Starting tomorrow – January 30th, 2025 – the Drunken Smithy will be having their soft opening at their “Mead Hall” at the Lebanon Valley Mall. Located inside the Lebanon Valley Mall, at 2236 Lebanon Valley Mall, Lebanon, PA, United States, Pennsylvania the Drunken Smithy calls their section the “Mead Hall”.

Drunken Smithy in their Mead Hall at the Lebanon Valley Mall

Drunken Smithy Soft Opening January 30th

Starting January 30th, 2025, the Drunken Smithy will be having their soft opening at the Mead Hall in the Lebanon Valley Mall.

Their Facebook announcement they made at 10:00 AM today reads:

Have you heard?? Drunken Smithy will have a soft opening for our Mead Hall on Thursday, January 30.

Plus we’ll have live music in the Mead Hall this Friday and Saturday evening! Come have a drink and celebrate with us!

Stop by during hours of operation anytime on or after January 30 and we’ll be happy to serve you while we ramp up for our grand opening on March 15.

#winery #meadery #cidery #wine #mead #cider #CentralPA #LebanonPA #DrunkenSmithy

-Drunken Smithy Facebook Post

For More Information

Since they are a meadery, and because their new, they are not yet on Untappd. But you can follow them at these social media platforms:

• Drunken Smithy – Official Website
• Drunken Smithy – Facebook
• Drunken Smithy – Instagram

As we gather around our tables this Thanksgiving, raising glasses filled with craft beer, wine, or cider, it’s natural to wonder: what did the Pilgrims drink at the first Thanksgiving? The answer might surprise you, and it’s not as straightforward as you might think.

The First Thanksgiving Dinner and Drinks (photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Magazine)

The Myth of the Pilgrim’s Beer

Contrary to popular belief, the Pilgrims likely didn’t have beer at the first Thanksgiving in 1621. This misconception stems from clever marketing campaigns by beer companies in the early 20th century, particularly after the repeal of Prohibition. The United States Brewers Association even claimed, “It was beer, not turkey, that lured the Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock” – a statement that’s more fiction than fact.

(See Also: Recipe: Crispy Beer Roast Turkey [using Troegenator])

What They Actually Drank

The Pilgrims and Their Drinks

Water: The Simple Staple

Believe it or not, water was likely the primary beverage at the first Thanksgiving. The Plymouth area had abundant clean water from freshwater streams and springs, making it a reliable and safe option for the Pilgrims.

(See Also: Munching on some Thanksgiving leftovers?)

Hard Cider: A Possible Treat

While not certain, there’s a chance that hard cider made an appearance at the feast. The Pilgrims were familiar with cider from England, and they may have used wild apples found in the New World to ferment a small batch.

(See Also: Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving)

Why No Beer?

Several factors contributed to the absence of beer at the first Thanksgiving:

1. Lack of Ingredients: The Pilgrims hadn’t yet established crops for brewing, particularly barley.
2. Time Constraints: Brewing takes time, and survival was the priority in those early days.
3. No Brewery: The first recorded brewery license in Massachusetts wasn’t issued until 1637, a full 16 years after the first Thanksgiving.

The Real Story Behind the Pilgrims and Beer

While beer wasn’t at the first Thanksgiving, it did play a crucial role in the Pilgrims’ journey:

• Beer was a staple on the Mayflower, with each person allocated about a gallon per day.
• The decision to land at Plymouth Rock was partly influenced by dwindling beer supplies.

(See Also: Fall Beers)

A Toast to Simplicity

As craft beer enthusiasts, we might feel a twinge of disappointment that our favorite beverage wasn’t part of the first Thanksgiving. However, the Pilgrims’ simple celebration, likely featuring water and possibly some hard cider, reminds us of the true spirit of the holiday – gratitude for survival and new beginnings. So this Thanksgiving, as you sip your carefully selected craft beer, take a moment to appreciate how far we’ve come. And maybe, just maybe, raise a glass of water in honor of those resourceful Pilgrims who started it all.

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

Thanks again for reading everyone. Take some time to check out the site, we greatly appreciate it. We have affiliates and sponsors with Pretzels.com and Beer Drop.com, which can save you money on their products if you are interested. Check out our articles on them. Make sure to check out our beer reviews, brewery reviews, Amy’s weekly column, book reviews, hike reviews, and so much more.

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.

We are working on a massive project here at The Beer Thrillers. We are creating a map of all of the breweries across the United States. State by state we are adding maps of all of the different states with every brewery in each state. (We will eventually get to the US Territories, as well as the Canadian Provinces, and possibly more countries; as well as doing some fun maps like a map of all the breweries we’ve been to, and other fun maps.) You can find the brewery maps here:

• MAPS OF BREWERIES

We are also working on a project of creating printable and downloadable PDFs and resources to be able to check and keep track of all of the breweries you’ve been to. So stay tuned for that project once we are finished with the Brewery Maps of the US States.

You can check out our different directories here: Beer Reviews, Hike Reviews, Book Reviews, Brewery News, Brewery Openings, Brewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Facebook Group, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Influence. As well as our brand new Tumblr page. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We are also now on BlueSky as well, so make sure to check us out there also. 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 on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

We have partnered with an affiliateship with Beer Drop.com. You can check out that partnership and receive great discounts, coupons, and more here: Beer Drop. Going here and logging in and ordering will help you receive your discounts and coupons as well as help support our page. Thank you for helping to support The Beer Thrillers and to help us maintain the site and blog and to keep it running.

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 #5 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #9 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of August 2024.) 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!

You can also check out our partnership and affiliation with Pretzels.com, where ordering pretzels and using our affiliate code – AFFILIATE CODE IS THEBEERTHRILLERS20 – will help you get wonderful pretzels and help us maintain and keep this blog running. Thank you!

If you would like to reach out to us for product reviews, beer reviews, press release writing, and other media – please contact us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com. Thank you.

(Thank you for reading. The opinions, thoughts, and expressions of each article posted on The Beer Thrillers represents the author of the content and only themselves. It does not express the opinions, beliefs, or ideas held by The Beer Thrillers or any company in which the author themselves work for. Each piece of written content is written by the creator(s) listed in the authorial section on each article unless otherwise noted. Their opinions, comments, and words on screen do not represent any company in which they work for and / or are affiliated with or any non – profits that they contribute to. Thank you.)

Beer me!

Its brewfest time again in Ephrata everyone! This Saturday is the yearly Ephrata Brewfest. This year looks to have another killer lineup for everyone. The brewfest will be on Saturday – June 25th (2022) – from 1PM to 4PM in Ephrata, Pennsylvania.

So far, they’ve announced twenty breweries, meaderies, and cideries on their promotional website page. (Their Facebook and other social media pages may have a few extras as well.)

You can check out their websites here:

• Ephrata Brewfest (Official Website)
• Ephrata Brewfest (Facebook)

Tickets are 40$ for drinkers and 10$ for designated drivers. (One of the best rates around for DD’s, especially with some brewfests no longer even offering designated driver tickets…. cough Mount Hope…. cough…).

Breweries

Who all is going to be there? Here’s a tentative list from their site (subject to change):

• Big Dog Craft Brewing
• Boneshire Brew Works
• Downriver Brewing Co.
• Fetish Brewing
• Lebanon Valley Brewing
• Meduseld Meadery
• Mount Gretna Craft Brewery
• Nomad Distillery
• Oakbrook Brewing
• Pour Man’s Brewing Company
• Seven Sirens Brewing Company
• Old Republic Distillery
• Pilger Ruh Brewing
• Compass Mill Tap House
• Lancaster Brewing Company
• Black Forest Brewery
• 2D Distillery
• Rural City Brewing Company
• Truth Beer Co.
• Miley’s Handcrafted Kombucha

You can see their list of breweries here: Ephrata Brewers.

Looks to be a good time

So come on out and check out the breweries, distilleries, meaderies, and cideries. Looks to be a great time!

Brewery News

For more brewery news and brewfests news in the area, check out some recent articles we’ve done:

• Lancaster Craft Beerfest Postponed Again
• Nimble Giant Released
• Tortured Souls Kickstarter Campaign
• Arboretum Trail Brewing Opens
• YAH Brewing’s First Beer Drop
• Drunk Phils Fans and Rotunda Brewing Company Team Up
• Brewery News

Thanks For Reading

Thank you all for reading! Hope you enjoyed the article. We have plenty more here on the site, including news, beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, hikes, hike reviews, book reviews, board game reviews, and much more. Tomorrow wraps up the Obi-Wan Kenobi show and will wrap up our Star Wars Wednesday beer reviews. So be sure to check in for that!

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.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Facebook Group, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, 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!