Aslin - The Beer Thrillers https://thebeerthrillers.com Central PA beer enthusiasts and beer bloggers. Homebrewers, brewery workers, and all around beer lovers. Sat, 26 Nov 2022 17:09:35 +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 Aslin - The Beer Thrillers https://thebeerthrillers.com 32 32 187558884 Small Business Saturday 2022 https://thebeerthrillers.com/2022/11/26/small-business-saturday-2022/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=small-business-saturday-2022 Sat, 26 Nov 2022 17:09:30 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=9950
Small Business Saturday 2022

Small Business Saturday 2022

Now that you’re done hunting for the Bourbon County Brand Stouts yesterday or hitting up Shangy’s for their hundreds of different Black Friday stouts, or gone down to Aslin to get their yearly releases, its time to celebrate Small Business Saturday.

Lots of breweries are getting in on the act of Small Business Saturday. And to be frankly honest, there is no better shopping day that showcases breweries than this (well, except for the “Small Brewery Sunday” that will be tomorrow). Almost all breweries can be considered “small business” and “local business”. As I always like to say here on the blog, “Support Local” “Drink Local” “Support Small Business” “Support Small Breweries” etc. The brewery owners, brewers, bartenders, cooks, and workers at your local brewery are your own town residents. Their not ‘fat cat CEOs’ like AB InBev, or Coors, or Miller. Their not out jet flying, living it up in clubs, mansions, etc. Their the guy who helps coach your kid’s T – Ball team or helps Tina not fall on her butt at gymnastics too much, or maybe their the ones volunteering to be a crossing guard to get your kids to school safely, etc.

What I’m saying is – craft breweries are local businesses. They support their communities. They help their communities through volunteer work, through giving back, by providing local jobs, by being a local restaurant, local gathering place, a place for fundraiser events, etc.

So lets give back to them and support them and shop the local small businesses and breweries today – Small Business Saturday.

How Can You Help?

Support. Support. Support. Support. Did I say Support? Maybe in capital – SUPPORT? Maybe with spaces – S – U – P – P – O – R – T? Its pretty simple. Shop local. Shop small. Go into any local craft brewery and shop today. Merchandise, beer sales, gift cards, food to go, etc. Check out Facebook and Instagram and Twitter today and see what your local breweries are up to and what sales they have going on. Just scanning over my personal and The Beer Thrillers Facebook newsfeed I was inundated with breweries advertising sales for this whole weekend or today in particular, for merchandise like hoodies, or gift card discounts (20$ for 25$ or 20$ for 30$, etc.), buy one get one free four packs, and all kinds of deals.

A quick search on my Facebook (literally just typing into the search bar ‘Small Business Saturday’ and going through beer / brewery related pages, the following popped up) :

  • Pineknotter Brewing Company
  • First Sip Studios
  • Second Sin Brewing Company
  • Trace Brewing
  • TBC Brewing Company
  • Arboretum Trail Brewing
  • Richmond Farm And Brewery
  • Black Forest Brewery
  • Trails to Ales Brewery
  • Roundhouse Brewery
  • Something Brewery
  • Apex Brewery
  • ……etc.

And that was just a quick search. It brought up a lot of non – brewery businesses as well, and obviously my feed is tailored more towards local to Pennsylvania breweries (though some non – PA breweries did sneak in).

But getting back to the short of it – do a little bit of research, look up your favorite local brewery, be it Boneshire Brew Works, Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery, Troegs Independent Craft Brewery, ZeroDay Brewing Company, Official BBQ and Brewery, Ever Grain Brewing Company, Mellow Mink Brewing, Al’s of Hampden / Pizza Boy Brewing, etc. Just take a two to five second quick search, see what deals they got going on, and check them out.

The great thing is (nowadays) you don’t even have to leave the comfort of your own home. Most of these breweries have their own pages set up and their own merchandise stores and even beer to go or online beer ordering sites that you can just purchase through. Like Burial Brewing Company doing their Tombsgiving Weekend with free shipping (of over 100$ or more though; but still). There is lots of great options for both online, and in person now.

And speaking of shopping online, shipping has become easier and easier. Since COVID – 19 and the pandemic, the shipping laws and sales of beer has become easier and easier. Getting great local beer right to your door, and even getting great beer from some top notch breweries out of state right to your door (like Trillium, Tired Hands, Aslin, Burial, The Veil, Adroit Theory, Dogfish Head, Dewey, etc.) is even easier than it ever was before. No need for beer traders and mules!

So Lets Get Out There and Shop

So get out there and support and shop your local small businesses and small breweries. They’ve all had a rough go the last few years with the coronavirus / COVID – 19 pandemic, the inflation, the CO2 shortages, the staffing issues, the rising costs of things like wings, meat, etc, the aluminum can issues, etc. So lets get out and shop and support our favorite local craft breweries today on Small Business Saturday (November 26th, 2022)!

Thanks For Reading

I wanted to make this quick shout out to all of our awesome local craft breweries. They really deserve our support and sponsorship and business today. Instead of shopping big retail stores or big breweries like AB InBev or Coors or Miller, lets support the small mom and pop breweries. The local guys who provide us such great customer service, great beer, great food, and great atmospheres. Cheers to them! Cheers to all those hardworking brewery staff and owners. And cheers to all of you shopping and supporting local businesses, breweries, and other small stores.

Cheers All!

-B. Kline

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.

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. 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 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 #9 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. 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!

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Aslin Beer Company Confirms Their Expanding Into Pittsburgh https://thebeerthrillers.com/2021/09/14/aslin-beer-company-confirms-their-expanding-into-pittsburgh/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=aslin-beer-company-confirms-their-expanding-into-pittsburgh Tue, 14 Sep 2021 23:45:06 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=7983
Picture collage from Aslin Beer Company’s Facebook post today

And We Have Confirmation

As we posted yesterday – Aslin Beer Company Expanding to Pittsburgh – Aslin Beer Company hinted in their Instagram post about moving in at 1800 Smallman Street Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Today, 9.14.21, they posted a Facebook update that provided definitive information, and confirmed that they are indeed moving into Pittsburgh.

Aslin Beer Company’s Facebook Post

As posted on their Facebook page this morning around 9AM, Aslin Beer Company confirmed they are moving into Pittsburgh with the following Facebook post:

📣📣PGH YOU READY FOR US?! 📣📣Coming Summer 2022: Aslin’s Pittsburgh taproom & brewhouse will be located in the Strip District’s Terminal building, as part of it’s full-scale revitalization. This new space will be the hub for research and development unique to Pittsburgh. A 10-barrel brewhouse, lagering tanks, open fermenters & fouders will support new brewing processes, techniques & ingredient choices. The space will also include a 7,000 sqft taproom, second floor mezzanine, outdoor patio and cafe..

We’ll be partnering with local business @scratchco_pgh, a community-oriented restaurant that supports farmers and producers, collaborates with nonprofits & maintains a firm commitment to sustainability and equity.

Founder of Scratch & Co. Don Mahaney adds, “We are very excited to showcase the best of our region’s farms and producers on the Aslin Pittsburgh menu.”

All good things.

Stay on the lookout for more updates!.

We’re stoked to share our beer with guests and collaborate with some of the country’s best brewers who call Pittsburgh home!…

#craftbeer#drinklocal#pittsburgh#visitpittsburgh

Aslin Beer Company’s Facebook Post

New Process of Brewery Expansion?

Looks like we’re seeing what will be the future of brewery expansion, at least here in Pennsylvania. Breweries able to ship and distribute their beers and merchandise, can use this as a way to gauge interest and to project and predict growth of their companies. If their shipping sales do well, and for an extended period of time, and if there seems to be legitimate interest in the area, and good real estate for such a move, they could then proceed to move and expand.

I foresee this becoming a trend with breweries who have gotten the ability to expand into Pennsylvania, and other areas, as well as breweries in general, using this as a trend and ability to do some market research before putting their resources into a possible expansion that could fail or backfire. Sadly, we’ve seen in the past breweries attempt to expand too much and it costing them dearly, not just in terms of the new location, but even their business as a whole.

It will be interesting to see if this becomes a trend for future breweries or not.

Looking Forward to the Future

We are certainly looking forward to the future of Aslin Beer Company in Pittsburgh, as well as their beers in general. They have always been a well received, and well liked brewery here at The Beer Thrillers HeadQuarters, and we can’t wait to make a trip out to Pittsburgh to get to visit them.

Also, today, Tattered Flag has announced for certain that their Lancaster Barrel House location will be opening Friday – September 17th. We will be posting more information about this shortly.

Additional Information and Links

To get more information on Aslin Beer Company, you can visit their social media sites:

Check out more articles from us here at The Beer Thrillers:

Other:

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!

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Aslin Beer Co. Coming to Pittsburgh https://thebeerthrillers.com/2021/09/13/aslin-beer-co-coming-to-pittsburgh/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=aslin-beer-co-coming-to-pittsburgh Tue, 14 Sep 2021 02:43:43 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=7970
Aslin Beer Company’s Instagram Post Today – 9.13.21

Looks Like Aslin is Moving into Pittsburgh, PA

Well, for all intents and purposes, it looks like Aslin Beer Company is moving into Pittsburgh. They posted the above image to their Instagram page (Aslin Beer Co. Instagram) earlier today, with the caption that shows a pin and says “1800 Smallman St” with the “looking” eyes emoji.

After this was posted, and then re-posted, and then re-posted, and again re-posted, in several Facebook groups, and online message boards, several “people in the know”, stated how “finally the cat is out of the bag”. So it looks like, without saying it, their saying it. And it seems to be happening.

1800 Smallman Street, Pittsburgh, PA

Sorry for the quality of the pics, but Google Maps was giving some trouble in screenshotting. But these give you an idea of the map and area of Pittsburgh where Aslin hinted at in their Instagram post.

According to the Google Maps street view, its down the street from The Church Brew Works, and it looks to be close to Insurrection Ale Works Tap Room. (In the first pic, screen shotted from the mobile Google Maps app, the beer mug is the Insurection Ale Works Tap Room, and the red pin is 1800 Smallman Street.)

Pittsburgh is home to numerous breweries, including mentioned Church Brew Works, Insurrection Ale Works, as well as Brewery Gentleman, ShuBrew, Penn Brewery, Cinderlands, Dancing Gnome, Couch Brewery, Hitchhiker, Grist House, and many more.

So this will certainly be a wonderful addition to the brewery scene in Pittsburgh. Ryan Galiotto commented about the “cat being out of the bag” now today about Aslin expanding into Pittsburgh, and pointed out that they are a part of the ‘Drink the Table’ brewfest in Pittsburgh on November 6th. Ryan is the founder and head of Fueled by Hops LLC and community.

News About the Brewery

There has been no word yet on the construction or anything more substantial than this Instagram post and the comments made by several people. So timescale on construction, opening dates, or anything more than that. But when news becomes available, we’ll be posting it here, so be on the look out.

Additional Links

Additional news and links we think you might find interesting:

Other:

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!

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Aslin Beer Company Begins Shipping into Pennsylvania https://thebeerthrillers.com/2021/01/14/aslin-beer-company-begins-shipping-into-pennsylvania/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=aslin-beer-company-begins-shipping-into-pennsylvania Fri, 15 Jan 2021 03:26:00 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=7236
Aslin Beer Company Announces Their Now Shipping to Pennsylvania on Their Instagram Page

Add another fantastic out of state brewery now shipping into Pennsylvania. Just like Grist House Brewing announce statewide shipping in Pennsylvania, Aslin Beer Company also announced that they will be shipping into Pennsylvania.

Aslin Beer Company is usually listed in any “best of the region” breweries for the East Coast area. They are from Alexandria Virginia, and recently opened a second location in Herndon. They are popular for their IPAs (particularly New England IPAs). Aslin’s Untappd page: a micro brewery from Alexandria Virginia, they have 442 unique beers with a global average rating of 4.13 out of 755K+ ratings. Their description reads: “Aslin Beer Company is a northern Virginia, DC suburb, microbrewery suited to provide great beverages and a wide variety. Visit our spacious, 24-tap tasting room in Alexandria, or our Herndon location for to-go beer only.”

Their Instagram page announcement reads:

aslinbeerco's profile picture

aslinbeerco

Hey Pennsylvania!! 👋 We are thrilled to finally bring you the whole menu of fresh, new releases! Starting now, order on our site* at Aslinbeer.com/online-ordering then click “Shipping,” & UPS will bring it right to your doorstep. Link to order is in our bio!👌
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*You must be 21+ to order, & present a 21+ ID when your order is delivered. See details on our site regarding PA state limits for orders.
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#Pennsylvania
#yinzer
#pennsylvaniacraftbeer
#pacraftbeer
#pabeer
#Aslin
#AslinAlexandria
#AslinHerndon
#AslinBeerCo
#VaBeer
#Herndon
#Alexandria

To see their post you can visit their Instagram here: Aslin Beer Co Announces Shipping into PA via Instagram.

Looks like a lot of great offerings are becoming available in Pennsylvania, with many more looking to make announcements in the coming weeks, so be sure to stay tuned here to get the latest news!

Cheers!
-B. Kline

Brewery Openings, Closings, Shipment News

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

Breweries Shipping in and into Pennsylvania:

Brewery Closings:

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookTwitterInstagramYouTube, 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

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Beer Review: Fruit Monster (Great Notion Brewing) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2020/10/29/beer-review-fruit-monster-great-notion-brewing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-review-fruit-monster-great-notion-brewing Thu, 29 Oct 2020 14:37:43 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=4887
Fruit Monster by Great Notion Brewing

Continuing the beers from the stream; I get to the third of the series, and I present to you the fabled FRUIT MONSTER of Great Notion Brewing. Firstly…. let me say, finally, I’ve gotten to try Great Notion Brewing, and they absolutely live up to all of the hype their beers have received. I got a few of their beers from Breski’s in a mix-a-six, and I’ll be reviewing the others as well at some point. But first I wanted to do the beers I had on the stream as part of a series. You can check out the streaming page at Knights of Nostalgia. I’ll put a list of the beers from the stream that I did beer reviews of at the end of this article. Its a series of reviews, just like my Tree House beers I reviewed as a series. Make sure to check out the others.

Look at that picture above, doesn’t that look like pure juice? Like orange juice? Like a good breakfast OJ to get the day going? Well, its not OJ, and its not a New England IPA, but it is pure straight juice, and its straight fire.

This is part of the Great Notion’s Tart Ale series, each batch being a different blend of fruits. This particular one (in the above review) was Mango, Guava, and Passionfruit. The Untappd description reads that its Passionfruit and Pineapple, but that was for a different batch, and they don’t have a unique beer check-in for each batch. So the description reads off a bit different than the beer itself; but its a simple fix – where it says “pineapple and passionfruit” just think “mango, guava, passionfruit”. Problem solved.

Fruit Monster by Great Notion Brewing

Beer: Fruit Monster
Brewery: Great Notion Brewing
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 6%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: The first in our new tart ale series, Fruit Monster! Each batch will have a unique blend of tropical fruits and milk sugar, and the first one has a scary amount of pineapple and passion fruit. Drink up before the monster gets it all!

Appearance is like your morning juice with a nice breakfast. Not quite like the hazy juice of New England IPAs, this looks more like your pineapple or slicker clearer juices. Its still not transparent and is mostly opaque, but it not as hazy or turbid and it doesn’t have any sediment or floaters in it. It had a thin (very thin) small head when poured that quickly evaporated. Good carbonation. Beautiful orange color, bright, and all around just appealing.

The nose for this is just as described and offered. Mango, guava, passionfruit. Very fruity, in a heady mixture. It all hits together at the same time in the same way and makes one giant blend of an aroma. You can really smell the three fruits; but I think the mango and guava is probably the two that come through the most, hard to say though with just how well it all blends together.

Now we get to whats always my favorite part of the review…. because its my favorite part of beer; and that’s drinking it! Just like its appearance would make you think, this is pure juice. And just like its aroma would make you think, this is pure fruity. So… guess what? Its pure fruity juice! This is completely, absolutely, ridiculously, incredibly… delicious. As the ‘cool kids’ on the interweb would say, “its pure fire”. (See, I’m still hip and with it. I can get jiggy with it too.) There is a very slight tartness to this, but its refined and mostly negligible; what you are primarily getting is a fruity, juicy, drinkable and crushable beer. I think I downed this in no time, savoring the first sip and the last, and draining the rest of it far quicker than I should have. (Its so good its hard to savor it.) The fruits do blend in the tasting just like they did in the aroma. You get the notes of the mango, guava, and passionfruit, very heavily. Probably mostly mango and mostly guava with the passionfruit being more subtle. Guava can be an interesting flavor to me, its very hit or miss, in this though, I think its definitely a hit, most likely because of how its used in combination with the mango and passionfruit. I am a huge fan of mango in beer and this nails it completely and perfectly. Providing such a deep tasty mango flavor that combines really well with the guava and the passionfruit flavors and makes a really nice blend. This is 6% so its certainly not heavy or boozy or too powerful, and its very crushable, a four pack of this would go down waaaaaaaaay too easily. I think 5-7.5% is the perfect range for beers if you are sitting down and drinking; don’t get me wrong, I love the deep heavy boozy barleywines and stouts (as many faithful readers of the blog can attest to), but for hanging out with friends, drinking, playing video games, etc, a good 5-7.5% beer is perfect. You can have multiples, its not too boozy, too heavy, and sits well. Just like this does. Perfect for playing Friday the 13th and being a camp counselor running away from Jason Voorhees. Also, just a perfect beer, period, in general, flat out. Make sure you find yourself some of this and give it a try, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed at all.

My Untappd Rating: ****.75
Global Untappd Rating: 4.11 (as of 10.29.20)

This is the third of the four beer series from last week’s streaming session; when me and Drew played Friday the 13th on Knights of Nostalgia. You can check in with us to see what we’re drinking, and you can watch Drew on there a lot, usually drinking craft beer and / or bourbon or scotch.

Beers:

So be sure to check out Villeinage soon. Probably sometime in the next day or two.

You can also see some of our other beer reviews here:

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

Tonight I will be joining Drew again on Knights of Nostalgia for another stream, this time we’ll also be joined by Rory. So make sure to see the three of us play some video games and drink craft beer and joke around.

Cheers!

-B. Kline

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Beer Review: Pixels (Seminar Brewing) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2020/10/22/beer-review-pixels-seminar-brewing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-review-pixels-seminar-brewing Thu, 22 Oct 2020 18:25:17 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=4816
Pixels by Seminar Brewing

Last night was another ‘stream night’ with my friend Drew over at Knights of Nostalgia. I had four amazing beers last night (and will be doing a review of each). I had this – Pixels; Aslin’s Isolation Anniversary Beer, Elder Pine Brewing and Blending’s Villenage, and Great Notion’s Fruit Monster. This was my first time having all four of these beers, and my first time having a beer from Seminar Brewing, from Elder Pine Brewing and Blending, and from Great Notion Brewing. And none of them disappointed.

Don’t worry, I will be doing a review for all four of these. They were way to good not to do a review for each. (And made for quite the costly mix-a-six at Breski’s too, so I better put the drinking to good use!)

I had been saving the Pixels for a night of doing video game streaming with Knights of Nostalgia just due to its image and name-sake. Funnily though, we didn’t play a pixelated game, we did a more modern game (normally on Knights of Nostalgia we play old school NES or SNES games, like Zelda, or Metroid, or Mario, etc.). But, either way, it still made for a good fit for the stream. We played the Friday the 13th game, which you can play against people multi-player online. You are either Jason (the killer) or a camp counselor (someone who wants to escape). You play from various levels like Crystal Lake, Jarvis House, etc. Drew has all of the different Jason’s unlocked, so if you are Jason, you can play as any of the Jason’s from Parts I through X, including NES Jason. (Which looks absolutely horrible by the way, I do not recommend that Jason; just on aesthetics alone.) The game is ridiculously fun, and every time you play it, it’s simple, same yet different, and has endless possibilities. The surprise and shock factor of Jason appearing and things like that are always great too. Absolutely a blast to play with friends, definitely worth checking out. (Or go to Knights of Nostalgia and watch us play it.)

So after work yesterday, I ran home and got the beer and then went to his house and from 7:30 to roughly 12:30 we played Friday the 13th, and then hung around chatting until about 2:30 while having another beverage or two (St. Boniface’s Theory and Reality; and lots of water).

Enough jibber jabbering; let’s get on with the review!

Pixels by Seminar Brewing

Beer: Pixels
Brewery: Seminar Brewing
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 7.2%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: New England Style IPA – Juicy, hoppy and cloudy, just like it should be!

This beer comes from a co-worker (shout out to Jam; who also brought me Up a Creek Extreme Ale) who grabbed this and a few other beers for me from South Carolina. Interesting note on this – the can’s tag price was 4.19$. Not sure why it’s such an odd amount, but possibly / probably because of tax I would assume. This is my first time having anything from them, and I was not disappointed. On Untappd their listed as having 60 unique beers. You can find the link to them above.

It’s hard to tell from the picture above (didn’t want to detract from the streaming by taking a beautiful photo, so you’ll have to deal with the crappy photo pic of the beer, half drank), but this looks like a juicy dank normal New England IPA. It’s hazy and opaque, and it foamed up a lot more than I imagined it would (could be traveling causing some shaking), but it had a lot of head to this. White foamy, billowy head to it, that left a fair bit of lacing on the glass.

Aroma is a very juicy, citrus, hoppy New England IPA. Its bright, powerful, and strong hop notes, this smells every bit as what you’re expecting from a hoppy and hop forward New England IPA. It’s definitely taken the knob and turned it up to max on the hop aroma, and there ain’t a thing wrong with that.

Taste is just like the above two – spot on for a New England hoppy / hop forward IPA. Very juicy, very strong hop notes and flavors, very powerful hop presence, that will really knock your socks off (be careful; drink this with shoes on to protect yourself from flying socks). There isn’t a crazy amount of things going on with this beer, its pretty much standard, by the numbers, but its done extremely well. You get a lot of juicy citrus hop notes up front, that taper off into more subtle earthy hop notes, with a slight background of mango hops flavors. It all blends pretty much by the end, and all blends very well to boot. Sometimes the best beer is just a beer done extremely well. Doesn’t need to have five thousand adjuncts or forty million different ingredients or a bunch of crazy recipe additions, late hop this, or dry hopped that, just a well brewed, delicious, tasty, and drinkable beer is all you really need most times; and this is just that beer. It hits all of the palate well, and spot on, doesn’t have any lingering or bad off flavors, and gets you wanting more when you are finished. At 7.2% ABV its not super strong and comparison wise, that puts it near Perpetual IPA (7.5%) by Troegs Brewing; so its not incredibly strong, and easy to drink a few of these at a time. A great beer to have while hanging out with friends and playing video games and streaming the game, while being chased and hacked to pieces by Jason.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.95 (as of 10.22.20)

Thanks for reading everyone. Today has been a slow day for me, I had wanted to go hiking and taking the dog walking and checking out a brewery or two or something, but that doesn’t look to be happening (started off slow… I may or may not have a pretty decent size headache when I woke up this morning, and woke up at 7AM thinking it was a work day, and then went back to sleep and woke up at 8:30-9AM). But hopefully tomorrow will be a hiking and traveling day. I’m thinking of hitting up the Hamburg area for hiking and obviously the breweries in the nearby areas.

You can see my latest beer reviews here:

Cheers everyone, and stay safe and healthy out there with all the rises in COVID cases. Remember to mask up, remember to wash hands, and most importantly: remember to drink some great craft beers!

Final notes – be sure to check out our article on Pilger Ruh Brewing and their crowd funding, they begin construction work on their brewery tomorrow, and need every cent they can get, so check that out and see if you are able to help out. Also, tomorrow, Tattered Flag released their Pitties beer; which some of the proceeds go towards helping Pittie Rescues. Be sure to check that out.

Ok everyone, have a great Thursday, and it’s time I get my butt moving instead of doing nothing all day. Alright, cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

Pixels by Seminar Brewing

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Beer Review: FVCK COVID (Version 2.0) (Ale Asylum) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2020/08/04/beer-review-fvck-covid-version-2-0-ale-asylum/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-review-fvck-covid-version-2-0-ale-asylum Wed, 05 Aug 2020 01:30:00 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=3968
FVCK COVID by Ale Asylum

Bit late on getting this review up, been meaning to get this written, alongside the Stone Cold Steve Austin IPA we had that night, and I also apologize that there hasn’t been a new post in a bit, been a rocky few days for myself (not speaking for the other writers; just for myself). But…. here it is, and its about time I get this up.

I feel like this is a beer that well encapsulates a lot of people’s thoughts about the disease. I was going back and forth on how to write up the beer name for the title and in the article. The can itself reads as “FVCK COVID” – and it also shows up as such on Untappd, but I was also tempted to do F*CK COVID; but felt that actually looked more vulgar. I think the misspelling of it (even with a letter replacement that is meant to be similar) actually detracts from the vulgarity of it. Either way though, the beer’s title is FVCK COVID, and it exactly what everyone thinks of this virus.

So needless to say, once I saw this on Breski’s Beverages Facebook page, I knew I needed to pick up a four pack of it and give it a try for the blog. As always, I cannot recommend Breski’s Beverage enough. One of the best beer distributors in the Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) area. One of the best bottle (and can) shops, with lots of hard to find breweries and some ‘whale’ status breweries as well. Occasionally having Triple Crossing, Aslin Brewing, Burley Oak Brewing, etc on their drafts for crowlers / growlers as well is also nice. One of the best selections for mix-a-six packs (definitely hop on their deals for mix-a-sixes, a fantastic way to try new beers and breweries). So when I stopped in, I picked up a four-pack of FVCK COVID as well as the Stone Cold Steve Austin IPA from El Segunda Brewery. My first from either of these breweries. Look for the Broken Skull IPA review soon. (I know, I know, I’m a bit backlogged on the beer reviews.)

(Yes, like I said above… I am quite back logged on the beer reviews. I have a long list of word.doc’s on my computer of tasting notes, and factoids and things about a whole host of beers that I’ve had in recent months; just need to write them up and post them.)

I had picked up the two four-packs for one of our many video game streaming sessions at D. Scott’s. He runs a Facebook page where he streams various video games, and (B. Kline) I’m a somewhat regular on it. We’ve been doing a lot of randomizers for The Legend of Zelda – Ocarina of Time, as well as Majora’s Mask, and other games. You can check out his Facebook page here: Knights of Nostalgia. Definitely check it out sometime while we’re on. (Right now D. Scott is doing a stream where he’s doing the side scrollers of Wizards and Warriors, and I’m having it play in the background as I type up this article.)

Enough with all the pre-beer review shenanigans and lets get on with the beer review – which is what I’m assuming 99.999999999% of those reading this are really here for anyway (not the drunken ramblings of a mad man; but the beer reviews of a drunken mad man who rambles….).

Onward!

FVCK COVID Version 2.0 by Ale Asylum

Beer: FVCK COVID (Version 2.0)
Brewery: Ale Asylum
Style: Pale Ale – New England
ABV: 5%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Description: The second installment of our FVCK COVID series. How about a shirt or neck gaiter to match the beer? Visit our Merchandise store at www.aleasylum and you can wear what we’re all thinking.

Ale Asylum is a brewery from Madison Wisconsin. They are listed as a Regional Brewery with 64 unique beers to their name and a global average rating of 3.72 on Untappd. Their Untappd description reads: “ALE ASYLUM is unfiltered and all natural. This is what we mean when we say our beer is FERMENTED IN SANITY. You know who makes it, you know what it’s made with.”

Starting off with appearance (as I usually do in my reviews) this looks like a typical New England style IPA or Pale Ale variant. In this case its a Pale Ale, and it is a bit lighter and not as full bodied looking as a New England IPA might. But it still has that same similar appearance; a hazy, orange, glowing, unfiltered drink. With a nice foamy white head with plenty of carbonation and good bubbles.

The nose to this isn’t all that particular or crazy exciting. Its a typical New England pale ale; and because of it being a pale ale versus an IPA, its not got that much of a hop aroma to it. Despite being New England, despite being unfiltered, the nose is minimal hop aroma, minimal fruit notes, more just blandish beer smell.

Taste, at least it gets a bit beyond bland. Its not a crazy ridiculous new taste, but its not bland. It is a pale ale and not an IPA so its a bit low on the flavor profile, especially as far as hops go. My notes from the night of on this is that its a nice beer, a bit light on flavor, light on hop flavor in particular, but it has a pleasant overall taste with no aftertaste or lingering bad taste. It is a bit strong on malt and has a noticeable malt sweetness to it. There is some floral-ness to it, but its a bit underwhelming. This is not a bad beer and I’m not taking anything away from it. Its malty, its sweet, its floral, its light hoppy, and its a good beer, and at 5% its easy to knock down the whole four pack in a sitting while playing video games with your buddy. This beer though is definitely sold on its name above all. I don’t want to take away from the beer, because its a good beer, just not great, but as far as marketing goes, the beer name kind of sells itself. Its a theme in craft beer; a cool name or a gimmick pop culture or cultural reference, or cool can art, sells the beer more than the quality of the beer itself does. Thats not completely and necessarily the case here, but it gets a boost because of its name in sales I imagine. I’m guilty of that, buying a beer based on can art, or like in the case of this – beer name. My guilty vices for this is any beer that is Star Wars or Futurama themed; their auto instant buys for me. This was still a very enjoyable beer, and I don’t mean to sound pessimistic or upset at it, its a good beer and enjoyable, and worth the drink.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.46 (as of 8.4.20)

Sorry this took so long to be posted. I’ve been working on several articles all at once (including several Black is Beautiful beer reviews), as well as working on other side stuff too. But, my August hasn’t gone quite to plan. I haven’t gotten as much accomplished as I’ve wanted. A lot of things going on, an increase in hours at work (50-55 hour weeks), amongst a lot of other things going on in my life (personal and otherwise). It is interesting, a year ago this past few days is when I took my daughters on our trip – on August 1st, 2nd, and 3rd – and went up Elk Country to Kinzua Bridge to Pittsburgh to Bushy Run and back to Central PA.

You can read about those here:

August (2019) Road Trip Series:

Stay tuned for some stuff coming out soon, like the huge backlog of beer reviews like I’ve mentioned earlier, as well as any day now a new interview with a beer scientist from Cape May Brewing with A. Parys. As well as an interview I’ve done with Scott Smith of East End Brewing. I’m also excited to do beer reviews for several of the Black is Beautiful beers, including the Ever Grain / Harris Family / Wolf Brewing collab, the Spring House Brewing one, and hopefully if I can snag a can (or more) Thursday at Troegs Brewery the Harris Family / Troegs Brewing collaboration.

Lots of stuff to see and do here at The Beer Thrillers, so be sure to subscribe, like, and follow us here, as well as on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Thank you everyone for reading, and please be sure to leave a comment!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

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Brewery Event: Bottle Share (Tattered Flag) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2020/02/12/brewery-event-bottle-share-tattered-flag/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=brewery-event-bottle-share-tattered-flag Wed, 12 Feb 2020 15:31:53 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=2145
Tattered Flag and Breweries in PA’s Bottle Share (February 8th, 2020).62+ Tickets were ‘sold’. Packed house down in the brewhouse of Tattered Flag. (Thats me in the red Pizza Boy shirt, and my friend D. Scott to my left.) (Photo Courtesy of Chad Balbi – Breweries in PA).

On February 8th, 2020, Tattered Flag and Breweries in PA co-hosted an event at the Tattered Flag Brewery in Middletown PA. It was a ticketed event and promoted across Tattered Flag’s social media and Breweries in PA’s social media (their Facebook page and their Facebook group). Tickets were free. Welcome to all that were to come out. According to Justin (brewer for Tattered Flag) 62 tickets were given out. Myself and my friend were two of those tickets, and so let me take you through the event.

Let’s back this up a bit from the time of the event. Starting with the event itself. It was first announced near the beginning of the year. Luckily it was a Saturday I was able to get off from work (a rarity in my case). And my friend D. Scott was also off and along for the idea. So, the premise of the event is simple – bring 2-3 (or more) beers. Everyone who comes to the event, does so, and once the event is underway you place your beers in the corresponding coolers (IPA, Sours, Wheats and Kolsches, Stouts), and then after everyone has grouped up, you start cracking beers and sampling and moving on.

The premise is simple and neat. Anyone whose ever done a beer / bottle / can share or swap at home with friends, its the same premise just on a much larger scale. (A 62+ person scale that is.)

Leading up to the event my friend stopped at Breski’s Beverage and picked up a four-pack of larger beers to bring with. He grabbed Thief Share (2016) by Strange Roots Experimental Ales, Blue Farm (2017) by Free Will Brewing Co, a German Chocolate Cake Stout from a brewery I’m drawing a blank on, and New Holland’s Dragon’s Milk (2019).

I had set up to do a beer trade with a guy from Eureka California. We were both set to send our packages on either January 31st, or February 1st. (I sent on 31st and showed proof.) He unfortunately, kept saying he would get to it… and get to it….. and he kept NOT getting to it…. and NOT getting to it. Finally, he promised he would expedite it next day to make up for its tardiness…. and I get a message from him “Sorry, it’d be 200$+ to expedite, so I sent it regular. Sorry it won’t be there in time.” …..Massive annoyance and disappointment on those fronts. So at last second, I had to figure out what I was bringing.

Unfortunately I had just ran through my cans from Tree House brought home by my friend D. Arndt. If I would have known…. I would have brought the Sap, Autumn, Julius, Haze, or Doppelganger I had. So I likewise stopped at Breski’s Beverage and picked up some beer for the event. I got Grimm Artisanal Ale’s I Still Love the Old World (2018), Lickinhole’s Virginia Black Bear, Clown Shoe’s Coffee Sombrero, and Trial by Wombat (mainly for the name and picture).

Saturday morning comes and I do my typical morning chores and errands and take Leela (my border collie) for a run. D. Scott is Ubering to Tattered Flag, and I’m going to meet him there. Planned to get there at 10:40, but ended up getting there closer to 10:50 with our tickets and my beer and meet him just inside the door. He shows me the beer he’s bringing and we go over our small sample size. At just a bit before 11AM, Justin comes through and tells everyone to follow him down into the brewhouse.

Since 2018 I’ve done some volunteer canning work with Tattered Flag – though recently they’ve stopped using volunteers now that their employee force is big enough to keep it all done in-house, so I’m quite familiar with their brewhouse and back of the brewery operations and location.

At the time, there’s not too many people yet. Maybe 15-20. Justin goes over the rules. (Big rule: don’t touch any valves. Little rule: throw your trash away. Big rule: DON’T TOUCH ANY VALVES. Little rule: put your beers in their appropriate tubs.) They had bussing tubs with a label for each: IPA, Sour / Saisons, Wheats / Kolsches, and Stouts. Bigger bottles were kept in the front or where room was for them.

The guys from Breweries in PA introduced themselves. And then we were off to the races (…or beers). Talked with the lady from Breweries in PA and she was saying how the Dayman can was the last “known in the wild” can to exist, due to them getting hit with a Cease and Desist from Disney. And we talked about Disney with recent news, and how past places have gotten hit with some C & D’s.

After sampling Dayman, and then Nightman, I saw a lovely looking Smoked Porter big bottle. Unfortunately I forget the name of it, and it appears I never checked it into Untappd (something I didn’t do too good of a job of). (Just like pictures, unfortunately I took no pictures of the event either, so I have no pictures of my own, and had to try and remember the beers I tried for Untappd later on.) So whoever brought the big bottle Smoked Porter, I’d love to know what it was. ….but also… oh boy that carbonation! As soon as I popped the cap on it, it just gushed. Foam everywhere, so much so that I had to set it down under the table over the grate, it just wouldn’t stop, for a good solid 2 minutes it kept going. (So yes, I apologize for being ‘that guy’, but….. it wasn’t my fault!)

A cache of the beers at the bottle / can share. Photo courtesy of Justin Hoak.

Me and D. Scott kinda hovered over the Stouts area. Talked to Justin and his girlfriend Aimee, about recent events with Tattered Flag, as well as Hibrewnation that took place, as well as the upcoming Prototype Brewery and Meadery and the Prototype Invitation Brewing Event.

The beer share at Tattered Flag. Photo courtesy of Justin Hoak.

After a few more samples, me and D. Scott headed back into the caverns a bit, where there was more space, as by now we were likely up to about 40+ people in attendance. And out by the brite tanks and fermenters it was getting pretty crowded. After a bit, the guys from Breweries in PA brought a few of the bussing trubs out into the side-room where we used to do the labeling for Tattered Flag’s canning run. They brought out a few beers of each type as well and so there was now a more mixed variety in the different areas.

While in the side-room, I branched out a bit from my stouts and sours and had a few IPAs. Bearded Iris’ Homestyle, Psycho Simcoe by Three 3’s, Ex Novo Brewing’s Spirits of the Dead, and Double Luv by East Branch Brewing. Hanging out, talking with D. Scott and some of our fellow drinkers in the area, we also cracked open the Black Tuesday (2017) by The Bruery, which was amazingly fantastic. While discussing the ridiculously high ABV on it (19.5%), one of the guys talked about the beer he brought from Nimble Hill, a Maple Stout in their Mysteria Series, that was a 25%. I’ve always been a huge fan of big ABV beers…. so my ears and eyes and nose, and mouth, all perked up. The kind gentleman went back and got it and brought it out. After a bit of a struggle getting the cork off of it, we each drew a good sample size of it (and I won’t lie and say I didn’t have two samples of it).

The description on Untappd for it reads:

MAPLE SYRUP STOUT
This super limited creation is an off shoot of Turbo Diesel.
But instead of using hops, we added a few gallons of maple syrup and a dash of molasses and fermented it to the limits.
The result is a thick dessert stout with a strong maple syrup and imperial stout finish, followed by hearty warming from the 25% abv. Served without carbonation for a smooth and velvety finish.

It was smooth, dry, but with an amazing maple syrup flavor. Tasted like drinking a maple syrup wine. It was pretty much fantastic. And the nice 25% ABV to it, certainly didn’t hurt. I would like to throw a shout out to Ryan Haraschak. Fantastic, gorgeous gem to bring to the bottle share! Kudos my man!

We also tried a gentleman’s RIS Homebrew that was wonderful as well. And somehow, quickly, we realized we were approaching the end of the time for the bottle share, so me and D. Scott went back by the fermenters to try some of the beers still over there.

While hanging out there, and chopping on some tortilla chips, the Harris Brewery guys came in. Got to talk to Harris guys for a long time about their upcoming brewery, black culture in brewing and craft beer, Allison Hill, the impact their hoping to make, the old Coke-Cola building / factory on the corner of 19th and Derry, the obstacles their having to overcome for their brewery, their GoFundMe vs. the Kickstarter, and much more. We also drank from their growler of their collaboration with The Vegetable Hunter which was fantastic. If you would like to support the Harris Family Brewery, and add to their GoFundMe you can do so here:

Harris Family Brewery Start-Up Go Fund Me

Shaun Harris posing at the end of the bottle share. Photo Courtesy of Harris Family Brewery.

As the time dwindled down, we quickly tried to sample a last few beers. There was an Intuition Ales that I tried with a large dragon on it (wax sealed originally, no idea on the name), as well as two Hegemony Anniversary Beers from St. Boniface. Also back to back Black IPAs; one from Pour Man’s Brewing – Black Market, and the other from Heavy Seas – Night Swell. Also tried the 2SP and WaWa coffee stout – Winter Reserve. As well as a last sampling of the Candy Hearts by New Trail Brewing.

As it wrapped up, they told us to take anything we wanted that was unopened. Seeing my Lickinghole Virginia Black Bear unopened I grabbed that, as well as an IPA from Mainstay Brewing and one of the bakeries from The Bruery. My buddy grabbed a couple and we put them in the six-pack holder and took them out to my car and then came back in to use our free beer and food discount.

Tattered Flag with the (free) ticket, being the gracious host was giving one free pour with the ticket as well as 10% off food. D. Scott got an order of loaded chips, and I got Because I Was Inverted (Chocolate Covered Strawberry). His free drink was either the Custardy Tropic Like Its Hot or the Custardy Black Crumble. We had also sampled these in cans during the bottle share.

My list of beers sampled (that I was able to record on Untappd) was:
* Nightman (Stable 12 Brewing Company)
* Schmoojee Strawberry Orange Banana (Imprint Beer Co)
* Bible Belt (2019) (Evil Twin Brewing)
* Frucht: Fruit Punch (The Bruery Terreux)
* Churro Sombrero (Clown Shoes)
* Autumn Friend (Forest & Main Brewing Company)
* Spirits of the Dead (Ex Novo Brewing)
* Psycho Simcoe (Three 3’s Brewing Co.)
* Black Tuesday (2017) (The Bruery)
* Maple Stout, Mysteria Series (Nimble Hill Brewing)
* Double Luv (East Branch Brewing)
* Kriek Marriage Parfait (2015) (Brouwerji Boon)
* Black Market (Pour Man’s Brewing Company
* Night Swell (Heavy Seas Beer)
* Pack & Brass Coffee IPA (Wallenpaupack Brewing Company)
* I Still Love the Old World (Grimm Artisanal Ales)
* Bourbon Barrel Aged Hegemony Anniver7ary Reserve (Blue Wax) (St. Boniface Craft Brewing Co.)
* Bourbon Barrel Aged Hegemony Anniver8ary Reserve (Blue Wax) (St. Boniface Craft Brewing Co.)
* Cold Pro (Union Craft Brewing)
* Winter Reserve Coffee Stout (2SP Brewing Company / WaWa)
* Candy Hearts (New Trail Brewing Co.)
* Homestyle (Bearded Iris)
* Custardy: Blackberry Crumble (Tattered Flag)
* Custardy: Tropic Like Its Hot (Tattered Flag)
* Thief Share (2016) (Strange Roots Experimental Ales)
* Blue Farm (2017) (Free Will Brewing Co.)
* Gingerbread Crunchee (Other Half Brewing Co.)
* Double Vice Coffee Porter (Grist House Craft Brewery)
* Chili Nelson Hazy Habenero (The Vegetable Hunter)
* Winter Wassailand (The Vegetable Hunter / Harris Family Brewing)
* Dayman (Stable 12 Brewing)

These are the ones I remembered / checked-in on Untappd anyway. There were so many more I didn’t get to try, some I definitely wanted to. I saw some Aslin cans, I believe 4th Anniversary Sours, that I missed out on, as well as a few Other Half’s and similar. In the comments – for those of you who went – I’d love to see what you brought, had, and what was your favorites.

This was a fantastic event. I’ve been to some friend / home beer bottle / can shares, and its always a blast. Passing around beers, sampling, and talking about beer and just hanging out with good people. The craft beer community is an exceptional and diverse community and its so great to talk to so many different people. Bottle shares are like mini-brewfests in a way, sampling a ton of different beers from different places / breweries that you most likely won’t get into contact with. Its not a bad way to kill a Saturday morning, thats for sure.

My favorites that I got to sample were: Black Tuesday (2017) by The Bruery and the Nimble Hill Maple Stout Mysteria (the 25%). D. Scott said his favorite was also the 25% Maple Stout as well as the Custardy: Blackberry Crumble.

It was great of Tattered Flag to put up some of their own beers in the share, a great gesture on their part. Also, humorous note, I think I did see a Blue Moon in one of the tubs, not 100% sure though, but I think I did. Kudos to whoever brought that. I did think it’d be funny to bring a single Coors Light bottle or Miller Lite High Life bottle and sneak it in, but didn’t know how it’d go over.

The Kill Shot from the Beer Share at Tattered Flag hosted by Tattered Flag and Breweries in PA. (Photo courtesy of: Chad Balbi)

As you can see from the kill shot, there was a ton of great beer brought in, and sampled and served. Breweries from all over Pennsylvania, as well as numerous other big breweries like Other Half, Bearded Iris, Aslin, Dogfish Head, Brewery of Omnegang, Grimm Artisanal Ales, as well as some homebrew, and some heavy PA hitters like Free Will, Tattered Flag, Strange Roots, Imprint Beer Co, Dancing Gnome, Troegs Independent Craft Brewing, and New Trail, and even upcoming brewery Harris Family. It was a wonderful and diverse selection, bottles, bombers, growlers, crowlers, cans, and even wine bottles.

Interested in reading some reviews of beers from some of these places, you can check out my beer blog: The Beer Thrillers. We’ve reviewed beers from Tattered Flag like: Should Have Put Him Into Custardy, Inexplicably Juicy, Pink Guava, Fatum Series: Member Berries, and more. New Trail’s Broken Heels. Broken Goblet’s This Is The Way, Burn Them All Away. Boneshire Brew Work’s The Hog, Dillston, Harrishire (with Harris Family), Sunburst, Good Walk Spoiled, Road Less Traveled, and more. Wolf Brewing collaboration with Tattered Flag – Imperial Churro and collaboration with Imprint – Wolf Prints. Rotunda Brewing’s sWheat Tarts: Mango Guyabano and Juicy Fruit. Troegs Independent Craft Brewing’s Fuzzy Nudge, Coco-Nator, and Scratch 400. You can check out our brewery visit and recap (and review) of Mellow Mink and their Scarlet Sunrise. Or our brewery reviews of Battlefield Brew Works and Cushwa Brewery. Or the recent, unfortunate news of the closings – Crystal Ball and Stoudt’s.

You can also read our other article on Breweries in PA: Touring the Breweries that Surround Harrisburg. (Also located here: Breweries Around the Outskirts of Harrisburg.)

We are currently listed on FeedSpot’s Top 100 Beer Blogs at #9, and have been there for a few weeks now (moved up from #11). (If you would like to write for us, you can contact us through our contact page. Or if you would like us to write for you.)

You can check us out on Facebook as well as Twitter. Or just search for us – Facebook – The Beer Thrillers – and on Twitter – @thebeerthriller.

The blog is ran by me – B. Kline, and mainly written by me, but other writers for the blog include J. Doncevic, AJ Brechbiel (of Default Brewing). We also have Let Us Drink Beer Blog do some contributions as a guest writer.

I also do podcasts with D. Scott and Esteban – So a Mexican and a Scot Walk Into a Bar… where we discuss beer, pop culture, movies, TV shows, and much more. Always hilarious and always insightful, so make sure to check that out as well.

(Ok, that concludes the article for Breweries in PA. The rest from here on out, is just for the Beer Thrillers faithful and my blog only. Its also a little more personal and detailed than the above, so keep reading if you want to hear more.)

So as per usual with me, after the beer share event, my night didn’t end. It was about 3:30-4PM by the time we finished up at the Tattered Flag bar. Way too early to call it a day. Being in the area, we decided to check out the Lancaster Brewing spot off of Eisenhower Boulevard in Harrisburg. Neither me nor D. Scott had ever been there. And this checks off a “new brewery location” that I want to do each month. (January was Liquid Noise Brewing, so February will be Lancaster Brewing, and hopefully March – before they close up – will be Stoudt’s.) Its funny that neither of us have ever been here to this location. Its so close, and we’ve jumped and hit all of the Harrisburg breweries numerous times before.

While there we met up with friends D. Arndt, Youngblood, and Youngblood’s girlfriend. I did a flight, D. Scott got a draft of their eggnog, and I have no recollection of what the others got. My flight included:
* Jam Series #22 Mexican Style Lager
* Jam Series #21 Gingerbread Spiced Brown Ale
* Lancaster Lager
* Jam Series – Track #20 Eggnog Blond
* Jam Series – Track #19 Chili Smoked Baltic Porter
* Winter Warmer

Lancaster Brewing Company’s Spiced Gingerbread

All were pretty tasty. I enjoyed the Smoked Porter the most with the Spiced Gingerbread coming in second. Wasn’t a huge fan of the eggnog blond, but I’m not a fan of eggnog so kind of knew that going into it. Drew loved his, but then again, he’s a huge eggnog fan. So mileage may vary on that type of beer.

Lancaster Brewing Company’s Mexican Lager

Finally around 730-8PM or so we left and went to D. Arndt’s house, where we hung out with him and his fiance Kat and his dogs (the one of which is a Corgi named Indiana Bones). While there he had a can of Intemperance by Tree House which was absolutely delicious.

Intemperance by Tree House Brewing

Look for me to be adding the Intemperance to my series on Tree House. Also, most likely tonight Doppelganger will be going up to finish what was originally the series. But now, with the addition of Intemperance, the series will be going from 5 to 6, making it a nice easy and sensible six-pack. Makes sense for a beer blog (a beer blog making sense?!), I like it.

So, this was supposed to be written and was supposed to go up Sunday, the 9th. But… work was crazy, as it was a ticket promotion give-away and we were swamped there, and afterwards, I was supposed to go to D. Scott to watch the Oscar’s (and drink the remaining of the beer share beers), but… Haley forgot the crowler of Rotunda Brewing Company’s ‘Beautiful Trauma’ that I got her, so I had to swing back to work and then deliver it to her at Irgo’s Tavern. Where I then proceeded to stay and play pool with several co-workers until 1AM. So obviously… no posting that night.

Then Monday I did go over to D. Scott’s and we watched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (finally got around to seeing it, fantastic movie, and Tarantino is still just as good as he always was). So once again, no blog posting Monday. But, last night I did start this, and sadly, only after editing, getting to finish it this morning. Sorry for the delay in things, but I rather edit and make sure I like the way blog looks, and that there’s no misspellings or grammar problems or anything (though I’m sure one or two will still sneak through). There’s two ways to write:

“You either write sober and edit drunk, or write drunk and edit sober.”

I also finally got that California beer mail Tuesday. Looks like some delicious brews to drink down and dive into and review for you all.

So definitely expect to see some beer reviews come out of that 10-pack. There’s a lot of tasty ones (I am super looking forward to the Chocolate Donut porter.)

Blog news – I am going to be trying to get 2 blogs up a day for the next few days to catch up some of the beer reviews I’m behind on. Fingers crossed anyway. This blog post is also going up on Breweries in PA’s website, so you’ll be able to check it out there (albeit abbreviated). Once its live, I’ll come in and edit this to include it here.

Tomorrow (Thursday, the 13th), I have yet another funeral to go to. This time my Uncle (mother’s brother in law) passed away. (Last Thursday was a funeral for my Great Uncle, my father’s Uncle.) In the evening Funck’s in Palmyra is doing a tap takeover for New Trail. I might be stopping out for that (might not, depends on time). New Trail makes some great beers, so I’d love to check it out.

Some beer reviews that are due up are Doppelganger and Intemperance, New Heights I Cannot Tell a Lie, Boneshire Brew Work’s Anagnorsis, Revision’s Pete’s Stache, Rivertown’s Triple Belgian, and much more. So be on the lookout for a lot of beer reviews coming at you in the upcoming days.

Like I said earlier in the post (mainly for the Breweries in PA page), please check out our Facebook, Twitter, and other social medias, and please click follow, like, subscribe, both on those platforms and here on the blog itself. You can enter your e-mail at the bottom to get notifications immediately whenever a new blog post hits the internet, and we’d greatly appreciate it. We also love it when you use the ‘rating’ at the bottom so we know how we are performing, and click the LIKE down below as well. Also, even more importantly, we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, feedback. So leave us a comment, or two, or three, or forty-four. I try to respond and reply as quickly as I’m able to. And if you ever want, you can contact us at our contact page and leave me a message.

Thanks everyone so much for reading, and hopefully you enjoyed it, and if you were at the event, hopefully you had as much of a blast as I did (and D. Scott). (Which speaking of, be on the lookout for some new podcasts on LOST Seasons 3 & 4, Fullmetal Alchemist, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and potentially / possibly / hopefully BoJack Horseman.)

Cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

Tattered Fag and Breweries in PA’s February 8th, 2020, Beer Share – the final kill shot.
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