Appalachian Trail - The Beer Thrillers

Did you miss me as much as I missed you? (A Look at Lindgren Craft Brewery)

AmyMWolfe — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 02:05:07 +0000

A look back in the brewhouse at Lindgren Craft Brewery

Did you miss me as much as I missed you?

This whole mom thing IS NOT EASY. I admit, I am struggling at times. How are we supposed to juggle full time careers, kids, chores around the house…..I mean at that point forget about having any sort of social life. I am struggling to find that balance. So, I asked my Boo (Ben) to plan a date night. I just need some adult alone time.

This may have come as a shocker, but we went to a brewery! LOL! Juggling our schedules and Scarlet make it very hard to find an evening to go out together. To say I was excited for an evening at a brewery felt like an understatement. Maybe the excitement was a bit much since I pretty much drove right past Lindgren Craft Brewery! It is inside old Duncannon National Bank, and it feels so niche and cool.

A Look at Lindgren Craft Brewery

Duncannon National Bank (photo courtesy of the Perry County Heritage Trail)

According to PerryCountyHeritageTrail.com the bank was built in 1889.

This was the first building in Perry County to be devoted exclusively to banking. Before the Duncannon National Bank, the safe at the Duncannon Iron Works was used to protect large sums of money. Currency was dispatched from banks in Harrisburg and Carlisle as needed. It was common for merchants and businesses to act as banks and lenders before banks become more common in the 20th century.

If you aren’t careful, you will get lost in the Lindgren tap list. It was tough to pick out that first pint. The variety of styles and flavors is not something all breweries can encapsulate but Lindgren certainly held our attention.

I mean it had been a minute since we got out; but I started out heavy with the “To Infinity and Beyond”, a porter brewed with 86 pounds of Milky Way Bars and 23 pounds of cocoa nibs, and it was served on Nitro. I was drooling just thinking about it, so I went all in. Ben got the Diane & Ross…No Supremes, a black Kolsch. Both were amazing!

The Kolsch was deceiving because in Kolsch fashion it was light and refreshing but it was a black Kolsch. You still got some dark and roasty flavors. It was brewed with additions of Carafa malt for color. The Porter was dark and delicious, everything you expect from a well brewed porter and. I thought at first, I might be overloaded with the milky way flavor, but the sweetness was perfectly balanced out with the full bodied roastyness of the porter.

Our burger at Lindgren

We had to get some food to go along with the delicious brews (Duncannon Ghost Kitchen Food Menu). The Duncannon Ghost Kitchen run by the Old Trail Tavern & Steak is nestled inside the brewery as a separate business but they definitely blend well together (Lindgren Craft Brewery and Duncannon Ghost Kitchen Partnership). We nibbled on the Bavarian Pretzel Flight and the classic Cheeseburger. Do Not think these are your typical brewery food staples, although I hope these will be for Lindgren, The Bavarian pretzel flight wasn’t your typical giant pretzel put on display as a peacocking type of appetizer. They were pretzel bites tossed in some sort of yummy seasoning. Perfect to toss into your mouth with some beer as you are enjoying the evening. The classic cheeseburger was a mix of short rib, chuck and brisket certified Angus beef. chefs kiss

A flight at Lindgren Craft Brewery.

We decided to order a flight next and try some more styles. We picked out 4 easily with Taking Selfies with Turkeys Blonde/Golden Ale, I love Mary Jane IPA, Rebels of the Sacred Heart Red Ale and Of Lords and Ladies a Mild Dark. From the refreshing spark of the Blonde to the caramelly and gentle bitter from the Mild they all went down easily and great with the food we were sharing.

We had fun checking out the old bank vault where they house the drawers for the Keyholders membership. You even track your monthly membership pour with a draft card kept in your drawer in the safe. That is also where they sell their merchandise.

After we got done eating, Mike Lindgren stopped by again (we ran into him just as we were originally sitting down), and invited us along back with Sean and Mark from Liquid Noise Brewing Company (who won our 2024 Battle of the Breweries Tournament).

I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know much about the brewing process. All I know is I’m a chick that likes drinking good quality craft beer. Listening to Mike and the guys from Liquid Noise geek about the craft of brewing beer was still music to my ears. That’s what I see in a brewery; a favorite community spot with an affliction to taking pride in your craft. Perhaps I’ll be requesting Liquid Noise for my next date night with my Benjamin. We do need to get together with them on hosting a big bash for them winning this year’s Battle of the Breweries tournament, why not make more of our date nights kill two birds with one stone.

As Lindgren finally gets the chance to settle in we can’t wait to see the brewery grow. Also, I can’t wait for a sign on the building so maybe I won’t blow by it.

Drink more Beer
- Amy

Pictures Amy Took Inside Lindgren Craft Brewery

(Editor Ben Note: I didn’t quite know how to work these other pictures into the article better, with their size and everything, so I am including them all into this section.)

Amy took some fantastic pictures of the Bank Vault inside Lindgren Craft Brewery, where they keep all of the Keyholder Mug Club member stuff as well as their merchandise for sale. She also grabbed some great pics of the brewhouse while Mike showed us around inside there and talked shop. Of course she also grabbed excellent pics of the beers, the atmosphere, and the food at Lindgren Craft Brewery as well. Make sure you follow us on our Instagram to see more great pictures: The Beer Thrillers on Instagram.

End Notes

(Stolen from the previous column Amy wrote, I feel this is still applicable here as well unfortunately.)

(This is Amy’s first column back after a while. Busy with Scarlet, life, and everything in general, its great to see her jumping back into her Personal Column series again. We have sorely been missing her weekly posts here on the blog, so its so wonderfully great to have her back. You can find her full list of ‘Weekly’ Personal Column series below.)

Amy’s Column Series

Since getting back to writing for the blog after a short hiatus, Amy has started up a weekly column style writing for the blog. You can find these articles here:

Thank You For Reading

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Big 3 Day Weekend

BKline — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 13:00:00 +0000

Breweries and Events for the big 3 day weekend

Big Weekend

Got a big weekend lined up for us here at The Beer Thrillers. With the kingpin of the trip being the Cushwa 5 Year Anniversary Celebration.

Just about to head out as soon as my friend arrives. Today might be the biggest part of the trip, with the plan being:

Friday

Leave Home
Stop at the bank
Get gas at Sheetz

Then its time to hit the breweries:

Dogfish Head Brewery
Burley Oak Brewery
Tall Tales Brewery
Burnish Beer Co
Loakal Branch Brewery
RAR Brewing
Cult Classic Brewery
Street Car Brewing
City – State Brewery
Audacious Ale
True Respite Brewery
Harper’s Ferry Brewing
Antietam Brewery

And then end the day at our hotel. And then Saturday, the main event begins:

Saturday

Uber from Hotel to Historic Springfield Barn for the Cushwa Brewfest
Uber to Cushwa Brewery
Walk to Homaide Brewery
Uber back to Hotel

Sunday

Sunday will be a bit more of a peaceful day, as far as drinking goes. It will still be a fun and eventful day.

Leave Hotel
Antietam Battlefield
Harper’s Ferry
Harper’s Ferry Brewery (if we don’t get to it on Friday)
Abolitionist Ale Works
Charlestown Casino
Appalachian Trail C.O. Canal Towpath
Milkhouse Brewery
Fourscore Beer Co
Gettysburg
Home

We’ll see how it goes. Tomorrow morning before the brewfest, I’ll give a recap of how Friday (today) went. And then Sunday morning, I’ll give a recap of the brewfest. And then after Sunday some point, I’ll do a full article of our travels just like my previous travelogues. Be sure to check in for all of it!

Thanks For Reading

Thanks for reading everyone. Hope you can follow along with our wacky adventures, and hopefully we’ll get to most of the breweries on the list. (I always overbook the itineraries.)

Be sure to check in each day with the recaps!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

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Hike: Hawk Rock (Duncannon, Pennsylvania)

BKline — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 16:44:17 +0000

Sunset at Hawk Rock on Earth Day 2021

What better way to spend Earth Day than out hiking in nature itself? Is there a better way to spend Earth Day then… actually spending time with the Earth? Its like visiting your mother on mother’s day, or watching a baseball game with your dad on father’s day. Its what you do.

Thats called “being a good kid” or “being a good offspring”.

This is the second “hike review” here on the blog. I’ve covered Hawk Rock before (Hiking Hawk Rock and Visiting Liquid Noise) as a bit of a travelogue. Liquid Noise, the brewery, in Marysville is right on the way to and from Hawk Rock (if traveling to / from Harrisburg) and makes for a great re-hydration spot and refreshment location.

My previous “hike review” was the Rattling Run and Walking Tank Trail which you can read there by clicking that link.

Earth Day

Earth Day 2021 was a bit windy, “blustery” as one might say, but not horrible, a slight chill with the wind, but not too bad. Still a great day for hiking with my favorite trusty puppy friend. By now, I like to think most people know what Earth Day is, or at least that its “a day”. Not that its an incredibly special day, there’s no fireworks, most people still have to go to school on it, etc, but its still a ‘notable day’. But for those interested, here’s some more information, as per Wikipedia:

“Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EarthDay.org (formerly Earth Day Network)^[1] including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries.^[1][2]” (Source: Earth Day – Wikipedia) (I’ll include a longer passage from the site later on in the article.)

Years ago, on Earth Day, Troegs Independent Brewing in Hershey gave away free hop rhizomes. Two consecutive years, at their Hershey brewery on Earth Day, if you bought a draft of Cultivator you could get a can that was filled with topsoil and had a hop rhizome in it. The one year it was Chinook and the other year it was Saaz. They might have done it more than those two years, but those are the ones I’m aware of / and went and participated in.

Hawk Rock

Hawk Rock is a beautiful vista view that’s in Duncannon / Marysville Pennsylvania. It’s a vista just off of the Appalachian Trail, as well as its own trail from a trailhead at the base of the hill. If you go up past the lookout view of Hawk Rock, there is the Appalachian Trail (the AT) and that stretches in both directions and provides some nice views and hiking as well. Most travelers to Hawk Rock go for just the climb to the vista and back down, and its a relatively easy to moderate climb, and not too far either (1.9 Miles according to AllTrails). It has a few steep (and really, thats stretching the term a bit) areas on the climb up, but for the most part, its moderately difficult at best. There’s a lot of rock cut steps and it does switch – back on itself a fair bit, but its a pretty steady, easy climb.

Most vista views aren’t this easy, or as short of a distance either, so this is perfect for someone just wanting a nice quick, somewhat taxing view. A good hike and climb that will make you ‘feel like you did something’ or ‘accomplished’ a goal despite not having to do that hard of a workout. Plus, the view is incredible from the top, at all times of the year, and especially at sunset.

Speaking of sunsets:

Sunset at Hawk Rock

Lead Up

I had wanted to take pup dog (Leela) out for our hike earlier in the day, but due to a slow morning start, and then getting a call that my daughter was needed to be taken to a doctor’s appointment, it didn’t happen until a bit later. So after running some errands and taking my daughter to her appointment, and dropping her back off with the ex-wife I took Leela to Hawk Rock. From Hummelstown, its roughly a 30 minute drive (Google Maps will say anywhere from 30 – 35 minutes depending on time of day). I arrived at the parking area at the base of the trail at 5:20PM.

Hawk Trail via Appalachian Trail

Hike: Hawk Trail via Appalachian Trail
Location: State Game Lands Number 290
Near: Duncannon, Perry County, Pennsylvania
Length: 1.9 Miles (as per AllTrails)
Elevation Gain: 761 Feet Gain (as per AllTrails)
Route Type: Out and Back
AllTrails Map: Hawk Rock via Appalachian Trail
AllTrails Description: Hawk Rock via Appalachian Trail is a 1.9 mile heavily trafficked out and back trail located near Duncannon, Pennsylvania that features beautiful wild flowers and is rated as moderate. The trail is primarily used for hiking, walking, nature trips, and bird watching and is best used from March until October. Dogs are also able to use this trail but must be kept on leash.

The Hike

My hike of Hawk Rock and Appalachian Trail via MapMyRun

As you can see, I didn’t just do the 1.9 miles of the Hawk Rock trail that AllTrails shows. I decided I would hike and walk some of the Appalachian Trail as well. Why not right? Beautiful day and night and a beautiful scenic area. Why not hike it! Plus its Earth Day afterall!

At the start of the hike, at the foot of the trailhead, I could immediately hear the sound of a woodpecker. and sure enough, about two minutes onto the trail, there he was.

Start of the hike and the woodpecker

I tried taking a video of him as he ‘worked’ on the tree, but of course he just stared at me instead, so I left him be and continued my hike up to the Hawk Rock vista with Leela. The walk up was pretty uneventful, only passing one older (I would say late 60s) couple.

Got to the top – (well, the vista outlook, there’s a small incline to go yet to get to the Appalachian Trail) – and as always, the view was amazing and wonderful, and Leela was a good sport posing for me – to the best of her ability – while I took some pictures.

The view from Hawk Rock

I sat and enjoyed the view and my time with Leela for a bit, until another couple came up, and I then took my leave and went up the small incline to the Appalachian Trail. I first took it out towards the river, where I know there’s another outlook and view over the river. From here, there is the trail down to get back to the road and to continue on with the Appalachian Trail, but I instead turned back and went the way I came, then passing the spur to get back to Hawk Rock, I kept going as if I was on my way to Cove Shelter. The way out was uneventful… but the way back… was at least… new to me.

Above the Hawk Rock – the Appalachian Trail and then the other overlook, this time overlooking the Susquehanna River.

I was going to keep going for a while, but it was starting to get late, and doing the mental math of my walking and time, I figured it’d be a bit after 8PM til I came down from the mountain (and with no tablets and commandments to show for it!), so instead of going as far as I’ve gone before in this direction, I turned back towards the spur for Hawk Rock.

On the way back, around 7:15-7:30PM, I encountered… for the first time in the wild… Mr…..

Mr. Porcupine

Mr. Porcupine. This was my first time encountering one in the wild. Was very interesting to see one, and relatively up close (at about a distance of 15 feet or so). I quickly grabbed Leela’s leash (because up on the trail I had left her go, but hadn’t unhooked her leash just in case), and she also immediately saw the animal. Leela isn’t an extremely excitable dog, nor is she very aggressive, but I was still taking no chances, especially with the limited knowledge I have of porcupines. But, luckily, she too was in the ‘cautious’ frame of mind, and kind of stayed behind me and kept a close distance to me behind my legs, as we skirted the path and area around the porcupine. It turned its back on us, which I was pretty sure wasn’t going to be a good sign, but he stayed still, and then as we kept moving, he went back to his foraging, and we kept on our way.

We then made it back to Hawk Rock just in time for a gorgeous sunset. This is about the fourth or fifth time I’ve visited Hawk Rock now, and each time I just can’t get enough of the view, especially at sunset, always gorgeous, no matter what time of year.

The sunset at Hawk Rock

I then made my way down the mountain and back to my car. Sadly, like I said, there was no commandments or tablets given to me up on the mountain, and I didn’t look like a man who had led people in a desert for forty years, but all the same, it was a wonderful trip and hike, and a great view and was a much needed refresher for the lungs, brain, feet, body, and soul.

If you are ever in the Duncannon, Marysville, or Perry County area, I highly recommend this small hike. It has a gorgeous view, it is moderately tough to get your blood pumping a bit at least and to make you think like your working hard, and just offers a wonderful getaway from the hustle and bustle of life. Also, nearby is Perry County’s first brewery – Liquid Noise, so give them a visit as well for some tasty re-hydration brewskies.

As always, thanks for reading everyone, hope you enjoy these hike reviews, there will be more to come. As well as more travelogues, brewery visits, beer reviews, brewery news, book reviews, and more, so be sure to check us out regularly, and to make sure to stop by and see what all we got going on. You can read on for more information from Wikipedia about Earth Day and Porcupines. Hope you all had a wonderful Earth Day as well, let us know what you did on Earth Day in the comments section!

Cheers!

More Information

Earth Day:

Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EarthDay.org (formerly Earth Day Network)^[1] including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries.^[1]^[2]

In 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco, peace activist John McConnell proposed a day to honor the Earth and the concept of peace, to first be observed on March 21, 1970, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. This day of nature’s equipoise was later sanctioned in a proclamation written by McConnell and signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations. A month later United States Senator Gaylord Nelson proposed the idea to hold a nationwide environmental teach-in on April 22, 1970. He hired a young activist, Denis Hayes, to be the National Coordinator. Nelson and Hayes renamed the event “Earth Day”. Denis and his staff grew the event beyond the original idea for a teach-in to include the entire United States. More than 20 million people poured out on the streets, and the first Earth Day remains the largest single day protest in human history. Key non-environmentally focused partners played major roles. Under the leadership of labor leader Walter Reuther, for example, the United Auto Workers (UAW) was the most instrumental outside financial and operational supporter of the first Earth Day.^[3]^[4]^[5] According to Hayes, “Without the UAW, the first Earth Day would have likely flopped!”^[6] Nelson was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom award in recognition of his work.^[7]

The first Earth Day was focused on the United States. In 1990, Denis Hayes, the original national coordinator in 1970, took it international and organized events in 141 nations.^[8]^[9]^[10]

On Earth Day 2016, the landmark Paris Agreement was signed by the United States, the United Kingdom, China, and 120 other countries. This signing satisfied a key requirement for the entry into force of the historic draft climate protection treaty adopted by consensus of the 195 nations present at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris.

Numerous communities engaged in Earth Day Week actions, an entire week of activities focused on the environmental issues that the world faces.^[11] On Earth Day 2020, over 100 million people around the world observed the 50th anniversary in what is being referred to as the largest online mass mobilization in history.^[2] (Source: Earth Day – Wikipedia)

Porcupines:

Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two families of animals: the Old World porcupines of family Hystricidae, and the New World porcupines of family Erethizontidae. Both families belong to the infraorder Hystricognathi within the profoundly diverse order Rodentia and display superficially similar coats of quills. Despite this, the two groups are distinct from one another and are not closely related to each other within the Hystricognathi. The largest species of porcupine is the third-largest living rodent in the world after the capybara and beaver.

The Old World porcupines live in Southern Europe, Asia (western^[1] and southern), and most of Africa. They are large, terrestrial, and strictly nocturnal. In taxonomic terms, they form the family Hystricidae.

The New World porcupines are indigenous to North America and northern South America. They live in wooded areas and can climb trees, where some species spend their entire lives. They are less strictly nocturnal than their Old World relatives, and generally smaller. In taxonomic terms, they form the family Erethizontidae.

Most porcupines are about 60–90 cm (25–36 in) long, with a 20–25 cm (8–10 in) long tail. Weighing 5–16 kg (12–35 lb), they are rounded, large, and slow, and use an aposematic strategy of defence. Porcupines’ colouration consists of various shades of brown, grey and white. Porcupines’ spiny protection resembles that of the unrelated erinaceomorph hedgehogs and Australian monotreme echidnas as well as tenrecid tenrecs. (Source: Porcupine – Wikipedia)

Hawk Rock
Hawk Rock via Appalachian Trail is a 1.9 mile heavily trafficked out and back trail located near Duncannon, Pennsylvania that features beautiful wild flowers and is rated as moderate. The trail is primarily used for hiking, walking, nature trips, and bird watching and is best used from March until October. Dogs are also able to use this trail but must be kept on leash. (AllTrails)

Thanks for reading everyone!

Beer Review: Mutant Temple (Strange Roots Experimental Ales)

BKline — Sat, 26 Dec 2020 23:46:28 +0000

I’ve had several beers over the years from Strange Roots Experimental Ales (aka Drai Laag), and I’ve never had a single bad beer from them. Mostly known for their sours, saisons, and the like, this one is actually an IPA.

When I go hiking, I like to enjoy a good ‘hike’ beer, especially at the top or vista point of a beautiful hiking trail. In this case, it was Pinnacle Point in Kempton, Pennsylvania. (Just outside of Hamburg Pennsylvania.) (This beer was also covered in my travelogue about Pinnacle Overlook, Pinnacle Peak, and Pulpit Rock and the hike there, you can check that out here: Pinnacle Overlook, 1787 Brewing Company, and Schaylor Brewing.)

This is another case of beautiful can art. Also, since this was a trail beer, I didn’t have a glass, and drank it straight from the can; like a heathen, a barbarian, an outdoors man, a rogue hiker, a man’s man. …or well, just a person who didn’t feel like carrying around a glass, and hiking for four hours and eight miles carrying a glass that could break, especially while his hiking buddy is a four legged beast that best resembles a wolf on her best days….. (don’t worry Leela, I still love you).

So, this review will be forgoing the “appearance” section, though, I have seen pictures of it on Untappd, and it looks in the pictures I’ve seen, like a light straw colored IPA / saison looking beer, but I won’t go into details, since I did not see it with my own eyes.

Mutant Temple on the hike leading up to Pinnacle Overlook

For any people familiar with Pinnacle Overlook and the hike there; right before you get to the gorgeous vista of the Pinnacle Overlook, there is a giant cairn. Cairn works… but not really. Most people associate cairns with tombstones and what people would do to bury people in places they couldn’t dig the earth up or make a grave for, so they would dig as much as they could, and then cover them in rocks to keep prey from getting to the remains. But the true definition of cairn is: “a heap of stones set up as a landmark, a monument, a tombstone, etc.” (Dictionary.com Definition: Cairn.) (For more about graves…. you can read my beer review on Shallow Grave by Heretic Brewing …. yay for cheap plugs! I feel like Mick Foley!) Anyway, its right before you get to the overlook, its a giant stone and rock heaped pile. The very first time I went and hiked the trail, I almost thought – this was it. This giant pile, this cairn, this heap of rocks and stones, was it, and this was the “view” and the Pinnacle everyone was talking about. (Pinnacle being the height of something.) Thank goodness I walked past it and saw this gorgeous overlook….

Pinnacle Overlook in Kempton, Pennsylvania

Needless to say, this view is a lot better…. A LOT…. better than just a pile of stinking rocks (or non-stinking rocks). To get to this point, it was about a 3.5 mile hike. (Going back down, since I took a different route, and stopped at Pulpit Rocks, it was another 4.5-5 miles, making it 8-8.5 miles all told of just the mountain, plus getting to and from the car.) So, I camped out here a bit with my dog, Leela, which by now anyone reading the blog regularly has heard of quite a bit or seen in the background of pictures (she’s an 11 year old border collie that is commonly mistaken for an Australian Shepherd, named after Leela from Futurama). I didn’t bring food with, since I was going to visit 1787 Brewing Company in Hamburg afterwards, but I did enjoy my beer on the ledge with my faithful furball companion, and then did the treacherous, very rocky hike back down – which is the Appalachian Trail path.

All in all, if you are ever near Kempton or Hamburg area of Pennsylvania, and love beautiful views, where you can see and feel the turkey buzzards, hawks, and other large birds soaring right past your head, this is definitely a great hike and a beautiful view. From Hershey its roughly a 45-50 minute drive.

Mutant Temple by Strange Roots Experimental Ales

Beer: Mutant Temple
Brewery: Strange Roots Experimental Ales
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 5.3%
IBU: 5
Untappd Description: IPA dry hopped with Citra.

Since I’m not doing an appearance segment for this beer review, let me just say, I thought this cairn was the perfect picture opportunity for this beer. It looked alien, strange, mutant like, and would be a Hollywood esque temple location; like something filmed for a Star Wars planet or something. Also, the can art for Mutant Temple is phenomenal to, here it is:

Mutant Temple can art by Strange Roots Experimental Ales

Here also, I want to bring up Strange Roots Experimental Ales. According to Untappd, they are a micro brewery out of Gibsonia Pennsylvania (near Pittsburgh). They have 394 unique beers with over 102K ratings, and a global average rating of 3.86. The Untappd description reads: “Strange Roots exists at the intersection of farmhouse brewing tradition and creative, locally-driven experimentation. We’re passionate about celebrating our environment through the use of local ingredients, varying fermentation methods and micro flora, and strive to create unique artisan ales inspired by our surroundings here in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains.”

Ok, now lets get back to the beer review.

(Skipping the appearance… sorry folks…. moving right along to aroma…) Coming out of the can you get a very citra hoppy aroma. Not surprising since this is a Citra dry hopped IPA. Citra has probably become the most used hop in America in the past two years, primarily for New England IPAs, and primarily because of that. Its a very juicy hop, and gives off a ton of lime, citrus, grapefruit, some peach, some mango, and tropical fruit notes. Both aromatically and in taste. Due to the proliferation of New England IPAs in the past two years, its market has exploded, usually used in conjunction with mosaic. (Cue up the Hallmark Christmas movies meme of Mosaic & Citra.) This is a strong IPA, but not as potent as most New England IPAs, and its definitely not a New England IPA, but it has a very strong citrus, lime, aroma; some notes of grapefruit and peach and mango.

Tasting this, (out of the can, not from a glass, just for perspective’s sake), this is definitely not a New England IPA; but a classic American / West Coast IPA. But its not full blown hop bitter West Coast IPA. Its nothing like Perpetual IPA, or Hop Slam, or something extremely high IBU or hop heavy. This is smoother, but not New England smooth, its not pure juice, but its still a juicer IPA than most West Coast styled ones. Theres a great deal of hop flavor , and some hop bitterness, but I think its smoothed because its dry hopped, especially with it being dry hopped with such a fruity hop like Citra. You get some earthy hop notes, a bit of pine, a wee bit of grassy-ness, to it, but overall the citra elements kick it into ultra drive on this, and you get a lot of the fruitier, more notable hop tastes from the citra; like lime, citrus, grapefruit, bit of peach, bit of mango, some tropical fruits, and the like, and this rounds it out and makes it a lot more tastier, seems to give it a lot more to the beer. I wouldn’t call it an extremely fruity or floral or juicy IPA or beer, but its got a lot of fruit forward flavors, its still definitely an IPA, there’s still the bite and the hop – ness to it, still some bitterness to it; still a “beer’s beer”. There is a nice body to it, and its got a good mouthfeel, it doesn’t feel too light or weak or watery. It’s also only 5.3% ABV, so thats really not bad, almost in the low regions by most beer standards nowadays. Most IPAs clock in the 6-7.5% range; and DIPAs then going from 7-9%. (Of course, then there’s also TIPAs and QIPAs even nowadays too.) I like the low ABV on this, especially for hiking, and despite picking it up at Breski’s as part of a mix-a-six, I could definitely dig this in a four pack and crush it. Would make for a great mowing beer, or working around the house, or shower beer, something where a nice beer would fit, but you don’t need or want to get hammered or pounded or anything. The Untappd description also lists it at only 5 IBU, but it does (still) have a hop bite and some bitterness. There’s no off flavors or after taste, nothing you’ll be burping up hours later, nothing off, or cloying, just a nice drinking beer. Great for hiking up a hill / mountain with your pooch!

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.93 (as of 12.26.20)

Untappd actually has a checkin spot for Pinnacle Overlook, you can see it here: Pinnacle Overlook on Untappd. I love how for even far to reach hiking places and spots where not even WiFi exists, or I even get internet, there’s still Untappd check-in spots. Thank. Goodness.

Thank you all for reading. 2020 is winding down, and we’re getting near to the end of the year. January 4th will be soon here too, and hopefully Governor Wolfe will be updating the mandates, and letting us get back to drinking and eating indoors at breweries, pubs, restaurants, and bars. In the meantime, get out there and help support local breweries. Support your favorite places, and tip your favorite staff, they all need it! (I know as someone furloughed / laid off / unemployed because of this recent shut down, its a tough time and a tough season, especially with it being the holidays too.) So help out wherever and however you can.

As always, make sure you are taking all the precautions everyone. Stay safe out there, mask up, wash your hands, don’t lick doorknobs, etc.

Cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

Some recent beer reviews:

Mutant Temple by Strange Roots Experimental Ales

Two Beer Reviews: Hazy Burd (Ship Faced Brewing) and Pin-Up Girl Basic Witch (Janky Brew Co) at Maxie’s Brewhouse after hiking Sunset Rocks

BKline — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 03:30:00 +0000

Hazy Burd and Pin-Up Girl Basic Witch

So tonight’s post won’t be your typical beer review. This will be a double beer review, and even though I’ve done a few of them in the past, this is a bit different than that. I’ve done a couple of multiple beer reviews in the past (typically flights at a brewery), and I’ve done two other articles that were dual (two) beer reviews. They were: Fresh Fest and Trail Day Pale Ale (by Troegs Brewing) and Pineapple Kolsch (Desperate Times) and Dry Irish Stout (Riverbend Hop Farm and Brewing). (Riverbend Hop Farm and Brewery just recently closed their doors which makes that review interesting in hindsight, you can read about their closing here – Riverbend Hop Farm and Brewery Announces Closing.)

Today’s double review comes from Maxie’s Brewhouse in Shippensburg. Its two different breweries / brewers that I’m reviewing (Ship Faced Brewing and Janky Brew Co). Maxie’s Brewhouse is kind of interesting. Its like an agglomeration of home brewers that rotate on their tap list and you can order. A friend of mine – Matt Kauffman – who ran the beer blog TBC (Tribeeratops Beer Club), which was a blog for him and a bunch of his friends, and he began homebrewing and turned it into TBC – Tribeeratops Brewing Company.

When we stopped in, they had a sheet of their draft specials. I’m not sure what their full menu was, or how many different beers or brewers were on tap, but on the sheet they had a 4$ beer from Olde Bedford, a 4$ hard cider, and then some 3$ draft specials from Ship Faced Brewing and Janky Beer Co. I had messaged Matt on my way in, and he told me he no longer brews for them. So I’m not sure what all else they had on tap, but these were the ones they did have on tap for certain. Their Facebook page showed a flight with different beers than I saw on their draft special sheet, so they must’ve had a pretty good variety of beers on draft but I just didn’t see a menu list of them anywhere. You can find Maxie’s on Facebook here: Maxie’s Brewhouse LLC.

Yesterday, I had hiked the Pine Grove Furnace State Park and did Pole Steeple with my dog Leela. Today me and my friend Ming hiked Sunset Rocks and some of the Appalachian Trail and did some of Camp Michaux and the walking tour of it; which is all in Gardners Pennsylvania. Shippensburg was about a fifteen – twenty minute drive from the hike, and I hadn’t been to Maxie’s yet to get to try some of these new brewers, so we hopped over there for our lunch / beers.

On the Sunset Rocks / Appalachian Trail hike my hiking beers for the day were – Green Machine by Boneshire Brew Works and Animal I’ve Become by Ever Grain. Both fridge pulls that were of IPAs that are starting to get up in age (canning for this Green Machine was a bit ago), but both still held up very well and were excellent trail beers.

Animal I’ve Become and Green Machine – my hiking beers

It was a very nice hike, we did about 5 some miles of hiking counting the Camp Michaux walking tour and CCC / POW camp that we walked through, as well as the Appalachian Trail we walked through. The Sunset Rocks overlook view was very pretty, even with the cloudy weather. Temperature wise it was great, hot and sweating when we were hiking, but not too cold or too warm when we were standing still.

I’ll post some pictures of the overlook view, Appalachian Trail, and Camp Michaux at the end of the article if you want to see them. I also have some links for more information about Camp Michaux at the end as well (mainly, because I knew nothing about this camp before we hiked the area, so hopefully this will be informative for other people as well).

But in the meantime, let’s get to the two beers and review them.

First up….. Hazy Burd.

Hazy Burd by Ship Faced Brewing

Beer: Hazy Burd
Brewery: Ship Faced Brewing
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 6.3%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: (Blank)

Ship Faced Brewing is listed on Untappd as a nano brewery from Shippensburg, and has 13 unique beers, 199 total ratings and an average rating of 3.76.

This is a bright yellow to golden New England style hazy IPA. Thin white head to it but with nice bubbles and left nice lacing on the glass. Its hazy and opaque with some sediment and floaters. Its light looking and a bit watery looking.

Aroma is pretty hoppy, floral and citrus. No earthy or grassy or pine hop notes. Some creaminess or vanilla aroma but very mild. Mostly floral or citrus hop notes, some peach, mango, maybe faint grapefruit aroma.

This is a pretty solid and standard New England IPA. There’s not a whole extreme lot to discuss, but it is a solid beer. Its a bit watery, a bit papery thin in mouthfeel, but it has good flavor. Its smooth and has either lactose, vanilla, or a lot of flaked oats to give it a smooth / silky taste and slickness to it. Its easy drinking and pretty crushable. No hop bite, no real IPA bitterness, just the juiciness that comes from a New England IPA. Hop flavors are peach, mango, light grapefruit, perhaps a bit of melon rind, no earthy, no zest or citrus, no grassy or pine or bitterness. I can’t say anything bad about this beer, its good, clean, juicy, tastes great, has a little bit of sediment, a little watery and thin, but nothing bad, no off flavors, no bad aftertaste, nothing you’re burping up hours later. This is a perfectly fine and delicious beer.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.77 (as of 11.21.20)

Next up is…. Pin-Up Girl Basic Witch.

Pin-Up Girl Basic Witch

Beer: Pin-Up Girl Basic Witch
Brewery: Janky Beer Co
Style: Blonde Ale
ABV: 4.5%
IBU: 30
Untappd Description: Brewed with local coffee and has a dash of pumpkin spice with Tahitian vanilla bean

Janky Beer Co on Untappd is listed as a Contract Brewer through Shippensburg Pennsylvania. With 45 unique beers, 895 ratings, and an average global rating of 3.92. Their Untappd description reads: A one off one of a kind brewery working in Maxie’s Brew Pub.

This was an interesting beer. It looks and doesn’t look like a blonde ale, and doesn’t taste much like one at all. (None of these things are negatives, just statements.) It more reminds me of a pumpkin beer or yam beer than a blonde ale, especially the tastes. The appearance is a hazy, darker blonde ale than normal, with more of a darker golden orange coloring than a lighter yellow to golden look.

Aroma is one hundred and ten percent spice beer, like any pumpkin beer, the spices are overwhelming and all you smell. I couldn’t even smell coffee on this or any distinguishable characteristic of a blonde ale, but got lots and lots of spices. Nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, and probably some other spices I’m not really able to distinguish. I don’t think its ‘too much’ but it is a bit overpowering, and I would go as far as saying its definitely more than a ‘dash’ of the spices.

This is an interesting and tasty beer. I got very little coffee but the spices are very overpowering on this. There might be coffee that intermingles and makes the taste of the spices jump out more, but what you take notice upfront and right away is the spices. They really leap out and tackle your tastebuds. This has a stronger and heavier mouthfeel than the New England IPA earlier (Hazy Burd), but its still somewhat light being only a 4.5% blonde ale. Its smooth to drink and has a nice slick, smooth, creaminess most likely from the Tahitian Vanilla Beans, but you don’t really taste the vanilla. This isn’t boozy or heavy, but it also feels heavy, mostly I think because it has a good mouthfeel and the spices, so its more of a sipping beer than one to drink quickly, and I certainly wouldn’t drink a four pack or anything of this at one sitting due to the spices being a bit overbearing. This was an enjoyable beer, a bit overhanded on the spices, (I was burping the taste of this beer for a few hours afterwards), but still a good, well crafted beer that I’d get again.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.7 (as of 11.21.20)

Overall both beers were enjoyable. I wish I would have asked about what their full menu was and maybe did a flight or something, got to try more than just the two, but for 6$ the two drafts were not bad. Ming got cheesesteak egg rolls for 8$ and we shared fries for 3$, so not a bad bit of food and drink for relatively low price. (They might want to do a better job of saying what all beers they have than just that special list, maybe it was on a different part of the QR code, not sure.)

If again in Shippensburg, I’ll make sure to stop in. When we were there at 3:30-4, it was empty (we were the only ones in until a couple came in right before we left). They were doing live music in the evening though so I’m sure it would pick up.

The following will be the pictures and the links about Camp Michaux.

Pictures of Sunset Rocks overlook:

Sunset Rocks Overlook at Gardners, Pennsylvania

Pictures of Camp Michaux:

Camp Michaux and Appalachian Trail to Halfway Spring

Links for further reading on Camp Michaux:

Tomorrow I will – hopefully – fingers crossed – toes crossed – hopefully – have the first article from the Indy trip done. (No matter what, I will have an article, as I’m still doing my November 30 for 30.) So be on the lookout for that.

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

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Thanks for reading everyone, hope you enjoyed the ‘dual beer’ review, and enjoyed the pictures from the hike.

Cheers!

-B. Kline