August - The Beer Thrillers

Broken Chair Brewery Has Announced They Will Be Closing

B. Kline — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 00:00:32 +0000

Broken Chair Brewery Logo

Broken Chair Brewery Has Announced They Will Be Closing

In more sad news, Broken Chair Brewery – out of West Reading, Pennsylvania; has announced that they will be closing (no later than the end of August 2024). In a heartfelt post on their social media just an hour ago, they announced that as they will be easing into retirement, they have decided to close down the brewery.

Broken Chair Brewery has been a staple of West Reading Pennsylvania since 2017. Located at 424 Penn Ave, West Reading, PA 19611 the small but mighty brewery has been churning out amazing beers since 2017 and has garnered quite a bit of a reputation, love, and community following them. Located on the same street as Pagoda Brewing (formerly known as Chatty Monks Brewing), as well as the recently closed Willow Creek Brewery, and The Barley Mow, and Beer Wall on Penn; they carved out a niche as a wonderful brewery to hit in the city.

The Announcement

An exterior shot of Broken Chair Brewery (photo courtesy of Broken Chair Brewing)

Just an hour ago, Broken Chair Brewery made this announcement via their social media:

Dear friends of Broken Chair Brewery,

We are writing to let you know that we have had a tremendous time selling beer and good times in West Reading, but it is time for us to start slowing down and get ready for retirement. Broken Chair Brewery will be closing at the end of August depending on how much beer we have.

This decision was not made lightly. Despite the incredible journey and the many successes we have shared, a recent job promotion in my full time job and actually wanting to start slowing down has made this necessary. The business would need to expand to keep being successful and would need further investment. I just do not have the time and do not want to further invest this close to my retirement. I want to express my deepest gratitude to everyone who has been part of this journey. Whether you’ve been with us since the beginning or have only recently discovered our brews, your support has been vital to our story.

I want to thank our dedicated staff which has been with us for several years. Their hard work is what made our brewery. A business is only as strong as its staff, and we had the best. I will miss every one of them.

To our beloved customers, thank you for the enthusiasm and loyalty you have shown. Your appreciation for our craft has been a constant source of motivation. We hope that our paths will cross again in the future, maybe at a beer fest.

To my family who made this dream a reality I want to give my love and sincere thanks. I am not the easiest person to deal with and you rose to that challenge and kept me in line when it needed to be done. I know you are looking forward to other endeavors and rewards in the future.

We invite you all to visit us for one last toast before we close. It would be a joy to share a final round of cheers with the community that has made Broken Chair Brewery more than just a brewery, but a family.

Thank you once again for all the memories and good times. Although we are closing this chapter, the experiences we shared will always be cherished.

Cheers,

Todd, Joan, Dan

– Facebook Post: Broken Chair Brewery

More Information on Broken Chair Brewery

The following comes via Untappd.

Broken Chair Brewery is a micro brewery from West Reading, Pennsylvania. They have 88 unique beers and over 16,000 ratings, with a global average rating of 3.67 (as of 6.18.24). Their Untappd description reads: “Broken Chair Brewery, like most small businesses started in a garage. After getting tired of settling for beers that were extreme in taste, flavor and hoppiness we wanted to create beers that everyone could enjoy. We wanted to make a large variety of beers so that everyone could find a beer they could drink. It took a lot of trial and error and sometimes pouring the beer down the drain until we had beers that we liked. After years of brewing we decided to take our beer to the next level. It took several months to find a place to do this. We knew we wanted to be in West Reading because it is welcoming to small businesses and the community around Penn Avenue is also very supportive. The community is friendly and wiling to get involved in their neighborhood. The tasting room is all brick that we found under a layer of stucco. This was a wonderful surprise that allowed us to keep the patch work tile floor that was there from the tile shop that was previously in the building. The environment is warm and relaxing. When you walk to the back you can see the brewery through a glass paneled door. The brewery is all stainless steel with a small 2 BBL brewing system. This small brewing system allows us to make a variety of different beers and the ability to rotate different beers when one has kicked.”

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Brewery Review: Ministry of Brewing

BKline — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 22:00:48 +0000

Ministry of Brewing’s logo. (Courtesy of their Facebook page.)

The Ministry of Brewing was a definite ‘need to check out’ brewery for me. I’ve watched and read about their opening and the cathedral that they took over on their Facebook page as well as other places. So I knew this was a definite must see, must check out brewery. Only problem (for me) – is it’s in Baltimore. Meaning its not just a simple drive to visit place, especially with everything going on in my life as it is. That’s roughly an hour and a half drive just to check out the brewery, and then a hour and a half back, so I knew if I was going to get to check out the brewery, it’d be a part of a destination day that included being in the Baltimore area.

So, as luck would have it, on Friday the 14th (of August, 2020) the day before my oldest would turn 13, I asked her where she wanted to go, what adventure she wanted to have to celebrate her birthday. Just me and her. Daddy / Daughter day. She chose the Baltimore Aquarium. I said certainly. (She could have said the Amazon rainforests and I would have said yes…. albeit with some trepidation maybe.)

So I picked her up, around 11:30AM, we stopped at the Kondu restaurant in Harrisburg, one of her favorite places, got our food to go, and we were on the road heading to Baltimore and Inner Harbor.

The Baltimore Aquarium – August 14th, 2020

We arrived in Inner Harbor, parked at one of the parking garages pretty close to Pratt Street and Inner Harbor, and walked to the Aquarium. Purchased our tickets (39.99$ for adults, and adults are 11 and up), and sat down and ate our Kondu that we had picked up.

My daughter has always been an animal, fish, insect, whatever person. She absolutely lives for and loves nature and all of the animals therein. Outside of spiders, I don’t think she’s met an animal, mammal, bird, insect, slug, or what have you that she doesn’t love in some capacity. (When she was little, she would collect slugs, and even kiss them. If she ever reads this, she will be completely pissed that I included this little factoid in it.)

So needless to say, we had an absolute blast in the Aquarium. We had been there a few times before (at least two that I can remember) as a family (me, her, her sisters, and her mom). But that didn’t change it, everything still felt ‘new’ and ‘interesting’ and we still loved it. Plus, spending the time with her, and just listening to her talk and tell me all the factoids she was reading, completely made the day.

Baltimore Inner Harbor, August 14th, 2020, with the soon-to-be 13 year old.

After the Aquarium, we walked the Inner Harbor, looking at the boats, the Trade Building, and stopping at the Barnes and Noble, where as part of her birthday ‘celebration’, she got to pick out some books. She picked out Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as a few others that I’m currently blanking on.

But now it was time for dinner… …..or so we thought.

Ministry of Brewing (exterior shot) (Courtesy of their Facebook page)

She agreed that checking out the Ministry of Brewing sounded interesting and beautiful, so we decided on going there. Not knowing enough, and not seeing anything, that they didn’t do food. We arrive, and park on a side street and walk about a half-block to get there. We get there and are asked if we have reservations…. uh oh… we didn’t, but luckily they still had seating and we were allowed in, after a long spiel about the do’s and don’ts during the pandemic at their brewery, as well as a temperature check. Which Olivia-Grace impressed the bartender who did it by timing her ‘death shot’ acting with his temperature check perfectly. I foresee a career in theater.

Ministry of Brewing (interior shot) (Courtesy their Facebook page)

Now, I want to start this off – this isn’t a negative brewery review. It may sound it, and it may sound like I’m upset, but ultimately I’m not, and I enjoyed the time I spent with my daughter there. This is kind of a review of a ‘lack of good service’ or at least, being attentive in their service.

Due to walking there, I had my walking app on and it kept on while we were inside the place. That’s primarily how I know the amount of times for things. We were seated at the 10 minute mark on the app. We were quickly given a portable sign for a few seconds placed in front of our table, that we could read the beer list on, and I picked Esmeralda – a tart berliner; that could have syrups added to it – but I chose it plain, and Olivia-Grace got a birch beer. They also gave us waters, and then they took the sign away.

While in there, we chatted, and talked about the Aquarium, the upcoming school year, Baltimore, etc, etc, etc. (We did have a bit of excitement at the harbor, where apparently there was a shooting at some point in the day, and there was even a Ballistics Forensics police unit on the scene.) I finished my drink around the 35 minute mark on my phone’s app. I told Olivia-Grace since they didn’t have food we would go somewhere else in the city to get something to eat. Because we were running out of time to get home at a relatively decent time to do birthday cake and presents with my parents. I said to her I was going to get one more on draft, and get a growler (buy a growler of their’s and have it filled) with another beer. I was looking at the one IPA (an Oats IPA) to have in house, and to fill the growler with a chocolate stout.

Part of their COVID-19 pandemic rules was no leaving the table, unless you followed the direct path to the bathrooms and exit. This meant you couldn’t go near the bar, where all the employees were congregated. The employees did come out from behind the bar area and went to various tables to check on them.

They, never, once, came back, to our, table. Not once. In the entirety of the time we were there, after ordering our initial drinks. We were also in a table somewhat near their bar area, so I tried my best to flag them down, by either gesturing that I was putting my mask up (one of their rules was nobody was allowed to come to your table unless you had your mask up), staring at them, and even waving to them. All of this was ignored.

We reached the fifty minute mark, a full fifteen minutes after I finished my drink (Olivia-Grace was nursing her birch beer and it was half full yet). Still nobody approached us, checked on us, talked to us, anything. And despite a good fifteen minutes of me trying to get their attention.

At this point, I called off the idea of getting a second pint and a growler to go, mainly because til I would drink that, it would be far later getting back to my parents (since we had an hour and a half drive from their brewery to home). So sadly, I only got the one pint, and no growler, or anything, and was unable to give them more business like I wanted, and to get a better review here for the blog.

I wanted to give this a good full review, with at least two beers tried in house, a growler to try at home, etc. But they didn’t do flights, they didn’t have in-house food, so there’s obviously some parts of a typical brewery review that I just couldn’t do. Which is fine, and not fully their fault given everything going on. I understand this fully. My annoyance is more the lack of service, and how that then further impeded me on getting to try more of their beers, and to even give them a better review.

Like I said earlier, I don’t want this to come off as a negative review, or that I didn’t like them. I loved the atmosphere of the brewery. Its beautiful. Gorgeous, and a great usage of the building. The Esmeralda beer was absolutely fantastic and I loved it. (I’ll do a small mini-review here in this review, as well as a full beer review of it to be posted soon on Let Us Drink Beer’s blog, and then copied here on my own blog as well.) But, I do feel compelled to call out their service, especially in these difficult times. Because with the rules of not being able to approach their bar, we as guests were even more reliant on their service, and its even more apparent and responsible on their end to provide that service. So to have us go for 35 minutes without even checking on us while we had the first… and then another 15 minutes after that drink was finished and still no one to approach us, thats 50 minutes in total, with no one even checking on us, saying ‘hi’, or anything.

So, finally, I get up and DO approach the bar, despite the warnings. What else was I supposed to do? Nobody acknowledged us. They didn’t respond to us practically staring at them from a distance of 20 feet or so, they didn’t respond to us waving or gesturing towards them etc. I didn’t want to approach this way, but at this point, its now 55 minutes or so, and its getting late, and we need to get going. I can’t keep wasting time with an hour and a half drive home. So I approach them, get a glare, and an evil stare for ‘breaking protocol’ though nobody outright said anything or called me out on it. I ask for the check, which is a moderate and small check, (one pint, one birch beer).

At about an hour and seven minutes, we have the check finished and tip left and we are leaving. And, really, like I’ve said before, in this, and with other people, I don’t like to be negative. I typically am not with this blog. I typically will promote everything, and will talk up the positives. So please don’t misconstrue this. We had a blast, we enjoyed the atmosphere, we liked the artwork on the walls, and ceiling. The building inside and outside is beautiful. It was just a lack of good service, thats all. And hopefully, if anyone from their brewery reads this, they recognize that, and work to make it better. I really genuinely hope and assume we were an exception. A man and his daughter who was unable to drink, so we were probably relegated and forgotten about, in comparison to other tables that had two or more potential drinkers. I don’t know, maybe we were just a blind spot and forgotten about and they didn’t see my gestures or waving, or us looking. I don’t know. I know I enjoyed the beer, the atmosphere, and the building. Its just a shame that the service was less than adequate (from my perspective and our experience). I don’t think its unreasonable to be at least checked in on, or to assume that in an hour and seven minutes, I’d have more than two interactions – one of which I prompted by approaching them.

I am curious for those ‘in the industry’ what do you think of this? How long do you give a person for a pint? How often should a person be checked in on? Twenty minutes, thirty minutes, for a drink and then check in on them and see if they want a second or a check? I don’t know. I’m sure there’s a lot more knowledgeable or experienced people out there who could give a better answer than what I have, or at least some suggestions.

I want to say this, don’t NOT go to Ministry of Brewing because of this. I know if I am in the area again and will be able to – I will visit them again myself. I will hope for better service, but I do know that the beer was great, so I’m looking forward to at some point getting to try more from them.

As I said earlier, this was a brewery I was really looking forward to checking out. So maybe that factored into things, a bit of over-hyping in my own brain? Who knows. I know I enjoyed my time with my daughter, the atmosphere, and the one beer I did have. I would still recommend checking them out, if you are in the area. Like I said, I’m hoping I was the exception, not the rule on this.

But when doing a review, I’d be amiss not describing my experience, in how it happened, and not talking about it, or sugar-coating things. I haven’t embellished or changed facts, I did enjoy my time, it was a longer service time than it should have been, but the beer was genuinely delicious. So there’s my review in a nutshell. And hopefully others have had a different experience, I genuinely hope so. I want only the best for this brewery (as well as all breweries), especially in these very difficult times right now.

My pictures of the Ministry of Brewing’s building, on the inside, while we sat around.

So, moving on to a small mini-review of the Esmeralda beer:

Beer: Esmeralda
Brewery: Ministry of Brewing
Style: Sour – Berliner Weisse
ABV: 5%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Refreshingly tart wheat ale.

Esmeralda by Ministry of Brewing

They are definitely not lying, this is a refreshing, tart wheat ale. It’s not crazy puckering tart, but there is a nice, clean, crisp, refreshing, tartness to this that provides a nice flavor. Would be interesting to try this with the different syrups to see how much change there is and how much flavor those various syrups add to it.

The base, plain Esmeralda, that I had was delicious. And at only 5% I could easily see this being a day drinking beer. A growler fill of this at a baseball game or while watching a baseball game or a summer picnic sounds perfect. Not enough to get you too drunk, but still full in flavor, with a nice refreshing coolness for a hot summer day, is exactly what you want in a beer at a time like that.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.61 (as of 8.20.20)

Be sure to see my full review for the Let Us Drink Beer blog. I will be sure to click back on this and edit it to include the link once that gets posted (hopefully Saturday or Sunday).

For more information on Ministry of Brewing, you can check out their Untappd page: Ministry of Brewing on Untappd. Which says they have 18 unique beers with a global average rating of 3.64. Their Untappd description reads: “Baltimore’s newest craft brewery located in the historic St. Michael’s Church in the Upper Fells Point-area. Opening fall 2019.”

You can also find out more about them on their Facebook page: Ministry of Brewing on Facebook.

Likewise their Twitter page: Ministry of Brewing on Twitter.

Like I’ve said, I definitely recommend them, and would check them out. The beer I had was fantastic, and hopefully everything will be wonderful when you get to visit. If you do get to visit them, or have in the past, please leave a comment. Would love to hear how your experience was!

Be sure to check out my other travel blog posts here:

August (2019) Road Trip Series:

Rickett’s Glen (2020) Road Trip Series:

Monocacy Battlefield Road Trip:

Other Brewery Hopping Articles:

My Article for Breweries in PA:

Touring Breweries Around Harrisburg

My Podcast About Breweries in Central PA:

Beers with Strangers – A Beer Thriller in Hershey

Some other brewery tour and road trip articles:

Ministry of Brewing, August 14th, 2020

Also, please welcome me in officially welcoming Olivia-Grace to the world of being a teenager (she turned 13 on August 15th, 2020). She is my oldest, I still have two more daughters to get to teenage years (God help me). But, Happy Birthday Olivia-Grace!

Cheers everyone, please be safe when out traveling, social distance, wash, and wear your masks. Soon, oh so soon hopefully, we can get back to enjoying pints together at our favorite breweries!

-B. Kline

Beer Review: Esmeralda (Ministry of Brewing)

BKline — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 01:32:00 +0000

Esmeralda by Ministry of Brewing

This was originally posted to Let Us Drink Beer, a blog I (B. Kline) guest write for (about once a month). You can view the original article here: Let Us Drink Beer Blog: Beer Review: Esmeralda (Ministry of Brewing). I highly recommend checking out their blog. They are Georgia and Atlanta based and have a lot of great articles, especially if you are visiting that area of the country.

Onto the review:

Hello everyone, its me, B. Kline, from The Beer Thrillers back with another post (my usually monthly post). I took my daughter to the Baltimore Aquarium and we stopped at the Ministry of Brewing in Baltimore. A gorgeous former Cathedral turned brewery, that I had been seeing stuff about on Facebook and really wanted to check out. So I was originally going to do my brewery review for my post… but, felt it would be a bit too negative to do as a guest blog spot, so I’m doing a review of one of their beers instead. I did do a review of the brewery for my blog, which you can check out here: Brewery Review: Ministry of Brewing. Spoiler: I didn’t hate the place or the beer; just the service. But, please check out the review either way, after you’re done checking out the beer review here.

But let’s not dwell on the negatives and instead talk about the positives, like this delicious beer. So that’s why I decided to use this for my monthly guest blog spot on Let Us Drink Beer.

Beer: Esmeralda
Brewery: Ministry of Brewing
Style: Sour – Berliner Weisse
ABV: 5%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Refreshingly tart wheat ale.

They had a few variants of this through the usage of syrups; typical for Berliner Weisse’s. Some breweries will have the plain tap, and then add a cherry, or raspberry, or strawberry syrup to give it a different, more fruity flavor. I had just the original plain.

Appearance is exactly what you expect and what you are looking for in a berliner weisse. Wheat looking, ‘beer looking’ golden hued yellowish beer. A nice white thin lined foam to the head, so you know its well carbonated. Its got a good crisp, clean look that you want in a nice cold refreshing beer.

Aroma is a nice, ‘tart’ ‘funky’ smell. Pretty much once again spot-on or right on target for what berliner weisse’s and other similar style (farmhouse ales, saisons, etc.) should be. It has that distinct ‘sour’ smell, with the notes of wheat, hint of spices, and just a nice smell. Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing unpleasant, nothing wrong.

Flavor is refreshing, tart, crisp, relaxed, and not too ‘lethal’ at 5%. They are definitely not lying, this is a refreshing, tart wheat ale. It’s not crazy puckering tart, but there is a nice, clean, crisp, refreshing, tartness to this that provides a nice flavor. Would be interesting to try this with the different syrups to see how much change there is and how much flavor those various syrups add to it. 5% is a great middle-road ABV that lets you enjoy several of these without it becoming overwhelming or too much; that refreshing area where you can have a few and still drive home safely, enjoying them out in the sun at a picnic or baseball game. I believe they had a cherry, strawberry, lime, and blue raspberry for their flavors (though I might be misremembering). I would be interested in trying the lime and blue raspberry (not a huge fan of cherry or strawberry).

I wanted to try several other beers from them, or at least one more, while there, and take another home with a growler, but unfortunately due to them not paying me attention even after being there over an hour, and having strict rules (due to COVID) about getting up, I wasn’t able to get anymore. But… I did really enjoy this beer. Hopefully their other beers are just as good. Maybe some day I’ll get back down to Baltimore and try them out.

As for this, Esmeralda is completely on point, hitting all of its marks. Nothing completely amazing, but does exactly what you want the beer to do, and thats far more than can be said about a lot of beers.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.62 (as of 8.20.20)

Please check out my full review of The Ministry of Brewing. And as always everyone, thanks for reading, and you can check out my blog – The Beer Thrillers – where Let Us Drink Beer also guest blogs and posts. So be sure to give us both some reads and shares and likes and follows, etc. We greatly appreciate it!

Cheers!

-The Beer Thrillers
-B. Kline

Beer Review: Fuzzy Nudge (Troegs Independent Brewing)

BKline — Thu, 29 Aug 2019 23:30:00 +0000

Fuzzy Nudge by Troegs Independent Brewing

Don’t adjust your set, this isn’t an orange juice blog, where I review the latest pulpy craft artisanal handmade orange juice…. nope…. this is still The Beer Thrillers and this is still beer reviews.

This is a fun one-off from Troegs and named by a friend of the blog – Ffej Herb. Ffej recently had his Ffej of July (an amazing party) and when not rocking out or traveling from brewery to brewery or running his own blog (The Pour Travelers) he works at Troegs, and despite working for them nearly from the beginning back at the Paxton Street building, this is the first he’s gotten to name.

This is just one of those words and phrases and names that Ffej has always liked and has been throwing at the Trogner brothers since day one to try and get used as a beer name, and they finally acquiesced to him. And they picked one heck of a beer to do it with!

In honor of Ffej, and his Ffej of July, lets break down this delicious brewski:

Fuzzy Nudge, named by Ffej, in a Ffej glass.

Beer: Fuzzy Nudge
Brewery: Troegs Independent Brewing
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double
ABV: 9%
IBU: (None Listed)
Untappd Write-Up: Just what the heck is a Fuzzy Nudge? We didn’t know either when someone here tossed it out as a beer name. Then along comes this Double IPA out of our Scratch Series. An oat-dominated malt bill gives it a super-soft mouthfeel, and it’s loaded with 25 pounds per barrel of fuzzy peaches and apricots. A hop combo of Lotus, El Dorado and Azacca complements the stone fruit with notes of orange rind and pear, and a new-to-us yeast pulls in flavors reminiscent of gummy peach rings. Finally, brown sugar balances the brightness of the fruit and nudges fermentation of this lovable double IPA to full fuzziness. Voila, Fuzzy Nudge! We taste: juicy peach, orange rind, brown sugar.

These are definitely carbonated, so no worries there on that one. (As my second picture shows you). And natural light or artificial light, it still looks like orange juice. It has a beautiful orange glowing complexion, and looks more on the “Hazy NE IPA” spectrum then on the “IPA” spectrum.

The aroma, as soon as you crack it is full of fruity IPA notes. It has a base “Troegs IPA” smell to it, but ontop of that, it has many fruity IPA notes. Ripe notes of peach, apricot, orange, all rolled up into one big hop ball and poof, explodes in your nose.

Taste is smooth as silk and goes down even smoother, belying its 9% ABV. Another Troegs IPA hall-mark it seems, ~9% ABV = dangerous grounds with Troegs, because you won’t feel it until number 2 or 3. This has a lot of peach and apricot up front and then mellows out with the malt and hop notes, going from fruity to a bit of bitterness and kind of coalescing with a bit of a sweet brown sugary taste at the end. Making this a very nice, well rounded beer. Playing over the whole spectrum of your tastebuds.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.96 (as of 8.29.19)

Thanks for reading, and hoped you like this! Ffej of July was a blast and was great to hang out with a lot of the Troegs crew, and this is just one of many reasons why Troegs has been making some fantastic beers. People they have working for them love beer, care about beer, and care about the people drinking their beer, and you can tell.

As always, thanks for reading everyone. Cheers!

-B. Kline