Sadly, another brewery is shuttering its doors for the last time. 2020 (and now 2021) has not been kind to a lot of breweries. From normal strain of business, to the economics of a pandemic, to shut downs and lock downs, to the craft brewery market blowing up and there being a new brewery nearly every other block, there has sadly been a lot of brewery closings in the past 365 days.

A few other breweries have shuttered their doors this year citing “coronavirus / COVID-19” and lock-down and shut down issues as the impetus for their closings. Spigot Brewing and River Bend Hop Farm and Brewing both closed in 2020 stating COVID-19 reasons. And this is just Pennsylvania. There has been many others across the country )and the world) that have closed citing similar reasons. (Mikkeller in NYC closed this year – permanently as well.)

On December 28, 2020, just before New Years, during the second shut down in Pennsylvania for breweries and entertainment establishments (casinos, restaurants, gyms, etc.) they posted the above message. Saying that effective Thursday December 31st they would be closing until further notice.

Earlier today (January 10th, 2021) Miscreation Brewing Company LLC posted the above message on their Facebook page.

It reads:

It is with great sadness that after almost 6 years, Miscreation Brewing Company will be closing its doors. Due to the financial burdens that COVID-19 has inflicted into our business, we must make this very difficult decision. We understand although this will impact many of our faithful followers/patrons, we take solace in knowing we have fostered many friendships over the past 5-1/2 years that will last a lifetime. We played a part in other introductions and in some cases even a place for first meetings that have ended in marriage!We can’t express enough gratitude to our many employees/team members over the years for their dedication, contributions to the vision and ultimately the customer experience.Additionally, we are pleased that we were able to contribute to the revitalization of downtown Hanover and partner with Main Street to bring a vibrant experience to so many.We would like to wish continued success to our fellow breweries in the area: Something Wicked Brewing (Great collaborators and friends of ours from inception), Aldus Brewing Co., Center Square Brewing, Sign of the Horse, Warehouse Gourmet and of course The Circle!We would like to offer all Mug Club members an opportunity to come by and pick up their mugs and enjoy a beer on us until we kick the final keg that is tapped. This will be available during the following hours:

Friday January 15th from 5:00-8:00 pm

Saturday January 16th from 12:00-3:00 pm

Thanks for all your support over the years and we wish each of you the best in 2021 and beyond! Miscreation Ownership and Team!– Cheers.

Miscreation Brewing Company Facebook

Miscreation Brewing on Untappd

Miscreation Brewing Company has an Untappd page (as does every brewery), which listed them as a brew pub in Hanover Pennsylvania, with 118 unique beers. Founded in 2016. As of January 10th, 2021, they had 20,700+ ratings and a global average rating of 3.69.

A loss to Hanover Pennsylvania

This is certainly a loss to Hanover Pennsylvania and the craft brewing industry and local area. They have had a great following in the town of Hanover and a strong presence in the community since 2015.

Last year on a trip with a friend into York and Hanover we got to stop there, and enjoy some beer at their location, before taking a four pack to Codorus State Park.

We here at The Beer Thrillers wish them good luck in their future endeavors. We also hope something good comes to the business front, perhaps another brewery, or fine restaurant, as the location is a wonderful spot and could serve a new brewery or restaurant perfectly.

This is indeed tough times for many small businesses, breweries, restaurants, and people in general. We all need to support each other and these businesses and breweries we want to survive the upcoming year. We are seeing the end of the tunnel and the light is on; vaccines are being sent across the country, relief looks to becoming for some small businesses and restaurants, and hopefully more in the future.

So I urge everyone who can, go out and support your local businesses and breweries. Buy to go food or a four pack at your favorite small craft brewery, take it home, talk them up with your friends, give them good reviews on social media, share their posts, help get their names out there.

Likewise, if you are a struggling brewery or restaurant or business and we here at The Beer Thrillers can help you, reach out to us, and see what we can do to help. We would love to help out!

Stay safe everyone. Mask up, wash your hands, and support and love each other. This has certainly been a tough time, but we are nearing the end, lets stay strong!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

For more information and links:

• Miscreation Brewing Company’s Facebook Page
• Miscreation Brewing Company’s Untappd Page
• Brewery Tour of York and Hanover PA

You can read about more brewery closures here:

• Stoudt’s Brewing Closing
• Crystal Ball Brewing Closes
• Voodoo Brewery Lancaster Closes
• Spigot Brewing Closes
• Full Pint Brewing Closes
• Night Shift Brewing Cancels Expansion
• Mikkeller Brewing NYC Closes Permanently
• River Bend Hop Farm and Brewery Closing

And in better, happier news, check out our articles on brewery openings:

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

• A Sneak Preview of Rubber Soul Brewing (Hummelstown)
• Midwest Coast Brewing Opens (Chicago)
• Rally Point – Cox Brewing Taproom Opens (Elizabethtown)
• Boneshire Brew Works to Open Second Taproom in Harrisburg (Harrisburg)
• Irv’s Pub Rebranded as Rotunda Brewing Pub (Hershey)
• Official BBQ (Pizza Boy Secondary Location) (Rutherford)
• Pilger Ruh Brewing Needs Your Help (Pottsville)
• Highway Manor Brewing Co. (Camp Hill)
• Grand Opening: Rubber Soul Brewing Company (Hummelstown)
• Tap Room Opening: Howling Henry’s Brewery (Hummelstown)
• Levity Brewing is Expanding and Adding A Second Tap Room
• Little Fish Brewing is Expanding into Dayton

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

Seriously. F*CK 2020. I don’t think I’ll hear too many disagreements with this statement. F*CK it. 2020 has been everything everyone keeps saying it is: a train wreck, a dumpster fire, a dumpster fire full of dog excrement traveling on a train headed right for a train carrying a dumpster fire of ostrich excrement, it sucked, it blew, etc, etc, etc…..

This has been a crazy time for all of us. Terms like “unprecedented times” became the norm for news stations, hundreds of thousands of people dying to a pandemic level virus, ….a pandemic level virus!…., shut downs and lock downs and quarantines, civil unrest, altered sports leagues, massive economic changes, unemployment and furloughs from the shut downs and just loss of jobs due to the pandemic, all in all,…. yea…. F*CK 2020 and F*CK COVID-19.

This has been a hard time here for me, and for The Beer Thrillers in general as well, as I’m sure its been for a lot of you. Dealt with two lock down / shut downs by the government that closed my work and forced me into unemployment twice. (The latest of which, due to how horrible our unemployment system, I still haven’t received a penny for the three weeks I was unemployed – thankfully I’m back to work now.) A divorce amidst the pandemic and quarantine and lockdown.

But, it hasn’t been all bad (no year is all bad); I did get to do a lot more hiking. I did get to do a little bit more traveling due to now being single and having a lot more extra time, I got to hike lots of new places that I never did before, got to visit 57 (new to me) new breweries. And I got to do a lot more work on the blog and site here. Which has been a great bit of fun. My friend started his streaming and got do do that a lot with him, and we got to do some more podcasts with his podcast group.

(I will have a whole “End of 2020” and recap of the year, as well as a “Looking Forward to 2021” post coming soon, the site migration and things have kind of made things wonky with getting it all moved over and posts published up, due to us hitting our bandwidth wall on the old site and having to migrate, so some things got all garbled up.)

I went to Breski’s Beverage and had to pick up a four pack of this – and knew – I needed to make it the last beer of 2020 and the first beer of 2021. Thankfully it’s a fantastic beer and its not just a “cool name / bad beer” like some of the other cool name, cool can art, cool pop culture reference beers, I’ve had in the past. I also picked up the RBG beer as well as Breski’s.

So my 31st was pretty simple; being by myself, with no places open, and my first New Years Eve / New Years Day off in quite a while – due to the shut down of Pennsylvania. Early in the day I went to Breski’s and picked up the four packs. Despite the rain, I took my dog (Leela) to the Greenbelt walk off of Derry Street, stopped at Boneshire Brew Works for my last pint of 2020 at their location, and then stopped at Rubber Soul Brewery for take-out (pierogies…. *drools like Homer at thought of food*….) and then pretty much just went home, read, wrote, and stayed in my bed. My friend did an overnight stream on his site – Knights of Nostalgia – and I had that up on one screen and tuned in just for the last 2 minutes to a ball dropping ceremony on another screen. All in all – a lame New Years Eve. Which about sums up how 2020 was.

So I also started this post and beer review on December 31st, but with the bandwidth limits, and the problems of the migration, I didn’t get to finish it until January 1st. So this is a “two year project”. Hahahahaha…. oh I crack myself up. It was written and finished on January 1st, but with the bandwidth and everything, and having to re-upload media, I’m not sure when it’ll finally get published, hopefully soon into the new year.

I’m not too great and technically savvy, so this move of nearly 300 blog posts, and several pages, as well as a homepage, users, links, followers, and everything else, was a lot harder than I imagined it would be. I started everything on December 31st, and wanted it all set to go on January 1st, but noooooope….. that didn’t happen. Was really hoping everything would go smoothly into 2021…. but 2020…. said NOPE to that, and I’m thinking 2021 might have a rockier start than we all wanted it to have.

But anyway…. we have beer!

So let’s do it and drink!

Beer Review

Beer: F*CK 2020
Brewery: Abomination Brewing Company
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double New England
ABV: 9.1%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: “Fuck 2020” is a slightly amped up 9.1% version of our Fog series, double dry hopped with a blend of two of our most popular variants … Galaxy & Citra.

Abomination Brewing Company has had some amazing beers, and they have done a ton of collaborations with a lot of local Pennsylvania breweries. Rotunda Brewing Company, Tattered Flag, and stuff with multi-collaborations with Pilger Ruh Brewing, Snitz Creek Brewing, Wolf Brewing Co, etc. Untappd lists them as a micro brewery from North Haven, Connecticut. They have 159 unique beers on Untappd with a global average rating of 4.04 out of 140K+ ratings. Their Untappd description simply reads: “Crafting liquid chaos. #beermonster”

Starting off with appearance; this has a beautiful golden orange hue. A gorgeous looking New England IPA appearance, its got a nice dank hazy orange look, its not full of turbid and sediment, but its still dank and hazy looking, and its opaque and not see through. It had a thin white foamy head and great carbonation from the can.

Aroma is a lovely hoppy New England IPA nose. The nose comes through with the galaxy and citra very heavily, you get lots of tropical fruit, citrus, some peach, mango, and wee bits of passionfruit, guava, and grapefruit. It smells juicy, it smells delicious.

Whooo…. this is the way to go out of 2020! With a banger of a good beer and a way to say F*CK YOU 2020 with both middle fingers up like Stone Cold Steve Austin. This was just a delicious all around good beer. A perfect end note to 2020 and a wonderful start note to 2021 (drank one early in the day of 2020, had one right before midnight, and cracked open another one two minutes into the New Years). Galaxy and Citra hops are wonderful hops and work very well together. You get a very heavy dose of citrus, peach, mango, the tropical fruits, and there is so much more hidden and buried underneath that adds to those heavy hitter flavors – like the passionfruit, guava, and grapefruit. There’s a right balance to all of this. The mouth feel feels right on, not oily, slick, not watery or thin, no cloying; just a nice drinking NE IPA. This is is a consistent beer and reason for why the New England IPA style has caught on so much with craft beer drinkers. There’s a bit of hop bite, but its covered in all of the fruity wonderful flavors, there’s no bitter aftertaste, no bad off flavors, and its a really drinkable beer. Even the 9.1% ABV is hidden by how wonderful the flavors are. You don’t taste that ABV, and you don’t even notice it until you’re done. This isn’t a crushable beer where you could drink the whole four pack in one sitting, but you could have two, and be happy and content afterwards, especially with a really good meal to go along with it. This is a great ‘nap inducer’ as I like to call some of the mid-range double IPA area beers (8-9.5/10%), especially with a meal, it just fills the belly and makes you sleepy. This was the perfect way to end out 2020.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Average Untappd Rating: 4.34 (as of 1.1.21).

So this might be the first post of 2021, or it might not be; and it might be the first post on the new The Beer Thrillers page, or it might not be. Who knows with migration, work starting back up, moving domain hosts, moving links, uploading pictures (since the bandwidth put a halt to that), etc. There’s a lot of other posts that are in various states of being done, that also will be published soon too, once again, with the migration and start of the new year, who knows. Hopefully sooner rather than later. Been a little hectic here.

I hope everyone had a wonderful end to 2020. Hopefully despite everything, you still had a great 2020, and lets hope 2021 starts off so much better. Things are looking up. The vaccines are rolling out. Hopefully by the end of 2021 we are back to a level of normalcy. One can only hope. I want to get to some brewfests in 2021!

Cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

See some of our latest beer reviews here:

• Beer Review: Mutant Temple (Strange Roots Experimental Ales)
• Beer Review: B-52 Belgian Dubbel (Cox Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: The Soft Glow of Electric Sex (RAR Brewing)
• Beer Review: This is The Whey (Bolero Snort Brewery)
• Beer Review: Snow Tracks (New Trail Brewing Co.)

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!

(There is more restrictions / mandates, but that’s what is relevant to this blog.)

What I want to do here and now is to urge everyone to shop local. Don’t go to McDonalds for your food, or buy Coors Lite or Miller or In-Bev. Buy from your local restaurant, your local brewery, your local drinking hole, and tip, help those who will be hurting. This is a big time of the year for restaurants (up til New Years Day). They need all the support they can get right now.

Support local craft beer. Drink and help your local favorite brewery. We are all in this together, as cliche as that sounds, but we all need to do everything we can to help our local and small breweries survive these tough and troubling times.

Please mask up when you go in for your take out and to-go. Be respectful and kind to the service and staff and the help. Tip as much as you can. Buy as much as you can. Share their posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Review them highly if they deserve it and are doing the right procedures. Support as best and as much as you are able.

Support. Support. Support. Help. Help. Help. I can’t stress these things enough. Be kind to everyone. Be helpful to everyone. Lets get through this together!

Cheers all. And best wishes and hopes for all those in industry jobs. I know how it is working at a casino, that will be shutting down til January 4th as well. This is a scary and troubling time. Let’s all pitch in and help each other!

-B. Kline

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

To little or no fanfare, the latest brewery, and another to Hummelstown, opened on October 9th, 2020 (yesterday). They had posted on their Facebook page their permit and that they would be opening soon, but, to my surprise, I had seen no notice of their actual opening date.

Their last Facebook post was on September 28th, and with the above picture, it stated:

“A temporary permit was given to me to open my taproom this morning. Shooting for October 9th for the grand opening of Howling Henry’s Taproom. Check my website for more information.”

I had seen this notice and post and re-shared it on our Facebook page, but for some reason, the little notice of “shooting for October 9th” I overlooked. I unfortunately, despite having my day off was out of town with friends (we went to Wellsboro, PA for the PA Grand Canyon), so I was out of town and unable to attend the opening.

They are the second Hummelstown brewery to open this week. Rubber Soul Brewing Company opened on Monday, October 5th, 2020, along South Hanover Street (across from the Rita’s) in the former borough building.

Howling Henry’s has been around for a while in the Hummelstown area. They have been at the Mount Hope Renaissance Faire brewfest for several years (with their unique stand and jockey box of the doghouse). They have also been selling their bottles to the local shops and bars (JoJo’s Pizza Shop Restaurant on Main Street often carried their bottles in their cooler), and they distributed some kegs to local bars (Warwick Hotel would occasionally have them on tap). They’ve also been selling their bottles in the recent year or so at various farmer’s markets (the Hershey’s Chocolate Street Market primarily).

COVID-19 (the coronavirus) has certainly played an interesting issue in their opening this year, and has delayed much in the way of the taproom opening. Several other breweries opened amid the pandemic – Hemauer, Rubber Soul, Highway Manor, Cox’s Rally Point, etc. This is certainly an interesting time and a hard time for businesses to open, thrive, and grow their brands. There has been a lot of uncertainty, but it’s great to see Greg get to realize his dreams and open Howling Henry.

Howling Henry’s taproom is located at 35 East 2nd St in Hummelstown. This is located near the exit of Hummelstown (the underpass) heading towards South Hanover (where South Hanover street becomes Grandview leading out towards Route 39 and East Hanover / Hershey). It is across the street from M&S Auto (a used car shop and garage). It is about three blocks down from the square of Hummelstown (Main Street / South Hanover crossing).

This will become the second brewery / taproom in Hummelstown now (coincidentally both opening this week as well, going from 0 to 2 in five days flat!). The above map shows a walking path from Howling Henry’s to Rubber Soul. Making the town a nice tourist stop for craft beer enthusiasts now.

Howling Henry’s joins a growing community of breweries within five-fifteen minute driving distance from the Hummelstown area. Including:

• Troeg’s Independent Brewing (Hershey)
• Iron Hill Brewing (Hershey)
• Tattered Flag Distillery Lounge (Hershey)
• Tattered Flag (Middletown)
• Rubber Soul Brewing (Hummelstown)
• Howling Henry’s (Hummelstown)
• The Englewood (Hummelstown / Hershey)
• Boneshire Brew Works (Rutherford)
• Official BBQ – Pizza Boy (Rutherford)
• Newfangled Brew Works (Rutherford)
• The Millworks (Harrisburg)
• ZeroDay Brewing (Harrisburg)
• Appalachian Brewing Company (Harrisburg)
• The Vegetable Hunter (Harrisburg)
• Lancaster Brewing Company – Harrisburg Location (Harrisburg)

You can use the Brew Baron’s App to find more in the larger (Central PA) area. So as you can see from the above list, and the app, within just this small subset local area of Central PA there is many brewery choices. All good and well done establishments with wonderful beer offerings. You can see an older (and mostly outdated article I wrote about the breweries in the Hummelstown area here: Breweries On the Outskirts of Harrisburg 9.6.19).

Currently, on Untappd, Howling Henry’s is listed as a Nano Brewery, and recently updated their description page with the following: “Opening our taproom on October 9th at 6 PM. Howling Henry’s Brewery is crafting beer without rules, which causes our beers to be an nontraditional representations of their contemporaneity styles. Are you ready for a different take on traditional beer styles, then you should give Howling Henry’s a try? Our beers are not filtered, so we can offer as much flavor as possible. Tap room coming to Hummelstown soon; check my website out for details.” They have 11 Unique Beers listed, with a global average rating of 3.21 out of 3,825 ratings.

Their hours on their Facebook page for the taproom are listed as:

• MONDAY: CLOSED
• TUESDAY: CLOSED
• WEDNESDAY: 5:00PM – 10:00PM
• THURSDAY: 5:00PM – 10:00PM
• FRIDAY: 5:00PM – 10:00PM
• SATURDAY: 11:00AM – 6:00PM
• SUNDAY: CLOSED

They use the old Theo’s Attanasoff pizza warehouse to brew their beers in a corner of the building. The old Theo’s warehouse is located at the corner of Duke and 2nd Street in Hummelstown, and is now primarily used by Pnuma Outdoors. (You can see a map of the Howling Henry’s brewing location and taproom below). The brewing location is off limits to tourists though.

Howling Henry’s has several social media outlets which you can keep abreast of their activities. Including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can also check out their website.

On their website you can read their backstory, which is:

My brewing story began after a department store wine kit was hauled off by the trashmen. Yes, a wine kit started my passion with brewing beer, and in time my business. I trashed the kit  because I  lacked knowledge in the process of wine-making, and more frighteningly, in how to clean and sanitize the equipment. The instructions emphasized sanitization, but the concern that I may get someone sick caused me to drop kick the kit into the waste can.

I then read a magazine article about home brewing. Who doesn’t like beer, right? This article made it clear that cleanliness is a very important part of the process, but as I read, I realized that  I was overthinking it. I began to understand that all of debris needs to be removed from the brewing equipment, and then a sanitizer is added to the equipment to kill most of the bacteria, so that your pitched yeast has no competition when it infects your bitter wort. Simple! I am a simple guy, and I figured that I can do that.

I bought my first brewing kit: 5 gallon brew kettle, a 5 gallon carboy, and a 7 gallon food grade bucket. The recipe was a brown ale. It was good for a month or two, and then it started losing flavor. I came to realize that bottling introduces oxygen to the finished beer. Oxygen in finished beer after time will degrade that beer’s flavor.

After a year of making my own recipes my wife and I were seated at a local watering hole for lunch (the Wednesday before Thanksgiving). She said, “Why don’t you start a brewery?” To be honest it was in the back of my head, but I figured that thought would never become a conversion with my wife. So, I agreed with her, as a good husband would do. Although, at the time, neither of us really understood what we were getting ourselves into.

I started reading from a website devoted to the entire brewing process. With this knowledge, I began brewing beers around ingredients I knew a little brewery could access without to much hassle. Through this site I also learned of a movie made in the mid 90’s called ‘Frankenbrew’. This video showed me that one guy with some determination, out of the box thinking, and hard work could start a brewery without investors, a bank loan, or a truck load of cash. I then followed the movie’s suggestions on what to buy from the used dairy equipment market. This offset the price of starting a new brewery significantly, since I had already priced out a real brewery’s equipment prior to seeing the movie. I knew I could never come up with a million or so dollars myself, and I wanted this brewery to be mine. Yes, you read that correctly! I am the only owner, investor, employee, brewer, boss, maintenance guy, and janitor. I did it all with help from some wonderful family members and great friends when they had time to help. It is a wonderful feeling to know I only have me to answer to.

Years later, I had the stainless steel equipment needed. I found a space three blocks from my home. By this time, I realized that I needed a real brew kettle. Having well over 200 gallons of boiling wort would be very dangerous in anything less than a proven kettle, so I ordered and purchased a 10 bbl Bennett Forgeworks brew kettle. I then started getting the paperwork inked with both the Federal and State government agencies. Approvals took a lifetime, okay about 6 months (a lifetime for a guy with barely any budget).

Please check out the pictures of my equipment here (if you’re interested in seeing what my frankinbrew system looks like).

Howling Henry’s Backstory.

So when in the Hummelstown area, be sure to check out the newest brewery – Howling Henry’s. Make sure you are in town during their hours (5PM-10PM on Wednesday through Friday and Saturday 11AM-6PM). The taproom is limited currently due to COVID restrictions, but its still a place to check out. Be sure to do so!

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

• A Sneak Preview of Rubber Soul Brewing (Hummelstown)
• Midwest Coast Brewing Opens (Chicago)
• Grand Opening of Hemauer Brewing
• Rally Point – Cox Brewing Taproom Opens (Elizabethtown)
• Boneshire Brew Works to Open Second Taproom in Harrisburg (Harrisburg)
• Irv’s Pub Rebranded as Rotunda Brewing Pub (Hershey)
• Official BBQ (Pizza Boy Secondary Location) (Rutherford)
• Pilger Ruh Brewing Needs Your Help (Pottsville)
• Highway Manor Brewing Co. (Camp Hill)
• Grand Opening: Rubber Soul Brewing Company (Hummelstown)
• Tap Room Opening: Howling Henry’s Brewery (Hummelstown)

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

Cheers everyone! Hopefully I’ll see you at Howling Henry’s. Its just a few blocks away and within walking distance, so I’ll be sure to be there a time or two. Cheers!

-B. Kline

Amidst the chaos and craziness that was the Presidential Debate, Rubber Soul Brewing made their own waves, announcing last night around 8-9PM their grand opening date. In the town of Hummelstown as well as the Central PA area their announcement might have caused more chaos than was on stage at the Presidential Debate, and at least no one had to shout “OH SHUT UP MAN” or look like they were falling asleep either.

While out walking my dog despite the rain – and even walking past the Rubber Soul Brewery itself – on Facebook, Instagram, and their own website, Rubber Soul posted the official date for their grand opening.

Are you ready for it?

DRUM ROLL

The grand opening for Rubber Soul is set for 10.05.20. As per their Facebook post:

“10.5.20 [cheers emoji]”

Simple. Effective. And to the point. They did reply to some comments and elaborate, and posted their website to point out more information. As per their website, their hours will be as such:

• Monday: 6:30AM – 10:00PM
• Tuesday: 6:30AM – 10:00PM
• Wednesday: 6:30AM – 10:00PM
• Thursday: 6:30AM – 10:00PM
• Friday: 6:30AM – 11:00PM
• Saturday: 6:30AM – 11:00PM
• Sunday: 11:00AM – 9:00PM

They also posted their rules for entering the brewery and drinking and being there (due to COVID-19):

To keep our customers and sOul tribe safe and healthy, please read our general information below. We greatly appreciate your patience during this #COVIDTIME. 

• Masks are required unless you are seated at your table. 
• All orders are to be placed from your table by a Refueler (Rubber Soul Server).
• All onsite beer & alcohol orders require a food purchase.
• Please respect a 2 hour time limit during peak times.
• Seating is first come, first serve. 
• Do not move tables or seating as they are measured out for social distancing. 
• We are not filling growlers, only 32 oz. crowler cans at this time. 
• One hour before close we will go to pizzas only. 
• Children are welcome but must stay seated or in the accompaniment of an adult. 
• Please no pets. We love them but they make social distancing hard.
• Our water station is not available at this time. 
• *If you have experienced symptoms related to COVID-19 or have had exposure to COVID-19 in the past 14 days, please refrain from visiting.

You can check out their website for the latest on their food menu, their beers that will be on tap on their opening day, as well as some pictures. You can also read my article I did back in February detailing the brewery and its transition from former borough building / police station to brewery. A SNEAK PEAK AT THE NEW RUBBER SOUL BREWERY COMING TO HUMMELSTOWN, PA.

A few days ago, on the blog’s Facebook page I posted some pictures from a dog walk by the brewery, as well as their Untappd menu (screenshot). They have their brewery as a ‘verified venue’ on Untappd so you can keep track of their beer offerings, as well as use their website, which lists the following beers for their opening day:

• Soul Patch – Pilsner – Czech
• Fresh Dew – Pale Ale – American
• Humdinger – IPA – American
• Soul Searching #1 – IPA – American
• Garage Racer 2020 – IPA – American
• Awake My Soul – Porter – Coffee

If you have driven or walked by the Rubber Soul brewery the past week or so, you would see groups gathered inside, with the lights and televisions on. They were doing invite parties for different groups, preparing for their big opening, which will take place on Monday, October 5th, 2020.

From walking by it (quite often, as I love walking my dog through Hummelstown, and they are in between my parents and my house, as well as my friend Tony’s is only a few houses down from it through the back alley leading to Railroad Street), they did a tremendous and beautiful job on the building. I absolutely can’t wait to check it out inside, let alone drink the delicious beers.

Donovan Krebs, the brewer for the new Rubber Soul, has worked for some fine breweries in the past, including Levante Brewing, Neshaminy Brewing Co, and others.

His beers will be wonderful for the area and will be well sought after I am sure.

Be sure to check out the article to see the brewery inside and out and to read up on some of the things the brewery will offer: A Sneak Peak at Rubber Soul.

Be sure to check them out sometime Monday, October 5th, 2020. I will be there, thats for sure. I can’t wait to try out their delicious beers and wonderful food! Can’t wait to see you all there!

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

• A Sneak Preview of Rubber Soul Brewing (Hummelstown)
• Midwest Coast Brewing Opens (Chicago)
• Grand Opening of Hemauer Brewing
• Rally Point – Cox Brewing Taproom Opens (Elizabethtown)
• Boneshire Brew Works to Open Second Taproom in Harrisburg (Harrisburg)
• Irv’s Pub Rebranded as Rotunda Brewing Pub (Hershey)
• Official BBQ (Pizza Boy Secondary Location) (Rutherford)
• Pilger Ruh Brewing Needs Your Help (Pottsville)
• Highway Manor Brewing Co. (Camp Hill)
• Grand Opening: Rubber Soul Brewing Company (Hummelstown)
• Tap Room Opening: Howling Henry’s Brewery (Hummelstown)

And check out our beer review of the Tattered Soul collaboration beer between Tattered Flag and Rubber Soul Brewing:

• Beer Review: Tattered Soul

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

Thanks for reading! Can’t wait to enjoy a beer together at Rubber Soul!

-B. Kline

Yesterday Tattered Flag Brewing and Distillery announced that they are the latest craft brewery in Pennsylvania to jump into the shipping game. Following breweries like Levante Brewing, Tired Hands Brewing, The Larimeer, and many others, Tattered Flag will also now be shipping to all of Pennsylvania.

While some breweries have been able to ship out of Pennsylvania, currently Tattered Flag is limited to Pennsylvania only, this is still a huge step for both the brewery and fans of great craft beer the whole state over. For people as far as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, it can be hard to get your hands on Tattered Flag, so this is a great way for them to be able to try their amazing beers and spirits.

This is not just limited to their award winning craft beers, but also their award winning spirits like their Tequila and Vodkas and their other great liquors.

They dropped this bombshell at roughly 3PM yesterday, and this was their press release on their official Facebook page:

“Introducing Tattered Flag Supply Drop – your online source for DIRECT SHIPPING of Tattered Flag’s award-winning Beer, Spirits, and Ready To Drink Canned Cocktails! Head to www.tatteredflagsupplydrop.com to create your account and place your first order! FREE SHIPPING on orders of $75 or more! We are now accepting PRE-ORDERS for shipping on Wednesday, September 9th! To celebrate, we are releasing a limited supply of our Reposado Agave (barrel aged tequila) for purchase on the website only!#tatteredflagsupplydrop#directshipping#beer#spirits#toyourfrontdoor” (with the above image)

So if you are in the state of Pennsylvania and haven’t been able to try their fantastic beers yet, be sure to jump on this fantastic new way of getting to try them, and make sure to take advantage of the free shipping (on orders over 75$).

Its great seeing some of the success stories coming out of COVID for some of these local great breweries, like Tattered Flag, and some others that are expanding or opening soon (like Rubber Soul in Hummelstown soon due to open) and The Englewood.

Be sure to check out the many beer reviews of Tattered Flag’s beers we’ve done here on the blog to get an idea of what you can order from them.

Lots of big news coming soon here to the blog, so please stay tuned, especially if you live locally in the 717 area!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Happy Father’s Day everyone. Hope you all made the best of your day, I certainly did. Home from Frederick Maryland and with some fresh beer to boot. You can read about my trip Monocacy Battlefield and Frederick Maryland here: Road Trip to Monocacy Battlefield (June 19th and June 20th, 2020) and the lead-up article to it here: Impromptu Two-Day Trip to Frederick Maryland. But now home, safe and sound, and feeling a lot better, its time to spend time with the family and enjoy a nice, relaxing father’s day with some cold, refreshing, craft beer.

The day started with me making the girls scrambled eggs on the grill and them giving me my gifts; which was a ‘The Dadalorian’ shirt, and a small mini-fridge that can hold six cans. It can be plugged in regularly or into a car, so that’s pretty cool. The shirt:

As a fan of Star Wars and especially the Mandalorian show, its definitely a cool shirt. After my shower for the day I made sure to put it on when we went to my sister and brother-in-law’s for a lunch / dinner picnic gathering.

Social distancing was done, don’t worry, (though I did not bring any Social Distancing), but the gathering was only myself and my girls, my parents, and my sister, her husband, and their son. So everyone whose been in contact with each other in recent history anyway. Also, while there, due to an upcoming stomach procedure my father had to be tested for COVID-19 and he got his results by phone – negative. Which was a gift in and of itself for father’s day.

For my father I had gotten him a book about Eagles’ Zac Ertz, as well as a new hand-made broom for their porch, and a rose I planted in their garden.

The get together was nice, and relaxing, the kids played in a water pool and played with squirt guns and water balloons, my brother in law grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, and I drank a few delicious Fredhead Red IPAs. Even having one later watching a nice storm roll through.

So let’s check it out….

Beer: Fredhead Red IPA
Brewery: Attaboy Beer
Style: IPA – Red
ABV: 7%
IBU: 50
Untappd Description:

Piney, Roasty, Rich. Fredhead is formally named Fredheaded Stepchild. An ode to the great Red IPA’s out there.

Starting Gravity 14
Final Gravity 3.8
Hops: Simcoe, Mosaic, Horizon, Cascade

Malts: 2 Row, Munich, Crystal 80, Black Malt, Black Prinz

I enjoy the Untappd descriptions for Attaboy Beer’s; they include the malts used, the hops used, the starting gravities and the final gravity. All great for home brewers who would want to replicate (or attempt to) their recipes or make a clone. If anything, it at least gives them a base idea to start from. Plus, for consumers (drinkers) its a great way to learn more about the beer and the ingredients in it that you are drinking. Always cool, a smarter consumer, smarter drinker, is a better consumer and better drinker.

Appearance is similar to Amber Ales; in that its just that – Amber. Red. Red… and an IPA…. Oh, I get it now! Now do take note – this is a IPA – Red; not an Amber Ale, like Nugget Nectar. So remember folks – Nugget Nectar is NOT an IPA, its an Amber Ale, this – Fredhead Red – IS an IPA, and its a RED IPA. Ok? We got all that sorted? Though I do have to confess loving sitting at the bar at Troegs Brewery watching people call Nugget Nectar an Amber IPA or Red IPA or just an IPA in general and everyone roll their eyes, sigh, and try to begin to explain. But anyway….. getting back to the appearance of this redheaded stepchild….. First off, color is a dark amber red, still fairly transparent but not completely (due to its darker hue; not due to filtration). Super carbonated, but not a gusher. Big foamy, fluffy head with randomized and large bubbles.

Aroma is hoppy, but with a much more distinguishable malt backbone to it. Definitely not a hop bomb or a malt bomb either way, by any means. This is certainly closer to being a West Coast style IPA and there is a nice piney, resin, earthy heavyness to the nose on this. A hint of citrus, some of the simcoe making its presence known, but for the most part this smells more like a roasty, malty West Coast IPA.

This drinks like a darker, more malty, roasty, version of a West Coast IPA. It is malty, but not a malt bomb. It is hoppy, but not a hop bomb. It mixes nicely and makes a very nice combination of the two. There is a very healthy piney, resin taste to it that gives it that good old fashion West Coast IPA taste, thats nice to get back to every once in a while. In the current New England IPA dominated beer trends, its nice to kick back every once in a while with a good old fashion West Coast style IPA (even if its a ‘Red IPA’). With the piney-ness and resin, I also get some faint hints of grapefruit, bit of citrus, bit of roasted malt, darker, bread-crumb like malt, slight biscuit, and earthy notes. The mouthfeel for this is pretty much spot on, not too thick, not too thin, right where an IPA should be. Its well carbonated and is a lovely brew. This, along with the other two beers I had at Attaboy Beer were downright fantastic. And definitely makes Attaboy Beer worth a stop if you are in the Frederick Maryland area. This is a great Red IPA, a great West Coast IPA, and just a downright great beer.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.6 (as of 6.22.20)

Cheers everyone, happy father’s day, and make sure dad gets to sit back, relax, and drink a nice cold craft beer!

My Trip to Frederick Maryland:

• Impromptu Two-Day Trip to Frederick Maryland
• Road Trip to Monocacy Battlefield (June 19th – June 20th, 2020)

Many of you have probably heard of the ‘All Together’ project, started by Other Half Brewing Co. As soon as I heard about it, I had to immediately find the first brewery in my area to do it and get one; that first one in my immediate area turned out to be Ever Grain Brewing Co. Unfortunately I missed out on the 4pk of it, but I did get in time for a crowler (or two) of it, and I was informed that the crowler sales would go towards the project, just as the 4pk sales did.

I will be posting links to several other sites and sources about this here in this beer review / article, and I highly recommend you checking them out, and I also highly recommend checking out whatever ways you can have of donating.

Here is a direct bit from the Other Half Brewing Co.’s website on their official beer release version of theirs:

A world wide collaboration hosted by Other Half, Stout Collective and Craftpeak to support the enormous amount of hospitality workers laid off during this difficult time. We are donating 100% of our proceeds to the Restaurant Workers Community Foundation. We brewed this recipe with 2-row, oats and carapils and then hopped it with a beautiful blend of our hand selected Citra, Mosaic, Simcoe and Cascade. We intentionally kept the recipe simple so that every brewer that wants to do it can do it. Keep an eye out for versions from over 500 breweries worldwide all working to help others in need. Visit alltogether.beer for all the details and a list of breweries involved. Collect them all 🙂 Brewed in Rochester. 

Other Half Brewing Co.

Many breweries jumped on board, and you can find some lists of who all is doing it on a few other sites, such as Craftbeerdrinking and Hopculture.

Craftbeer.com’s article (All Together Collaboration – Beer to Help Hospitality Workers) lists: Non Sequitur Beer Project, Side Project, Southern Grist, Mikerphone Brewing, Fifth Hammer Brewing, Modist Brewing, Outer Range Brewing Co., Industrial Arts Brewing Co., and obviously Other Half Brewing Co.

The All Together Beer website, a site designed for this and set up for this project, has a wealth of information on the project. I highly recommend checking this out. You can find the recipe, you can find ways to donate, and if you are a brewery, you can also find a way to jump aboard and become part of the project, as well as print out labels, and get ways to promote the beer for yourself as well. At the bottom of their page, they have a map and a running tally / statistic. There is 824 breweries that have participated, in 50 states (of the United States of America), and in 53 countries. That is amazing and just phenomenal! 824 breweries is insane! And every state, and 53 countries helping out, is just downright awesome. I don’t care how you slice it, breweries helping people, will always be awesome, and I will always gladly do what I can to help support that.

There is a map, that you can zoom in and see what breweries are doing the project. So being a Central PA native, I had to zoom in on PA and see who all is jumping aboard, and here is a list of many that are:

(in no particular order)

• Saucony Creek Brewing Company
• Robin Hood Brewing
• Shy Bear Brewing
• Hidden Stories Brewing Co. LLC
• Rotunda Brewing Company
• Ever Grain Brewing Co.
• Fourscore Beer Co
  * Collaboration with: Prototype Brewery and Meadery and Wolf Brewing Co.
• Shabby Deck Craft Brewery
• Suburban Brewing Company
• Voodoo Brewing Company
• Hitchhiker Brewing Company
• Grist House Craft Brewery
• Roundabout Brewery
• East End Brewing Co.
• Dancing Gnome
• 11th Hour Brewing
• Whitehorse Brewing
• Four Points Brewing
• Sly Fox Brewing Co.
• Lost Tavern Brewing
• Birthright Brewing Co.
• Angry Erik Brewing
• Naked Brewing Co.
• Free Will Brewing
• Imprint Beer Co.
• Well Crafted Beer Company
• Ten7 Brewing Company
• Brothers Kershner Brewing Company
• Bald Birds Brewing
• Rebel Hill Brewing Company
• Stickman Brews
• Brewery ARS
• Odd Logic Brewing
• Second Sin Brewing

And that’s just the list of Pennsylvania breweries! And just the ones mentioned so far. Who knows if more will do it (hopefully). And thats also just one state out of fifty, and one part of a country out of fifty-three countries. So there is obviously a lot more breweries doing this! Some big names too like Equilibrium Brewing in New York are on board as well. So there is definitely a lot of momentum and weight behind this movement and project, which is absolutely fabulous! Keep up all the great work breweries!

Another link with information can be found at Hopculture: Hopculture – Other Half’s All Together Beer Project for Hospitality Workers.

Now we got all of that behind us, the whys, the hows, and the whats of this amazing and great beer. Lets get into the beer itself!

Beer: All Together
Brewery: Ever Grain Brewing Co.
Collaboration: Other Half Brewing Co.
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: None Listed
Untappd Description: We are proud to be apart of this open-ended beer collaboration masterminded by Other Half Brewing Co. 100% of our proceeds are going to Hospitality Assistance Response of Pennsylvania.

Some of the various breweries listed what they changed of the recipe or adjusted, if they swapped hops or malts or added adjuncts. Ever Grain’s Untappd listing doesn’t state any changes. So I’m assuming its near identical to the recipe given by Other Half Brewing. You can find their recipe on their All Together website, and you can click here directly for the recipe. I also saved a copy of the recipe, and I’ll post it here as well:

So this is what I’m assuming Ever Grain did, just on their system, with possible minor tweaks along the way.

Firstly – appearance is beautiful orange. It has that lovely New England IPA look to it. Golden orange juicy appearance to it, like pouring into a tall pint glass your morning OJ (not… the killer… or running back… but the drink); but this time with alcohol added! (Double win!). It has a little foam head to it that is light and fluffy with dispersed bubbles.

Aroma is pound for pound sound for sound pure hoppy juicy, citrus, fruity, and delicious smelling. Just cracking this open and pouring it already has my mouth watering and ready to drink it. I got notes of citrus, grapefruit, passionfruit, orange and tangerine, with a bit of zest or lime to it at the end. There isn’t any west coast IPA notes to be found in this, no evergreen tree, no earthy notes, no forestry like notes, all pure New England typical hop aromas and notes. The dry hopping really brings them out to the forefront.

Taste is phenomenal, and sadly makes this beer go waaaaaaaay too quickly. Me and my friend D. Scott drank two crowlers of this, way, too, quickly, while doing one of our Knights of Nostalgia sessions. I think we finished our crowlers in about fifteen minutes each. Which, thankfully this is only 6.5% so we weren’t rocked from basically pounding 32oz., but this was also just too delicious to even set down. It is very juicy, very dank, very delicious. Its both fruity and citrusy, with notes of grapefruit, passionfruit, orange and tangerine. Theres a bit of a lime / lemon twist at the end, but very subtle, barely noticeable, but there is definitely a citrus vibe to this that goes with the fruity juicy nature of the beer itself. And like I said, at 6.5% its not too heavy or overwhelming, even in a 32oz crowler; or if you get a 4pk of this, (4 x 16 = 64oz) you could probably handle a 4pk in an evening and be fine for work the next day. (Work…. work…. I vaguely recall work….). The mouthfeel is also very nice, its not too thick, not cloying, or heavy, or watery thin either, its just the right level of consistency and feel on the tongue. This is definitely an easy sippable beer or a quick quaffer. Which, obviously, I was pretty quick with mine, but your mileage may vary. Knowing also, that 100% of the proceeds is going to the Hospitality Assistance Response of Pennsylvania, also makes this just so much tastier and drinkable.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.26 (as of 5.14.20).

Cheers everyone. Hopefully you are all making it through this quarantine and lockdown relatively safe, sound, and mentally safe and sound. If you are looking to donate for hospitality workers, there is links here in this article, and the All Together Beer link has thee most information on that. As well as information if you are a brewer, home brewer, or commercial brewer looking to make the beer as well. So please check that out here: All Together – Beer – We’re All In This Together.

As always everyone, thanks for checking out the blog, click the like, the follow, the subscribe, and share, and do all those other cool things to help us out. We greatly appreciate it, and love all of our readers. Stay safe and healthy, and make sure to drink up lots of All Together to help our favorite bartenders! They are going to need it. Even when we re-open, things will be tough for them for a while, and probably dealing with idiots not wanting to follow CDC guidelines and the such will be all the more difficult for them. So please, help them out. Cheers!

-B. Kline

This was a juicy, big, bold, IPA that was sent to me as part of that Texas beer mail package. I’ve done a few other reviews from the beers sent to me – Road Trip Snacks, Thursday (2016), Islla en el Cielo, $#!+ Ton, Daebak, Chocolate Confidential, Sunshine and Opportunity, Azathoth, Citraquench’l, Paradise Lost, Irish Table, Athena, Vanilla Ice Cream Stout, Reve Coffee Stout, and Ghost in the Machine. (In short, I love getting beer mail; and love doing beer reviews of them!)

This is another gem from a beer mail / beer trade. Haven’t had too many misses on my beer mail and beer trades (thank the maker). While we’re all stuck inside due to the snow squalls and cold May weather here in Central PA; lets check this out.

Beer: Virtually Inseparable
Brewery: Celestial Beerworks
Collaborator: Turning Point Beer
Style: IPA – Triple New England
ABV: 10%
IBU: None listed
Untappd Description: A “virtual collaboration” with our cyber pals at Turning Point Beer. It’s a triple IPA brewed with Citra, Strata and Sabro. It has aromas of passionfruit and pineapple, and is jam packed with flavors of coconut, mango, taffy, and melon. It has a soft and fluffy mouthfeel and is the absolute brightest 10% glass of juice.

Interesting hops for this – Citra, Strata, and Sabro. People seem to be on the fence with sabro hops (some love it, some hate it).

This looks pure orange juice. Bright, beautiful golden orange color. Little foam to the head, not crazy head to it, but enough to be good. The bubbles are interspersed and varied. This is certainly hazy, with a few ‘floaters’ but nothing egregious.

Aroma is strong, super strong hoppyness. As obvious as the appearance of the beer is, the aroma kicks in as soon as you crack the can and lets you know right away that this is a Triple IPA. You get immediate notes of coconut, passionfruit, mango, pineapple, and a bit of melon.

Lets take this opportunity to look at the hops involved in this delicious triple IPA:
* Sabro – Sabro is an aroma hop that is notable for its complexity of fruity and citrus flavors. It imparts distinct tangerine, coconut, tropical fruit, and stone fruit aromas, with hints of cedar, mint, and cream. Sabro’s pedigree is the result of a unique cross pollination of a female neomexicanus hop.
* Citra – Citra hops are now one of the most coveted aroma hops in the US and have a strong citrusy profile with elements of grapefruit, lime and tropical fruit.
* Strata – Bittering with Strata brings a nice balanced bitterness. Flavor and aroma additions bring out the fruity side with tropical fruit and fresh berry brightness. Brewers say that dry hopping deepens the grapefruit and dank/herbal/cannabis elements.
(Information comes from Yakima Valley Hops, Hopslist, and Learn.Kegerator; respectively for all three.)

This has a soft mouthfeel. Its very juicy, very dank, but extremely drinkable and no booze or strong bite despite its 10% ABV. The flavor this is fantastic. You get notes of coconut, passionfruit, mango, slight berry notes, a bit of citrus poking through at points (primarily in a tangerine or orange taste), a little bit of pineapple. I think the biggest hop fruit flavor is mango, which explains why I enjoy it so much, thats always one of my favorite hop or fruit flavors in beers. (Funny because I don’t eat mangos as actual food, but love the flavor of them in beer.) There is little bits of floaters in this, but nothing you actually taste or detect as you drink. There is no dryness to this, and very little bitter or hop burn as well, its just genuinely a smooth beer, with a decently heavy mouthfeel but overall it tastes light and airy but still juicy. It goes down relatively quickly too, especially for a 10% beer. Having multiples of this around could be a danger that’s for sure.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 4.46 (as of 5.10.20)

This was a wonderful beer to have at home, sitting relaxing, after I did a 10+ mile walk with my dog (Leela) walking the Conewago Recreational Trail. I walked it from the start on Rt. 230 near where Elizabethtown begins, and took it all the way to the Lebanon County line (where it becomes the Lebanon Valley Rails and Trails) and, went a bit further, than turned around. After the walk, stopped at Moo-Duck to support local breweries. I got a taco flatbread pizza, and a crowler of Hades Chocolate Rye (which I drank later that night with my friend and was delicious).

We’re rolling through May everyone, its now May 10th, which means we’re 1/3rd of the way through the month. I hope everyone is having a wonderful May, and is enjoying the blog, hopefully also, everyone is staying safe, staying (primarily) home, helping local small businesses and breweries, and doing their part to beat this virus. We’re all in this together.

Would love to give a shout out to all the hard working nurses, doctors, people who are volunteering for their communities by handing out lunches at schools, taking care of elderly, or doing whatever they can for their fellow neighbors and people. And a big thank you to people still working at some of the ‘centers’ of this; grocery store workers, cashiers, hospital employees, medical professionals, firefighters, etc. Thank you to all of you!

We’ll get through this. We’ll get back out there to life, and we’ll all sit down for some beers together! Until then, cheers from afar!

-B. Kline

A beautiful day calls for a beautiful beer does it not? Before the cold spell, before the rain and ugliness, before the threat of murder hornets, a nice, beautiful day spent doing yard work, grilling, relaxing, and doing the like – requires a delicious, zesty, tasty, cold brewski. And what better one to do it with than Blue Hippo by Boneshire Brew Works.

I had discussed doing the Pink Hippo on the blog before, back at the time of my review for ‘This is the Way‘ by Broken Goblet. Pink Hippo was a delicious beer, and its cousin (or sister, or brother, or step-sibling) is just as delicious. (Actually, I think it’s probably the better of the two so far in this series by Alan.)

Boneshire Brew Works is my closest ‘watering hole brewery’, and that is certainly no disrespect to Boneshire Brew Works or the hard work of brewer Alan Miller. (Non-quarantine) The cozy atmosphere of the brewery leads it to be the small town drinking pub for a lot of people. Myself, D. Scott, A. Parys, J. Doncevic, and many others included. Karl Larson (ihackbeer) also was a part-timer brewer for them. Its a great place to hang out, chat, listen to some wonderful live music, and drink some of the finest and most delicious beers in the Central PA area.

Of course right now with the quarantine, nobody is really hanging out in there, but I still love stopping in there for some 4packs (to go) and talking with Jason and Alexis (obviously safely from six feet or more away). (Bonus note people – right now, more than ever, even when stopping in at breweries just to grab a 4pk to go, leave a tip for your bartenders. Their still there, working, at a reduced rate right now due to closures of the indoor seating, and their still doing lots of work behind the scenes. We need to stick together and help each other out. …steps down from soapbox….)

As usual, I jibber jabber and ramble before getting to the beer review, so lets cut the crap and get right to it with this bright and delicious zesty beer.

Beer: Blue Hippo
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: Fruit Beer
ABV: 5%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: This is beer 2 in our Hippo series, where we brew with loads of fruit. Blue Hippo is brewed with insane amounts of Blueberry and Tahitian Lime. Strong lime aroma and flavor rounded out with ripe blueberry.

As you can see from the various pictures, this is just a beautiful beer. It has a reddish (slight pinkish hint) to purple hue. Little bits of floaters / pulp one can see when poured from an unrolled can. It is certainly carbonated, it is a fruit beer afterall, and doing some possible refermenting, so definitely keep this cold, drink it fresh, and drink it quick!

Aroma is fun with this one. Its got definite tartness from blueberries and you get a good whiff of that out the gate, and its called the lime as well. It smells carbonated, with the bubbles tickling your nose as you take in the nose of this (and yes, I understand that doesn’t sound ‘technical’ or ‘correct’, but you can tell, and smell, and taste carbonation, thats my stance anyway). It smells like a ‘spritzer’. This is just a fun beer from the appearance and the aroma, before you even get to the taste of it. Sometimes you just ‘know’ when a beer is going to be good, when they just look fun, and you can’t wait to drain that glass.

This is certainly a case of this. This is such a great relaxing day beer. And at 5% it is completely crushable. Both a great sipping beer, and one you’ll finish in no time flat, its fantastic for all day. A Senators game, a college baseball game, your daughter’s softball game (shhhh, no one is telling), or mowing the yard, or suntanning, or sitting out to read (one of my favorites), this is just perfect for it. This tastes very similar to a spritzer, just like its smell. A fruited spritzer, unlike the white wine ones. The zest level on this thing is off the charts, but with a great tartness and slight funk from the blueberries. This is the right kind of blueberry taste; not too tart, not too funk, just right. Perfect middle ground on the blueberry flavor, and with the Tahitian lime zest and flavor, it gives it a fantastic kick to it. Mouthfeel is fine, no off flavors, just nice tartness, no cloying, no sweetness. Its not a true sour, it just has a bit of a tartness and the zest kick. At 5% you can drain the first, drink the second, and start on your third and not even feel a thing, perfect for the summer. (When its not snow squalling in May that is!) This is just a wonderful, well made, well crafted, and delicious beer. Probably better than Pink Hippo, which itself was very good. I highly recommend grabbing this while its still available at the brewery, and if you live close, they’ll even deliver it!

My Untappd Rating: ****.5
Global Untappd Rating: 4.2 (as of 5.9.20).

You can order online through Boneshire Brew Works’ website at: Boneshire Through Square.Site. Or check out their official webpage: Boneshire Brew Works.

Still rolling through May pretty strong. Make sure to wish your mom a happy mother’s day tomorrow. Make sure you avoid all this cold and the snow squalls. And keep washing your hands, practicing social distancing, etc. I want to be able to have at least SOME fun this summer, and go to events like the Ffej of July and brewfests at Lititz or Lancaster or the make-up dates for the RenFaire or AC Brewfests.

Cheers all!

-B. Kline