First, Tattered Flag is one of my favorite local breweries, and secondly, its a Mandalorian themed beer, and thirdly…. Pandas. Seriously, what could go wrong here?

Absolutely. Nothing.

So, since I am still doing some ‘at home’ quarantining after my trip out to Indianapolis from work, yesterday I did a bit of day drinking and had to make sure this was one of the several wonderful beers I had, and as you can see, I made sure to use my new glass I got from the Vonnegut Museum and Library.

On The Beer Thrillers we have done several Mandalorian and Star Wars themed beers before, so it should be obvious to any reader of ours that I am a huge Star Wars fan. You can see our Mandalorian themed beer reviews here:

• Beer Review: This is the Way (Broken Goblet)
• Beer Review: Out of Order: Blue Milk (RAR Brewing)

And our Star Wars themed beers here:

• Beer Review: Wookie Monster (Fourscore Beer Co.)
• Beer Review: This is Nut the Fluff You’re Looking For (Fourscore Beer Co.)

Space Balls themed beer:

• Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

If you use our search function on our blog and type in STAR WARS, these are some of the various articles where I mention Star Wars in them: STAR WARS on THE BEER THRILLERS.

Rotunda Brewing Company in Annville (and their brewpub in Hershey) are re-releasing their Chewbacca beer this weekend, a black IPA which I have had before. I am going to be getting a can and doing a review for that as well. (Can never have enough Star Wars themed beers to review on here, believe me. So if you know of any, or have any and would like to see me review it, contact us through the CONTACT US page.)

As you can see, like I said above, I am also using my brand new Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library glass. It has such a great quote of Vonnegut which he also used in Slaughter-House Five:

“I have this disease late at night sometimes, involving alcohol and the telephone.”

Story had it, he would drink and call people, just to basically yell something poignant and quick to them over the phone, and then slam the phone down. Not to strangers or random numbers, but to his friends and colleagues. I can certainly relate to some late night drunk texts (I think a lot of people can actually). So I see where he is coming at with this.

Alright, now that we’ve established the background for the beer and for the glass, let’s actually review this beer shall we.

Beer: The Pandalorian
Brewery: Tattered Flag
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double New England
ABV: 7.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Hazy Imperial IPA made from a blend of base malts, generous wheat addition, oats, and flaked maze bring forth a sweet backbone complimented by Sabro in the kettle and a massive Sabro Cryo dry hop. Expect sweet coconut ? up front followed by citrus lime and a sweet creamy finish.

As you can see above, this is hazy, but on the lighter, softer orange – yellow – golden scale. Not the deep heavy dank, but a lighter, softer looking hazy New England style IPA / DIPA. Justin, the head brewer for Tattered Flag does a lot of New England style IPAs (and a lot of sours) and does them all very well, making them different from each other too, which is sometimes hard to do with the style. You have some that look bright orange to golden with a very dank and heavy haze, and then you have some that are lighter softer yellow to golden like this, with some haze. There is some orange here, but I would say its mostly yellow and golden. There is a thin head to it, and great carbonation, and left nice lacing on the glass.

Aroma is a blend of hop, mainly a blend of coconut, tangerine, the fruity and citrus hop aromas. Sabro is a pretty strong hop and gives this a very strong hop presence and nose. On the nose you get coconut, tangerine, hint of cedar and mint, with some cream, some lime.

This is a very smooth and drinkable DIPA. At 7.5% its in a middle ground of ABV for IPAs and DIPAs. In comparison, Troegs Brewing’s Perpetual IPA (their flagship West Coast IPA) is a 7.5% (and right there is where the comparison between the two of these stop). 7-8% is a good middle ground area for IPAs and DIPA’s I feel. Its enough to get you to notice the ABV, but not enough to make it boozy, to heavy, or to get you too drunk. A nice general buzz is all that is needed and required. This looks and tastes similar to New England IPAs, but its not a generic New England IPA / DIPA. The Sabro hops gives it a very different taste than most New England IPAs, as Sabro isn’t really a much used hop, especially in the Cryo style. This gives The Pandalorian an interesting start with a different finish to it. It has a coconut, tangerine, citrus, taste at the beginning, but it ends on more of a zest lime, cream flavor. Overall its a silky smooth drink that is very easy to drink. There is a bit of an ending bite as you get to the bottom of the glass, but that is typical for most IPAs especially as you get closer to the finishing last sips. Despite the Sabro hops and the nose, there isn’t much of a cedar or mint flavoring that I was able to pick up on, but I did get tangerine, coconut, lime, and cream. My one friend suggested grapefruit, but I wasn’t able to pick up any grapefruit, and thats also not typically a characteristic of Sabro hops either. I very much enjoyed the smoothness of this, and the flavor profile, the aroma was on point, and the ABV was nice for a good buzz, a four pack is nice for sharing with buddies while streaming (which me and my friend did during the Konami games live stream we did on Knights of Nostalgia). This adds to the growing list of good and great New England IPAs that Tattered Flag has put out over the recent year. Definitely make sure to check this out, either for namesake or for the beer itself. Not sure how much longer the four packs will last at the brewery, so if you want the great can art be sure to pop in soon, they also have it on draft which will probably last a bit longer. This is a good smooth, tasty New England DIPA that will certainly not disappoint.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.84 (as of 11.20.20)

You can check out more beer reviews I’ve done from Tattered Flag below:

• Beer Review: Flavor Guided Juice Missile (Tattered Flag)
• Beer Review: Tattered Soul (Tattered Flag and Rubber Soul)
• Beer Review: Social Distancing (Tattered Flag, Abomination Brewing, and Pilger Ruh Brewing)
• Beer Review: Going Rogue (Tattered Flag)
• Beer Review: Member Berry (Tattered Flag)
• Beer Review: Inexplicably Juicy (Tattered Flag)
• And many more at the TATTERED FLAG search.

Also, Tattered Flag now does statewide shipping through their SUPPLY DROP. Make sure to take advantage of that if you live anywhere in Pennsylvania and are unable to make it to their brewery.

On Black Friday they are doing a big bottle release at their upcoming Lancaster Barrel House location. More details can be found on their Facebook page – Tattered Flag @ Facebook and Tattered Flag Barrel House @ Facebook. I will be doing an article covering that shortly as well.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, I got the pint glass from the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library. You can visit them and donate as well as order online, and if you are a big fan of Kurt Vonnegut, I highly recommend it.

You can read about my trip (in recap form) to Indianapolis and back through the following:

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

My time in Indianapolis is covered specifically in the Day Four recap.

The books behind the beer in today’s blog post are: “Happy Birthday Wanda June” by Kurt Vonnegut, “Armageddon in Retrospect” by Kurt Vonnegut, and “Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron” by Alexander Freed.

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)

Star Wars themed articles:

• May The Fourth Be With You
• Revenge of the Fifth (Cinco de Mayo)

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.

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!

Thanks for reading everyone, please stay safe out there, I know cases are on the rise and spiking, so make sure to wash your hands, stay distant, enjoy your craft beer, and wear a mask. Cheers and May the Force Be With You!

-B. Kline

Had an appointment in downtown Harrisburg, and to avoid having to pay parking garage fees or using a parking meter, I decided to park back behind the Appalachian Brewing Company, and walked downtown. And of course, once my appointment was over, couldn’t help myself but stop in before leaving and heading home.

So at 9PM in a pretty much deserted bar, I ordered myself a small flight of four beers, and settled in for a very nice flight while chatting with a good bartender.

Beer: Mechanicsberry
Brewery: Appalachian Brewing Company
Style: Pale Ale – American
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: 38
Untappd Write-Up: Juicy strawberry pale ale.
Fruity aromatics.

Appearance is a bit of a darker straw coloring. No sediment. Nice lacing on the glass. Thin small amount of head with good carbonation.

Aromatically speaking, it is very berry fruity. You get a whole whiff of berry fruit smells as soon as your nose nears the glass.

Taste you get hit right up front with a berry flavor, and as you sip on it, you pinpoint it as strawberry first and foremost. Sadly though, the backend of this leaves a lot to be desired. It kinda of tails off into an off flavoring and a really bad and weird aftertaste that haunts after you drink this.

My Untappd Rating: ***.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.62 (as of 11.20.19)

Beer: Bargain Black IPA
Brewery: Appalachian Brewing Company
Style: IPA – Black / Cascadian Dark Ale
ABV: 7%
IBU: 70
Untappd Write-Up: (None – Blank)

This is a really fantastic beer and a wonderful black IPA. Absolutely one of my favorite styles when done correctly.

Appearance is almost stout black. Just a shade thin of being lighter. Nice nearly stout like head at first that quickly subsides.

Aroma is very roast malt and very hoppy all at the same time. This makes for a wonderful combination that provides for a very good nose on this.

Taste is very roasty, very malty, very dark and earthy, but with a fantastic bitter hoppy quality to this. The roast malts give this a great body and mouthfeel and the bitter(ing) hops provide a fantastic flavor to lay on top. Like a layered cake needing to be ate layer by layer.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.66 (as of 11.20.19)

Beer: Embers Remain
Brewery: Appalachian Brewing Company
Style: Stout – Imperial Russian
ABV: 12.2%
IBU: 80
Untappd Write-Up: This imperial stout is an exercise in the scorched earth policy, in other words, don’t drink this first. Big body, warming alcohol and a roast intensity to balance the beer out and prevent it from being overly sweet. Through amplified old world stout techniques and ingredients this beer employs the gratuitous use of brown and black malts to make a flavorful and intensely dark experience. This stout is like the event horizon of a blackhole, it is the point of no return.

Appearance for this bad boy is Razor Ramon hair coloring. Just for mens black – stout edition. Good head to this even in a taster glass, great lacing on this big guy, just a wonderful dark and heavy stout from Appalachian Brewing Company.

The nose on this is pretty sweet. Nice caramel, slight roasted, the darker end of the spectrum malts gives this a very malty and roasted note.

Amazingly, despite its high ABV of 12.2% and despite the write-up for this; you don’t really get a booze flavor this. It at least certainly doesn’t hit you over the head with its alcohol content or ABV. It is also surprisingly and shockingly very sweet. The malts give this a caramel flavoring, with no bitterness, and even perhaps vanilla or lactose flavor to it, used possibly to make it smoother, and easier drinking, which this is dangerously close to something you can order a four-pack of and kill in one sitting.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.84 (as of 11.20.19)

Beer: Ragged Edge Espresso Stout
Brewery: Appalachian Brewing Company
Style: Stout – Other
ABV: 4.6%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: Brewed with Espresso from the Ragged Edge Coffee Shop in Gettysburg PA

Appearance is very dark, Razor Ramon hair dark again, but this time with a much more fuller, heavy, foamy head. By the time I took the picture for this one the head had went down (I had drank the previous three tasters), but it left a great lacing, and was very full with lots of various bubbles.

Aroma is literally what you read. Its an espresso stout; and ergo it smells exactly like an espresso you might have gotten from Starbuck’s or wherever.

Taste is exactly the same. Espresso through and through. Thick bodied, given that its only a 4.6%, it tastes exactly like an espresso stout with a slight bit of alcohol to it – though you wouldn’t know there was alcohol in it by just the taste. Great final beer to leave on.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.72 (as of 11.20.19)

Thanks for reading all! Cheers!

-B. Kline