It always has to be hard to make these kinds of announcements on April 1st; just due to the immediate “this has to be an April Fools Joke right?” comments and responses. But; alas, no… this is no April Fools Joke. Today at 8:30 AM the Butler Brew Works Facebook announced that their tap room is closed until further notice. You can find their Facebook post here: Butler Works Announcement.

Butler Brew Works Social Media Announcement

Butler Brew Works Closed

You can read from their Facebook post here:

We apologize for any inconvenience, but our taproom will be closed until further notice.

-Butler Brew Works (Facebook Post)

As I alluded to above, most of the comments whirled around the “is this an April Fools Joke” with others refuting that – no – in fact its not. Despite Butler Brew Works not replying to the post themselves. There was one comment saying “not having a license can do that”, so I took a look to see, and found this: PLCB Status – Butler Brew Works. According to the PLCB; all four of their liquor licenses have expired. Two were for Brewery Storage, one was for a Brewery, and one was for a Brew Pub. All four have expired, with their last two expiring (Brewery Storage and Brewery) on December 31st, 2024. Meaning from January 1st until March 31st of this year they were operating without a license.

Their main brewery location was: 101 S Main St, Butler, PA 16001.

Their taproom location in Valencia was located at: 5031 Adair Ave, Valencia, PA 16059.

Both are already listed as “Permanently Closed” on Google Maps.

So it would indeed seem its hard to keep your tap room open when you do in fact not have a license.

Without operating with one for several months, and most likely getting caught and thus the shut down, I would hazard a guess that it might be quite a while til they re-open (if they do). We will keep you updated when we get more news.

More Information on Butler Brew Works

The following comes via Untappd.

Butler Brew Works is listed as a micro brewery located in Butler, PA. They have 219 unique beers and over 40,900 ratings with a global average rating of 3.74 (as of 4.1.25). Their Untappd description reads: “7bbl brewpub in Butler PA brewing adventurous ales.”

You can find them on these social media platforms:

• Butler Brew Works – Official Website
• Butler Brew Works – Facebook
• Butler Brew Works – Instagram
• Butler Brew Works – Twitter
• Butler Brew Works – Untappd

Back with a beer review – and its been a while for one of those. The most recent was This is Nut the Fluff Your Looking For by Fourscore Beer Co on March 24th and before that it was the Irish Car Bomb by Rotunda Brewing on March 16th. This beer review is a bit different… because this beer was released over two years ago. This is a science project beer review, similar to the Black and Blue Tastee beer review I did. I figure since I have the entire month of April off, I’ll do like November, and release a new blog post (at least one new blog post) each day. It’ll help me fight to keep my sanity anyway. Also, as a heads up, its come to my attention as I’ve started writing this, that the Y-U-H-N-M buttons on my laptop’s keyboard aren’t working the best (I have to press at certain angles or all but hit them). Thats what I get for letting my ten year old do her first from-home school project on my computer during this quarantine. So hopefully, I’ll catch all the errors, but sorry if any pop up.

So while everyone else was busy in the house, I cleaned out the beer fridge a bit, and in the process, found this gem buried waaaaaaaay deeeeeeeeep in the back of it, behind some September Spring House IPAs and a wet hop IPA can from Pizza Boy done with Sunny Brae hops farm (which sadly, is no more). I might due science experiment beer reviews of those beers as well, we’ll see.

I’m not a drain pour type guy, even when a beer is old, or what have you, I typically finish it (even if that entails doing a chug and just getting rid of it that way). So I had to crack this bad boy open and give it a try.

Also, as those who have been following the blog know, I’m a big Seinfeld fan – as my Haze Charmer review can attest. This particular reference stems from the episode – The Mom and Pop Store (Season 6 – Episode 8). In it, George Costanza buys what he thinks is Jon Voight (the actor)’s car. It turns out its not the real actor’s car, but a periodontist.

Ok, so lets just get to the review, enough about the sillyness that is Seinfeld and how I’ve managed to find a two year old can in the back of my beer fridge!

Beer: Jon Voights Car
Brewer: RAR Brewinng
Style: Sour – Other
ABV: 4%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: (Blank)

My original check-in on Untappd, from January 2018:
Super tart. A little sweet but not cloying. Downright delicious. The plum isn’t as noticeable as the boysenberry or currants. Thanks Matt!

(I had gotten a four-pack from a friend in a trade, thus the shout-out.)

But, lets break it down, now.

Appearance is a vibrant, pretty, royal purple. Foamy still with a great amount of carbonation still. Its sparkly, its pretty, it looks just like a sour. Despite its age, nothing looks off, even leaves a nice purplish foamy head and leaves good lacing too.

Aroma its not as potent as it probably would have been. Its still pretty heavy on plums, some notes of blackberries, currants, boysenberries, and possibly other berries. It smells like most sours do, fruity, tart, some pungent-ness.

Taste is still there, but this is probably where it dips the most. The plums taste a lot more acidic, a lot more funky than tart or even sour, theres an underlying heavyness to this, that I doubt was there the first time (especially for only a 4% sour). You do get some notes of boysenberry, currant, etc, but not really strong or anywhere near as powerful as I imagine it used to be. This has settled some, so the sweetness is pretty much out of it, but its still not cloying and the mouthfeel still feels right.

My original Untappd rating (two years ago): ****.75
My rating for it *NOW*: ****
Global Rating: 4.07 (as of 4.1.20)

Sorry this took so long to post. It is incredibly frustrating having to all but smash my fist through my keyboard to get the U-N-Y-M-H buttons to work, never realized just how often I use those letters!

And I know I should have done some kind of April Fools post…. but I just can’t bring myself to doing it. This past twenty days, and the next thirty days, feels like a joke enough. So please everyone, take care of yourselves, distance, washing, love your loved ones, help your communities. Cheers!

-B. Kline