AC Brewfest - The Beer Thrillers https://thebeerthrillers.com Central PA beer enthusiasts and beer bloggers. Homebrewers, brewery workers, and all around beer lovers. Tue, 18 Mar 2025 19:15:18 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 https://i0.wp.com/thebeerthrillers.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/cropped-The-Beer-Thrillers-December-2022-Logo.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 AC Brewfest - The Beer Thrillers https://thebeerthrillers.com 32 32 187558884 Hoppy Valley Brewfest Returns for 2025 https://thebeerthrillers.com/2025/03/17/hoppy-valley-brewfest-returns-for-2025/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hoppy-valley-brewfest-returns-for-2025 Mon, 17 Mar 2025 14:30:39 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=16126 Hoppy Valley Brewfest Returns for 2025

The Hoppy Valley Brewfest returns for its second year in State College, Pennsylvania; this time on July 19th, 2025. Last year, the inaugural Hoppy Valley Brewfest occurred on Mother’s Day weekend in May (on the Saturday therein). (You can see that article here: The Hoppy Valley Brewfest.)  Last year it was announced in very early February (this year it was just announced today – March 18th.) Also, last year’s event was held inside Beaver Stadium on the football field. This year it will be held in a parking lot next to Medlar Field (the baseball field across from Beaver Stadium).

Hoppy Valley Brewfest 2025

Hoppy Valley Brewfest 2025

Just a bit ago on their Facebook and Instagram accounts, the Hoppy Valley Brewfest announced the brewfest’s return for its second year.

They released this announcement:

We’re back! 🍻🎉 Hoppy Valley Brewers Fest 2025 is coming to Porter North Lot on July 19! Don’t miss out on an unforgettable night of craft beers, live music, and great vibes. Tickets are officially on sale now, get yours today!
#hoppyvalley #hoppyvalleybrewfest #happyvalleypa #hoppyvalleybrewersfest #craftbeer #craftbeercommunity

Hoppy Valley Brewfest Announcement  – via Reel

They also created an event page on Facebook, which you can find here: Hoppy Valley Brewfest – July 19, 2025 – Event Page.

No announcement has been made yet about breweries appearing at the event. Nor has any specific breweries announced attending yet (insofar as we know of at time of this article, which is shortly after the brewfest announcement). Also no breweries have announced special beers yet for the event (like last year’s Troegs / Sworn / Antifragile / Warwick Farm  collab – Storm the Field). (Beer Review: Storm the Field.)

Medlar Field

The Medlar Field is the baseball field across from Beaver Stadium. Its where Amy’s Alzheimer’s Walk for the State College area occurs each year. Last year I was in charge of the Porter North Lot and directing traffic (because it coincided with the Trump Rally that day).

Here is how to find it on Google Maps: Porter North Lot at Medlar Field – State College, PA.

Last year’s event was held inside Beaver Stadium, on the football field. This was primarily due to the fact that following the event they were going to be tearing up the field and replacing it. There was hopes that if the event returned for a second year, it would at least be held in the concourses of Beaver Stadium, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Instead, the event will be in the parking lot on July 19th. This is still a nice location and you will be able to see Beaver Stadium loom in the background. As the AC Beer Fest found out in the past few years (even dropping the event last year), its hard holding a brewfest in July sometimes; due to weather and temperature. (AC Beer Fest has always annually been in March / April inside at the Convention Center, but post COVID it moved outside to Bader Field in July, and then for two years they were holding one event in March at the Convention Center and then another in July outside at Bader Field; however in 2024 they ended up cancelling the July event at Bader Field, but kept the indoor one in March.)

Our Past Articles

You can read these past Hoppy Valley Brewfest articles:

For More Information

Brewery News

Interested in finding out about many other brewery openings, new locations, closings, movings, auctions, and in general brewery news? You can check out our links below:

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

Thanks again for reading everyone. Take some time to check out the site, we greatly appreciate it. We have affiliates and sponsors with Pretzels.com and Beer Drop.com, which can save you money on their products if you are interested. Check out our articles on them. Make sure to check out our beer reviews, brewery reviews, Amy’s weekly column, book reviews, hike reviews, and so much more.

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you! You can also reach out to us at our direct e-mail address: thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

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.

We are working on a massive project here at The Beer Thrillers. We are creating a map of all of the breweries across the United States. State by state we are adding maps of all of the different states with every brewery in each state. (We will eventually get to the US Territories, as well as the Canadian Provinces, and possibly more countries; as well as doing some fun maps like a map of all the breweries we’ve been to, and other fun maps.) You can find the brewery maps here:

We are also working on a project of creating printable and downloadable PDFs and resources to be able to check and keep track of all of the breweries you’ve been to. So stay tuned for that project once we are finished with the Brewery Maps of the US States.

You can check out our different directories here: Beer ReviewsHike ReviewsBook ReviewsBrewery News, Brewery OpeningsBrewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookFacebook GroupTwitterInstagramYouTube, and Influence. As well as our brand new Tumblr page. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We are also now on BlueSky as well, so make sure to check us out there also. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

You can now find us on our Discord Server here: The Beer Thrillers (Discord Server). We’ve also joined LinkTree to keep track of all of our social media pages, as well as hot new articles we’ve written.

The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

We have partnered with an affiliateship with Beer Drop.com. You can check out that partnership and receive great discounts, coupons, and more here: Beer Drop. Going here and logging in and ordering will help you receive your discounts and coupons as well as help support our page. Thank you for helping to support The Beer Thrillers and to help us maintain the site and blog and to keep it running.

The Beer Thrillers are a blog that prides itself on writing beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, news (especially local to the Central PA brewery scene), as well as covering other topics of our interests – such as hiking, literature and books, board games, and video games which we sometimes stream with our friends over at Knights of Nostalgia. We are currently listed as #5 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #9 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of January 2025.) Thank you for reading our site today, please subscribe, follow, and bookmark. Please reach out to us if you are interested in working together. If you would like to donate to the blog you can here: Donate to The Beer Thrillers. Thank you!

You can also check out our partnership and affiliation with Pretzels.com, where ordering pretzels and using our affiliate code – AFFILIATE CODE IS THEBEERTHRILLERS20 – will help you get wonderful pretzels and help us maintain and keep this blog running. Thank you!

If you would like to reach out to us for product reviews, beer reviews, press release writing, and other media – please contact us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com. Thank you.

(Thank you for reading. The opinions, thoughts, and expressions of each article posted on The Beer Thrillers represents the author of the content and only themselves. It does not express the opinions, beliefs, or ideas held by The Beer Thrillers or any company in which the author themselves work for. Each piece of written content is written by the creator(s) listed in the authorial section on each article unless otherwise noted. Their opinions, comments, and words on screen do not represent any company in which they work for and / or are affiliated with or any non – profits that they contribute to. Thank you.)

]]>
16126
Hoppy Valley Brewfest Tomorrow https://thebeerthrillers.com/2024/05/10/hoppy-valley-brewfest-tomorrow/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hoppy-valley-brewfest-tomorrow Fri, 10 May 2024 12:39:31 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=15008

Hoppy Valley Brewersfest Brewery Guide

Hoppy Valley Brewersfest is Tomorrow

Are you ready? Are you going? Did you get your tickets yet? The Hoppy Valley Brewersfest is tomorrow!

We first reported it here: Hoppy Valley Beerfest. This big daddy, 75+ brewery event, happening right on the field of Beaver Stadium, is going to be one massive party. The brainchild of Antifragile Brewing Company, as well as several other breweries and with a ton of great and fantastic collaborations (Antifragile, Sworn, Warwick Farm Brewery, and Troegs Brewing collaborated to make ‘Storm the Field’ as well as Antifragile doing collaborations with other breweries).

You can still get tickets here: Hoppy Valley Brewersfest – Tickets.

Ironically, my “memories” has been flooding with past years events of the Mt. Hope Renaissance Faire Brewfest – which has typically happened every year in May, but has been cancelled and this is the first year this event has stopped. (Read more here: Mt. Hope – Renaissance Faire brewfest was announced to be cancelled).

Are You Going?

Schedule of Events

Saturday, May 11, 2024

10:00 am – 12:00 pm: Arrive early! I.D. Check/Ticketing Lines

12:00 pm – 5:00 pm: VIP (Early Access)

1:00 pm – 5:00 pm: General Admission

Brewery Guide

Here is your full list of breweries involved:

  1. Our Town Brewery
  2. Well Crafted Brewery
  3. Von C Brewing
  4. Michaeux Brewing
  5. Other Half Brewing
  6. YAH Brew
  7. Wolf Brewing
  8. Adroit Theory
  9. Blonde Bistro Brew Works
  10. Bru Daddy
  11. aslin Beer Co
  12. Second Sin Brewing
  13. Last Minute Brewing
  14. Greater Good Brewing Company
  15. Tin Barn Brewing
  16. Hemauer Brewing
  17. Lolev Brewing
  18. Wallenpaupack Brewing Company
  19. Levity Brewing
  20. Fourscore Beer Co.
  21. Ever Grain Brewing
  22. Otto’s Brewpub
  23. Stick City Brewing
  24. Hidden Stories Brewing
  25. Cartel Brewing and Blending
  26. The Warbler Brewing
  27. Juniata Brewing Co.
  28. Grey Sail Brewing
  29. Boxcar Brew Works
  30. Old Thunder Brewing
  31. Collusion Tap Works
  32. Lost Tavern Brewing
  33. ZeroDay Brewing
  34. New Trail Brewing
  35. Succession Fermentory
  36. Rural City Brewing
  37. Axemann Brewery
  38. Pineknotter Brewing
  39. Mechanistic Brewing
  40. Lancaster Brewing Company
  41. Stable 12 Brewing
  42. Boom City Brewing
  43. Dewey Beer Co.
  44. Dancing Gnome Brewing
  45. Pilger Ruh Brewing
  46. Robin Hood Brewing
  47. Troubles End Brewing
  48. Hidden River Brewing
  49. Boal City Brewing
  50. Elk Creek Cafe and Aleworks
  51. Sworn Brewing
  52. Antifragile Brewing
  53. Warwick Farm Brewery
  54. Troegs Brewing
  55. Braeloch Brewing
  56. The Dead Canary Brewing
  57. Shy Bear Brewing
  58. Ten7 Brewing
  59. Wild Brewing Co.
  60. Clarion Brewing
  61. Trace Brewing
  62. Sunset Hill Brewing Co.
  63. Levante Brewing
  64. Floating Feathers Brewing
  65. South County Brewing
  66. Rooster Street Brewing
  67. Grist House Brewing
  68. Appalachian Brewing / Prototype Brewery and Meadery
  69. Prison City Pub and Brewery
  70. Four Quarters Brewing
  71. Victory Brewing
  72. Von Lieus Brewing
  73. Cinderlands Beer
  74. Rough Edges Brewing
  75. Free Will Brewing
  76. Eleventh Hour Brewing

Hoppy Valley Brewersfest Brewery Guide

For More Information

Brewery News

Interested in finding out about many other brewery openings, new locations, closings, movings, and in general brewery news? You can check out our links below:

Thank You for Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

Thanks again for reading everyone. Take some time to check out the site, we greatly appreciate it. We have affiliates and sponsors with Pretzels.com and Beer Drop.com, which can save you money on their products if you are interested. Check out our articles on them. Make sure to check out our beer reviews, brewery reviews, Amy’s weekly column, book reviews, hike reviews, and so much more.

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you! You can also reach out to us at our direct e-mail address: thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

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.

We are working on a massive project here at The Beer Thrillers. We are creating a map of all of the breweries across the United States. State by state we are adding maps of all of the different states with every brewery in each state. (We will eventually get to the US Territories, as well as the Canadian Provinces, and possibly more countries; as well as doing some fun maps like a map of all the breweries we’ve been to, and other fun maps.) You can find the brewery maps here:

We are also working on a project of creating printable and downloadable PDFs and resources to be able to check and keep track of all of the breweries you’ve been to. So stay tuned for that project once we are finished with the Brewery Maps of the US States.

You can check out our different directories here: Beer ReviewsHike ReviewsBook ReviewsBrewery News, Brewery OpeningsBrewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookFacebook GroupTwitterInstagramYouTube, and Influence. As well as our brand new Tumblr page. 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!

You can now find us on our Discord Server here: The Beer Thrillers (Discord Server). We’ve also joined LinkTree to keep track of all of our social media pages, as well as hot new articles we’ve written.

The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

We have partnered with an affiliateship with Beer Drop.com. You can check out that partnership and receive great discounts, coupons, and more here: Beer Drop. Going here and logging in and ordering will help you receive your discounts and coupons as well as help support our page. Thank you for helping to support The Beer Thrillers and to help us maintain the site and blog and to keep it running.

The Beer Thrillers are a blog that prides itself on writing beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, news (especially local to the Central PA brewery scene), as well as covering other topics of our interests – such as hiking, literature and books, board games, and video games which we sometimes stream with our friends over at Knights of Nostalgia. We are currently listed as #7 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #8 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of January 2023.) Thank you for reading our site today, please subscribe, follow, and bookmark. Please reach out to us if you are interested in working together. If you would like to donate to the blog you can here: Donate to The Beer Thrillers. Thank you!

You can also check out our partnership and affiliation with Pretzels.com, where ordering pretzels and using our affiliate code – AFFILIATE CODE IS THEBEERTHRILLERS20 – will help you get wonderful pretzels and help us maintain and keep this blog running. Thank you!

If you would like to reach out to us for product reviews, beer reviews, press release writing, and other media – please contact us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com. Thank you.

(Thank you for reading. The opinions, thoughts, and expressions of each article posted on The Beer Thrillers represents the author of the content and only themselves. It does not express the opinions, beliefs, or ideas held by The Beer Thrillers or any company in which the author themselves work for. Each piece of written content is written by the creator(s) listed in the authorial section on each article unless otherwise noted. Their opinions, comments, and words on screen do not represent any company in which they work for and / or are affiliated with or any non – profits that they contribute to. Thank you.)

]]>
15008
Hoppy Valley Brewfest https://thebeerthrillers.com/2024/02/02/hoppy-valley-brewfest/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hoppy-valley-brewfest Fri, 02 Feb 2024 13:38:42 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=14273

Hoppy Valley Brewfest (logo) – May 11th, 2024

Hoppy Valley Brewfest

Want to visit Beaver Stadium, walk the field where some of the best of the Penn State Alumni played football, while drinking craft beer? Come May 11th, that can be a reality for you. Introducing the “Hoppy Valley Brewfest”. The inaugural brewfest is looking to kick off on May 11th and will be hosting 75+ breweries to deliver their craft beer suds on the field of Beaver Stadium.

One of the largest stadiums in the country will host what could potentially be one of the largest brewfests in the country. An attempt to rival the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, “The East Coast GABF” as one insider told me, this brewfest is looking to make monumental waves on the industry.

Less than a full day after the Mt. Hope – Renaissance Faire brewfest was announced to be cancelled – the Hoppy Valley Brewfest was officially announced. (We had previously discussed it as ‘unofficial’ rumor news here on the site.)

Antifragile Brewing Company, in collaboration with Breweries of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association, The Happy Valley Adventure Bureau, and Happy Valley Sports & Entertainment Alliance, is joining forces to host a historic event at the fourth-largest stadium in the world – Beaver Stadium!

Be one of the first to score a tasting of handcrafted beers ON THE FIELD at the home of the most electrifying atmosphere in college football. Immerse yourself in the diverse offerings from an expected 75+ exhibitors, featuring a wide selection of beverages catering to every palate.

The festival will also showcase local food vendors and entertainment, ensuring that there is something for anyone and everyone. Make sure to join us for an unforgettable blend of flavors and fun at the inaugural Hoppy Valley Brewers Fest!

“What to Expect” – Hoppy Valley Brewfest

Schedule of Events

Saturday, May 11, 2024

10:00 am – 12:00 pm: Arrive early! I.D. Check/Ticketing Lines

12:00 pm – 5:00 pm: VIP (Early Access)

1:00 pm – 5:00 pm: General Admission

A Brewfest Comes to Beaver Stadium

Hoppy Valley Brewfest

Tickets will be available through Ticketmaster. To stay updated on when tickets go live, stay tuned to our blog, as well as the official website of the brewfest: “Hoppy Valley Brewfest“.

There will be entertainment as well, but more information will be released as the lead up to the event happens. Stay tuned to their website for more information on that as well.

Penn State Athletic Director Patrick Kraft wants to stage more events at Beaver Stadium, which is undergoing a $700 million renovation. Beaver Stadium will host Luke Combs’ “Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old Tour” on April 27, two weeks after the Blue-White Game. In 2023, Beaver Stadium hosted a yoga class and showed “The Lion King” on the stadium screen. Beaver Stadium also has hosted a pop-up version of TopGolf.

Sports Illustrated as well as numerous other outlets have covered the brewfest as happening. (Sports Illustrated does have an error in which they state Breweries in PA is a sponsor when its the guild of breweries in Pennsylvania – the Brewers Of Pennsylvania who is in fact a sponsor.) The sponsors for the event are – PR&LA, Brewers of Pennsylvania, Happy Valley Sports and Entertainment Alliance, The Happy Valley Adventure Bureau, and Antifragile Brewing Company.

As well as the “Official Sponsor” – Hello Social Co.

The event will run from 12 – 5 PM for VIP attendees and from 1 – 5 for general admission attendees. A price point hasn’t been discussed yet on their website, but a number thrown out has been “100$”, not sure if this is for the VIP or for the General Admission cost. (Tickets are also sold through Ticketmaster so there will be more costs then afterwards.)

We will keep our blog – The Beer Thrillers – updated with more information as we get it.

Home of the legendary Penn State Nittany Lions football program, Beaver Stadium seats 106,572 fans, making it the second-largest football stadium in the United States.

You will be entering the festival through the south tunnel of Beaver Stadium – just like the team does! Picture yourself coming out to the cheers of 110,000 people, and get ready for an experience unlike any other.

Hoppy Valley Brewfest – Beaver Stadium

The announcement of the brewfest comes with 75+ known breweries. Some of which include:

  • Antifragile Brewery
  • Sworn Brewing
  • Warwick Farms Brewing
  • Troegs Independent Brewing
  • Ten7 Brewing
  • Fourscore Beer Company
  • Second Sin Beer
  • Trace Brewing
  • Prison City Brewing
  • Tin Barn Brewing
  • Dewey Beer
  • Hidden River Brewing
  • Other Half Brewing
  • Grist House Brewhouse
  • Sunset Hill Brewing
  • Dancing Gnome Brewing

Brewfests

This is a very exciting brewfest coming to the greater Central PA area and we cannot wait for it. Coming in May, it is a time when typically the Mount Hope Brewfest (pre-COVID) was usually held. And it will fall between the two dates of the AC Brewfest (the indoor brewfest being in April, and the outdoor brewfest being in June). So this will be a wonderful huge brewfest in the Spring timeframe. Definitely put this on your calendars and expect a great time. We are looking forward to getting more information.

We had previously stated on here how Troegs Independent Brewing – Antifgraile Brewing – Sworn Brewing – and Warwick Farms Brewing – met up at the Troegs Brewery to start hammering out a collaboration beer  details for this brewfest. See that article here: “Troegs, Antifragile, Sworn, and Warwick Farms Meet For Collaboration Beer”.

Brewery News

Interested in finding out about many other brewery openings, new locations, closings, movings, and in general brewery news? You can check out our links below:

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

Thanks again for reading everyone. Take some time to check out the site, we greatly appreciate it. We have affiliates and sponsors with Pretzels.com and Beer Drop.com, which can save you money on their products if you are interested. Check out our articles on them. Make sure to check out our beer reviews, brewery reviews, Amy’s weekly column, book reviews, hike reviews, and so much more.

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you! You can also reach out to us at our direct e-mail address: thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

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.

We are working on a massive project here at The Beer Thrillers. We are creating a map of all of the breweries across the United States. State by state we are adding maps of all of the different states with every brewery in each state. (We will eventually get to the US Territories, as well as the Canadian Provinces, and possibly more countries; as well as doing some fun maps like a map of all the breweries we’ve been to, and other fun maps.) You can find the brewery maps here:

We are also working on a project of creating printable and downloadable PDFs and resources to be able to check and keep track of all of the breweries you’ve been to. So stay tuned for that project once we are finished with the Brewery Maps of the US States.

You can check out our different directories here: Beer ReviewsHike ReviewsBook ReviewsBrewery News, Brewery OpeningsBrewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookFacebook GroupTwitterInstagramYouTube, and Influence. As well as our brand new Tumblr page. 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!

You can now find us on our Discord Server here: The Beer Thrillers (Discord Server). We’ve also joined LinkTree to keep track of all of our social media pages, as well as hot new articles we’ve written.

The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

We have partnered with an affiliateship with Beer Drop.com. You can check out that partnership and receive great discounts, coupons, and more here: Beer Drop. Going here and logging in and ordering will help you receive your discounts and coupons as well as help support our page. Thank you for helping to support The Beer Thrillers and to help us maintain the site and blog and to keep it running.

The Beer Thrillers are a blog that prides itself on writing beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, news (especially local to the Central PA brewery scene), as well as covering other topics of our interests – such as hiking, literature and books, board games, and video games which we sometimes stream with our friends over at Knights of Nostalgia. We are currently listed as #7 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #8 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of January 2023.) Thank you for reading our site today, please subscribe, follow, and bookmark. Please reach out to us if you are interested in working together. If you would like to donate to the blog you can here: Donate to The Beer Thrillers. Thank you!

You can also check out our partnership and affiliation with Pretzels.com, where ordering pretzels and using our affiliate code – AFFILIATE CODE IS THEBEERTHRILLERS20 – will help you get wonderful pretzels and help us maintain and keep this blog running. Thank you!

If you would like to reach out to us for product reviews, beer reviews, press release writing, and other media – please contact us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com. Thank you.

(Thank you for reading. The opinions, thoughts, and expressions of each article posted on The Beer Thrillers represents the author of the content and only themselves. It does not express the opinions, beliefs, or ideas held by The Beer Thrillers or any company in which the author themselves work for. Each piece of written content is written by the creator(s) listed in the authorial section on each article unless otherwise noted. Their opinions, comments, and words on screen do not represent any company in which they work for and / or are affiliated with or any non – profits that they contribute to. Thank you.)

]]>
14273
AC Brewfest 2021 – Day 1 Recap (June 4th, 2021) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2021/06/05/ac-brewfest-2021-day-1-recap-june-4th-2021/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ac-brewfest-2021-day-1-recap-june-4th-2021 Sat, 05 Jun 2021 16:35:00 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=7716
The Atlantic City Beer and Music Festival

Got word from Drew this morning, as well as some updates from him while at the brewfest for day two (Session 2 of 3). Everything went smoothly he said Friday night. Him, David, and A. Parys (thesugarfoot) got to AC Friday, and enjoyed Ocean’s Casino and Resort before going to the brewfest itself at the Bader Field Ballpark.

He sent me some messages last night around 8 – 9PM (Session 1 of the brewfest was 8PM – 12 Midnight – Friday, June 4th). He said they made a beeline for Kelsey Grammer’s tent and brewery (Faith American Brewing Company). He said he was nice and talked a little and then they moved on.

By 10:30 PM or so, when messaging him, I asked him if there were any good beers or brews at the event and he said there was but he was “too drunk to remember which ones or where”. I expected nothing less from my faithful and diligent correspondent, doing his research thoroughly.

I asked Drew how the layout was with the event moving to the outdoors – at the Bader Field Ballpark – rather than the inside at the Atlantic City Convention Center; and he said it feels much more spaced out, he’s not sure if there’s less breweries this year, but that it almost feels that way. He said the area looks like an old airport runway and is nice for the event. The stage area was nice and everything looked good and spaced out.

Drew, Dave, and Andrew all had a blast from day one. They are doing the “HopTrot 5K” tomorrow before Session 2 of the brewfest (12 Noon – 4PM). I’ll have an update, with pictures from the event for tomorrow’s post.

You can see the first article of the series here: “The Atlantic City Beer and Music Festival 2021“.

Cheers!

-B. Kline
Correspondent: D. Scott

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 – FacebookFacebook GroupTwitterInstagramYouTube, 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!

]]>
7716
Beer Review: Sunshine and Opportunity (Almanac Beer Company) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2020/02/20/beer-review-sunshine-and-opportunity-almanac-beer-company/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-review-sunshine-and-opportunity-almanac-beer-company Thu, 20 Feb 2020 14:20:01 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=2296
Sunshine and Opportunity (by Almanac Beer Company) was the perfect choice of beer for a gorgeous, sunny, warm, February day in Central PA. A rare opportunity for lovely sunshine had to be taken advantage of!

Imagine this: its February 19th in Central PA; its usually cold, blustery even, possibly snow on the ground or snowing, icicles usually hang from gutters and roofs and trees, nobody is outside walking their dogs, nobody is outside period – unless forced to shovel – schools might even be cancelled due to snow or bad roads, cars stay parked along the roads, plowed in by local governments snowplowers, …..this is your usual February 19th right? Not 2020. Instead, its 2PM on February 19th, 2020, in Hummelstown Pennsylvania, and my phone says its 45 degrees, sunny, with the warm rays warming me more than the 45 even suggests. There’s a slight breeze. I take a pause from my yard work and long dog walks to sit outside and enjoy a delicious beer and read some books.

My first beer from the California beer mail I did a few days prior, and my first of that batch to be reviewed for the blog. When going through the beers in the fridge looking to find one to drink on this beautiful day, the name of this one leaped out to me (for obvious reasons) and thus became the de facto first pick.

My beer mail from California

My beer mail consisted of Almanac Beer Company, The Booth Brewing, Fallen River, Sudwerk Brewing, and one Sierra Nevada can. Ironically, while sitting out and enjoying me beer and reading, my friend Dan, who had gotten me the Tree House Brewing Company beers that let me do my series (Sap, Autumn, Julius, Haze, Doppelganger, and Intemperance), texted me that he was currently in the San Diego area of California. That he had just left Belching Beaver and was wondering if I knew of any other really good breweries in the area. (I let him know about Modern Times and Pizza Port, and then used Hop Plotter [which is going away soon by the way] to locate some others.) He told me you can’t walk more than five minutes down the streets without running into a brewery there. Oh what a problem to have!

Other than just the name of this beer, the beer caught my attention for how interesting it is. Its a barrel aged, dry hopped sour. Seems like a very interesting combination to me. You don’t typically see barrel aged, sour, and dry hopped, all combined, let alone any combination therein (barrel aged sours, or dry hopped sours, or barrel aging and dry hopping), so this called out to me all the more for it.

The side of the can explaining its madness – Sunshine and Opportunity.

The picture might be hard to read, and its not listed on their Untappd profile for the beer, so I’ll re-write it here:

“This is NOT a kettle sour. This mixed-culture farmhouse ale was aged in oak barrels with pear juice. A delicate dry-hop of Citra, Sabro, and Mosaic imparts a transcendent tropical aroma. Shine on! HOPS: Citra, Sabro, Mosaic. MALT: Admiral Pale, Oats, Wheat, Aromatic.”

So as you can see, there is definitely a lot going on with this bad boy.

Almanac Beer Company is a regional brewery out of Alameda California. According to Untappd, they have 286 unique beers listed with a global rating (as of 2.20.20) of 3.98. Their description on Untappd reads: “Our motto, “Farm-to-Barrel”, means brewing beers inspired by the great brewing traditions of the world with the best in locally sourced ingredients. Almanac Beer Company was founded in 2010 by Jesse Friedman and Damian Fagan.”

Sunshine and Opportunity by Almanac Beer Company

Beer: Sunshine and Opportunity
Brewery: Almanac Beer Company
Style: Farmhouse Ale – Saison
ABV: 5.8%
IBU: None Listed
Hops: Citra, Sabro, Mosaic
Malts: Admiral Pale, Oats, Wheat, Aromatic
Untappd Write-Up: Mixed fermentation saison, aged in oak barrels and dry-hopped.

This is certainly an interesting beer. As I cracked it open, the aromatic and citrusy and summer smelling, sunshine beaming, fruity and citrusy hops burst free, the pear juice, burst free, all of these things just from cracking the can. I poured it into my Ffej of July glass, making me think about the super fun party in July and envisioning even more sunshine and great weather, it almost looked like pouring champagne. It bubbled, it was effervescent, it was bubbly and happy and excited to be poured out. Its bright yellow / orange / wheat like golden hue was bright, bubbly, looking like a cross between a pilsner, champagne, and a saison. It had a big white fluffy bubbly head, with huge interspersed and diverse bubbles. This guy was carbonated and ready to play. As I drank, it left lacing. And as I drank, it still bubbled, tickling your nose with little pops as you drank.

This is also jam packed with a variety of smells. It is definitely an aromatic beer. Your nose is getting a workout with this one. First impression of the nose is pear and citrus and sunshine hops. You get a definitive pear juice presence right off the bat, as well as the Citra, Sabro, and Mosaic dry hopping. Quick background on those three hops:

Citra: “American aroma hop Citra was created by John I. Haas, Inc. and Select Botanicals Group joint venture, the Hop Breeding Company. It was released to the brewing world in 2008. Now one of the most coveted high-impact aroma hops in the US, particularly among craft brewers, it boasts a complex lineage that includes the likes of Hallertau Mittelfrüh (father), Tettnanger (US), Brewer’s Gold and East Kent Golding.” (Hopslist)
Mosaic: “Released in 2012 by the Hop Breeding Company, LLC, Mosaic hops feature complex but clean flavor characteristics and are known for their triple-use profile encompassing bittering, flavor and aroma. They have high alpha acids but low cohumulone which makes them pleasantly hoppy, carrying flavors of mango, pine, citrus and herbs and aromas of tropical and stone fruit. Mosaic is the first daughter of Simcoe and Nugget as has been humorously referred to by some as “Citra on steroids”.” (Hopslist)
Sabro: “Sabro is an aroma hop that is notable for its complexity of fruity and citrus flavors. It imparts distinct tangerine, coconut, tropical fruit, and stone fruit aromas, with hints of cedar, mint, and cream. Sabro’s pedigree is the result of a unique cross pollination of a female neomexicanus hop.” (Yakima Valley Hops)

So as you can see, these three hops really impart a very fruity, citrusy, juicy hop characteristic. Especially for aroma. Full of mango, citrus, spicy herbs, tangerine, stone fruits, tropical fruits like coconut, kiwi, passionfruit, stone fruits, you get a large rang of gamut with these hops. And they work kind of like a trifecta together. On top of the complexities of the dry hoping with these hops, and the strong presence of the pear juice, you get the distinct oakyness of the barrel aged process in which this beer went through, imparting it with the characteristics and notes of oak barrels. This is a bit fainter, especially on the nose, but the oak is there, as well as some of the spices and the yeast strain notes that accompany farmhouse saisons and ales, a bit of a background funkyness that you know is trying to peak and stick its head through when nobody is looking.

Enough blabbering about appearance and smell, lets get to the fun part of beer – drinking it. Do you have socks on? You better have shoes on too then, because if you don’t, first sip is going to knock those socks right off. One sip, first sip, barely in your mouth, and you get an explosion of complexities. You get the dry hopping, you get the pear juice, you get the oak barrel aging, you get the funkyness of farmhouse ales and saisons, you get a full rich and immersive beer on that first sip. So lets try and break this down (if I can!). Breaking it down by drinking it is the best approach I think because this beer changes as you drink, and you get more of the complexities evening out into their own compartments and it gets kind of sectionalized. First as you take your sip, those bubbles get you. This is almost like drinking champagne, I immediately felt the bubbles tickling my mustache, could feel the interesting yeast right away, a combination of champagne yeast and farmhouse saison style yeast. Beyond this then, you start to really pick up the pear juice, and this is where the tartness and a bit of the sweetness of the beer comes through. You get that funky Saison taste, that deep tartness unlike sours (or kettle sours or even berliner weisse’s), you get a funky, resonating tart with pear notes. Then blammo the hops take over. You get the citrus and sunshine bright hops exploding like mortar blasts all around you, like the trailer of 1917 as the guy is running criss-cross through the battlefield and blasts are going off around him. Citra. BAM. Mosaic. BAM. Sabro. BAM. Pop. Pop. Pop. BAMMMM. You get citrus, tangerine, coconut, pineapple, mango, more pear, kiwi and passionfruit, some cedar, some pine, stone fruits like plum and apricot, all blending in the hops and exploding rapid fire around you. And finally, you are left with the oak, the oakyness of the barrels, like a lasting, impression on your tongue as the beer fades away. It adds to that funkyness, it adds to the tartness, and it really brings out the Saison and Farmhouse aspects of the beer. The beer is also only a 5.8% so there’s not even really a buzz afterwards. There is nothing cloying, or upsetting about this, nothing heavy, or too dry, the juice is there, the tart is there, its slightly thin, but not problematically. This is just all around unique, tasty, and fun to drink.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.85 (as of 2.20.20).

I am currently in the process of going back and editing a bit of some of the recent blog posts. Namely, the Loki – Wild IPA, the Valentine’s Day Beers, I Cannot Tell a Lie, and the Back to Reality. Adding some references and stuff to the beer titles and things like that. Nothing altering the actual review of the beer, but just providing some extra information about the beer, its name, cultural underpinnings of it all, etc.

As I said in my last reviews, Back to Reality and Intemperance, we are really starting to hit our stride here at The Beer Thrillers. I will be on several podcasts in the near future – Might Be Brews, Beers with Strangers, and the one with my friends So A Mexican and A Scot Walk Into a Bar…, as well as lots of writing news as well. Invites to Rubber Soul Brewing opening (or re-opening) in Hummelstown (my hometown), Liquid Noise, and an interesting e-mail about doing some writing about breweries for Visit Hershey. (This could be potentially about the brewery that might be opening at the Chocolate Town area – which will be the new entrance to Hershey Park. I don’t know for sure, but I’m eagerly awaiting this meeting with the representative to find out more and let you all know.)

We are up to 412 followers on Facebook now, which is absolutely fantastic, and 128 followers on Twitter. We are currently listed as the # 9 blog on FeedSpot’s Top 100 blogs. The blog is certainly growing, we just hit 150 total posts recently (this is post number 152). The blog has only been live since near the end of May 2019. I am very excited for the growth its gone through and its continual growth. Our friends at LetUsDrinkBeer blog are also about to have their latest review of a brewery from Georgia for us.

We are primarily a Central PA beer blog, but we are also very much more, we’re doing beer reviews of beers from all over thanks to beer mail trades as well as Tavour (J. Doncevic’s favorite), we are also hitting up a lot of beer events this year (upcoming for me will be the AC Brewfest in early April as well as Little Big Beer Fest, and J. Doncevic will be hitting the big Prototype Invitational with Rotunda Brewing. With the guys from LetUsDrinkBeer, we are reporting on stuff down in Georgia. We are also getting invites to podcasts and writing for other blogs as well as brewery openings and events too. So we are going to have no shortage of things to report on. And with the guys from Default Brewing, we’ll have more homebrewing articles in the upcoming months as well. (Fingers crossed they’ll get something posted soon.)

For those interested, the books behind the beer in this blog post are: “I Am C-3PO” by Anthony Daniels, and “Desert Wisdom” by Yushi Nomura and Henri J.M. Nouwen. You can read my reviews of books at my GoodReads page.

As always (I feel like a robot on repeat saying this), please click the follow, like, and subscribes. Enter your e-mail to get up to date news on new blog posts. Make sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to see posts and pictures and videos that don’t always make it onto the blog.

All of us here at The Beer Thrillers, from the writers like me and J. Doncevic and AJ Brechbiel, as well as those tangentially tied in (D. Scott, Esteban from the podcast; D. Arndt and others who have helped to contribute) we all greatly appreciate you reading.

We love to hear from you; so if you have anything at all, comments, suggestions, questions, writing tips, information, news, queries about writing for us, or queries about us writing for you, be sure to leave a comment or use the Contact Us page to send us some direct feedback. We love to from all of you! Be sure if you enjoyed reading this, to rate it and like the blog post as well (that also helps with the SEO and page algorithm on sites like Google, Bing, Dogpile, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, etc.).

Thank you everyone, and cheers, and enjoy these all too few beautiful February days!

-B. Kline

]]>
2296