Tag: D. Scott

  • Upcoming Trip to Las Vegas

    Upcoming Trip to Las Vegas

    This will be my last post for 2024. And then its onto 2025! But I won’t be celebrating the New Year here in Pennsylvania, I will be celebrating in Las Vegas – amongst all the glitz and glamor, the gambling, the alcohol, the lights, the sounds, and all the craziness that comes of it. I am actually just about to get picked up by friends to be taken to the airport and leave Pennsylvania behind for a few days of Las Vegas fun to celebrate the 40th birthday of another friend.

    Viva Las Vegas

    Welcome to the Fabulous Las Vegas

    In just moments Esteban and Laura’s son – Marcos – will be picking me up, and taking myself, Esteban, and Laura to Harrisburg International Airport (HIA), where we will meet up with Josh (MasterMind X Studios) and Drew (Knights of Nostalgia), to fly to Las Vegas and spend the next few days there. (We will be flying back on January 3rd.)

    Drew is turning 40 today, and this trip will be to celebrate his birthday, celebrate New Years Eve / New Years Day, to visit his father (who will be driving up from Texas), and to most importantly – have some fun. I’ve known Drew since 5th grade (his 6th grade). The above link is his Facebook page, and this is his YouTube page where he streams video games (typically older games). (See: YouTube – Knights of Nostalgia. And also see: Facebook – Knights of Nostalgia.)

    Drew and Esteban used to run a podcast together called “So a Mexican and a Scot Walk Into a Bar…” I appeared on several podcast episodes – including ones about The Irishman, Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul and El Camino, as well as Star Wars, The Umbrella Academy, and LOST themed ones. Josh (MasterMind X Studios) has also appeared on a few as well. (See: Moon of Vega Beer Review – where I discuss the podcasts a bit more.)

    Josh will be joining us on the trip, he runs the MasterMind X Studios Facebook page as well as his own YouTube channel – MasterMind X Studios.

    Itinerary

    We don’t have a strict itinerary for the trip, but there is certainly things we all want to do while we’re in Vegas.

    Some definite things we want to check out are all the various casinos, the fountain show at the Billagio, the old strip on Fremont Street, the Mob Museum, numerous breweries, and much more sight seeing.

    Our flight path looks like this:

    • Monday: Harrisburg (HIA) to Charlotte. Charlotte to Las Vegas.
    • Friday: Las Vegas to Philadelphia. Philly to Harrisburg (via puddle jumper).

    Breweries

    In a perfect world, I’ll get to visit all these breweries, but we will see. Time will be both loose and tight while in Vegas (isn’t it always on vacations?), and the ones at the airport are very time restrictive, and are all determinate on terminals, landing times, boarding and off boarding times, etc.

    But these are the possible, and hopeful breweries I could get to visit:

    Charlotte Airport

    • Sycamore Brewing
    • NoDa Brewing Company
    • Wicked Weed Brewery

    Las Vegas

    • BrewDog Las Vegas
    • Beer Zombies
    • Able Baker Brewing Company
    • Nevada Brew Works
    • CraftHaus Brewing
    • HUDL Brewing
    • Hop Nuts Brewing
    • Voodoo Brewing Vegas
    • Chicago Brewing Company
    • Ellis Island Hotel and Brewery
    • Tenaya Creek Brewing
    • Beer District Brewing

    Some of these are very doubtful, but some are quite possible. BrewDog is located near the New York Casino, so walkable from where we’ll be staying (Harrah’s Casino). Beer Zombies isn’t too far of an Uber ride from Fremont Street, and speaking of Fremont Street and the Old Strip, there is a few breweries inside of casinos there (Chicago Brewing and Ellis Island). In the Arts District (an Uber drive from the Harrah’s) there are several breweries all in a row – Able Baker, Nevada Brew Works, HUDL Brewing, CraftHaus Brewing, and Hop Nuts Brewing. On a side street somewhere in this area is also Voodoo Brewing Vegas, so that’s also a possible stop.

    We’ll see what all we get to, fingers crossed, but would be great to knock off quite a few new breweries from the list.

    Time to Go

    Okay, Marcos is just about to pull up. I’ve walked Leela, I’ve drank a Fiddlehead Imperial IPA while writing this, and it’s not even 4:30 AM yet. Here’s the kick off to what should be a great vacation! Cheers everyone! Chat with you soon, and I’ll try to keep the social media accounts busy while I’m there. I will do a full recap post once I get back, and might even do some day recaps while I’m there (I am taking my laptop), or I might write each day up individually when I get back and slice them in. We’ll see.

    Alright, cheers, and see ya Pennsylvania!

    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:

    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 ReviewsHike ReviewsBook ReviewsBrewery News, Brewery OpeningsBrewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

    Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookFacebook GroupTwitterInstagramYouTube, 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.)

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Hershey Bears and Ever Grain Brewing Team Up to Create Bear Claw Pale Lager

    Hershey Bears and Ever Grain Brewing Team Up to Create Bear Claw Pale Lager

    Ever Grain Brewing and Hershey Bears Team Up to Create Bear Claw Pale Lager

    The Hershey Bears and Ever Grain Brewing announced today that they are teaming up to make Bear Claw Pale Lager. The lager will be sold in 19.2 oz cans at the GIANT Center at all of the home games of the Hershey Bears for the 2023 – 2024 season.

    Bear Claw Pale Lager is a 5.5% ABV lager brewed by Ever Grain Brewing Company and is a limited release and will be sold at only the GIANT Center at all of their alcohol stands.

    The Bears Den (part of the Hershey Lodge) as well as The Chocolatier (part of Hershey Park) will also sell it on draft.

    Announcement

    The Hershey Bears announcement:

    The 2023 Calder Cup Champion Hershey Bears are pleased to announce in collaboration with Ever Grain Brewing Company the launch of Bear Claw Pale Lager.

    Brewed with the choicest malts, Bear Claw Pale Lager is the new go-to for your game-time beverage. It contains a significant flavor of noble varieties, moderate bitterness, and is backed by a solid malt body and sweet notes from an all-malt base. The result is a cold, crisp, and refreshing beverage, just like the start of hockey season.

    Bear Claw Pale Lager will be available at GIANT Center in 19.2 oz cans in time for the Bears 2023-24 home opener on Saturday, Oct. 14 vs. the Belleville Senators at any location where canned beverages are sold. Please note: all alcohol must be consumed on property as fans cannot take full, unopened, or partially consumed cans out of GIANT Center as souvenirs. The Chocolatier and Bears’ Den restaurants will also have Bear Claw Pale Lager available on draft. 

    The 5.5% ABV beverage is a limited-time release. The artwork for the cans is highlighted by the face of a roaring bear. The bottom of the can is encircled with 12 shields containing each season in which the Bears won the Calder Cup, the most of any team in the history of the American Hockey League.

    Hershey Bears Announce Launch of Bear Claw Pale Lager

     

    For More Information

    For more information, visit:

    Our Ever Grain Articles

    For More Information on Ever Grain Brewing Company

    The following comes from Untappd. Ever Grain Brewing Company is a micro brewery from Camp Hill, Pennsylvania. They have 276 unique beers and over 373,000 ratings, with a global average Untappd rating of 4.00 (as of 10.13.23). Their Untappd description reads: Ever Grain Brewing Co. prides themselves in using only the freshest, highest-quality ingredients, with a local twist. Our goal is to provide your taste buds with a new experience every time you visit our brewery. We look forward to sharing some stories with you over one of our hand crafted beers. Cheers!

    You can follow them on the following social media pages:

    See Also

    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:

    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 ReviewsHike ReviewsBook ReviewsBrewery News, Brewery OpeningsBrewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

    Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookFacebook GroupTwitterInstagramYouTube, 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 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 #7 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #8 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of January 2023.) 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.)

     

     

     

     

  • Ffej of July 18… And I Like It (2021) – Friday, Night One

    Ffej of July 18… And I Like It (2021) – Friday, Night One

     

    If your in the know, your in the know. One of the greatest parties – by invite only – is running two days this year. Ffej of July is back after a year break due to COVID-19 and is back better than ever. First night is in the bag and I personally had a blast, and I know everyone that went with me did too.

    For the first time, Ffej of July is a two day event this year. With the first event happening on a Friday and then the main event all day Saturday. I just got home from night one, and here’s a quick recap of the day.

    Due to having be the DD this year, I picked up Drew and Rome at his place, and we then made it to Annville for the party. We brought our contributions and put them in the sunroom and made our introductions to Brandi and Ffej. Running into Deuane and his wife, and several others.

    It wasn’t looking good for a bit. From about 4:30PM to about 5:40PM it was a straight up massive thunderstorm in Hummelstown, and pretty much everywhere else in the vicinity (including Annville). But luckily the rains and the clouds dispersed, and we were able to have one kick ass party.

    As we pulled into the parking lot area around 7:10PM, two guys were hanging out asking about the party. First rule of Fight Club…. err… I mean Ffej of July… well… wait, thats not really true either. Ok, here’s the thing, you can talk about Ffej of July, but you can’t just show up with “rando’s” from the Sheetz parking lot. You can bring guests, but its cool to do so with announcing them, and they must all be introduced to Ffej and Brandi. And obviously they must be cool people you can vouch for, because if anything happens, its on you.

    After picking out our spot by the tree like we did last – two years ago – Ffej of July, Drew and Rome hit the beer cave and grabbed some suds, and we got down to listening to the bands. I milled around talking to people and we later made our way down to the Wheel of Zonks and other fun activities and then hung out at our spot. Rome had an eggplant sandwich and we all had Giant Center popcorn. Jason Miller and his wife Sherri showed up near the end, as well as Kelsey (from Drew’s stream) and her fiance Ben. So we had a jamming little section and loved the night’s music with UZO ending it – melting off our faces as they always do. (Thank god faces grow back!)

     

    For those coming tomorrow, see ya out there, and happy Ffej of July everyone!

    Ffej of July 18
    Ffej of July 2021

     

    -B. Kline

     

     

  • AC Brewfest 2021 – Day 1 Recap (June 4th, 2021)

    The Atlantic City Beer and Music Festival

    Got word from Drew this morning, as well as some updates from him while at the brewfest for day two (Session 2 of 3). Everything went smoothly he said Friday night. Him, David, and A. Parys (thesugarfoot) got to AC Friday, and enjoyed Ocean’s Casino and Resort before going to the brewfest itself at the Bader Field Ballpark.

    He sent me some messages last night around 8 – 9PM (Session 1 of the brewfest was 8PM – 12 Midnight – Friday, June 4th). He said they made a beeline for Kelsey Grammer’s tent and brewery (Faith American Brewing Company). He said he was nice and talked a little and then they moved on.

    By 10:30 PM or so, when messaging him, I asked him if there were any good beers or brews at the event and he said there was but he was “too drunk to remember which ones or where”. I expected nothing less from my faithful and diligent correspondent, doing his research thoroughly.

    I asked Drew how the layout was with the event moving to the outdoors – at the Bader Field Ballpark – rather than the inside at the Atlantic City Convention Center; and he said it feels much more spaced out, he’s not sure if there’s less breweries this year, but that it almost feels that way. He said the area looks like an old airport runway and is nice for the event. The stage area was nice and everything looked good and spaced out.

    Drew, Dave, and Andrew all had a blast from day one. They are doing the “HopTrot 5K” tomorrow before Session 2 of the brewfest (12 Noon – 4PM). I’ll have an update, with pictures from the event for tomorrow’s post.

    You can see the first article of the series here: “The Atlantic City Beer and Music Festival 2021“.

    Cheers!

    -B. Kline
    Correspondent: D. Scott

    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 – FacebookFacebook GroupTwitterInstagramYouTube, 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!

  • The Atlantic City Beer and Music Festival – 2021

    The Atlantic City Beer and Music Festival: June 4th and 5th 2021

    It has been a long crazy road to get back to this point – brewfests again! Live, interaction, with other human beings, in public, in person. ……and I wish so badly I could go. But sadly, this year has been a giant monkeywrench unforeseen, just like last year, and I will be sadly missing out on the AC Brewfest this year.

    Last year’s event was cancelled due to COVID-19 / coronavirus, as was most of everything else last year. Typically the AC Brewfest is in April (usually the first weekend), and so it was hit right at the time COVID-19 really hit America, and was postponed to August of 2020, but as the summer came and we all realized that in – person events were not a good idea, it was cancelled / postponed until now.

    Last year, the event was cancelled, the year before that, Drew and I went, and the year before that, Drew, Rory, and I went. Both of those times, we did two sessions – the Friday night 8PM – 12 Midnight session, and then the Saturday session, which both times was also the earlier session. So its certainly a ‘hard on the liver weekend’. Unfortunately, this year, I am unable to go, due to events from earlier in the year, but Drew as a correspondent here of The Beer Thrillers will be going.

    In the past, we stayed at Baily’s and went to the Convention Center (by walking) to go to the brewfest. This year, however, the event has been moved to an outdoor venue – the Bader Field Ballpark. Would have been interesting to see it in it’s new venue. Hopefully this will keep some social distancing and help alleviate some of the issues with COVID-19 and everything.

    This was also going to be the first year that we were going to do the 5K on Saturday. They host an annual 5K as part of the brewfest, where doing the 5K gets you a little bit of extra time inside the brewfest to start your drinking early….. assuming 1) you survive the 5K, and 2) you get done in a timely manner. Let’s see how Drew does this year.

    This is a two day event, with live music, events, games, podcasts, a beard and hair barber; and much more. In the past there were Wipeout like obstacle courses, mazes, hatchet throwing, food trucks, silent raves / discos, and much more.

    Of course, live music is a big feature of the event. In past years they’ve had some big band names; one of which was the Mighty Mighty Boss Tones that we got to see in 2018. Last year’s event was supposed to have New Found Glory, but they did not return for this year’s event after last year’s was cancelled.

    For more information, you can check out the Facebook Events page here: Atlantic City Beer and Music Festival Events Page. Jon Henderson does an amazing job running this event and puts so much effort and time into it, so its so great to see it up and running again, as this year’s events start to come back to life and breweries can get back out to doing brewfests, beer events, and tap takeovers again.

    The information listed on the events page reads:

    “Here are the dates for 15th Atlantic City Beer & Music Festival. Session 1 Friday, June 4th – The Early November / Knuckle Puck
    Session 2 Saturday, June 5th 12pm – 4pm – Less Than Jake
    Session 3 Saturday, June 5th 6pm – 10p – Face To FaceWow, what a crazy year it’s been full of unwanted postponements and cancelations. Good Time Tricycle Productions is excited to announce a fun and necessary changes to the 2021 festival initially slated for April 9th and 10th at the Atlantic City Convention Center.
    The Festival team has been working closely with Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small, the City of Atlantic City, Meet AC, Spectra, and the CRDA to bring you the first outdoor Atlantic City Beer & Music Festival to be held on Bader Field June 4th and 5th 2021. We are excited about the opportunity to host our festival on the 142-acre piece of property, allowing for producers to create a fun interactive celebration while also enabling the festivities to be spread out for an open-air experience. As a productions company, we are confident that we can maintain attendee safety while delivering the experience that some have come to expect from The Atlantic City Beer and Music Festival. Here are a few things you need to know (or answers to questions you may have)
    • All tickets purchased for the 2020 festival will be honored for the June 2021 dates.
    • Tickets on sale January 15th
    • Refunds are available until March 9th. Head to your Ticketmaster account and request your refund.
    • New Musical acts will be announced on March 22nd. (all headliners for 2020 are unavailable for the 2021 date)
    • HOPS Trot 5k June 5th
    • Ticket prices will increase to $65 plus fees on May 1st.This, like all things related to Covid is a fluid situation. We are optimistically moving forward with all the fun and shenanigans the festival holds. To be candid we are #hellbentonbeerfest! We will keep you updated as we progress. For more information on the festival, including Covid processes and procedure, please visit www.acbeerfest.com Stay awesome and be excellent to each other. 100 brewers and thousands of friends stay tuned for updates.
    Tix: linktr.ee/acbeerfest or at JOE CANAL’S DISCOUNT LIQUOR – EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP locations on Fire Rd or Black Horse Pike.”

    Atlantic City Beer and Music Festival Facebook

    According to the events page, 4K are listed as ‘going’ and 13.2K are listed as ‘interested’ in the event. (In the twenty minutes of writing this article, its actually gone up to 4.1K listed as ‘going’ now.)

    Drew is leaving today at noon-ish with Rome, possibly A. Parys and maybe a few others. Hopefully, next year I’ll be able to rejoin the fun and festivities. Drew will be sending pictures and comments and videos back, both for here on the blog, and his video game streaming page – Knights of Nostalgia – so be on the lookout for those updates. Next Saturday (June 12th) is the Renaissance Faire brewfest, which I will also be missing, but Drew will be attending, and will give us updates on as well. So be on the lookout for these articles.

    So be sure to check tomorrow morning for Day 1 comments / correspondence / clips / pics of the AC Brewfest, and then Sunday for Day 2 of the event.

    As always, make sure to check out our social media pages to stay up to date on everything going on with The Beer Thrillers.

    Summer is here and events are starting to happen, what are some cool events you all know of? What all events are everyone going to? Let us know in the comments!

    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 – FacebookFacebook GroupTwitterInstagramYouTube, 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!

    -B. Kline

  • Beer Review: Space Broccoli (Other Half Brewing Co)

    Space Broccoli by Other Half Brewing Co.

    So Thursday was certainly an interesting day for the restaurant, bar, brewery, …. well just the service industry in general in Pennsylvania. I was out walking my dog and doing yard work, and then I had to grab my daughter Lily to run to the Hershey Library before they closed (had a book that was due), and while at the library and on the road with her, all hell broke loose basically.

    Had about a hundred texts from co-workers, people in the brewery industry, my parents, everyone wanting to know whats going on, or telling us whats going on, or saying ‘where do we stand now’ or ‘should we defy orders’ etc.

    Needless to say, I get Lily back to her mom’s, I handle some of the texts I can, and head home. Reading the news then at home, I see we had until Friday night at midnight to do our inside dining. Drew invited me out to his place as he was starting a stream, I told him I needed to get something to eat, so I walked down to Rubber Soul, ate in – had their fantastic and delicious pierogies and their newest release – Soul Breaker (beer review coming soon), and then walked home. Then went over to Drew’s.

    He was playing Super Mario RPG for the SNES on his stream – Knights of Nostalgia. So I joined him and drank along with him as he played. His brother in law from New York sent him a shipment of beers he tells me, a whole assortment of beers, so I check out his mini-fridge and “oh hot damn!” moment, the beer is stocked full of Other Half beer! His brother in law sent him Other Half. Drew loves his craft beer, but didn’t know just how great Other Half was. So we proceeded to drink four and share some others while he finished out his stream.

    (Oh, and for those who were wondering – yes, Drew was able to beat Super Mario RPG for the stream. Sorry, spoiler alert.)

    I finally left Drew’s at 5:20AM. Now that the mandates and restrictions, both me and Drew are effectively unemployed for the next three weeks. So, you will probably get a lot more streams, and a lot more content here on the blog. Enjoy!

    Now, lets get to the beer review!

    Space Broccoli by Other Half Brewing Co

    Beer: Space Broccoli
    Brewery: Other Half Brewing Co
    Style: IPA – Imperial / Double
    ABV: 7.9%
    IBU: None
    Untappd Description: Our classic Broccoli recipe with Mosaic, Simcoe, Hallertau Blanc and then we swapped the Cascade for a ton of Galaxy.

    For those ‘not in the know’ Other Half Brewing Co is one of the top notch East Coast breweries, and one of the more traded and sought after breweries from New York. Other Half started in 2014, they have 975 unique beers according to Untappd, with over 2.4 Million (nearly 2.5 Million) ratings. Their average rating is 4.24. Which is just incredible to think about considering the sheer volume of ratings and number of unique beers. Their Untappd Description reads: “In 2014, Sam Richardson, Matt Monahan and Andrew Burman founded Other Half Brewing Company, a local brewery in New York City with a simple mission: to create beers that they wanted to drink from a company that they wanted to be a part of. Their vision was to build a passionate team that brewed great beers in the state of New York—done so with effort and thoughtfulness—to represent the “Other Half” of the industry. Today, Other Half craft beers in their Brooklyn brewery and are dedicated to collaborating with breweries both in New York as well as across the world in an effort to constantly move the industry forward while elevating the craft. The Other Half team believes that local breweries play an important role in their communities which is why they partner with these other likeminded brewers and brands in local nabes across the country and the world—but always return to their home state of New York and their Brooklyn taproom.” Their top beers are listed as – Forever Ever, Green City, All Green Everything, and a lot of various double dry hopped variants of their other beers.

    Firstly, this is basically a New England IPA. It doesn’t say that on the label or on Untappd, but thats what it is. As you can see from the picture, it is a gorgeous, beautiful beer. Perfect New England hazy IPA look. Its bright orange, like orange juice, its hazy, cloudy, opaque, beautiful head to it – white, with interspersed and varied bubbles, and left a lovely lacing on the glass as I drank it down (quickly too).

    Aroma is a heavenly bouquet of hops. It has that nice heavy handed hop aroma that comes with a very juicy New England IPA. The Simcoe and Mosaic hops come through on the nose the most. The Galaxy is a nice addition, and probably helps this better than the Cascade would have, I do love Galaxy Hops.

    Wooooh booooooy….. this drank waaaaaaaay too easily. Especially for a DIPA…. not that I’m really complaining, and really at 7.9% its not too crazy ridiculous high, though its getting on the higher end of the spectrum. (I consider 7.5% the tipping point.) This is one of the best New England IPAs / DIPAs I’ve had, in a long time, or period, for that matter. Its downright juicy and so tasty. This is very smooth with no hop bite, no bitterness, no acidity at all. The mosaic hops give this a nice berry, fruity, stone fruit taste. The simcoe gives it a piney, earthy undertone, and the galaxy hops give it a very strong peach, citrus, passionfruit. The hops blend together very nicely in this. Nothing is too overpowering or too strong. You don’t get too much pine or too much berry or too much peach or citrus or passionfruit, you get them all in equal measures, and this works very well together. Its a very nice conjunction of hops and tastes and flavors, with nothing being too strong, nothing being off, nothing tasting funky or wrong or different. It all just blends so well together, like its a peaceful orchestra harmony or some kind of poetic crap like that. This is a beautiful New England Double IPA. Hands down, it looks beautiful, it tastes wonderful, its just amazing and fantastic. So mad props to Drew for letting me snag this from him (he got some of it too), and for his brother in law shipping quality beers like Other Half down to Harrisburg, and of course to Other Half itself for brewing such a great beer. Seriously, if you’ve never had the pleasure of Other Half, make a note, make ten notes, but make sure you get yourself some Other Half at some point. You won’t be disappointed, I know that much, their IPAs and DIPAs and TIPAs are complete ‘fire’ right now as all the cool kids would say. If you’re not from New York or NYC, your best bet might be to look up some Facebook beer trade groups or Beer Advocate and try and get it that way (trade or $); though $$ might be expensive with secondary mark up. But it will still be worth it. But in the meantime, in the Pennsylvania area, support your local breweries; first, otherwise they might not be here in the future. Anyway, I digress. Summary: Fantastic beer. Delicious. Great NE-DIPA. End summary.

    My Untappd Rating: ****.5
    Global Untappd Rating: 4.24 (as of 12.13.20)

    Alright everyone, this is technically day two of the mandatory restrictions. I know a lot of places, restaurants, bars, breweries, etc, are disobeying the Governor’s orders. Its your decision on who to patronize and who to help and support. I’m not taking a side here or there. This is a tough climate and tough decisions for all of these businesses. I know its going to make things harder with them staying open, and gives the Governor more cause to keep the mandates and things going, but hopefully not, and hopefully the numbers will start lowering soon. Fingers crossed. The vaccines are rolling out. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Lets just get there! I want to go to some brewfests in 2021 dammnit!

    Cheers!

    -B. Kline

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

    For some other beer reviews check out:

  • Beer Review: Grand Cacao (Troegs Independent Brewing)

    This was my ‘new’ beer of the night last night; for those new or unfamiliar, in November, I make sure to have at least one brand new (to me) beer every day in November – as well as write one new blog post every day in November (30 new beers, 30 new blog pots); it was a 12oz can I got from Deuane as a gift for bringing him some beers back from Urban Artifact and Braxton Brewing Company from my Indianapolis trip (you can check out links to the trip at the end of this article). So last night (Nov. 22nd) while I was writing up the first full day trip article I drank that and it was my new beer for the day, and I was planning on doing this review today (Nov. 23rd). Well, as it turned out, I ended up meeting my friends Drew and Andy (Drew – is the creator of Knights of Nostalgia; and Andy is the writer for the ‘What Makes a Great Quarantine Brewery article here on The Beer Thrillers) at Troegs Brewery in Hershey today for a lunch (well, beer lunch anyway).

    I had originally ran out to Harrisburg because I had to go to the DMV to renew my license, only to find out that I now have to go to Enola to renew my license and they are open Tuesday through Saturday (which… of course… today is a Monday). So I walked my dog along the Green Belt and the Riverfront, taking her over to City Island and back, and then decided I’d hit up ZeroDay Brewing. Well… I forgot they are doing the renovations and reconstruction on the old ZeroDay Brewery on Reily Street, and that their new current location doesn’t open til 4PM; so that was obviously a no – go. So I drove home, dropped off Leela, and met Drew and Andy at Troegs.

    Sadly, they did not have a cranberry beer, so I only have a cranberry / lemon or lime or something gose I picked up from Urban Artifact for this year’s Thanksgiving. Typically, Troegs does a cranberry every year for Thanksgiving, usually a porter, sometimes something different, and I try to pick up a 4 pack or 6 pack or a crowler of it for the meal. Also, in recent months, it seems Troegs has also really slowed up on their scratch series. Pre-COVID they were doing a new scratch release every Thursday (or nearly every Thursday; and even sometimes doubling up and releasing two on a Thursday), but it seems now they have really slowed up their scratch series, and are releasing them intermittently.

    So there was a bit of a dearth in ‘new’ beers for me to try at Troegs today. I was afraid I’d have to drink more when I got home just to hit my requirement of a new beer today, but, I am being a bit cheeky and calling my Mad Elf and Mad Elf Grand Cru picks as ‘new’ since they are technically the Mad Elf (2020) and Mad Elf Grand Cru (2020) vintages. Bit of a loophole… but I’m taking it.

    Troegs has slacked a bit on their uptight mandates as well. No longer needing to check into the host and waiting for a text to be seated, and no longer having to “all be together” before seating, I was able to meet up with Drew and Andy who were already seated. Drew ordered a pork waffle thing (no clue), and Andy got fries, I just drank. I had a draft of the Grand Cacao, followed by the Coco-Nator, then the Mad Elf Grand Cru (2020) and the Mad Elf (2020). Funny thing – the very first beer review on the blog here was the scratch Coco-Nator released a year and a half ago – Scratch #375 – Coco-Nator. They then released it later last year as a new seasonal – Coco-Nator, and now its been re-released for the first time this year. And now, here I am, also enjoying a Grand Cacao that I will be doing as another review for Troegs on the blog. (And here I was just thinking to myself how it’s been a ‘hot minute’ since I’ve done a Troegs beer review.) Its almost like coming full circle….

    The nice thing about doing the thirty blogs in thirty days thing, is that it gives me a chance to do a lot of reviews I might have skipped, and to really hit a lot of local breweries for the reviews. Getting to do a Tattered Flag one (The Pandalorian) as a recent local brewery beer review. You can see all of my November 2020 posts here: November 2020. Its fun to do a mix-up of local brewery reviews to get the name out and to help promote and because its obviously what I’m drinking, as well as doing some bigger name ones that are maybe from further away breweries or just bigger known beers or breweries, like the Yuengling Hershey Porter or Aslin’s Isolation Anniversary, or Elder Pine Brewing and Blending’s Villeinage.

    Troegs Independent Brewing has always put out very strong beers, solid, hard to ignore, hard to hate beers. They are also the biggest local craft brewery in the Central PA area. One of the biggest producers in Pennsylvania, and the East Coast alone. They are often talked about, and one of the more well known breweries. So its great having them theoretically “right in our backyard”. When I was coming of age (of drinking…. legally) (at 21), they were the first real craft brewery that I got into (not counting Sam Adams) and was really the first brewery I visited and went to often. I don’t get to them as much as I used to, and there’s a ton more options now in the area, but they are still a solid brewery.

    So let’s break down this latest seasonal beer from Troegs Brewing:

    Grand Cacao by Troegs Independent Brewing

    Beer: Grand Cacao
    Brewery: Troegs Independent Brewing
    Style: Stout – Milk / Sweet
    ABV: 6.5%
    IBU: None
    Untappd Description:

    Welcome to Grand Cacao. This deliciously decadent stout is built on a foundation of rich chocolate malt, caramel malt and roasted barley. Cold-steeping on Peruvian cacao nibs and natural vanilla doubles down on the smooth symphony of chocolate, and a splash of milk sugar delivers a velvety sweet and creamy finish.
    We taste: milk chocolate, roasty grain, hints of sweet cream

    As per usual with a stout, this is dark black, jet fuel black, Razor Ramon hair black. Stephen Hawking black hole black. Black as my….. (oh…. thats too easy….) ….anyway… moving on from the apt description of somebody’s heart and soul that I know….. This is a dark black beer. It had a nice creamy foam head to it, not big, but not small, nice carbonation, and nice lacing on the glass. Good bubbles that were diverse and varied in size.

    The aroma is very chocolaty, very cacao, very baker’s chocolate. As me and Drew and Andy were discussing, like with the Yuengling Hershey’s Porter, which is a super sweet chocolate, we kind of (the three of us in consensus) agreed, that we prefer a more bitter baker’s chocolate to a chocolate stout. This smells just like that. This has more of the bitter, earthy, nib, roasted malt, chocolate smell to it.

    Taste is surprisingly smooth, but its not the overly sweet Hershey’s syrupy / syrup taste that the above porter has. Despite this being smooth, silky, and creamy, its more of the bitter chocolate notes. The roasted malt and caramel also gives it a very deeper, darker tone and flavor, and brings out more of the bitter and earthy notes, rather than the sweet chocolate. That not to say that this isn’t sweet or creamy or smooth or silky, it is all of those things and more. I think there’s just more complexity to the flavor in that it provides a bitter chocolate taste, while being creamy and smooth and silk and sweet. A nice complexion and degree of difference between the vanilla and the bitter, between the sweet and the bitter, between the cacao nibs and the vanilla and milk sugar. This tastes more like the hot cocoa you get at a football game once the negative 10 degrees sets in fully and turns your hot cocoa into ….well… regular cocoa. Or the milk after a very chocolaty cereal and you ate all the cereal and are now draining the bowl of its chocolatey milk. This is also a pretty crushable drink too. I could easily down a six pack of the 12oz cans of these (thanks Deuane for the can by the way), or if they ever re-release it in four pack at 16oz cans, I could drink a few of them in that size as well. The 6.5% is pretty low (lower than Troegs own Perpetual IPA – their flagship and staple beer and IPA), so its enough to give you a good surprising buzz after a can or two, but not enough to send you hurting for a hangover the next day. (Jokes on my buddies too, telling me I’ll end up with a headache and hangover from the Mad Elf Grand Cru and Mad Elf I had after the Coco-Nator and Grand Cacao…. I don’t get hangovers anymore……..) A low ABV but high flavor stout is always perfect for the fall months and fall weather leading into the more wintry weather and months. This will go great for Thanksgiving and Christmas parties… I mean…. your own personal home get together’s of Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. Not sure if this will become a seasonal regular for Troegs or if this was a one-shot done deal, but if it does become a seasonal regular each year, I will certainly be looking forward to it. Make sure you stop out at the brewery for some of this, not sure if the cans are hitting the distributors or stores, but its at the brewery, and its also on draft at the brewery, so make sure you at least get a try of it before it disappears.

    My Untappd Rating: ****
    Global Untappd Rating: 3.87 (as of 11.23.20)

    This turned into a rather longer winded beer review than I intended, but hopefully you stuck around for it, as its now dragged me from 11PM when I started this til just a wee bit after midnight – 12 – so I’m still counting this as upholding my ‘post’ for the day of the 23rd. (Especially since the time stamp and posting of this is based on when the article was started, so I fly by on a technicality there.)

    Be sure to check out some of my other Troegs beer reviews:

    For those interested in the Trip to Indianapolis, you can read more through the following articles (some full length articles, some recap articles):

    The Trip to Indianapolis – Full Articles:

    The Trip to Indianapolis – Recap Articles:

    As always everyone, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed the beer review and your time here at The Beer Thrillers. Be sure to like, follow, subscribe, and if you want, comment or ask any questions please feel free to do so. Love hearing from you all.

    Also be sure to stay safe this Thanksgiving week, with COVID-19 and everything going on, this is going to be a tough week, and one where everyone needs to do their best to stay safe and healthy.

    Cheers!

    -B. Kline

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

  • Beer Review: The Pandalorian (Tattered Flag)

    Its another Friday, and we all know what that means – another episode of The Mandalorian. So of course, I waited til today to drop this review. As soon as I heard them announce this, I had to grab a four pack of this.

    First, Tattered Flag is one of my favorite local breweries, and secondly, its a Mandalorian themed beer, and thirdly…. Pandas. Seriously, what could go wrong here?

    Absolutely. Nothing.

    The Pandalorian by Tattered Flag

    So, since I am still doing some ‘at home’ quarantining after my trip out to Indianapolis from work, yesterday I did a bit of day drinking and had to make sure this was one of the several wonderful beers I had, and as you can see, I made sure to use my new glass I got from the Vonnegut Museum and Library.

    On The Beer Thrillers we have done several Mandalorian and Star Wars themed beers before, so it should be obvious to any reader of ours that I am a huge Star Wars fan. You can see our Mandalorian themed beer reviews here:

    And our Star Wars themed beers here:

    Space Balls themed beer:

    If you use our search function on our blog and type in STAR WARS, these are some of the various articles where I mention Star Wars in them: STAR WARS on THE BEER THRILLERS.

    Rotunda Brewing Company in Annville (and their brewpub in Hershey) are re-releasing their Chewbacca beer this weekend, a black IPA which I have had before. I am going to be getting a can and doing a review for that as well. (Can never have enough Star Wars themed beers to review on here, believe me. So if you know of any, or have any and would like to see me review it, contact us through the CONTACT US page.)

    As you can see, like I said above, I am also using my brand new Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library glass. It has such a great quote of Vonnegut which he also used in Slaughter-House Five:

    “I have this disease late at night sometimes, involving alcohol and the telephone.”

    Story had it, he would drink and call people, just to basically yell something poignant and quick to them over the phone, and then slam the phone down. Not to strangers or random numbers, but to his friends and colleagues. I can certainly relate to some late night drunk texts (I think a lot of people can actually). So I see where he is coming at with this.

    Alright, now that we’ve established the background for the beer and for the glass, let’s actually review this beer shall we.

    The Pandalorian by Tattered Flag

    Beer: The Pandalorian
    Brewery: Tattered Flag
    Style: IPA – Imperial / Double New England
    ABV: 7.5%
    IBU: None
    Untappd Description: Hazy Imperial IPA made from a blend of base malts, generous wheat addition, oats, and flaked maze bring forth a sweet backbone complimented by Sabro in the kettle and a massive Sabro Cryo dry hop. Expect sweet coconut ? up front followed by citrus lime and a sweet creamy finish.

    As you can see above, this is hazy, but on the lighter, softer orange – yellow – golden scale. Not the deep heavy dank, but a lighter, softer looking hazy New England style IPA / DIPA. Justin, the head brewer for Tattered Flag does a lot of New England style IPAs (and a lot of sours) and does them all very well, making them different from each other too, which is sometimes hard to do with the style. You have some that look bright orange to golden with a very dank and heavy haze, and then you have some that are lighter softer yellow to golden like this, with some haze. There is some orange here, but I would say its mostly yellow and golden. There is a thin head to it, and great carbonation, and left nice lacing on the glass.

    Aroma is a blend of hop, mainly a blend of coconut, tangerine, the fruity and citrus hop aromas. Sabro is a pretty strong hop and gives this a very strong hop presence and nose. On the nose you get coconut, tangerine, hint of cedar and mint, with some cream, some lime.

    This is a very smooth and drinkable DIPA. At 7.5% its in a middle ground of ABV for IPAs and DIPAs. In comparison, Troegs Brewing’s Perpetual IPA (their flagship West Coast IPA) is a 7.5% (and right there is where the comparison between the two of these stop). 7-8% is a good middle ground area for IPAs and DIPA’s I feel. Its enough to get you to notice the ABV, but not enough to make it boozy, to heavy, or to get you too drunk. A nice general buzz is all that is needed and required. This looks and tastes similar to New England IPAs, but its not a generic New England IPA / DIPA. The Sabro hops gives it a very different taste than most New England IPAs, as Sabro isn’t really a much used hop, especially in the Cryo style. This gives The Pandalorian an interesting start with a different finish to it. It has a coconut, tangerine, citrus, taste at the beginning, but it ends on more of a zest lime, cream flavor. Overall its a silky smooth drink that is very easy to drink. There is a bit of an ending bite as you get to the bottom of the glass, but that is typical for most IPAs especially as you get closer to the finishing last sips. Despite the Sabro hops and the nose, there isn’t much of a cedar or mint flavoring that I was able to pick up on, but I did get tangerine, coconut, lime, and cream. My one friend suggested grapefruit, but I wasn’t able to pick up any grapefruit, and thats also not typically a characteristic of Sabro hops either. I very much enjoyed the smoothness of this, and the flavor profile, the aroma was on point, and the ABV was nice for a good buzz, a four pack is nice for sharing with buddies while streaming (which me and my friend did during the Konami games live stream we did on Knights of Nostalgia). This adds to the growing list of good and great New England IPAs that Tattered Flag has put out over the recent year. Definitely make sure to check this out, either for namesake or for the beer itself. Not sure how much longer the four packs will last at the brewery, so if you want the great can art be sure to pop in soon, they also have it on draft which will probably last a bit longer. This is a good smooth, tasty New England DIPA that will certainly not disappoint.

    My Untappd Rating: ****
    Global Untappd Rating: 3.84 (as of 11.20.20)

    You can check out more beer reviews I’ve done from Tattered Flag below:

    Also, Tattered Flag now does statewide shipping through their SUPPLY DROP. Make sure to take advantage of that if you live anywhere in Pennsylvania and are unable to make it to their brewery.

    On Black Friday they are doing a big bottle release at their upcoming Lancaster Barrel House location. More details can be found on their Facebook page – Tattered Flag @ Facebook and Tattered Flag Barrel House @ Facebook. I will be doing an article covering that shortly as well.

    As I’ve mentioned earlier, I got the pint glass from the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library. You can visit them and donate as well as order online, and if you are a big fan of Kurt Vonnegut, I highly recommend it.

    You can read about my trip (in recap form) to Indianapolis and back through the following:

    The Trip to Indianapolis:

    My time in Indianapolis is covered specifically in the Day Four recap.

    The books behind the beer in today’s blog post are: “Happy Birthday Wanda June” by Kurt Vonnegut, “Armageddon in Retrospect” by Kurt Vonnegut, and “Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron” by Alexander Freed.

    Also, be sure to check out some of our other beer reviews in recent history:

    Star Wars themed articles:

    You can check out the tabs at the top of each page to visit our BEER REVIEWSBEER EDUCATIONTRAVELOGUES, etc. Be sure to check out all the latest beer reviews, as we’re pumping a lot out in recent time.

    Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – FacebookTwitterInstagramYouTube, 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 everyone, please stay safe out there, I know cases are on the rise and spiking, so make sure to wash your hands, stay distant, enjoy your craft beer, and wear a mask. Cheers and May the Force Be With You!

    -B. Kline

  • Beer Review: The Growfather (Stickman Brews)

    The Godfather: “You don’t even call me Godfather.”

    Like I said before, I can’t turn up a good pun beer, especially when its a Godfather themed beer pun. How can you resist when the name of ‘Growfather’ the hop cone looks great on the can and kind of works in a reverse way of the puppet look from the novel, the font is the same / near same as the book and movie, and its by a good brewery like Stickman Brews?

    Make an offer he can’t refuse

    Its like the can made me an offer… and I couldn’t refuse it. (I know… I know… low hanging fruit, but I couldn’t turn it up.) This is just one of those iconic lines, like Vader telling Luke he’s his father (oh my god… spoilers!), like a little boy telling Bruce Willis he sees dead people… (The Fifth Element?), etc. Its constantly punned, constantly quoted, and done. I couldn’t refuse doing it either.

    It’s Strictly Business

    There’s nothing personal about doing the joke, its just strictly business. …oh no… I went and did it again, reaching out and hitting the lowest hanging fruit on the tree. Like picking the hops near the bottom of the vine instead of at the top. Ugh. Sorry…. maybe I’ll grab some coffee and come back and re-start this beer review….

    The Godfather wants some coffee

    Sigh. Oh, sigh. Well, lets move on, shall we? Maybe I can right this review and get it going correctly so my family doesn’t turn against me…

    Never take sides against the family

    Well…. I’m done. Thats it. I give up. I just can’t do this review. I… just… this just keeps going on… and on… and on…. and on…

    Ah hah! Gotcha. You thought I was going to keep the gag going didn’t you? That I would just keep continuing doing .gif /memes of The Godfather indefinitely didn’t you?

    How did things ever get so far?

    Alright, alright, alright. I’m done. Lets get to reviewing this beer shall we?

    The Growfather by Stickman Brews

    Beer: The Growfather
    Brewery: Stickman Brews
    Style: IPA – Imperial / Double New England
    ABV: 8%
    IBU: None
    Untappd Description:

    Just what you would expect from George Martorano, The GrowFather. This Double IPA is crazy dank, full of orange, citrus, and peach notes from all Pacific Northwest hops. Full bodied and smooth, with a silky mouthfeel from oats.
    * Contains lactose

    Stickman Brews is a micro brewery from Royersford Pennsylvania. They make some tremendous beers and their beer can art is usually stick figure drawings, typically done by Bartley Kaminiski. He does work for Pizza Boy, Hemauer, etc, and does a wonderful job. He also runs Hop Hedz Gear and does a lot of promotions and events for breweries and places. Great and funny dude too. Not sure if he did the work on this logo, but if he did, kudos and job well done.

    As you can see from my picture (which I took in front of my hops even though they are done for the year, I didn’t take them down… until after I poured this glass, and then got to work on taking them down and chopping up the vines and composting them), this is a beautifully golden hued Double IPA in the hazy New England vein. Its opaque and hazy, its bright orange and golden, and it had a wonderful smallish head that poured out nicely and gave it a gorgeous froth top. Carbonation was on point for the can.

    This has a wonderful hop aroma right out the gate, as soon as you crack it open and pour it. Pacific Northwest has some of the best hop smell and is a favorite hop for me. You get citrus, orange, and peach. Sometimes with the right conjunction with other hops you can really use Pacific Northwest to bring mango out too (from the other hop variety) and give it a wonderful peach / mango aroma and flavor. For this – (The Growfather) you get a lot of orange and peach with some citrus. There is no earthy, grassy, or piney hop notes, and its very heavy orange, peach, citrus. Gives it a very dank and powerful and hop dense aroma.

    Oh this tastes just like a good New England double IPA should right out the gate. So bright and flavorful and tasty immediately. Hop explosion full of orange, peach, and citrus immediately hitting your tastbuds as soon as you take the first sip. This is smooth and easy to drink too. I crushed it while working on the hops, cutting down the vines and my hemp string, and cutting and chopping them up for mulching and composting. (I had already picked the hops, had just left the vines up a bit longer for nourishment.) This wasn’t overly strong, but it wasn’t light easy. But it was certainly smooth. You felt the 8% at the end, but not while drinking. The peach and orange and citrus really go well with the silky smoothness and it has no true hop bite, just a lot of hop flavor. It is dank and the aroma on this is just wonderful too. You get more peach and orange I feel than citrus, but that’s not a bad thing in my perspective for the beer. It is just a really well crafted double imperial IPA – New England style – beer, and it is really tasty, really smooth, really enjoyable. Summer time, winter time, fall time, spring time, this is a great beer year round.

    My Untappd Rating: ****.25
    Global Untappd Rating: 4.03 (as of 11.17.20)

    Alright, the review is over, its time to stop, and smell the roses now…

    Don’t forget to stop and smell the roses

    Ok…. and on that note, thank you everyone, you’ve been great, this has been a wonderful evening, make sure to tip your waiter or bartender and drive home safely now!

    Thank you for the dinner

    Edit note: I started this review before leaving for the trip, and finished it now, so I updated the Untappd (global) rating to today’s date. I also want to let everyone know I am working on the full Indy trip articles and they will be coming out slowly. It is also still November, so I am still doing an article a day. Hopefully you enjoy. You can find the Indy articles below, as well as some recent beer reviews, and all of our social media pages. Thank you and cheers!

    -B. Kline

    The Trip to Indianapolis:

    Also, be sure to check out some of our other beer reviews in recent history:

    You can check out the tabs at the top of each page to visit our BEER REVIEWSBEER EDUCATIONTRAVELOGUES, etc. Be sure to check out all the latest beer reviews, as we’re pumping a lot out in recent time.

    Also, tonight I will be on Knights of Nostalgia with Drew playing Konami games, so be sure to follow, watch, like, and check us out. We will be drinking, playing games, and talking it up, so make sure to watch!

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

  • Beer Review: I Voted Today (Tired Hands)

    I Voted Today by Tired Hands Brewing

    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.

    The voting line at Hummelstown’s Lower Dauphin High School at 8AM

    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.

    The Hummelstown Voting Line at 8:40AM

    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.

    9:22AM and I have made it inside and can now vote.

    (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).

    My mom sent me this picture of the line when she went to vote

    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.

    Chris James (radio DJ / host / personality on 105.7 the X) posted this picture showing the voting line at his polling place around 8AM.

    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.

    I Voted Today (Tired Hands)

    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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