It still looks a little bit hectic around here (especially behind the scenes) and cosmetically we need a few new paints and plug-ins and other dealies to really get the new site jumping. But, we are officially moved over. And this also marks the first *NEW* post of 2021. We have several posts that will publish and be back-dated since they were written and started back in December and early January while we were capped on our bandwidth, I will make sure they are visible and easy to find. But this marks the first new post for 2021 and the first new post for the new site.

So be sure to update all of your bookmarks and everything, we are no longer at thebeerthrillers.home.blog but are now instead at: https://thebeerthrillers.com/

The move now means we have our own full domain hosting, our own full site, and no longer operating on just the old little WordPress blogging that we started with. I started the blog in May 2019, and we hit our bandwidth cap just shy of the end of December 2020. Over those two years, we had nearly 300 blog posts (due to editing and changes and back-dating, it will appear as over 300; and its been more than 300 written, but things get changed, moved, edited, and the process sometimes makes things get moved around). Our first year (2019) (May – December) we hit 27K views. In 2020 (January – December) we hit 58K (nearly 59K). Already in just January 2021, before the full migration – the old site (without posting to it or editing the blog) has already gotten near to 400 posts. We have worked our way up on FeedSpot’s Top 100 Beer Blogs to #9, and Pennsylvania’s Top 40 Blogs at #11.

This move will allow a lot more visitors to have access to the site, it will improve our search engine results with Google, Bing, Yandex, DuckDuckGo, etc. It will also give us a lot more features to play around with. We can do polls, quizzes, surveys, and a whole host of other things. And we will likely take full advantage of a lot of these features going forward. I know I’d love to set up a March Madness type bracket thing come March this year, and see how that goes.

Like I said above, we have quite a few articles to move over yet from the drafting phase that will get published and backlogged, as well as many new articles freshly written to be posting in the near future. With the move, you can expect to see a lot more articles coming from us.

I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has visited, followed, liked, and subscribed, I would also like to say I am eagerly awaiting to getting to play around with the new site. And I know Josh is also eager to get to try it out and post some new articles. So you can expect to see a lot more from us here at The Beer Thrillers; thats for sure. You’ll see plenty more from myself (B. Kline), as well as Josh (J. Doncevic) and its looking like AJ Brechbiel (Default Brewing / Rough Edges Brewing), Andy Parys (A.Parys, The Sugar Foot), and hopefully Karl Larsen (ihackbeers) will be joining us as well for more articles from all of them. Also, the extended Beer Thrillers family – Knights of Nostalgia (Drew – along with his crew of streamers; myself, Rome, Kelsey, Rory, and the several others he’s had on his stream) and So a Mexican and a Scot Walk Into a Bar… (the podcast ran by Esteban and Drew, that features myself, Dan, and several others from time to time) are all looking forward to providing more content in the future. So please be sure to check out the site here, as well as their sites, and be sure to also check out our friends from the south (Georgia area) – Let Us Drink Beer blog, as we are looking forward to working with Dave (blog runner for Let Us Drink Beer) and sharing articles back and forth. (Let Us Drink Beer Blog, has written a few articles for us, and we have written a few for them, in an effort to reach a wider audience and collaborate together. You can find some of my articles on their site as The Beer Thrillers or B. Kline, and you can find some of their articles here on our site under Let Us Drink Beer).

As always, we provide a wide range of topics and discussions here on The Beer Thrillers blog. We have beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, beer education, home brewing articles, book reviews, beer and brewery events, brewery and craft beer news, as well as articles on growing hops, lantern flies, and other topics related to the beer industry, and much much more. You can also always contact us by using our CONTACT PAGE – THE BEER THRILLERS.

Thank you everyone for visiting, following, reading, sharing, and liking us, and staying with us through this move. It is so greatly appreciated. All of you readers out there are why we write and maintain this site. Thank you so much!

Happy New Years everyone, and welcome back to indoor dining in Pennsylvania. So be sure to go out and support your local breweries, they certainly need all the help they can get right now! (If you still feel unsafe dining indoors, you can always do to-go and take out and order beer to-go, most breweries are offering some form of to-go, either growler or crowler fills or four or six packs to go.)

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Facebook Group, 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!

Just before we crack on, I would like to set the scene a little. The beer that I am about to write a review for is the better part of three years old. Because of that, I am going to elaborate more than normal as this is decidedly not an IPA and as such, deserves a little more time and effort spent waxing philosophic. You’ll want to strap in.

The Beer

Beer: B-52 Belgian Dubbel (Bottle-Conditioned, 2017)
Brewery: Cox Brewing Company (CBC)
Style: Belgian Dubbel
ABV: 7.7%
IBU: 10
Untappd Description: A smoked Belgian Dubbel, bottle conditioned one year before release and aged with raisins.
Enjoy In: Tulip, Snifter
Enjoy At: 50-55 degrees Fahrenheit or 30,000ft

The Review

It’s 2017 and a friend of mine has asked me to join him and his father at a small brewery in Rheems, PA. Back then I had never heard of Cox Brewing Company, much less tried any of their beer. However, it’s local brewery and I’m more than willing to check a new place out. We pull into an industrial and farm looking part of town and up to what appeared to be a hole in the wall. The kind of place that only those that were “in-the-know” frequented. And there we were, walking into a crowded and cramped garage that was abuzz with conversation. The whole time I was wondering just how good the beer was, but after the first sip, all doubt fled through that same garage door and I began enjoying myself. Spent a few moments scanning the chalkboard menu and spotted something very interesting. I was going to choose by name, and then I noticed the style. WOAH! “Dubbel” Now there’s something you don’t find very often. While being very happy to see the style, I have to admit I was still a bit of a sceptic. My personal experience with US brewed Belgian styles has been a bit spotty at best. Not many breweries seem to be able to replicate the unique taste found in Belgian beers. So naturally, I did what any beer nerd would do: I ordered a pint. I remember being very glad I was sitting down as much fresher versions of the flavors I’ll depict later washed over me. I enjoyed it so much that I vowed then and there that I would be back to buy two bottles, because only a fool would buy one. I returned a week later, making good on my promise. One of those bottles was had two years ago, and thought it unlikely that it would get any better.

Fast forward those two years and I finally popped the cork on the last bottle that had been sleeping in my cellar ever since. It doesn’t feel like it’s been three years, but with the way 2020 has gone, time is a mere construct, and a fickle one to be sure. Regardless, after carefully coaxing the cage and cork from the glass bottle, the sound of bubbles frothing and bursting echoed forth from the long neck to the tune of a Geiger counter. The effects of the beer contained within wasn’t quite so nuclear, though it will blow away the day’s stress or the frigid temperatures outside. This is a sipping beer in much the way that relaxation and a comfortable lounging chair are the quintessential furnishings of an in home get-a-way. The bottle reads 7.7% but with the way it drinks, you’d swear it was hovering just above the mid 5% range. Either way this beer doesn’t wash down the throat like either of those as it slips easily beyond the tongue and tonsils (if you still have them), down the esophagus and into a waiting stomach. Tickling your nose isn’t the sensation of bubbles popping but the rich, almost candied essence of raisins toiling and rising with a very mild and light smoke. And now to look at the gentle fluid now occupying space in your vessel of choice. A gorgeous, deep ruby red hue briefly accompanied by a coarse, thin, light brown head that evaporates shortly after being poured. Open the hatch, over the gums, and bathe your tongue in liquid bliss, as the taste buds pull out sweet notes of the raisins your nose sniffed out, laced with a subtle, yet comfortable smokiness. The concept might sound a little weird at first, but I assure that this combination not only works, it’s downright delicious. For having such heavy flavors and notes, this is a beer that disappears from your glass and you’re left wondering where it all went and why it’s all gone. Don’t stand up. Allow me to repeat myself a little louder: DO. NOT. STAND. UP. Not only will you likely stumble if you’ve downed the bottle yourself (which I may or may not have done in this case), but you’ll ruin the cozy, warm feeling you’ve likely built up while reclining in your favor chair. Allow the rich flavor to linger and envelope you as you sink deeper into that recliner. Relax and let your mind wander. Oh for that last sorrowful dram of sweet release, how does it linger. A slow flavor evolution that ends with hints of milk chocolate. Odd? Yes, but given that raisins appear in the flavor profile, chocolate only bolsters the thickness of this flavor. This was well worth the wait, so perhaps I should be happy there was snow as I would have left this one to age even further. Prost!

My Untappd Score: ****-1/4
Global Rating: 4.21/5 (as of 12/17/2020)

PROST!

J.Doncevic

Hop Culture, a popular site that has organized brewfests and events like Beers With(out) Beards, Juicy Brews, and others, is a digital beer (craft beer) website, blog, and brand. Hop Culture LLC is based out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Next Glass is based out of Charlotte, North Carolina. Next Glass has a lot of different software, app, and other systems already in place, and the acquisition of Hop Culture adds to their growing list of websites, apps, and other beer and beverage related brands and products.

From the Forbes article about the acquisition: “Hop Culture founder and CEO Kenny Gould says the partnership will help Next Glass develop a suite of business tools — a “cohesive ecosystem,” if you will — to streamline experiences for consumers and provide operational efficiencies for businesses in the beverage alcohol space, from producers to wholesalers to retailers.”

In a long piece that Kenny Gould published to Hop Culture after the announcement, he stated: “But first — know that I’m not going anywhere. Neither is my team. Although they’re not regularly in the limelight, Hop Culture Managing Editor John A. Paradiso and Head of Partnerships Grace Weitz each played essential roles in Hop Culture’s growth and development, and we all plan to continue our work with the company in expanded roles.”

From the PRNewswire press release about the news: “The Hop Culture team has built an engaging and important platform with voices and events that resonate within the industry,” said Trace Smith, CEO of Next Glass. “We’re excited and proud to welcome a brand and team with values and a vision that so closely mirror our own.”

Founded in 2017 by journalist Kenny Gould, Hop Culture got its start promoting small, independent craft breweries via their Instagram and digital magazine. Over time, the company also grew to include a popular merchandise line and event series.

“Hop Culture couldn’t be more excited about this partnership,” said Gould. “At Next Glass, Trace and his team have put together the largest network of beer drinkers in the world, and we look forward to working with them to continue producing compelling content and world-class events.”

Untappd was founded on October 22nd, 2010 by Greg Avola. From wikipedia: “Untappd is a geosocial networking service and mobile phone application founded by Greg Avola and Tim Mather that allows its users to check in as they drink beers, and share these check-ins and their locations with their friends” As of 2017 it was estimated that Untappd had 9 Million Users and 125 Internal Employees.

Beer Advocate was founded in the early days of the internet (and craft beer) – in 1996 as a website for rating and cataloging beer. It along with Rate Beer (founded in 2000) were the pioneers for beer rating systems, until smart phone technology and apps paved the way for Untappd.

Gould: “Breweries (and other alcohol producers) operating a lot of different systems have to rely on disparate tools, and you start to see why that’s a problem when you look at scale, going forward, they’ll have one company and endless integration for a seamless back end experience.”

Gould claims that Hop Culture will keep its same journalism, with the same editors, and same workers (working from home currently) despite the buy-out. He states that it is a mutual buy-out that will offer Hop Culture and Next Glass much for the future. While Hop Culture gets to stay relatively its own thing, Next Glass gets out of the deal – is someone to oversee branding (both internal and client / external needs), a ready to go team that is already connected to the beer community (and with strong ties to a thriving craft beer scene in Pittsburgh), and a brand that has demonstrated success at hosting small, medium, and large scale events and festivals.

According to the Forbes article (under why the purchase was made in 2020): “Seven-year-old Next Glass has grown tremendously this year, from buying Hop Culture, Oznr and some of BeerAdvocate’s assets, to naming a new CEO, taking in investment from Providence Strategic Growth, and hiring its first consort of executives and managers.

Just as Gould gets excited talking about his newfound ability to draw on a far greater pool of resources than his four-year-old beer-magazine startup ever allowed, Next Glass CEO Trace Smith says the deal with Providence, which went through in March, gives his business the resources to do more in the future, including boosting its presence in Europe; recover from COVID losses; and launch initiatives to help the hospitality industry much sooner.      

“We certainly hope this is a temporary speed bump, and we understand that the economic conditions might be soft coming out of it,” Smith tells the Greater Wilmington Business Journal. “But that additional capital will help us regrow more quickly post-COVID-19 and will help us bring more (furloughed) team members back.” For his part, the 30-year-old Gould’s instincts haven’t led him astray. The Pittsburgh son and grandson of entrepreneurs started the Hop Culture website in 2017 as a way to highlight positive stories in the craft beer world. As Gould, who also works as a freelance writer and Forbes contributor, says, “I never set out to start a business. I set out to write about beer.”

Gould is hoping that with the purchase, Hop Culture can expand its efforts to be more inclusive in the beer community. With the goal of expanding Beer Kulture (black / African – American promotions), Beers With(out) Beards (women promotions), and starting a queer beer festival.

About Next Glass (from the PRNewswire Article): “Founded in 2013, Next Glass develops software and creates experiences that connect enthusiasts, retailers, and producers in the beverage alcohol industry. The Next Glass family of brands serves the unique and varied needs of the industry via multiple platforms. Its award-winning Untappd mobile application and BeerAdvocate website are used by millions of beer enthusiasts around the world and its menu publishing software tool, Untappd for Business, enables venues to streamline publication and promotion of their beer, wine, cocktail, and food menus while Oznr, the leader in direct to consumer technology for the craft beverage industry, partners with craft producers to manage their membership programs, can/bottle release pre-sales, and event ticketing. The Company’s recently-introduced Untappd Marketplace enables alcohol resellers to streamline ordering of beer, wine, and spirits from wholesalers and self-distributing breweries. The Company’s Live! division produces world class festivals and events for the Untappd and BeerAdvocate communities.”

Kenny Gould wrote a long article on his site, giving a history of Hop Culture, as well as telling why he sold to Next Glass. He details the early years, how they became a business, their first festivals (the first of which was in October 2017),

He goes on to discuss the ‘glory years’, and ‘turning the wheel’, and then goes into the search for his ‘future’ rather than just looking forward to the weekend. As he says in his article: “So I began my search. Luckily, I wasn’t under any sort of deadline. Over the past couple years, the team and I worked against the odds to build an awesome little engine that supported us, our projects, and a great team of freelancers. I could afford to be choosy. I could steward my baby toward a solution that offered the greatest potential for a continuation of the mission, practices, and values we found important.

At first, I thought about approaching venture capital. I gathered my materials and started the research to find a great partner. But before I could send my first email, a Forbes interview changed my life.

Back in 2018, during a Brewers Association dinner at the Union Square Café, I met a Forbes writer who told me her friend in the food and drink section was looking for new contributors. What the hell, I thought. I can always do some more writing. So I threw my name in the hat and started contributing a couple articles a month, mostly highlighting underrepresented voices in brewing and the beer industry.”

You can read more from Kenny Gould at his article on Hop Culture here: “The Next Chapter”.

From his article on Hop Culture, Gould says: “Additionally, thank you. The past four years have exceeded all expectations I had for an exciting life. And I’ve been moved and inspired by every single person I’ve met along the way. From brewers to distributors, from retailers to fans and everyone in between, I’m in your debt. This ride has been nothing short of incredible.

And the best part? We’re only getting started.”

And to think, says Gould, Hop Culture started as a “glorified blog. I was doing it because it was fun.” (This certainly sounds familiar…….. I think I’ve used this line often times when co-workers, friends, and family ask me how my silly ‘blog’ thing is going; I’m just doing it for fun.)

For more information on the purchase, you can check out the following links:

• Forbes: Untappd and Beer Advocate’s Parent Company Accelerates its Buying Spree with Purchase of Hop Culture
• PRNewswire.com: Next Glass Acquires Hop Culture
• Hop Culture: Kenny Gould: The Next Chapter, or Why I Sold Hop Culture
• WRAL Tech Wire: Wilmington’s Next Glass showing a taste for deals, with latest buy
• Craft Brewing Business: Next Glass adds excellent craft beer hub Hop Culture to its portfolio

You can check out some of our latest craft beer news, brewery news, and industry news here: “BREWERY / INDUSTRY NEWS”. Including our latest about the BREW – The Museum of Beer, which is set to have an online exhibit opening on December 15th (Tuesday), 2020. The Museum will eventually be open in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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!

Thank you everyone for reading. Any comments, questions, or anything you want to discuss at all, just leave a comment and I’ll make sure to get right back at ya. Love chatting with you guys about craft beer and breweries! Be sure to stay safe out there and keep supporting your small breweries and businesses, times are getting tough again, and all your support, no matter how little, can make the difference in a brewery staying open or shuttering their doors for good. Cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

For more information, you can check these references:
www.untappd.com
www.untappd.com/business
www.beeradvocate.com
www.oznr.com
www.untappd.tv
www.hopculture.com
www.instagram.com/hopculturemag

Be sure to check out our other articles on brewery openings:

• A Sneak Preview of Rubber Soul Brewing (Hummelstown)
• Midwest Coast Brewing Opens (Chicago)
• Rally Point – Cox Brewing Taproom Opens (Elizabethtown)
• Boneshire Brew Works to Open Second Taproom in Harrisburg (Harrisburg)
• Irv’s Pub Rebranded as Rotunda Brewing Pub (Hershey)
• Official BBQ (Pizza Boy Secondary Location) (Rutherford)
• The Grand Opening of Hemauer Brewing
• Pilger Ruh Brewing Needs Your Help (Pottsville)
• Highway Manor Brewing Co. (Camp Hill)
• Grand Opening: Rubber Soul Brewing Company (Hummelstown)
• Tap Room Opening: Howling Henry’s Brewery (Hummelstown)
• Little Fish Brewing Extending into Dayton
• Levity Brewing Expanding Taproom and Opening Second Location in Altoona
• BREW – The Museum of Beer

You can read about more brewery closures here:

• Stoudt’s Brewing Closing
• Crystal Ball Brewing Closes
• Voodoo Brewery Lancaster Closes
• Spigot Brewing Closes
• Full Pint Brewing Closes
• Night Shift Brewing Cancels Expansion
• Mikkeller Brewing NYC Closes Permanently

Amidst the chaos and craziness that was the Presidential Debate, Rubber Soul Brewing made their own waves, announcing last night around 8-9PM their grand opening date. In the town of Hummelstown as well as the Central PA area their announcement might have caused more chaos than was on stage at the Presidential Debate, and at least no one had to shout “OH SHUT UP MAN” or look like they were falling asleep either.

While out walking my dog despite the rain – and even walking past the Rubber Soul Brewery itself – on Facebook, Instagram, and their own website, Rubber Soul posted the official date for their grand opening.

Are you ready for it?

DRUM ROLL

The grand opening for Rubber Soul is set for 10.05.20. As per their Facebook post:

“10.5.20 [cheers emoji]”

Simple. Effective. And to the point. They did reply to some comments and elaborate, and posted their website to point out more information. As per their website, their hours will be as such:

• Monday: 6:30AM – 10:00PM
• Tuesday: 6:30AM – 10:00PM
• Wednesday: 6:30AM – 10:00PM
• Thursday: 6:30AM – 10:00PM
• Friday: 6:30AM – 11:00PM
• Saturday: 6:30AM – 11:00PM
• Sunday: 11:00AM – 9:00PM

They also posted their rules for entering the brewery and drinking and being there (due to COVID-19):

To keep our customers and sOul tribe safe and healthy, please read our general information below. We greatly appreciate your patience during this #COVIDTIME. 

• Masks are required unless you are seated at your table. 
• All orders are to be placed from your table by a Refueler (Rubber Soul Server).
• All onsite beer & alcohol orders require a food purchase.
• Please respect a 2 hour time limit during peak times.
• Seating is first come, first serve. 
• Do not move tables or seating as they are measured out for social distancing. 
• We are not filling growlers, only 32 oz. crowler cans at this time. 
• One hour before close we will go to pizzas only. 
• Children are welcome but must stay seated or in the accompaniment of an adult. 
• Please no pets. We love them but they make social distancing hard.
• Our water station is not available at this time. 
• *If you have experienced symptoms related to COVID-19 or have had exposure to COVID-19 in the past 14 days, please refrain from visiting.

You can check out their website for the latest on their food menu, their beers that will be on tap on their opening day, as well as some pictures. You can also read my article I did back in February detailing the brewery and its transition from former borough building / police station to brewery. A SNEAK PEAK AT THE NEW RUBBER SOUL BREWERY COMING TO HUMMELSTOWN, PA.

A few days ago, on the blog’s Facebook page I posted some pictures from a dog walk by the brewery, as well as their Untappd menu (screenshot). They have their brewery as a ‘verified venue’ on Untappd so you can keep track of their beer offerings, as well as use their website, which lists the following beers for their opening day:

• Soul Patch – Pilsner – Czech
• Fresh Dew – Pale Ale – American
• Humdinger – IPA – American
• Soul Searching #1 – IPA – American
• Garage Racer 2020 – IPA – American
• Awake My Soul – Porter – Coffee

If you have driven or walked by the Rubber Soul brewery the past week or so, you would see groups gathered inside, with the lights and televisions on. They were doing invite parties for different groups, preparing for their big opening, which will take place on Monday, October 5th, 2020.

From walking by it (quite often, as I love walking my dog through Hummelstown, and they are in between my parents and my house, as well as my friend Tony’s is only a few houses down from it through the back alley leading to Railroad Street), they did a tremendous and beautiful job on the building. I absolutely can’t wait to check it out inside, let alone drink the delicious beers.

Donovan Krebs, the brewer for the new Rubber Soul, has worked for some fine breweries in the past, including Levante Brewing, Neshaminy Brewing Co, and others.

His beers will be wonderful for the area and will be well sought after I am sure.

Be sure to check out the article to see the brewery inside and out and to read up on some of the things the brewery will offer: A Sneak Peak at Rubber Soul.

Be sure to check them out sometime Monday, October 5th, 2020. I will be there, thats for sure. I can’t wait to try out their delicious beers and wonderful food! Can’t wait to see you all there!

Be sure to check out our other articles on brewery openings:

• A Sneak Preview of Rubber Soul Brewing (Hummelstown)
• Midwest Coast Brewing Opens (Chicago)
• Grand Opening of Hemauer Brewing
• Rally Point – Cox Brewing Taproom Opens (Elizabethtown)
• Boneshire Brew Works to Open Second Taproom in Harrisburg (Harrisburg)
• Irv’s Pub Rebranded as Rotunda Brewing Pub (Hershey)
• Official BBQ (Pizza Boy Secondary Location) (Rutherford)
• Pilger Ruh Brewing Needs Your Help (Pottsville)
• Highway Manor Brewing Co. (Camp Hill)
• Grand Opening: Rubber Soul Brewing Company (Hummelstown)
• Tap Room Opening: Howling Henry’s Brewery (Hummelstown)

And check out our beer review of the Tattered Soul collaboration beer between Tattered Flag and Rubber Soul Brewing:

• Beer Review: Tattered Soul

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! Can’t wait to enjoy a beer together at Rubber Soul!

-B. Kline

Clicking next, our first page of the module is a text page overview of the module. Beer stability can be divided into six different types:

• Colloidal stability
• Microbiological stability
• Flavor stability
• Foam stability
• Light stability
• Gushing

Up next is a “do-it-yourself” experiment about beer aging. The page walks you through doing the experiment, what ingredients you need, what to do, how to do it, etc. The next page after this is the discussion page for the experiment where you can discuss your results, thoughts, questions, etc.

After this we have a rather long page of definition and types for colloidal stability.

• Clarity – it is an important characteristic for beer, especially lagers; like pilsners.
• Turbidity – (caused by haze) you can observe this when particles are deflected by the light in or through beer. Lower transparency. “This is measured using nephelometers, specialised instruments for measuring the concentration of suspended particulates using light scattering. Turbidity is mostly expressed in EBC-units. For a freshly filtered beer, this value should be close to or lower than 0.8 units although beer color can interfere with the measurement (darker beers have a higher baseline).” (EdX: The Science of Beer Brewing. Module Nine.)
• Colloidal haze – is often formed during conditioning and cold fermentation. It is typically (and hopefully) removed during clarification and filtration.

“The most commonly found beer compounds in haze are proteins/polypeptides (smaller proteins, mostly degradation products) and polyphenols but also polysaccharides, metal ions, hop resins, and melanoidins have been found as constituents of haze.” (EdX: The Science of Beer Brewing. Module Nine.)

There is three types of (bad) haze: chill haze, permanent haze, and starch haze.

Our next page (still under colloidal stability) is all about haze formation. “Haze is the result of (weak) reversible (for chill haze) and irreversible (for permanent haze) interactions between proteins/polypeptides and polyphenols. For chill haze, these reversible interactions can be ionic and hydrophobic interactions or hydrogen bonding. In permanent haze, a covalent attachment between polymerized polyphenols and phenolic residues of amino acids in the polypeptides are the basis for haze formation.” (EdX: The Science of Beer Brewing. Module Nine.) This page is full of diagrams of the various polyphenols and other compounds that make a beer hazy. The figures are both black and white and grey-scaled and show the molecular breakdown.

The following page is a text page titled – Factors influencing haze formation (still under colloidal stability). This page describes the ‘possible’ factors that induce haze in colloidal stability, with the final possibility being the most ‘agreed upon’ by scientists. “…existing polyphenols first need to be activated by oxidation before they can react and develop haze. Due the detrimental role that oxygen plays in colloidal stability, mechanism 2 for the initiation for haze formation is nowadays most plausible and accepted by scientists.” (EdX: The Science of Beer Brewing. Module Nine.)

The rest of the page is a large chart broken into two categories: factors and how / roles. Listing the different factors of haze and how they appear. There is eight factors: light, storage temperature above 4 degrees (C), pasteurization, movement of the beer, pH, oxidation in presence of O2, metal ions (copper, iron, etc.), and carbohydrates.

Following this page, is another lengthy text page – colloidal stabilization. “Given that the primary cause of colloidal beer haze is the formation of protein-polyphenol complexes, several procedures to retard and/or prevent haze formation during beer storage have been developed and implemented.” (EdX: The Science of Beer Brewing. Module Nine.) There are some measures to reduce this. Use of raw materials (malt and hops) low in proline-rich proteins and polyphenols, low protein grain, use of hop extracts, forced formation of protein-polyphenol complexes during mashing and retention of these complexes during mash filtration, mashing in at low pH (5.2), low sparge rates, acidified sparging water, coagulation of haze-sensitive proteins and the formation of protein-polyphenols complexes during wort boiling.

“The most important measure for haze prevention of course is to avoid the presence of small particles in the final beer. These particles are responsible for invisible pseudo-haze but are also nucleation sites for further haze formation. This is why it is important to minimise the load on the filter by proper brewing operation (as highlighted above) and to apply a proper filtration regime (see module 8). Specifically for colloidal stability, it is important to focus on lowest possible temperature, minimum oxygen pick-up and correct filter aid during filtration.” (EdX: The Science of Beer Brewing. Module Nine.)

After this page is a ‘quick knowledge check’. The first question is a drop-and-drag question, the second is a multiple choice (choose as many as apply), and the final question is a true or false.

We now move onto microbiological stability. The first page of this segment is ‘factors influencing microbiological stability’. Some yeasts and bacteria are able to contaminate beer, able to grow in beer, and through this it can destabilize beer. Beer is considered a microbiological stable beverage. The parameters for this stability are:

• ethanol content – up to 10%
• carbon dioxide content – 0.5% w/v
• low pH – 3.8pH – 4.7pH
• iso-alpha acids – 15-100 ppm
• reduced availability of nutrients
• low oxygen content – below 0.1 ppm

Some things to prevent microbiological instability are:

• wort boil / heat treatment in the final container (pasteurization / sterile filtration)
• aggressive sanitation procedures
• no spontaneous fermentation or open fermentation vessels

The next page is ‘spoilage microorganisms’. “All raw materials such as malt, hops, water and adjuncts carry their own specific microorganisms. If these microorganisms can proliferate during one of the brewing steps, they can produce metabolites causing off-flavors. In case these microorganisms survive all the steps in the brewing process (including pasteurisation when applied), they might end up in the final packaged beer as contaminants and potential spoilage microorganisms. The yeast used for fermentation can also be source of contamination since it has been observed that pitching yeast can be contaminated with low levels of bacteria and wild yeasts. Proper yeast handling in the brewery is necessary to avoid any contamination (check out module 7 again for more details on yeast handling in the brewery, including acid washing of cropped yeast). Another important source for contaminations is the brewhouse equipment (vessels, piping) if they are not properly cleaned and maintained. Until the package is closed or sealed, the final steps of the brewing process (after fermentation) can also be prone to contamination from airborne microorganisms or microorganisms on the filling equipment (microbial growth due to high humidity).” (EdX: The Science of Beer Brewing. Module Nine.) Following this introduction paragraph is a figure that lists some of the most common spoilage microorganisms at a brewery or in a beer. Contaminating bacteria in beer are typically lactic acid but occasionally also anaerobic bacteria. After this is a pull-down chart to learn more about the common microorganisms. (Lactic acid bacteria, fungi, wild yeast, etc.)

Our next page is dedicated to cleaning and sanitization. If you talk to any brewer, or home brewer, one of the things they repeat over and over and over and over is – clean, clean, clean, clean, clean. When asked what they do most as brewers, its often they’ll say something like “cleaning” in that sad, half-joking, not really joking kind of way, and they’ll look distant, mumble something and wander off. (Believe me, I’ve seen that look many times!)

A list of potential contaminations in beer:

• remainders of (old) beer
• microbiological contamination (bacteria, fungi, yeast)
• hop remnants
• calciumoxalate in fermentation and lagering tanks (beer stone, beer scale; can be removed using acids)
• lipids-proteins
• mineral deposits in water circuits

NOTE: Remember the difference between CLEANING AGENTS and DISINFECTING AGENTS. Cleaning agents remove product residues or deposits like lipids or proteins. Disinfecting agents kill off most microbiological contaminates.

Clicking next, we come to an expert clip by Professor Charlie Bamforth. It is 10 minutes and 10 seconds long. In Bamforth’s own words: “So, what I like to talk to you about is flavor stability, freshness,which is probably the biggest technological challenge facing the brewer today.” This is a great clip, he is funny, witter, and very intelligent, and speaks about the freshness, and discusses many topics. He does say that cans are greater than bottles. He gives a lot of information, but his biggest thing is keeping beer cold. (Talk to any good beer distributor, or bottle shop worker, like Breski’s Beverage, or The Fridge, etc, and they will all agree with that as well.) Under his clip is a chart of temperatures and shelf life. 10(c) = 9 months (expected shelf life). 20(c) = 100 days / 3 months. 30(c) = 1 month. 40(c) = 10 days. So that gives you some kind of idea about how important keeping beer cold is.

Moving on, our next page is the introduction page for the next segment – flavor stability. “

Flavor stability is one of the most challenging parameters to achieve. The flavor of a beer will always change over time and hence it is perhaps better  to speak of flavor instability instead of stability. Sometimes other terms are used to refer to flavor (in-)stability: in literature also beer ageing or staling are used to describe the changes in beer flavor that occur during (long-term) storage. Any change in aroma or taste compared to the fresh beer can be considered as flavor instability. Especially for exported beers, the time till consumption can be very long, increasing the changes for ageing. But why can’t an aged beer be preferred over a young beer, just like is now the case for most wines? Well, you literally got a taste of why this isn’t the case when you performed the Do-It-Yourself experiment at the start of this module! In beers, ageing results in the formation of undesirable (off-)flavors. The formation of these aged-dependent flavors varies from one beer style to another. Lager beers are for example very prone to flavor instability.” (EdX: The Science of Beer Brewing. Module Nine.)

Some results of beer aging:

• decrease of bitterness
• decrease of fruity aromas
• increase in sweet taste
• increase in caramel, ribes (black currant), and toffee like aromas
• increase in cardboard like flavors

This is just a generalization, and certain complexities change differently. Craft breweries in America (and Europe, and elsewhere in the world in recent years) are starting to produce certain beers purposefully for aging, a lot of barrel aged beers already lend themselves to being bottle aged in a cellar.

The next page is a text page about important molecules. This is a rather long page full of chemical and molecule diagrams, as well as a large chart at the end of the page. A very science heavy page with the diagrams and figures and charts. But full of important information, so make sure to read over it. (It also does have an extensive paragraph of information as well.)

Another long page – reactions involved in beer instability, follows this. The page even begins with a warning describing how this is a very long unit and will require sufficient time reading over it all. “Carbonyls and mainly staling aldehydes, such as the key staling component E-2-nonenal, are important flavors that occur during beer ageing. Fresh beer contains rather low levels of these aldehydes (mostly below their flavor thresholds), but their concentrations increase during long-term beer storage. Some of these carbonyl compounds are directly responsible for the observed off-flavors as their concentration increases above the odor threshold (e.g. E-2-nonenal), while other carbonyl compounds might also increase in concentration during ageing but stay below their respective threshold for detection.” (EdX: The Science of Beer Brewing. Module Nine.)

Factors influencing flavor stability:

• oxygen
• transition metals
• temperature
• sulfite
• heat load
• vibrations

After all this, we come up to another ‘quick knowledge check’. (I love the fancy name for ‘quiz’ or ‘test’.) It’s one drop-and-drag question, followed by four checkbox questions (multiple options, select all of the best that apply).

Moving on, we start the next segment of the module – foam stability. The first page of this segment is definition and formation.

Definition – “Foam is an important criterion for beer quality since the consumer will judge a beer also with his/her eyes. Foam is differently evaluated in for example Germany and most European countries in comparison to England/UK:  British consumers don’t like a beer head (expect for Guinness); in fact the less head, the better while Germans like a thick layer of foam. The foam potential of a beer is determined both by the raw materials and brewing process and is a complex interaction between different beer constituents. Foam quality is a evaluation of two parameters: foamability (volume) and stability. Another important visual effect from the foam is the adherence to the side of the glass called cling or lacing.” (EdX: The Science of Beer Brewing. Module Nine.)

Foam Formation – “Beer is a colloidal mixture of supersaturated CO₂ in the liquid beer matrix. As gas is hydrophobic, it rather sticks together than be fully dissolved in the liquid. These areas with high gas concentrations are bubbles. When beer is opened and poured in a glass, foam is formed as a result of the release of CO₂ bubbles due to pressure reduction. CO₂ bubbles occur at condensation or nucleation sites (e.g. impurities, cracks in the glass material or small particles). As they rise, they will attract surface-active molecules, with low surface tension but high hydrophobicity (e.g. proteins or iso-alpha acids). As such these molecules will form a layer around the gas bubble and will stabilise the bubble in the liquid beer matrix. The amount of dissolved CO₂ determines the amount of foam formation, while the surface-active molecules determine the foam stability. In sparkling water, the dissolved CO₂ content is also high but due to the lack of surface-active molecules, bubbles will rise but they will not form foam at the liquid surface as the bubbles will immediately collapse due to the surface tension.” (EdX: The Science of Beer Brewing. Module Nine.)

Foam Stability – “After bubble formation, drainage of beer from the foam by gravity will occur and the bubbles start to shrink and collapse. The rate of drainage can be reduced by creating a small bubble size (gentle pouring to create a creamy head) and the amount of hydrophobic interactions (determined by the amount and type of surface-active molecules). Beer foam will slowly decay due to the collapse of bubbles mainly due to an effect called disproportionation. Disproportionation is the moving of a gas from a small bubble to a larger bubble. This causes the small bubble to collapse and the larger bubble to increase in size. Too large bubbles in the foam are undesirable. These large bubbles also burst more quickly due to an even higher surface tension, causing the surface-active molecules to flow back into the liquid. As a result foam becomes more solidified especially in the upper layer (due to CO₂ diffusion to the air at a reasonable rate).” (EdX: The Science of Beer Brewing. Module Nine.)

Clicking next, the following page again comes with the ‘time warning’ letting you know its going to be a long unit. (Seems to be a trend with this module, several pages now have had this warning; lots of charts with pull-down tabs and lots more ‘hidden’ information.) This page is titled ‘molecules positively affecting beer foam’. Some molecules that contribute to beer foam are: CO2, proteins / polypeptides, hop bitter acids, carbohydrates, mailiard reaction products, and metal ions. There is a pull-down chart for you to click on each of these headings and read more. (I recommend doing so because this is typically where the quiz questions come from.)

Next page is the opposite of the last; its ‘molecules negatively affecting beer foam’. There are two big factors – alcohol and lipids. Alcohol: “The presence of ethanol should positively influence foam stability due to the increased viscosity of water by the presence of ethanol. However, experimental evidence points towards an opposite effect: foam stability decreases with increasing ethanol concentration, probably due to an ethanol-induced reduction of the rigidity of the surface-active molecule layer. Higher alcohols are also negative for foam stability: the chain length of the alcohol is direct proportional with the degree of impact on the foam.” (EdX: The Science of Beer Brewing. Module Nine.) Lipids: “Lipids also destabilise beer foam (see figure below) and the negative effect increases with length of the hydrophobic chain. Also detergents have a detrimental effect on beer foam stability. Both components are mostly remainders of inadequately cleaned glasses.” (EdX: The Science of Beer Brewing. Module Nine.) This is followed by a chart. There is a smaller, third factor: Protenaise A. “Proteinase A of yeast is an enzyme that degrades proteins. Therefore it is a negative factor for foam stability as it also degrades hydrophobic proteins and polypeptides that are the major constituents of foam and contributors for foam stability. The amount of proteinase A secreted by the yeast highly depends on the yeast health: stressed yeast (e.g. old yeast or poor yeast handling) will produce more proteinase A. Therefore, high gravity fermentations are more prone to poor foam stability: both the decrease in hydrophobic proteins due to dilution and the stress on yeast during fermentation will negatively affect foam formation and stability.” (EdX: The Science of Beer Brewing. Module Nine.)

Moving onwards, we come to ‘factors in the brewing process affecting foam | foam stability’. These factors are: barley, malting, wort production, hop acid utilization, fermentation and maturation, and pasteurization.

Shocking – after this segment, we have a closing quiz, err – I mean – quick knowledge check. (Just like all the past segments of this module.) This time its three check-box questions (multiple picks, pick all that apply).

The next segment is light stability. And we start off with formation of lightstruck off-flavor. Beer is extremely sensitive to light; which is primarily why bottles are brown-glass rather than the light green-glass you see for Heineken or clear-class like Corona or Landshark. (Also shows why they sometimes get ‘skunked’, and also shows the quality of these beers in general.) This page has chemical diagrams showing how the light affects the beer.

There are measures to minimize light and how it affects beer. Some of them are:

• brown / amber glass bottles
• glass thickness
• a coating or sleeve on the outside of green-glass bottles
• reduced iso-alpha acids
• elimination of riboflavin

Time for the next segment – this one sounds like a doozy – ‘gushing’. As with the other segments, our first page is a definitions and terms (or types) text page.

Gushing – “Gushing is generally defined as uncontrolled, often intense over-foaming of a bottle upon opening, without previous shaking or any other agitation. This over-foaming can cause losses of up to 30% of the beer in a bottle. For breweries, apart from the obvious economic loss, beer gushing also causes reputational damage – nobody wants to be soaked in their favorite beer when opening a bottle! Just have a look at the video below to get an idea about how bad this gushing can sometimes be.” (EdX: The Science of Beer Brewing. Module Nine.)

There are two types of gushing – primary gushing and secondary gushing. Primary gushing is caused by the presence of small fungal surface-active proteins. Secondary gushing is caused by CO2 oversaturation, the presence of suspended particles, and course inner surface bottle texture. There is a small clip of a bottle being opened and gushing up; something I’m sure most of us craft beer fans have encountered before. Most likely due to ‘secondary fermenting’ from a sour. The Black & Blue Tastee I had from The Veil Brewing Co was a ‘gusher’. (I’ve had numerous others over the year, just using this particular one as an example here; primarily because I have done a review on it before.)

Next page is factors affecting primary gushing. The page discusses the fungal causes to primary gushing. The most common fungal cause is Fusarium fungi. The page goes on to discuss detection of gushing potential and reduction of primary gushing.

After this is a text page on secondary gushing. Changing of temperatures, refermenting, continuing fermentation, and outright overheated of bottles / cans / beer can result in a secondary gushing. Too much active sugars usually causes the refermentation and continual fermentation that results in certain fruited beers gushing.

The next page is for verified track learners only. Its tips on improving stability. The next page after this is a materials collection page, telling you what to collect for the do-it-yourself project (experiment) upcoming in Module Ten. After this is the typical ‘overview and checks’ end of the module page. Then we have an assessment page for verified track learners. (These are larger, counted and graded tests for those getting a certificate. Unlike myself, who is not, if you are paying the 99.99$ for the certificate, you can do these tests and other pages.)

The last two pages of the module are a feedback and questions (ending discussion page), and then the ‘end of module nine’ page. Congratulations we have finished another module! If you hit the next button it will take you to the Intro page for Module Ten, and that is where we will pick up next time! Can’t wait to see you then!

Cheers everyone, and I really hope you are all enjoying this ‘beer education’ series. Please let me know!

(PS: Today is my daughter’s birthday; Lily turns 11.)

Also, tomorrow is a double-canning day at Tattered Flag. Look to read about that afterwards! Cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

The Beer Education Series:
** EdX: The Science of Beer Brewing
* Beer Education: Series
* Beer Education: Syllabus
* Beer Education: Introduction
* Beer Education: Module One: The History of Beer Brewing
* Beer Education: Module Two: Barley and Malting
* Beer Education: Module Three: Water
* Beer Education: Module Four: Hops and Spices
* Beer Education: Module Five: Yeast
* Beer Education: Module Six: The Steps of the Brewing Process
* Beer Education: Module Seven: Fermentation and Maturation
* Beer Education: Module Eight: Filtration and Packaging
* Beer Education: Module Nine: Beer Quality and Stability
* Beer Education: Module Ten: Beer Assessment and Tasting
* Beer Education: Series Overview

It was one year ago, while sitting on my porch, looking over at this arbor, that I started up the blog. Not when I decided to start it – but when I actually did it. When I picked the blog name, when I setup the WordPress site, and when I did all the site work, creating it, building it, etc. I didn’t start it preloaded with articles like some (like some smarter writers / bloggers), and it was a long time probably overdue, but I started it, and made a main page. Started a Archive page, and with it sunny, and with a can of a brand new beer I hadn’t had before (from my shift manager at work – J. M. ) I wrote my first beer review for the site / blog.

The picture above was taken a month or two later during a rainstorm while sitting on the same side-porch swing overlooking the same arbor; which is growing Centennial, Cascade, and Chinook hops by the way; but those hops, not exactly those hops, but hops in general, is part of what led to this all. Its a much longer story than just one year, and probably a lot more convoluted than necessary. Meandering one might even say (just like my writing style tends to be, from what I’ve been told). But basically what I’m getting to (or alluding to), is that hops, and craft beer in particular, is what has led to this blog.

I’ve always been a writer, as far back as I can remember; always a reader and always a writer. (You pretty much can’t be the one without the other to some degree.) In fifth grade I wrote a short story that won a few prizes and was recognized by our governor at the time (Tom Ridge). I won’t say when I started drinking, but I will say my first ‘craft beer’ was Sam Adams. Original Boston Lager Sam Adams. When my friends were getting Budweiser or Bud Lite or Miller Lite or Coors Lite, I was ‘that guy’ who was drinking Sams.

This segued into me finding Troegs and getting into them, especially due to them being so local (first on Paxton Street in Harrisburg and then on Hersheypark Drive in Hershey; basically them starting just to the West of me and then moving just to the East of me). Fast forward a few years and me getting very heavily into craft beer, finding new breweries, trying new styles, and types, and discovering all that there is to know about beer. Fast forward to me helping out at breweries, learning to home brew, going to brewfests, taking some BJCP classes, reading blogs and watching YouTube videos, webinars, and in person seminars. Needless to say – its been a long time in coming in me writing and starting this blog.

As is typical with me, I start a bit behind the curve, where many others had been doing blogs, podcasts, and YouTube videos for years, I get in after the wave pretty much crests. So, something I should have done a few years ago (say 2012 or 2013) here I am, in 2020, having started in 2019. Not a bad thing, and not a problem.

But enough about me, lets talk about the blog itself. Its the blog’s One-Year Anniversary today; not mine. (If you are reading this, you care much more about the blog than myself anyway.) So, one year ago today, the blog itself started. Started with the main page, and a four-pack of beers my co-worker gave me that I decided to use to start beer reviewing. Just like doing an Untappd review, but upped in scale and scope and size. My first few reviews were crude, rather short, and probably not as entertaining as they are now (if they are considered entertaining now). I started off with: Scratch 375 – CocoNator by Troegs Independent Craft Brewing. After that was Painting with Light by South County Brewing; followed by the first beer I did a review of that I had worked on (canning) – a collaboration with Tattered Flag and the soon to be opened Wolf Brewing: Boulangerie Stout. (You also get to see my faithful companion for at home drinking; and occasional breweries – Leela, my border collie who will turn 11 this December.)

Over the year there’s been a lot of ups and downs, in life, as well as on the blog. Stressful at times writing, and finding an audience, and getting people to see or read, I wouldn’t change it, and honestly can say its been 99.999999% fun. Very few times has there been ‘issues’ or problems, and its more on my end of frustrations with writing and basically struggling to write at times. Even something so simple as this blog can be daunting to write at times, getting the energy to do it after work (or before work), and with kids, etc. Over the past year has seen me branch out from just doing beer reviews to also doing brewery reviews, to discussing my trips to the Kinzua Bridge area and to Pittsburgh with my daughters, as well as all manner of things like brewfests, canning for Tattered Flag, growing my hops, etc.

Volunteering for Tattered Flag and helping them can has been great fun, and very informative, and has helped me learn a lot about the brewery industry and beer, and brewing. Seeing brewers come and go through Tattered Flag and learning bits and pieces from all of them.

As well as visiting and traveling to many different breweries, not just in Pennsylvania, but also in Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey. Reminds me of my sister’s wedding where the reception went to four different breweries and a cidery as a ‘brew-tour’ in the Rochester area. Getting to do the brewery tour and listen to the head brewers at Three Heads Brewing was great fun and informative as well.

Getting to see a great brewery pop up basically right in my backyard (Boneshire Brew Works) and watching them grow as also been great. Getting to meet Alan, Carson, and Alex, and talk to them a lot, and then meet a ton of great people at the brewery; like Karl Larson, Josh Doncevic, Owen, Jason Millar, Kirby, and so many more people I can’t even begin to list or this blog post will just look like a list of names.

Becoming a regular (well, technically I was long before the blog, but just saying) at Boneshire Brew Works, Troegs Brewery, and Tattered Flag, I’ve gotten to meet so many great people, and get to pick the brains of so many top brewers in the area. All of which has definitely helped the blog here (hopefully, something you can tell, and hopefully something that does help and add to the blog).

I always envisioned this blog as being a big giant web of things; but all beer and brewery related. Articles on beer reviews, brewery reviews, articles on home brewing, on hop growing, on BJCP judging, articles about various brewfests or beer events, book reviews of beer or brewing books and textbooks, articles from ‘insiders’ working in the beer industry, those brewing, or serving you the beer, those from home brewers who know how to brew some amazing beers on small 1 to 5 gallon systems. From hop growers (like myself) who can tell you what you need to do to grow hops. Just a whole slew of things. And I think I have succeeded in that to some degree. Not quite the massive diversification and a ton of articles about the various aspects as I had planned; but some.

Interestingly enough, this is (ironically perhaps?) the 200th blog post of the blog, as well as the Anniversary blog posting. I have done a few other recap blog posts for people over the year, like my November Recap, or my End of 2019 Recap, or the Best of 2019 Article. I have to say, I can’t believe how this has grown, how big this blog has gotten, how well it has done, and how many talented people have graced the digital web of this humble blog.

Over the year, I have had several people writing for me. Josh Doncevic (J. Doncevic) has written several beer reviews and articles for us, and he is an amazing guy with a wealth of insight on beer reviews, breweries, and he regularly helps out at Rotunda Brewing as well as Boneshire Brew Works, and is just a fantastic guy to hang out with. AJ Brechbiel has also written a few articles about home brewing and stuff and his brew-club Default Brewing. With everything going on, and getting to work for Rough Edges Brewing, his time has sadly become limited, but hopefully (fingers, toes, nostrils crossed) we will get to see some more writings from him. Recently, I have also been graced with two friends who have also taken up writing for the blog – Andy Parys (A. Parys) and Karl Larson (ihackbeer). Both great guys who can write well, know their stuff. Karl Larson brings a massive wealth of knowledge to the blog, having won more awards for home brewing than I can count, as well as brewing commercially for Boneshire Brew Works and now for Newfangled Brew Works. The man is a walking encyclopedia; just try him sometime.

At the bottom of all of the posts and pages here on The Beer Thrillers you can see a list of the most recent articles from each writer under their name. From AJ to Josh, to Karl, to myself, to Andy, you can see all of our most recent articles, as well as the recent tweets from our Twitter page.

Which brings me to another thing about the blog – all the side stuff. Over the year, to help with the blog, I’ve begun to learn ‘social media’. Which is nowhere near as easy as you would think or sounds. The Beer Thrillers now has a Facebook, a Twitter, and an Instagram page that I regularly keep up with. (In descending order of how often I post to them.) As of 5.17.20, we currently have 562 likes and 593 followers on Facebook, 162 followers on Twitter, and 113 followers on Instagram.

Likewise with the side stuff, I have begun podcasting with my good friends that I’ve known since 5th grade – D. Scott, Dan Arndt, Esteban, and a host of other random people who pass through the garage and basement we broadcast from (including A. Parys). I am featured on several podcasts as well as commentary tracks. You can check out the Podcast at: So A Mexican and a Scott Walk Into a Bar….. I have also been featured on a call-in podcast all about beer: Beer with Strangers. My particular podcast episode is – A Beer Thriller in Hershey.

Back in February and March of this year (before the ‘dark times’, before the Empire, before COVID-19), things really were looking up for the blog here. I was featured on the above mentioned podcast. I was invited out to Extol to do an in-person beer podcast. Me and Josh visited Mellow Mink for a behind the scenes tour of the brewery. I was invited to visit the new (future home) Rubber Soul Brewery which will be opening in Hummelstown. There, I toured the facility with Jaime (head of marketing for the new Rubber Soul) and got to take visits and get A Sneak Peak of Rubber Soul. I met a representative from Visit Hershey & Harrisburg PA at the Hershey Tattered Flag location, where we discussed numerous upcoming projects and got press credentials for myself and my ‘team’ of writers. Also, in recent months, Let Us Drink Beer blog has been guest writing an article as well for us, about once a month about the Georgia beer scene, and I’ve been writing a blog entry for them about the Hershey-Harrisburg beer scene.

I have also written a rather lengthy piece back in September for Breweries in PA – which you can find both on their blog site and my blog as well. Breweries in PA – Touring the Harrisburg Area Breweries. My entry: Touring the Breweries that Surround the Harrisburg Area.

Unfortunately then, middle of March saw the coronavirus / COVID-19 really enter the American landscape, and by end of March, I’m on furlough from my job, and the brewery industry upended. Not just the brewery industry, but the restaurant industry, as well as the entertainment industry (that I work in) – which includes event planning, event type things like fests, casinos, resorts, tourist attractions, etc; all got hit hard by the disease and the restrictions placed to help maintain and safeguard the disease. The last few months have certainly been a very tough time for all; not just in the industry. With the pandemic affecting so many, and costing many lives, as well as affecting so many people’s jobs, incomes, and families in various ways, this has certainly been a troubling and trying time. No different for my blog. I like to think I have been lucky; my blog isn’t the biggest deal, its not even my job or sole source of income; this is more for fun than anything else. I still have my health, my home, and my family’s health. Times could be a lot harder for myself. So I am truly fortunate there. But, the blog has been hindered by this world-wide pandemic all the same. Things I would have been doing by now (AC Brewfest, Harrisburg Beer Week, Little Big Beerfest, RenFaire Brewfest at Mount Hope, amongst numerous other events, and happenings) have all been sidelined or postponed. Some outright cancelled. Some breweries have closed and expansions cancelled (Stoudt’s, Full Pint, Crystal Ball, Night Shift), while there has also been some good news – like Hemauer’s Opening. This has certainly been troubling times indeed. But we will get through, I know of that. Humans are resilient, we’re tough to kill, we’re hardy, we’re tenacious, and we love our beer. We will survive, prosper, and come back. This I am sure of.

On the more – amusing side of things, my friend D. Scott has started a gaming live-stream page on Facebook that I have guest-starred on a few occasions. You can check it out at Knights of Nostalgia. We play mostly old school NES, SNES, and similar video games. Please check it out, give a like, follow, and check out some of our live-streams.

I am hoping that everyone has been enjoying the blog. That you’ve all have found something of interest, read something you have liked, or have enjoyed your time reading and viewing the blog. Perhaps you have found a beer review interesting, or a brewery review interesting. Or found one of my other entries entertaining, possibly even chuckling at something. I hope I have brightened at least every reader’s day a bit, or informed, or educated, or made your day better in some way by checking out this blog.

I am looking forward to a wonderful second year. With the blog expanding even moreso. With new series and features, new types of articles, more podcasts, perhaps even solo beer related podcasts, or even just beer only related podcasts. Possibly YouTube videos. I will soon be wrapping up the Beer Education Series, which I’ve hoped everyone who has been following along with me has found informative as well as entertaining (and perhaps even educational?). I am looking forward to doing more things like this. More book reviews. More beerfest events (once the current climate changes).

Please, as always, if you have enjoyed the blog, give me a like, click the follow, sign up for the emails, and even more importantly, talk to me, let me know in the comments section, or if you rather stay private – contact me through the CONTACT US page. I love hearing from you, all of you, all of our readers. Tell me what I screwed up. Let me know where I was wrong. Tell me how I’m an idiot. That the beer I liked was actually bad, etc. Or, hey, maybe even a bit of praise? Sure, why not, never hurt the ego to hear something good right? Just leave a comment. Love hearing from all of you. It is really, honestly, so great to hear from everyone. I really truly do enjoy it, and it helps at least brighten my day even a smidge, to see a new like, or comment or a new subscriber, so don’t be shy.

I just want to close this article by saying how thankful I am for everyone. For every person that has clicked on any of my articles, who has read even a single word of any of my pages, who have clicked the like, followed us, commented on one of the articles, or in any small way supported this page and blog by forwarding or sharing posts or entries or articles or whatever you have done. I cannot say this enough, I cannot express it enough, THANK YOU. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you x1000000000 infinitum. Thank you. It really means the world to me and my fellow writers, for everything that you have all done. I appreciate it more than I can describe. Thank you so much once again.

Thank you for visiting, I just want to give you our homepage link one last time for you to click and bookmark: The Beer Thrillers Homepage.

Cheers everyone. Thanks for making this a fun, fantastic, great year writing for all of you. Please, click the like, follow us, subscribe to us, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And most importantly, cheers, enjoy a good craft beer or home brew for us. Support your local small breweries struggling during these unprecedented and difficult times. Stay healthy, stay happy, and please come back again. Cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

We are in that weird time of the year where… time doesn’t really exist. The between Christmas and New Years weirdness, where you want to try and get so many things done before the end of the year to claim it all in 2019, and then also want to save some things to get done starting in 2020 so you feel like your getting a jump start on the new year. A time when some people are starting to write down New Years resolutions (not this guy) and a lot of people have off the whole week (again, not this guy). Kids are out of school. Chaos reigns supreme. Nobody knows if its AM or PM, if its coffee, bloody mary, or tequila time.

So in this weird time…. I wanted to get this beer review out yesterday…. but…. time…. so elusive…. so ungrappable. (I think thats a word. If not, it should be.) But, then again, working in the casino and service industry, time is an illusion to me to begin with. With days off during the week, Thursday – Friday, soon to be Wednesday – Thursday, and time starts that can be anywhere from 10AM to 2PM and work goes til 6PM or 10PM time is all… very nebulous. And yesterday, became a total “non-time”. Me and my friend Drew started our adventures at Boneshire Brew Works, where we met up, then drove to The Vegetable Hunter, then to The Millworks, stopped at Sturgis Speakeasy, then over to ZeroDay to end the day, then back to Boneshire Brew Works so he could get his car back. So basically an entire blur of a day. Was deciding where all to hit, and we basically hit places we’ve all been to before, rather than venturing out too far. I had wanted to go down to Carlisle and hit up Molly Pitcher and some others, but we decided to stay closer to home base.

My morning was at least productive, I finished up the blog post on Sap (by Tree House Brewing), finished reading a book with my youngest daughter (Cutiecorns….. the excitement is real), and took the dog for a walk. Read some of the books I’ve been reading (Thrawn: Treason, and How To Make a Nerdy Living); so it was at least productive before spending my day boozing away with friends.

But I know how this goes…. you all really don’t care about the details, or my recent travels (that will probably be a post for another day), what you want to read…. is the beer review. So lets get to it then right?

Beer: Autumn
Brewery: Tree House Brewing Company
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double
ABV: 8.2%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: Autumn is a fresh entry in the continuing evolution of Tree House’s seasonal efforts. Inspired by the vibrant sensory experience associated with hop harvest in Australia, and harkening back to extraordinary memories of the Tasmanian countryside, Autumn utilizes carefully selected Galaxy hops atop a heavily oated base beer. The result is chewy hop nirvana. It has the power to instantly transport you to a place of natural wilderness, pristine air, and awe from which these delightful hops originate. We invite you to use it as a vehicle to reflect, give thanks, and revel in the company of friends this Autumn.

This leads to one of my favorite beer reviews I just saw when opening this up on Untappd:
Andrew S.: It’s pretty inoffensive. Solid ipa. If you want to throw up, read the description of this beer. (10 hours ago, from the time of this writing). (No cap rating.)

And ya know, I guess that sums this up pretty well. Its solid. Its inoffensive. But maybe the write-up is “too much” …? I dunno. I will say, first initial impression was that this was a “bit too green”, which, Dan Arndt, the one who gifted me these Tree House beers, felt the opposite, thinking this was better than Sap and that Sap was too green. Just goes to show you how everyone’s palates are and how differing opinions can be.

Cracking this can open, even with the food already on the table, there was an immediate aroma of hop. This is a cornucopia of hop and a wallop of it, you get a ton of varying hop notes in this and its all very much. You definitely get the New Zealand / Australia style hop smell right up and very powerful. Sniffing from a glass, its very overpowering. You get notes of floral, citrus, and a little tinge of pine, very minute, very subtle. The notes of grapefruit, floral-flower, and open sea breeze strongly overrides it, but there is some of it there.

Appearance is your typical, as per usual, Tree House, IPA look. Its the prototypical, stereotype of New England IPAs that Tree House Brewing pioneered. Yellow / golden hue, bright, glowing, unfiltered look, slight bit of sediment (all basic hop sediment), cloudy, hazy, “dank”, etc. All the normal descriptors for a New England IPA apply here.

Taste is a big time punch of hops. Very green hops to me. A pure punch and a wallop of it, you get hammered with the floral, the grapefruit, the mango, the citrus hops right up front. It smooths and softens a bit after that, but the immediate sip is just a massacring of hop flavor upon your tongue and palate. That is definitely to say its not a bad beer. Far from it, this is a very good IPA / New England IPA. Its just that initial sip is a “wow, oh my gosh….” and kind of gives you that “bitter beer face” from the old Keystone commercials. There is a lot more complexity to the beer after that initial sip, so don’t write it off there. The hops mellow, the beer smooths, and softens, and the remainder of the can / glass is a very enjoyable beer. Its just a shocking first sip that then leads into a very delicious beer. There is a complexity to the hop profile after the initial bombardment, you get notes of floral, notes of mango, notes of grapefruit, some citrus, and a very tiny subtle note of pine. The bitterness lets off the gas and you get the floral and sea breeze notes that makes this a very nice beer.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.25 (as of 12.28.19)

(Always nice to see when global matches up with your own individual rating.)

So like I said at the beginning of this beer review / blog post, yesterday was a hectic crazy day of brewery jumping with Drew, then running into Dan, Youngblood, and Youngblood’s girlfriend at ZeroDay. All over Harrisburg basically it seemed. Sadly we missed a few places I woulda liked to stop at, but time never slows, only speeds up when you start drinking. So you know how it goes. *Shrug*

If you follow us on Twitter – The Beer Thrillers – you would have seen my pictures of the travels and the various stops and flights and beers I had. Quite a bit was consumed. Was a fun day overall.

I want to again thank Dan Arndt for the Tree House beers. I still have Haze, Doppelganger, and Julius yet to drink and review for you guys. I’ve had Julius before, I haven’t had the other two. Also want to thank Drew for hanging out and traveling from brewery to brewery.

The upcoming days will a bit busy. I go back to work today, and I work New Years Day and New Years Eve. On the 2nd, me and Josh will be going to Mellow Mink to do our brewery tour and write-up with head brewer Matt Miller. So definitely look for that, as we’re both super psyched and looking forward to that.

I will also be doing a few podcasts upcoming with the crew from So a Mexican and a Scot Walk into a Bar. I will be doing one with Drew about the Mandalorian season as a whole and Rise of Skywalker, and I will be doing one with Esteban about the show LOST from ABC. So thats some more fun stuff on the horizon for you guys to look forward to. They should definitely be fun podcasts, especially Rise of Skywalker, me and Drew have a lot to say about that one! And The Mandalorian had a tremendous finale episode for their first season, that should be a good season wrap-up podcast as well.

We are also still looking for thoughts and comments about your guys’ favorite beers, breweries, tours, and events of the year. So make sure to comment or email or contact us with your thoughts, choices, picks, and suggestions. We would love to hear from all of you!

As always, thanks for reading and cheers!

-B. Kline