As you can see, I am well stocked for the election results. (Not pictured is actually a draft already drank before my pizza got done and brought out to me.) What is pictured is I Voted Today by Tired Hands, Tired Branches II (the small remainder of a pour) by Tired Hands, and Heretic’s Shallow Grave (a porter). But thats not what today’s story and review is about.

You can guess what today’s story and review is about…. trains. Its all about trains and the locomotives that transformed America in the 1800s and early 1900s….. oh wait…. no… no… thats not it at all.

No, today’s review, is brought to you by the letters I. V. T. …. I Voted Today. And followed by the letters T. H. Oh… you figured out the pattern by now did you? This marks the first Tired Hands beer for the blog, surprisingly, but so it goes.

The full accurate title for this one should read: I Voted Today (Simcoe and Chinook) (Tired Hands), but that felt like adding too much to it all, so I just left it at “I Voted Today” which is far more the important part anyway.

….Well, I guess, its easy to discuss it now, and the cat is kind out of out of the bag, but today is November 3rd, which means, in America, its election day, when millions upon millions of people stand in line to do something very similar to getting Other Half or Burley Oak beers – vote.

Knowing the parking lot for the Lower Dauphin High School would most likely be completely packed, I parked at my parent’s house (which is about two blocks away) and walked over. I got to the high school to stand in line at about 8:08AM. Its interesting how Hummelstown has their voting set up. Everyone votes in the same location, but they have it split into two groups – “West Side” and “East Side”. (Yes, I can imagine what you are thinking about this.) The dividing line is Rosanna Street in town. I don’t know the official split of residences, but it is far lopsided in that West Side has a ton more residences and people than the East Side. Mainly because they added Greystone Farms (a development) to the West Side and most of the East Side is primarily just Main Street which has turned a lot of the houses into businesses. Plus it just doesn’t have the same amount of land. So while the wait for the West Side was incredibly long, if you lived on the East Side you could literally walk right in, vote, and leave.

I took this picture while still waiting in line but having at least made some progress, this is me now waiting at 8:40AM. Meanwhile the East Enders are flying past me still at the regular brisk pace they were before. Interesting notes – while in line I saw that both George Scott and Lindsey Drew were there by the entrance. George Scott walked up the line thanking everyone for coming out. Also at the entrance was Mayor David Roeting, which has been the Hummelstown standard for as long as I’ve been alive, Mayor Brad Miller and Mayor Bud Alexander both would stand at the polling entrance for the entirety of the day.

(First, disclaimer, before posting the above picture, I looked it up, in Pennsylvania you are allowed to take a photo of your non-filled out ballot and post it online. From what I have read on a few sites, you are not allowed to take a picture of a filled in ballot however. So the above is perfectly fine in compliance with these laws since its not filled out.)

Finally at 9:22AM I am inside and able to vote. I am #197 and getting to vote. I am not elaborating or discussing my details. This isn’t the point of this post or beer review. This is all just to discuss the actual process of voting. On exiting, the line had certainly gotten smaller, and I ran into Rich Dibeler who said he had been only waiting twenty or so minutes and he was up to the door (so he had about ten to fifteen more minutes to wait).

At 4PM my parents went to vote after my mom got home from school (she’s a teacher not a student). This was the line they were greeted to, and they were finally able to get in and vote around 4:40-4:50. My dad texted saying he was #895. They ran into Robert Myers as well as Mayor Roetting still there.

It is fantastic to see people doing their civic duty. Voting is one of the strongest and most powerful tools we have in America for the real change we want to see as Americans, and everyone should exercise it. Too many countries in the world don’t have the ability to have a say in their government and their politics, and we owe it to people like them to let our voices be heard.

After voting, I walked back, got home, took care of wind damage from the night before and had to leave for work, after work I went straight to Pizza Boy to try the ‘I Voted Today’ by Tired Hands. I had been looking for a ‘I Voted Today’ beer for the past week to be able to review it for the blog on election night. (I try to go nerdy and do the right things for the blog like election beers on election day, etc.) I wasn’t able to get any of cans from places like Monkish or etc, but was told and was able to get the last of ‘I Voted Today’ by Tired Hands at Pizza Boy. Literally, the last of it. Sorry if you didn’t get to try it, but here is the review of it all the same.

This might be one of the first times you get a sneak peak of the writing world there, as you can see my laptop up and running with the beer review started. You can also see my backup beers (one of which I started before I got the pizza). Backup beers were Tired Branches by Tired Hands and Shallow Grave by Heretic. Before the night was over, I would also get Elationship by Shy Bear and Valley Standard by Pizza Boy.

Beer: I Voted Today (Simcoe and Chinook)
Brewery: Tired Hands Brewing Company
Style: Pale Ale – American
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Brewed with American two row barley and malted wheat, hopped with an enthusiastic dose of our very favorite American hop, Simcoe, and fermented with our house ale yeast. This batch was double dry hopped first with more of our beloved Simcoe, then again with ultra classic and punchy Chinook. 5.6% abv. Notes of sparkling orange drink, Meyer lemon, fresh cut grass, dank green stuff, and a beautiful piney bitterness to finish it of.

This was a bright yellow pale ale. Mine looks a bit darker than some of the others I’ve seen pictures of on the internet and Untappd, which I found to be interesting, perhaps it was due to date, perhaps just the lighting at Pizza Boy where I was sitting, or my camera. My camera has been at full memory so I haven’t been able to use my flash (I know, I know, I need to get rid of all the old hiking photos and upload them to my computer so I can delete them off my phone, and also remove old apps like Hop Plotter and work out apps I’ll never use), so it might also be because of no flash. But it has a beautiful yellow to light golden color, with a very foamy head that dissipated quickly. (My pour also doesn’t do a good service to the head, and was retopped too, so it doesn’t show it as well either.)

Aroma is strong hop presence, very powerful Simcoe and Chinook hop presence. Simcoe is a hit or miss hop for many people. I personally love it, and I also love Chinook (I even grow Chinook hops at home). There is a strong lemon zest and lemon grass from the hops, some piney and a bit of earthy and regular grass undertones as well.

This is certainly a delicious crushable beer. Probably a four pack of these would be fantastic to ride out election night results. Luckily at Pizza Boy I was able to do my best to only partially glance out at the results, and only after 8PM. (I got there at 6:30.) The hop presence just like in the aroma is very strong here, and you get all of the Simcoe and Chinook hop flavors you are expecting – lemon, zest, lemon grass, pine, some hints of earthy notes, some hints of orange drink – though I always found this very subtle and don’t always pick up on it like some have, and this tails off from being juicy to leaving a light hop bitterness at the end. Which I enjoy that little ending ‘kick’ of hop bitterness, letting it not all be juicy and dank and instead giving you a wide range of flavors and tastes. This isn’t as complex as it sounds, but is more just a full flavor wheel of the above. The lemon zest, lemon grass, and grass all work together, the orange drink, piney, dank, and earthy notes all work together, and as a whole it just blends well as a juicy drink with that hop ‘kick’ of bitterness at the end. Its also only 5.6% so it’s certainly not a heavy beer and very light on the palate and stomach.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 4.01 (as of 11.3.20)

While eating and drinking and writing and reading, I had been texting co-workers about the election results as they were starting to come in, as well as texting a friend Haley, as well as my mom about election results, and several others. Wrapping up and going to get a box for my pizza I hear this, “Ben is that you?” and turn around, and here it was Haley, her and her mother and a friend were there the whole night as well, and we just hadn’t even seen each other there, despite texting each other the whole time. Funny world. It was her birthday (28, practically still a child, compared to my old 35). So I bought her a drink (got her a Shallow Grave by Heretic) and got myself one more beer – the Valley Standard, and we chatted and hung out and watched some of the results pour in on the screen while discussing how she’s not coming back to the casino, how her son is, etc.

After Pizza Boy I stopped at my parents to also watch the rest of the election night results with my mom, something that is usually a staple for election nights for me. I always find it interesting hearing her perspective on the country’s voting. Made it home after that to find Drew was streaming with Rome on his Knights of Nostalgia page. So I put them on in the background, while I had the TV on mute, and finished writing this (literally, writing this sentence right now with the above as described).

Please everyone remember – whoever you voted for, whichever side, blue, red, yellow, green, doesn’t matter what party you represent or voted for, what you are registered as. Nobody is “the losing side” or the “winning side”, nobody is the enemy, we are all people, we are all brothers, sisters, mothers, daughters, sons, fathers, workers, teachers, waiters, writers, streamers, construction workers, accountants, etc. Nobody is the enemy. We. Are. Humanity. And that is what we always need to keep in focus. Left vs. Right doesn’t work and isn’t something we need to be seeing when we can see it as simple as HUMAN and HUMAN. No versus. Just AND. That is the key I think, if we can just look at the person who voted opposite of us, and say, “I see you as a person, as a friend, as a co-worker, as a person.” Rather than seeing them as “voting opposite, as the enemy, as wrong”, I think we can get back to National civility, to global humanity, to friendliness, to a better world, and a better humanity.

I’ll take my step down off my soap box now, and move on. My little naive rant over. Some day I hope for a better world, and I feel the change is possible, that its right there, and we just all overlook it due to the pettiness and the banalities of people’s lives and choices. But this is probably viewed as a soppy mushy weak view and sentimental by many. Shrug. This is a beer review and I’m not going to get too crazy on the politics or the human rights rant here.

Enjoy your beers and take care everyone. Cheers!

-B. Kline

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