I got to pick up this book by Dr. Alison E. Feeney last Thursday at the Mid-Town Scholar ahead of her panel discussion (alongside Hannah Ison, Jeffrey Musselman, and Sara Bozich). You can read about that here: “For The Love of Beer – Panel Discussion“. It was a fun and entertaining (and informative) night at the Mid-Town Scholar getting to listen to the three of them discuss breweries, beer, brewing, and community.

And that is the heart of this book. Communities. Even moreso than the breweries this is ‘about’, the heart of the book though is communities. And at the heart of a lot of communities, and growing, is craft breweries. Breweries, in particular craft breweries, are the seat of many things in communities now adays. Places like Boneshire, Moo-Duck, Troegs, and many other breweries that give back to their communities through charities and other activities. Breweries like ZeroDay and Millworks that act like centerpieces for revitalization of downtown areas.

There is so much to love about craft breweries and what all they do (and can do). And Dr. Feeney’s book covers that so well. From revitalizing downtown areas, or old historic buildings, to providing a center and a place for a community, to being an employment opportunity for the local town, to sustainability and environmental help, providing spent grain for local farmers, to helping charities, to hosting events, to having delicious food, to having local ingredients, etc, there is so much that breweries do for their local communities.

Dr. Alison Feeney has traveled all across Pennsylvania checking out various breweries, hop farms, malts, grains, communities, universities, etc, and has gotten a feel for the state, its history, its brewing industry, and the breweries and the people. She’s interviewed tons of people, she’s talked to customers, brewers, hop growers, home brew shop owners, just about everyone you can think of attached to the industry.

The book covers a lot of different breweries across the state. From big to little. From regional powerhouses like Victory and Troegs to smaller localized shops like Moo-Duck, Boneshire, Bonn Place, etc. She has traveled all across the state, all of the regions covered.

There is a wealth of information in the book detailing the history of beer, the history of brewing, the history of Pennsylvania, and brewing and beer in Pennsylvania, as well as a wealth of information and knowledge on brewing, the beer industry, and hops and other things in general. There is a ton of information on the breweries she’s visited as well, small details like the beers they have, or the information on how they restored the buildings they occupied, or little bits and info on the brewers or their styles.

The book is filled with pictures and images from all assortments of things, like hops, to the various breweries, to beer, to the workers at the breweries, to signs, to locations, etc. These pictures help fill in an overall image and idea of the breweries from across the state for those who haven’t gotten to visit them yet. Also with each brewery mentioned there is a small map of Pennsylvania showing where its located with an actual address as well. Its not a complete map of every brewery, and Dr. Feeney even states at the beginning that she isn’t providing a comprehensive listing of every brewery in PA as it’d be out of date before the book even saw print. Case in point – the book mentions Harty Brewing which has since folded up (relatively recently). But don’t let that fool you, this book is chock full of information and knowledge about PA beer and breweries.

At the beginning of the book is a note saying that a portion of the proceeds of the book are going to animal shelters and local places for animals. After this is the chapter previews which list which breweries are mentioned in which chapters and provides an outline for the book. Early chapters discuss beer and the history of it, progressing from Europe and Africa and Asia to America. Detailing the early pioneers to America and bringing beer over on the Mayflower, etc. It then discusses the history of beer and brewing in Pennsylvania.

Following this is how breweries affect communities, how they revitalize communities and buildings, and a chapter on historic buildings and how breweries are reusing old buildings. A chapter on the sustainability and environmental issues and help that breweries are doing and then a closing chapter on looking forward.

This book is a good read for anyone interested in beer, brewing, and especially for those interested in the craft breweries of Pennsylvania. She has provided lots of knowledge on the inner workings from the beginning to the present day on just about every tangential topic with the beer industry. I would certainly recommend this for anyone looking to learn about brewing and beer in Pennsylvania or just loves reading about breweries in Pennsylvania.

My GoodReads Score: ****
Global GoodReads Score: 4.00 (two ratings, three now, as of 10.9.19)

This was the first book review on the blog, hopefully you all like it, I know its a bit different then the beer and brewery reviews. But I am looking forward to doing a few more of these as I have a lot of beer books to read and go through. This is combining two of my loves – literature / books and beers, so this is definitely a double-win for me getting to review books about beer here for the blog. So if you are interested in this, let us know! Also if you have any beer book recommendations, be sure to leave them in the comments!

Thanks and cheers all!

-B. Kline
My GoodReads review link can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3007622590

So an impromptu night out with a friend for a few drinks means…. an impromptu chance to do a beer review (or two). And as you can tell, being an impromptu review session, the pics aren’t quite up to snuff (being out with friends will make it a bit harder to get the best quality pictures, especially because I do more yapping as I drink and forget to grab that nice beautiful shot as soon as I get my beer). But I’ve been wanting to get back to Newfangled Brew Works (was there for their opening and one other time), so I’ve been wanting to show them some love here on the blog and do a review or two of their beers, and the Hurry Up and Wait was a big huge ‘deal’ so that deserves a review.

This is a two-part beer review, so not a full “multiple beer reviews” style post, but two separate beers that I got a chance to have on draft while out with friends and throwing up a review. The Hurry Up and Wait probably deserves its own post, primarily due to the massiveness behind the making of it. But, since that was done by PA Breweries and they have their own blog and Facebook group and page, its probably best that they’ve already done it anyway (and the beer has been out for quite some time now, so a rudimentary posting by me on it should suffice I believe). Just know, if you want a much more in-depth review on the creation of that beer (which was a ridiculous 20+ brewery collaboration with proceeds going to Veterans, which is a fantastic idea) you can track down the creation story and reviews on it by going to the PA Breweries Facebook page or group.

Likewise this won’t be an actual brewery review either, as it was my third (or fourth?) visit to Newfangled and I really didn’t think this was the time to do a write-up for that. But I will throw up some pictures of the place and talk about it a bit.

NewFangled Brew Works has been open for a bit now and been pumping out a good selection of clean, crisp, clear beers. They’ve actually been busy enough that they aren’t even getting a chance to touch their pilot small batch system that they’ve gotten and it sits collecting dust, as they try to keep up and meet demands on their regular production beers.

They like to keep their beer names low-key and simple (IPA, Saison, Double IPA, Brut IPA, Stout, (Nitro) Stout, Wheat Ale #1, Red Ale, etc.) so it should never be too hard to remember for those walking over from the development its built in, or those ordering over to the restaurant Koda. So far (according to Untappd) they’ve produced 15 different named beers, which I’ve had the pleasure of having had 9 of them so far. (Two of which were last night). So let’s get into the first one.

Beer: Saison
Brewery: NewFangled Brew Works
Style: Farmhouse Ale – Saison
ABV: 6.8%
IBU: 25
Untappd Write-Up: Just in time for summer we have a very effervescent saison using Spalter Select and Strisselspalt hops. It pairs well with sunshine on the patio.

Well, we didn’t get a chance to pair this with sunshine due to a massive storm just having rolled through the mid-state (got to drive through a lovely blast of downpour along I-81 to get from the Casino to the brewery), but it did pair nicely with friendship, chatting, and hanging out. Which is the primary purpose of any beer.

I got to meet a friend from/through work Rich Bowra and his son and daughter in law and grandson for a drink (well, two drinks) after work. Luckily for him, looking out the back window of the brewery you can see his house, so he’s in fine walking (or stumbling) distance to get home.

The saison is a nice easy sipping drink. There isn’t really a ton to go on with it though. You get the juniper and it has a nice floral sipping flavor, but there isn’t a ton of flavor.

The clarity is there and its a crystal clear light watery yellow look to it. The aroma is a light airy floral with hint of juniper. There is no head (as there’s not supposed to be one) and it does have the right carbonation to it.

The biggest knock against it is that its possibly too light. There’s not a whole lot of body and there’s not a whole lot of substance and action going on for it. There is a nice underlying dryness to it similar to champagne in a way that brings out the juniper nicely and makes it crisp and a good sipping drink for companionship and chatter.

Overall it is a perfectly serviceable beer that won’t blow anybody’s hair back but will be just enough to sit and sip and chat with.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.6 (as of 7.16.19)

Been wanting to get a chance to review this or at least make a mention of it or two, just due to the sheer amount of breweries involved. This was a gigantic, massive endeavor started by the PA Brewery Facebook group/page and done with 20 some breweries all for Veterans. The proceeds of which went to Veterans and this was created here at NewFangled.

The Beer Busters Podcast has an article on it here that summarizes some of the content nicely: https://beerbusterspodcast.com/breweries-in-pa-announce-details-of-hurry-up-and-wait-state-wide-collab-brew-to-support-veterans/ . So definitely give that a check-out if you want some more background information on the beer, as well as look up the PA Breweries Facebook page and group for more information.

So here’s a list of all the breweries involved in the project:
Production Brewery: NewFangled Brew Works
Breweries involved: Stony Run Brew House, Burgh’ers Brewing, Tattered Flag Brewery, Cox Brewing Company (CBC), Black Forest Brewery, 2nd Story Brewing, Aston Abbey Brewing Company, Blueprint Brewing Co, Couch Brewery, Collusion Tap Works, GearHouse Brewing Company, Hop Hill Brewing Company, Imprint Beer Co, McAllister Brewing Company, Root Down Brewing Company, Shubrew, Stone Bridge Brewing Company, Ten7 Brewing Company, Weyerbacher Brewing Company, Whitehorse Brewing LLC, Seven Sirens Brewing Co.

So as you can see…. just a few breweries were involved in the creation of this. A very diverse and large assortment of breweries from all over the state, all with Veteran workers. Some of the local to Central PA breweries on that list are: NewFangled Brew Works, Tattered Flag Brewery, Cox Brewing Company, and Collusion Tap Works. Also some big names on that list that many will recognize such as Weyerbacher Brewing and Imprint Beer Co.

A lot of hard work and a lot of planning went into the making of this beer and its great to see how it benefits the community and the Veterans.

Beer: Hurry Up and Wait
Brewery: NewFangled Brew Works
In Collaboration with Stony Run Brew House, Burgh’ers Brewing, Tattered Flag Brewery, Cox Brewing Company (CBC), Black Forest Brewery, 2nd Story Brewing, Aston Abbey Brewing Company, Blueprint Brewing Co, Couch Brewery, Collusion Tap Works, GearHouse Brewing Company, Hop Hill Brewing Company, Imprint Beer Co, McAllister Brewing Company, Root Down Brewing Company, Shubrew, Stone Bridge Brewing Company, Ten7 Brewing Company, Weyerbacher Brewing Company, Whitehorse Brewing LLC, Seven Sirens Brewing Co., Newfangled Brew Works
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double
ABV: 8%
IBU: 45
Untappd Write-Up: Made with Deer Creek malt and Yakima Veterans Blend hops. Proceeds from pint sales will be donated to PA Veterans Foundation.

This is a great traditional West Coast bitter IPA. It looks, smells, and tastes like the old school IPAs I grew up on before the haze craze took hold. And this stacks up against those and will stack up to any of the IPAs you grew up on as well.

The beer is a beautiful straw colored darker IPA. Has a wonderful foamy head that hangs for a bit as you drink and the golden straw hue is just dark enough to not let you fully completely see through it.

The aroma is exactly what you are wanting from an IPA. A great hoppy nose filling your nostrils with that wonderful hop smell like you’re in the backend of a brewery. (Which is honestly one of the Top 3 smells of the world.)

The drink is smooth and crisp and bitter like a good IPA should be. Has the hoppy bite and a wonderful flavor. A good dry bitter IPA with a good aftertaste that makes you wanting a second, third, and fourth, is a hallmark of a good beer done well and made well. These are the beers made for summer and made for a good long day of day-drinking and chatting and having a good time.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.97 (as of 7.16.19)

Now a few words on the NewFangled Brew Works brewery and location.

Its built into a dual building just inside of Union Station development off of Union Deposit road (off of Nye’s Road). It shares its space with a fancy dining restaurant named Koda. As I said for Rich and many of the other brewery regulars, its walking distance to their houses here in the development community (which is perfect, no driving). The restaurant attached (Koda) is fine dining and a bit pricey, but from everything I’ve been told incredible food (I’ve yet to eat there).

They got off to a bit of a rocky start when they first opened due to some of the issues of the government shutdown at the time, and getting their own beers setup (they opened with many taps flowing, but all from local breweries like Ever Grain, St. Bonifice, Tattered Flag, and Boneshire; rather than their own). But they have since conquered that and are now actually having trouble keeping up with the demands of the regulars.

They are growing quickly and producing a good number of stable beers. Nothing has been too out there and crazy or ‘hair blown’ but they are producing legitimate, well done, well styled beers, and that is a good consistent presence.

The bar is long and spacious and with plenty of seats. There is also numerous tables along the windows leading up to the small band stage. They host regular (small, local) bands, as well as do regular trivia nights and many more. They also have two ping pong tables setup, cornhole, and a few other brewery games (like giant Jenga and small games for children).

In the backend corner by the back entrance there is a “taco truck” (though its built into the wall) that has the brewery food. Obviously this is mostly taco and related foods.

All in all, if you find yourself out along Nye’s Road or Union Deposit Road or wanting to check out a new brewery, definitely give NewFangled Brew Works a check. If nothing worse you’ll get some decent food, and a nice atmosphere. The beers are nice, flowing, and everyone is very easy going. You won’t be disappointed.

-B. Kline