite, just a lot of hop flavor. It is dank and the aroma on this is just wonderful too. You get more peach and orange I feel than citrus, but that’s not a bad thing in my perspective for the beer. It is just a really well crafted double imperial IPA – New England style – beer, and it is really tasty, really smooth, really enjoyable. Summer time, winter time, fall time, spring time, this is a great beer year round.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.03 (as of 11.17.20)

Alright, the review is over, its time to stop, and smell the roses now…

Ok…. and on that note, thank you everyone, you’ve been great, this has been a wonderful evening, make sure to tip your waiter or bartender and drive home safely now!

Edit note: I started this review before leaving for the trip, and finished it now, so I updated the Untappd (global) rating to today’s date. I also want to let everyone know I am working on the full Indy trip articles and they will be coming out slowly. It is also still November, so I am still doing an article a day. Hopefully you enjoy. You can find the Indy articles below, as well as some recent beer reviews, and all of our social media pages. Thank you and cheers!

-B. Kline

The Trip to Indianapolis:

• The Trip to Indy
• The Trip to Indy – Day One Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Two Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Three Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Four Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Five Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Six Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Seven Recap
• Recap and Stats

Also, be sure to check out some of our other beer reviews in recent history:

• 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)
• Beer Review: I Voted Today (Tired Hands)
• Beer Review: Super Villain (Urban Village Brewing Company)

You can check out the tabs at the top of each page to visit our BEER REVIEWS, BEER EDUCATION, TRAVELOGUES, etc. Be sure to check out all the latest beer reviews, as we’re pumping a lot out in recent time.

Also, tonight I will be on Knights of Nostalgia with Drew playing Konami games, so be sure to follow, watch, like, and check us out. We will be drinking, playing games, and talking it up, so make sure to watch!

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!

Normally I don’t do back-to-back beer reviews from the same brewery or from the same trip to a place…. but…. this time I am. (Though I did do it recently with the reviews from the Gin Mill of King Sue and Intergalactic Warrior ; and then followed it up with a review of the Secret Machine which I also had at the Gin Mill). I don’t also like to keep doing the same breweries over and over, and me and J. Doncevic discussed this a bit recently. (Though, I just did Newfangled Brew Works’ Pumpkin Stout on November 1st, and their Double IPA yesterday – November 16th. I also did their Twin Mount .50 beer, as part of my multiple beer review flight I had at Tattered Flag on Veterans Day as well.) Its very nice to have a large variety. Some locals to give them some attention, and some bigger, national beers, that gets attention from all over. So this might be a bit of an outlier review. BUT…. also… we don’t do many lager reviews. Lots of IPA and Stout and Sour beer reviews here on the blog. Few pilsners, lagers, etc. So its a nice change of pace at least in that way. Plus…. I am doing 30 blog posts in 30 days…. so I need to write, write, write, and get as much out as I can….. (Plus, I’m also doing 30 new beers, one at least per day.)

Beer: Lager
Brewery: Newfangled Brew Works
Style: Lager – Pale
ABV: 5.2%
IBU: 20
Untappd Write-Up: When someone asks for a beer, this is the “beer” to get. Brewed to be a tasty light straw colored beer thats great for backyard parties, lawn mowing, and drinking on our patio. Sort if a bridge between adjunct American Pils and classic Cream Ale this is just a refreshing BEER.

This is a lager. This is a tasty lager. This is how a lager should be. Not Budweiser. Not Coors Lite. Not Miller Lite. Not any of that crap. This is how a lager should be. And I have to think all of those who drink the above mentioned, would be more happy drinking this (or at least just as happy). And if blindfolded and given a blind-tasting, they either 1) choose this because of its taste, or 2) can’t really tell the difference between Bud, Coors, Miller, and this would just be as acceptable to them.

Appearance is a ‘lite beer’ coloring. Clear, like pilsners, with nice consistent constant bubbling. Light straw coloring, filtered, little bit of head with very nice carbonation though as you can tell from the bubbles, and good lacing on the glass as you drain it down.

Aroma – there isn’t really much to say here. It smells like beer, it smells like your typical beer. Here you’ll notice the biggest similarity with Coors, Miller, Bud, in that it smells the same as those, with no discernible difference.

Taste is super smooth, super crisp, super refreshing. It is basically just an upgraded, much better, vastly improved version of a Coors Lite or Miller Lite. Of a really good lager done really well. Its got a slickness that those don’t though, a much smoother and easier to drink, almost creamy like quality to it. This is a perfect summer time beer, a perfect fall time beer, a nice winter beer indoors, watching football, watching soccer, watching baseball, mowing, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc. Just a well rounded, well made, tasty, enjoyable lager. Would be perfect in cases for parties at home on Labor Day or Memorial Day or whatever with friends who only drink the ‘swill of the masses’ and other ‘crap not craft’ beers.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.45 (as of 11.17.19)

Cheers all! Have yourself a fantastic Sunday and go out there and be awesome!

-B. Kline