Some days the blog posts were easy. Other days not so much. Some days I had the blog post done at 7:30 or 8AM… other days I’m struggling to get the blog post done, and wrapping it up at 11:58PM.

I never truly felt like I had burnt myself out…. until I came to doing this recap blog post. Thats why its now December 7th and its getting posted; when this was meant to be posted on December 1st. And I still don’t think I’m ‘burnt out’. I think its a case of ‘start-up issues’. The hardest part about any blog post is starting the blog post. Like writing anything, the hardest part is the beginning, is putting ink to paper, or to type those first few words. So, as the time stretched from December 1st… to December 2nd…. to December 3rd…. I hesitated and procrastinated more and more, and this post went further and further by the wayside. So for that, and for the fact that the blog as a whole hasn’t had a single post in December, and no new blog post in a week, I apologize. For those of you who were looking forward to this recap posting of my “November NaNoWriMo Challenge”, I apologize. And yes, I know I’m not REALLY doing a NaNoWriMo, and I know I’m not using the term correctly.

But this is the recap post, and it is finally going live. I apologize for its tardiness, but hopefully you will enjoy it all the same.

I met all three of my self-set hard challenges for November, and fell short of a soft-challenge for myself. My hard challenges were: 1) One new blog post per day, 2) One new unique beer per day, and 3) One 1-mile or more walk per day. These challenges I completed. (Figured the 1-mile or more walk would counter-balance the fact I was drinking every day.) The soft challenge I failed was hitting my 10K steps per day. And I only failed that one day…. ironically the second day of the month. I only got 8.8K steps that day, mainly due to a friend gathering and party and having gone to it right after work.

But you all don’t really care about the challenges, and just want to see the recap right?! So here’s whats going with that. I’m going to make a list here of the dates (November 1st, November 2nd, November 3rd, etc.) as headings, and then underneath it, list the different blog posts we posted that day (mine, J. Doncevic’s reviews, AJ’s Default Brewing post, and the guest writing blog post by Let Us Drink Beer). I will also list what new unique beer I had each of those days (or in the cases of some days, ‘unique beers’). So lets to it!

NOVEMBER 1st:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Pumpkin Stout (Newfangled Brew Works)

Unique Beers:

• Pumpkin Spice Stout (Newfangled Brew Works)
• Catchin’ Feels (Tattered Flag)

NOVEMBER 2nd:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: St. Thomas (Pizza Boy Brewing Co.)

Unique Beers:

• Rose Cider (Wyndridge Farm)
• Blood Orange Cranberry Tart Ale (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Strawberry (Delp Brother’s Home Brewing) (Friend’s Homebrew at the party)

NOVEMBER 3rd:

Blog posts:

• Beer Review: Walker Station Stout (Pretoria Fields Collective)

Unique Beers:

• Wicked Watermelon (Redd’s Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 4th:

Blog Posts:

• Multiple Beer Reviews: Sogni D’oro, Wastin’ Daylight, Market Research, Peach Novelty, Oktobock, Lucky Cat Lien (ZeroDay Brewing Co.)

Unique Beers:

• Secret Machine – Key Lime & Tangerine (Dewey Beer Company)
• Intergalactic Warrior (Toppling Goliath Brewing Co.)
• King Sue (Toppling Goliath Brewing Co.)

NOVEMBER 5th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: King Sue (Toppling Goliath Brewing Co.)

Unique Beers:

• Wicked Black Cherry (Redd’s Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 6th:

Blog posts:

• Beer Review: Intergalactic Warrior (Toppling Goliath Brewing Co.)

Unique Beers:

• Wicked Apple (Redd’s Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 7th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: S’Mores LazaRIS (Boneshire Brew Works)

Unique Beers:

• There’s Nuttin’ Butter Than a Nice Pair of Cam Pants (Westbrook Brewing Co.)

NOVEMBER 8th:

Blog posts:

• Beer Review: EBK – Gashadokuro (Ghost 782) – Adroit Theory (J. Doncevic)
• Beer Review: There’s Nuttin’ Butter Than a Nice Pair of Cam Pants (Westbrook Brewing Co.)

Unique Beers:

• Broken Heels (New Trail Brewing Co.)

NOVEMBER 9th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Secret Machine – Key Lime & Tangerine (Dewey Beer Company)

Unique Beers:

• Schwarzbier (The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery)

NOVEMBER 10th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Broken Heels (New Trail Brewing Co.)

Unique Beers:

• Adjective Animal (WISEACRE Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 11th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Adjective Animal (WISEACRE Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: Colonization (Ghost 779) – Adroit Theory

Unique Beers:

• Tattered Dreamz (Tattered Flag)
• Twin Mount .50 (Newfangled Brew Works)
• Government Overspending (2019) (Tattered Flag)
• Seven. Point. Six. Two. (Tattered Flag)
• 556 Stout (Cox Brewing Company – CBC)

NOVEMBER 12th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: 556 Stout (Cox Brewing Company [CBC] )

Unique Beers:

• Boat Drinks: Pina Colada Berliner (Crosstown Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 13th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Boat Drinks: Pina Colada Berliner (Crosstown Brewing Company)

Unique Beers:

• Alcatraz Sour Apple (Johny Bootlegger Beverage Company)

NOVEMBER 14th:

Blog Posts:

• Multiple Beer Reviews: Tattered Dreamz (Tattered Flag), Twin Mount .50 (Newfangled Brew Works), Government Spending 2019 (Tattered Flag), Seven.Point.Six.Two (Tattered Flag), 556 Stout (Cox Brewing Company)

Unique Beers:

• Alpha Abstraction Vol. 8 (Wild Leap Brew Co.)

NOVEMBER 15th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Alpha Abstraction Vol. 8 (Wild Leap Brew Co.)

Unique Beers:

• Double IPA (Newfangled Brew Works)
• Lager (Newfangled Brew Works)

NOVEMBER 16th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Double IPA (Newfangled Brew Works)

Unique Beers:

• Birra di Levante (Levante Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 17th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Lager (Newfangled Brew Works)

Unique Beers:

• Syndicate City Sour Peach (Johny Bootlegger Beverage Company)

NOVEMBER 18th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Birra Di Levante (Levante Brewing Company)

Unique Beers:

• Tickle Parts – Passionfruit (Levante Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 19th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Tickle Parts – Passionfruit (Levante Brewing Company)

Unique Beer:

• Great American Apple Pie (Stout Brewing Co.)

NOVEMBER 20th:

Blog Posts:

• Multiple Beer Reviews: Mechanicsberry, Bargain Black IPA, Embers Remain, Ragged Edge Espresso Stout (Appalachian Brewing Company)

Unique Beers:

• Mechanicsberry (Appalachian Brewing Company)
• Bargain Black IPA (Appalachian Brewing Company)
• Embers Remain (Appalachian Brewing Company)
• Ragged Edge Espresso Stout (Appalachian Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 21st:

Blog Posts:

• Default Brewing

Unique Beers:

• Newfangled Pils (Newfangled Brew Works)
• Nitro Stout (Newfangled Brew Works)

NOVEMBER 22nd:

Blog posts:

• Beer Review: Darwin’s Forehead Salted Brown Porter (Fonta Flora Brewery)

Unique Beers:

• Darwin’s Forehead Salted Brown Porter (Fonta Flora Brewery)
• NVP (Nitro Series) (Breckenridge Brewery)

NOVEMBER 23rd:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Newfangled Pils (Newfangled Brew Works)

Unique Beers:

• Gotta Get Up to Get Down (WISEACRE Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 24th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Gotta Get Up to Get Down (WISEACRE Brewing Company)
• Cheers from Default Brewing!

Unique Beers:

• Paradise Lost (Southern Prohibition Brewing)

NOVEMBER 25th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Paradise Lost (Southern Prohibition Brewing)

Unique Beers:

• Crowd Control (Southern Prohibition Brewing)

NOVEMBER 26th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

Unique Beers:

• Citraquench’l (Heist Brewery(

NOVEMBER 27th:

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Citraquench’l (Heist Brewery)

Unique Beers:

• Scratch 394 – Mango Tangerine Lime Tart Ale (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Scratch 395 – Pineapple Passionfruit Guava Cherry Tart Ale (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Scratch 396 – Dry-Hopped Pale Ale (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Mad Elf 2019 Vintage (technically not a ‘new’ beer, but my first of this year’s vintage) (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Coco-Nator (non-scratch version) (Troegs Independent Brewing)

NOVEMBER 28th: (Thanksgiving)

Blog Posts:

• Beer Review: Azathoth (Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company)

Unique Beers:

• Azathoth (Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company)

NOVEMBER 29th:

Blog Posts:

• Multiple Beer Review: Scratch 394, Scratch 395, Scratch 396, and Mad Elf (Troegs Independent Brewing)

Unique Beers:

• Not My Style, Might Rate Anyway (Pizza Boy Brewing Co.)
• Visions of Yesterday (Pizza Boy Brewing Co.)

NOVEMBER 30th:

Blog Posts:

• Official BBQ & Burgers: Pizza Boy Secondary Location
• Five Must See Breweries When Visiting Atlanta (Let Us Drink Beer)

Unique Beers:

• Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Gose (Westbrook Brewing Co.)

Whew, what an exhausting month November was. I think part of the reason it took me so long to get the energy to do this recap post, was knowing the amount of formatting involved and the photos…. and now that the challenge is over, a malaise kind of settled over me. Like my job was completed. I started this post this morning before work, and had to finish it now after an extra hour or so of work on it this evening. I still want to put in some statistics of the month, for the blog, and for myself, and will most likely come in and do the edit for that later tonight or tomorrow. I will also add the tags and categories. But for now, I just want to get this live and up on the internet. Its 7PM and this is long overdo.

I would like to thank my contributors and co-authors on this blog for making this month (and all the time in general) go so well, and for providing so much help, fun and entertaining blog posts to read, and for helping so much with the blog! Thank you J. Doncevic, AJ Brechbiel (Default Brewing), and Let us Drink Beer Blog. My blog post for Let us Drink Beer’s blog will go live tomorrow and I will provide a link here for that in the statistics edit I will do. In the meantime you can read their post about their upcoming additions to their blog here: Let us Drink Beer: Exciting Additions Coming Soon!

Cheers and I hope you all enjoyed all of our blog posts in November. Heres to the rest of 2019, and then on to the future, 2020, and the next decade!

-B. Kline

EDIT:

Some statistics from the month here at The Beer Thrillers:

Blog posts:

• 34

Unique authors:

• 4
• B. Kline, J. Doncevic, AJ – Default Brewing, and Let Us Drink Beer

Visitors and Views:

• 2,767 Unique Visitors
• 6,293 Total Views

Twitter Followers:

• 95
• (Goal was 100, just missed it)

FaceBook Followers:

• 130

Most Vewied Posts:

• Beer Review: 556 Stout (Cox Brewing Company [CBC] )
• Multiple Beer Review: Scratch 394, Scratch 395, Scratch 396, and Mad Elf (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Beer Review: Tickle Parts – Passionfruit (Levante Brewing Company)

Breweries reviewed/beers of their’s reviewed:

• Boneshire Brew Works
• Tattered Flag
• Newfangled Brew Works
• Cox Brewing Company
• Adroit Theory
• Troegs Independent Brewing
• Pizza Boy Brewing Co.
• Levante Brewing
• WISEACRE Brewing
• Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company
• Southern Prohibition Brewing
• Heist Brewery
• Toppling Goliath Brewing
• Dewey Beer Co.
• ZeroDay Brewing
• The Millworks
• Appalachian Brewing Company
• Crosstown Brewing
• Fonta Flora Brewing
• Westbrook Brewng Co.
• Equilibrium Brewery
• Pretoria Fields Collective
• Wild Leap Brew Co.
• New Trail Brewing

Styles:

• IPA
• Double IPA
• Black IPA
• Brown Porter
• Stout
• Pilsner
• Lager
• New England IPA
• Belgian Dubbel
• Sour – Fruited
• Sour – Other
• Fruited Beer
• Gose
• Sour
• Belgian Strong Dark Ale
• Pale Ale

Some personal stats for me:

Unique Beers:

• 50

Total Beers:

• 68

Breweries Visited:

• Boneshire Brew Works
• Tattered Flag
• Troegs Independent Craft Brewery
• ZeroDay Brewing
• The Millworks
• Official BBQ and Burgers – Pizza Boy’s Secondary Location
• Newfangled Brew Works
• Appalachian Brewing Company

New Restaurants/Bars:

• The Gin Mill
• Official BBQ and Burgers

Again, thank you all for reading. This post has now been updated with tags and categories. Please leave a like, a comment, and please follow us!

Thank you everyone!

Cheers!!

-B. Kline

‘Twas the night before Thanksgiving,
And all of Troegs was all-a-bustle,
So loud was the taproom,
That nobody even heard The Great Turkey,
There were friends and families commingling,
There was new friends and old friends all meeting,
For it was the night before Thanksgiving,
When The Great Turkey appears,
And all who are grateful hold each other so dear,
The day before the consumerism takes over for Black Friday,
And thousands of ‘craft beer seekers’ go running for Goose Island Beers,
But on this day, at this time, it was the night before Thanksgiving,
And with a mighty big cheer, one and all shouted:

“HAPPY DRINKSGIVING!”

So, after working a very stressful day on Wednesday, and before going home, I stopped at Troegs where normally I would pick up essentials for Thanksgiving (ie. the cranberry porter scratch beer); but alas, this year there was no cranberry scratch beer made, so I contented myself with ordering a flight, enjoying it, and then going home and running some errands with my daughters.

Unfortunately given my job, I don’t get ‘extra days off’ or even get holidays off unless they fall on my natural days off – and my natural days off are Thursday and Friday. So at least, each year, I have one holiday off – Thanksgiving. And as I said in the previous blog post – my review of Azathoth – my plans were the in-laws followed up by my sister’s.

But on this Wednesday night, the night before Thanksgiving, it was me time, and it was Troegs time. So I ordered a flight – Scratch #394 Mango Tangerine Lime Tart Ale, Scratch #395 Pineapple Passionfruit Guava Cherry Tart Ale, Scratch #396 Dry Hopped Pale Ale, and Mad Elf.

I’m only going to go over Mad Elf lightly, as I may/may not do a full review on Mad Elf. The thing about Mad Elf is that its the staple and the one that put Troegs on the map. While Nugget Nectar and Nimble Giant might be their best beers, its really Mad Elf that got Troegs known, and what everyone really knows them for, and why people flock to the brewery in Fall/Winter. So, on one hand I want to review it because its so popular, and well known, and on the other, thats precisely why I don’t want to review it. I tend to stay away from doing the staples, the beers that have been made for 15+ years, the beers that are the flagship ultra-known beers. But, I think there is a place for these beers to be reviewed as well, so I’m going to be flipping a coin about a hundred times in the next few days to decide if I should do it.

Beer: Scratch 394 – Mango Tangerine Lime Tart Ale
Brewery: Troegs Independent Brewing
Style: Fruit Beer
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: We’re aiming to add a fourth beer to our Tart & Fruit Series sometime down the road, so we’ve been testing new fruit combinations on our Scratch system. For this week’s release, we’re betting on sweet and juicy mangoes. Tangerine adds depth to the fruit profile, a hint of lime adds a citrusy kick, and a dash of sea salt amplifies the refreshing flavors. We taste: ripe mango, sweet citrus, hint of lime.

Appearance is light, shiny, see-through translucent, sour (non-smoothie sour) looking, clear, and crisp. It has the light yellow straw coloring. A thin head. Nice bubbles.

Aroma is fruity through and through. You get instant notes of mango and tangerine. You can a subtle hint of lime, and some citrus. But upfront its all mango and tangerine. It has an overall tart smell to it that you expect.

Taste is a tart kick in the teeth. It is tart, it is tasty, it is crisp, it is refreshing. Its a mixture of all of these things all rolled up in so much and in so small a space, its a wonderful explosion. The mango and tangerine work really well together, and the lime provides a nice kick especially at the end of the drink. Its like at HersheyPark with those new soda machines that let you add flavors to regular sodas (love doing grape and lime with mountain dew).

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.71 (as of 11.29.19)

Beer: Scratch 395 – Pineapple Passionfruit Guava Cherry Tart Ale
Brewery: Troegs Independent Brewing
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 6.2%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: This week’s small-batch Scratch release is all about fruit. Guava, an aromatic fruit grown in the tropics, lays down a backbone of juicy pear and mango notes, and fresh passionfruit pulls in a pleasantly sweet-and-tart tang. Pineapple adds refreshing tropical notes that are amplified by the Horninal Kveik yeast, and a dash of cherry juice gives this beer a soft pink hue. We taste: fresh guava and passionfruit, juicy pineapple, pleasant tartness.

Wow, this is an interesting one to even begin on. On all three fronts (well, at least on aroma and taste; the appearance is pretty clear cut). Its dark, its hazy, and its dank. Its sour, but it has the sour – smoothie style look, though its not really a smoothie, and its not really thick despite its appearance.

Aroma is a bomb of fruity notes. Just like scratch 394, this one is all over the place as well. I think this concoction is a bit too much though. And perhaps its just me with Guava, but I’ve had it in a few now – Wolf Prints (review here) and Fatum Guava (review here) – as well as others, like Tattered Abomination, some various Troegs scratch one-offs, etc. ….and the more and more I have guava in a beer…. I think I’m becoming less and less of a fan of it. There is just too much to it and it dilutes and changes the taste and aroma of the beer too much. And for this one, it has to compete with passionfruit (one I like), pineapple (one I’m indifferent to) and cherry (one I’m not a big fan of in beer). So this concoction of a beer has a lot to it, and so much competing notes.

And taste is the same way as the above. There is almost too much here. Its not altogether bad, it is certainly different, and it is certainly a lot to take in. There is the passionfruit and pineapple, and the guava, and the cherry, and its all mixed up in a thick tart sour. The passionfruit and guava take center stage, with the pineapple and cherry kind of playing backburner. But there is just so much here, that it is kind of overwhelming. The tartness is nice, and the flavors aren’t abhorrent, but its just a lot.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.81 (as of 11.29.19)

Beer: Scratch 396 – Dry Hopped Pale Ale
Brewery: Troegs Independent Brewing
Style: Pale Ale – American
ABV: 5.5%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Write-Up: We’re starting to fine-tune an aromatic hop combination that we’re planning to use for something special down the road. This Scratch pale ale showcases Citra, Idaho 7, Chinook and Azacca. Look for notes of passionfruit, orange, grapefruit and subtle white pine. London 3 yeast will keep the beer dry and allow subtle malt and nut notes to come forward.
We taste: passionfruit, citrus rind, white pine

Appearance is similar to the above scratch 395, a thick, orange yellow beer color. The amount of hop in it creates the dank, heavy-set look to it, and it is certainly that. Its got a juicy, thick, hazy, sediment free, dank near-IPA like orange glow to it.

Aroma is pretty hop strong. You get the notes of the Chinook, Citra, and Azacca hops upfront. This is where you get the notes of passionfruit, orange, grapefruit, melon rinds. Its a bright powerful hop burst inside your nostrils.

Taste is juicy, but it has a dry component to it. Its got a very strong finish to it, and its got a nice thick mouthfeel. It is only 5.5% so its barely alcoholic, and you won’t get a big buzz from this, but you will get that sweet hoppy tiredness. This is bursting at the seams with hoppy goodness. You get the citra and chinook fruity citrus hop notes, and the azacca is similar just a bit more muted. There is flavor of passionfruit, orange, not much grapefruit, but I get a little bit of pine and some melon rinds. Its a nice finish that lingers on the tongue very well.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.86 (as of 11.29.19)

This is going to be a quick, brief, glossing over of this. As I’m pretty certain I’ll be doing my own review for Mad Elf. A beer I’ve had regularly, quite often, and nearly religiously now every year for the past 10-11 years. I’ll do much more in-depth on it, and I’ll do some discussion on its history, as well as the off-shoot variants of it like Naked Elf and Wild Elf (as well as the Grand Cru).

Beer: Mad Elf
Brewery: Troegs Independent Brewing
Style: Belgian Strong Dark Ale
ABV: 11.5%
IBU: 15
Untappd Write-Up: The holidays at Tröegs start with our inner Mad Elf momentarily taking over the brew deck. So blame “him” for this cheerful ruby red creation brewed with honey, cherries and Belgian yeast reminiscent of cinnamon, clove and allspice.

So lets just say, this was my first Untappd check-in. This was how I fully got introduced to Troegs back in the day, (back in their Paxton Street days) before the move from Harrisburg to Hershey. Every year Troegs splurges and puts out the money to get a badge for this on Untappd as well (or at least usually every year).

I will say a cautionary note on the beer, I’ve become less and less in love with it as I’ve gotten older, as I’ve had more different and various craft beers, and as the brewing system at Troegs has grown, changed, and evolved. I’ve left my original rating for the beer what it was when I first had it, and was a pretty naive beer drinker – a five star beer. Each year’s vintage, I check in fresh, and then later on when I drink an aged bottle of it. And I give a different rating for it fresh; as well as for it aged. So if you look through my vintages and my actual Mad Elf ratings, you’ll notice a fluctuation in changes almost per time I drink it. Is this a five star beer? Probably not. And its definitely not anymore. Is it still a very good beer? I think so. Was it ever a five star beer? Probably not. Is there really any five star beers? Eh. Thats a matter of debate and dispute. What constitutes five star? For movies, for literature, for wrestling matches, for everything, five star either symbolizes complete perfection, or the extreme best. It depends on the critic, the rating system, those involved, the time of day, mood, etc. There is just so many factors. If I had this beer now, for the first time, I think it would be consistent with whatever I give the vintage for that year.

Some stats:

My Mad Elf Untappd Rating: ***** (like I said above, for why, and why it hasn’t changed in the system)
Global Untappd Rating: 3.83 (as of 11.29.19)

My Mad Elf 2019 Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.12 (as of 11.29.19)

My Mad Elf 2018 Untappd Rating: – Fresh – ****.25 – Aged – ****.50
Global Untappd Rating: 4.06 (as of 11.29.19)

I will break down some of these statistics, and my full thoughts on the beer, more thoroughly when I do the full Mad Elf review. So please look for that. I would really appreciate hearing all of everyone’s thoughts on Mad Elf, it is a very interesting beer to discuss with craft beer enthusiasts.

Until that time, cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

So what do we got here? Oooh, a flight you say. Nope! What we have here is “procrastination”. (Its one of those big words that grownups use and do, but kids just call ‘being lazy’ and ‘having fun’.)

This is what I *WAS* doing while I *WAS* …. *SUPPOSED* to be mowing the yard inside my fence, finishing my errands, doing yard work, weeding, or doing my writing about this blog. Instead of all of those “fun” things…. I was sitting under the awning in the beer garden area of Troegs Brewing Company at Hershey on HersheyPark Drive (or Airport Road if you’re 55+) drinking this wonderful and delicious flight and reading about Fashion from Madeleine Albright (oops, I mean Fascism… crap this isn’t the book I was expecting it to be!).

Oh, and nerd out moment, I was also sending this Tweet: https://twitter.com/thebeerthriller/status/1154835766213824512 (which got re-Tweeted by Troegs: https://twitter.com/TroegsBeer/status/1154847303255109635). So there was that “nerd out” moment for me, and now I can finally say “research done, project completed” and be able to link this up to Twitter and complete some massive Twitter inception (Tweetception?) like I did when I re-tweeted the re-tweet of the original tweet. (Yea, I’m new to Twitter, and didn’t know that was a thing or that it could be done. I feel like this could be a vicious cycle that would never be completed until one of the two parties ceased to be….. if only we would just continue for all of eternity re-tweeting the same tweet back and forth amongst each other.)

Once again, I found myself at Troegs (was running errands in the area, and was actually supposed to stop at the Hershey Public Library — support your local libraries people — but managed to run out of time due to drinking and reading, so needless to say the mowing didn’t happen, the hop harvest didn’t happen, and the trip to the Hershey Public Library didn’t happen). But what I did find was that the flight system which was going through a revamping process last time I was here, has now completed its revamping. While in line, or at your table, or at the bar, you can grab a slip of paper and write down the 4 beers you want to make a flight of. You are then given those four beers on their little circles of paper. You pay per beer and based on what the beer is. (From my flight, Scratches 382 and 383 as well as Naked Elf were 2.50$ and Dear Peter was 3.75$.) The chalkboard says 8$-15$ for the flight. (All of the beers were listed at at least 2.50$ for 4oz pours, today anyway, so minimum flight would be 10$, plus the minimum 2$ tip you should be leaving, don’t be cheapskates people, so minimum the flight should run you 12$ and possibly maximum of 17-18$).

Not sure if I prefer this style of flight system as compared to their previous 3 for 6$, but time will tell. I did enjoy seeing Dear Peter and a few other (Blackberry Tizzy) cork and cage Splinter/Foeder series on the 4oz listings for flights, so thats nice.

My original intent for stopping in was to grab a 4pk of Naked Elf and a 4pk of Fuzzy Nudge. I was half denied and half accomplished – Naked Elf was plentiful, but Fuzzy Nudge was sold out in cans, but was on tap. (I have found someone getting me a 4pk, so no worries people, I will get to enjoy the Ffej peach beer, and I will give it a review.)

Naked Elf is one of my favorite beers that Troegs makes, and I look forward to it every year. (Moreso than Mad Elf, especially the older I get, and the more styles, and beers, and flavors, and experience I have, I find myself liking Mad Elf less, but loving Naked Elf more. I still find myself loving the crap out of Nimble Giant and Nugget Nectar, so my Troegs love has definitely not waned too much.)

Let’s dig into this flight.

A beautiful beer usually means it tastes (beautiful?) good! And that adage holds up here completely.

Beer: Scratch 382 – Blackberry Lime Tart Ale
Brewery: Troegs Brewing Company
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 5%
Untappd Write-Up: For Scratch #382, we’re doubling down on a combination of blackberries and lime. The tartness of the limes and a first fermentation with lactobacillus is supported by a rich backbone of oats and honey malt. A strong second fermentation with Hornindal Kveik yeast adds subtle notes of pineapple and pushes the ABV to 5%.
We taste: earthy berries, lime zest, tart citrus.

Well the write-up is definitely spot on with the tastings of berry, lime zest, and tart citrus. For my notes I already had written down about how much the blackberry shines through, how the lime gives it a great zesty sting to the beer, and that there is a great tart to sour backbone with a fruity citrus to it — and this was all before I even looked it up on Untappd (shocking I figured out something like that on my own!).

Appearance is a beautiful pretty off-reddish coloring typical of fruited beers, specifically fruited sours. The carbonation is right, the glass is clean, and the appearance is just stunning.

Aroma is very heavy berry with some of the lime sneaking past the blackberries. A wonderful cocktail assaulting my nose hairs (they do need trimmed a bit).

From initial sip you get a powerful earthy blackberry taste that immediately gets punched through by zest-lime sting. As you sip and enjoy, you begin to pucker a little bit, feeling that tart kick in, with a fruity citrus flavor that does nothing but add to the beer. When Troegs really wants to work on a sour, they can do them wonderfully, and this scratch definitely showcases their abilities at sours. I would love to see them do a lot more in this vein.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.88 (as of 7.26.19)

Three wonderful hops that work in a great TriForce of hop glory: Citra, Galaxy, and Simcoe. And no, I’m not breaking that nerd bit down into smaller bits, just enjoy that call-out for those who know and get the reference.

Beer: Scratch 383 – Hazy IPA (Citra, Galaxy & Simcoe)
Brewery: Troegs Brewing Company
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 7.4%
IBU: (blank)
Hops: Simcoe, Citra, Galaxy
Untappd Write-Up: This hazy take on an IPA is the first time we’ve explored this hop combination. Of course, we know Simcoe’s creamsicle notes from Nugget Nectar and Citra’s citrusy profile from Perpetual IPA. Galaxy, an Australian hop variety we haven’t used a lot, brings in notes of juicy fruit. Dry-hopping earlier in fermentation transforms the expected hop profile and leads us toward grapefruit and passionfruit, and oats in the malt bill add texture and body to support the hops.
We taste: grapefruit rind, passionfruit, bubblegum

I am surprised to see that this is Troeg’s first usage of Simcoe, Galaxy, and Citra together, just on the basis alone of the amount of IPAs they’ve produced, I almost have to think they’ve ran through every combination of hops by this point (obviously being facetious here). But this combination definitely works wonders, and hopefully we’ll see them explore it more and use it more.

The appearance looks a little less hazy than some true hazy IPAs I’ve had recently or had in general, but it still falls on the hazy spectrum as far as IPAs go and appearances. A nice orange-straw hazy concoction.

Aroma is very hoppy. A strong punch of the more floral and fruity hop notes with the dankness of the Simcoe hops. Grapefruit, sweet and sticky fruit, bit of mango, and that ‘dank’ for lack of better words hop smell all mix and combine here.

Taste is very much same vein as the aroma. I didn’t pick up any bubblegum like the Untappd notes suggest, but I did get a bit of sweetness behind the hops. Almost in a cloying way but not quite that strong at it. The mouthfeel is very nice and while on the more heavier side of IPAs its not too strong or lingering. The hops do deliver on notes of grapefruit, mango, floral hop, and the grassyness that can come from Simcoe.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.99 (as of 7.26.19)

Dear Peter comes from the Splinter series that Troegs does (the old Flying Mouflan, Impending Descent, Master of Pumpkins), now represented with the cork and caged beers that come from those giant Foeders that you can see as you drive down HersheyPark Drive on your way to becoming “HersheyPark Happy” with three screaming girls after eight hours in 90+ degree summer heat with a real-feel index of 114 as you stand in line waiting for the SkyRush or Great Bear on asphalt…. Sorry for the digression…. But the new Foeder beers like Dear Peter, Farmette, Blackberry Tizzy, Freaky Peach, etc, have produced some wonderful beers (my favorite being the Blackberry Tizzy). Typically Troegs has done these as just the bottles (13$ a pop) and they didn’t appear in kegs to be on draft, or to be used for the flights. So it was certainly a nice surprise to see this one up on the chalkboard, so I jumped on it (I believe this is the last of the Foeder beers for me to try.)

Beer: Dear Peter
Brewery: Troegs Brewing Company
Style: American Wild Ale
ABV: 6%
IBU: 9
Untappd Write-Up: Dear Peters family… We heard about the nectarines that were bruised in a hailstorm. Well, what won’t work at a roadside stand will be aces for brewing. We’re picturing a bracing sour with a sweet over-ripe nose. Brett for funk, lacto for pucker, and a spell on oak to bring it all home. Those nectarines? We’ll take ’em all!

This was certainly sour, and in a completely wonderful way. Nectarines aren’t done a whole lot in beers, its mostly mangos, peaches, oranges, blood oranges, etc, seems the little step-child Nectarine gets forgotten about most times.

The appearance is a beautiful honey-brown coloring. You can tell it spent some time in wood and it looks wonderful for it all.

Aroma is heavy fruit, but you also get an immediate impression that there is something funky with it, like you can just smell the sour exuding from the beer.

This probably ranks up there with the first generation/batch of Wild Elf (yes, I’ll be “that guy” and say the generations/batches after the first weren’t as good) and Blackberry Tizzy.

This is a sour, but its more of the funky/tangy variety rather than the sour/tart normal sour beer. This is not a knock on the beer or a bad thing, just pointing out the differences. Funky/Tangy does not equate to bad, nor does sour/tart, just different. And I think with the fruit involved here (Nectarines) that it works perfectly. This is a wonderful drinking beer that I can see the 13$ cost being worth for a bottle of it. Thats not something you can say for every beer.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.95 (as of 7.26.19)

You know what Naked Elf and Fascism have in common? No matter what you try and do about either one, it keeps coming back, every year.

Ha! Nice transition right? I think I learned that in one of my “essays writing” classes I took, or … maybe I just got drunk and dreamed it. Either way, thats my transition and I’m keeping with it.

So what we got here is the naked version of Mad Elf. An even crazier version of a crazy Elf? Sort of.

I am not going to really do a full review on this. (Sorry to disappoint). But this is one of my favorites from Troegs, and since I picked up a 4pk (like I do every year, at minimum), I will do a full indepth review on just Naked Elf, straight from the can, into my glass. But I will give you the Untappd notes on the 2019 version of this, as well as the original version(s), and will give my ratings, and that will be all she wrote for this blog update.

Naked Elf (2019)
Brewery: Troegs Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Strong Dark Ale
ABV: 6.9%
IBU: 17
Untappd Write-Up: (blank)

My Untappd Rating: ****.5
Global Untappd Rating: 3.87 (as of 7.26.19) (out of 45 ratings)

Naked Elf
Brewery: Troegs Brewing Company
Style: Belgian Strong Dark Ale
ABV: 8.5%
IBU: 17
Untappd Write-Up: Gone are the cherries, honey and chocolate malt that dress up our holiday favorite Mad Elf, leaving “him” stark-raving nude to reveal notes of cinnamon, allspice, clove and tangy fruity esters.

My Untappd Rating: ****.5
Global Untappd Rating: 3.87 (as of 7.26.19) (out of 11,119 ratings)

Find it kind of interesting how both Untappd versions have the same global rating, despite one being out of 45 reviews/ratings and the other being out of 11,119 ratings/reviews. Isn’t statistics fun?

Ok, and to complete the Tweetceptions, here’s the re-tweet of the re-tweet by Troegs of my Tweet: https://twitter.com/TroegsBeer/status/1154847303255109635

And here’s my Tweet of this blog’s article post, just to make everything like the Ouroboros and make it an ad infinitum loop: https://twitter.com/thebeerthriller/status/1154967001384783873

You are all now stuck in the loop, or the Matrix, or whatever. Enjoy!

-B. Kline