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:

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:

• Beer Review: Haze Charmer (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Beer Review: Scratch #417 – Orange – Lemon Peel IPA (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Beer Review: Scratch #400 – Pre – Prohibition Lager (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Multiple Beer Review: Scratch #394, Scratch #395, Scratch #396, and Mad Elf (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Two Beer Review: Fresh Fest and Trail Day Pale Ale (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Multiple Beer Review: Fest Lager, Scratch #385 Krausened Dunkel Lager, and Scratch #386 Tangerine – Passionfruit – Guava Tart Ale (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Beer Review: Fuzzy Nudge (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Multiple Beer Review: Scratch #382 Blackberry Lime Tart Ale, Scratch #383 Hazy IPA (Citra, Galaxy, and Simcoe), Dear Peter, and Naked Elf (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Multiple Beer Review: Scratch #379 Krausened Keller Pilsner, Scratch #378 DIPA, Scratch #377 Oat IPA, and Scratch #376 Passionfruit and Guava Tart Ale (Troegs Independent Brewing)
• Beer Review: Scratch #375 Coco-Nator (Troegs Independent Brewing)

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:

• Day One: Thousand Steps Trail, Juniata Brewing Company, Ghost Town Trail, Levity Brewing
• Day Two:
• Day Three:
• Day Four:
• Day Five:
• Day Six:
• Day Seven:

The Trip to Indianapolis – Recap Articles:

• The Trip to Indy
• The Trip to Indy – Day One Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Two Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Three Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Four Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Five Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Six Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Seven Recap
• Recap and Stats

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 – 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!

Started the day waking up in Morgantown West Virginia to the full cacophony of noises one can only hear at an Econo Lodge at 5AM. After getting situated, getting gas, mountain dew for the drive, basic necessities, I made the hour and a half trek to Ohiopyl Pennsylvania. There I made landfall in the state park at 10:30AM.

I started at the parking lot by the Cucumber Falls (pictured above) and took the long yellow trail. It was about 6 miles out and back to get to Flatrock and then Cascade Falls. (I’ll post pictures of them in the full recap.) This was a more difficult hiking trail than some I’ve done on the trip. The Meadow Run rapids and the Cascade Falls were equally beautiful.

There was a few other things to do in Ohiopyl, but since this was my last day, and by 3PM (the time I finished the hike), I figured it would be best to head home. It was roughly a 2.5-3 hour drive home, so I wanted to get moving. If I took the turnpike (and selected tolls) on my Google phone GPS maps whatever, it was going to be 2 hours and 15 some minutes (plus stops). If I did no tolls, it had me drop into Maryland just below the Mason-Dixon line and then come back up and be 3 hours and 34 minutes. Or something like that (don’t quote me on it exactly, I didn’t write it down).

But, I didn’t take either of these routes. I wanted to at least try a brewery in the area, since I most likely won’t be in this area again. So the closest, most local brewery, was Whitehorse Brewing LLC in Berlin. So off I went. Forty minute or so drive there.

I was a bit surprised by this place, because it looked like a typical development / suburban house and garage. (And I’m pretty sure it was, just converted into a brewery.) Inside was the brewer and a bartender and they were extremely nice, generous, and talkative about the area. I got an Apple Butter Cream Ale and enjoyed it outside by the fire before moving on.

Instead of driving for 2-2.5 hours straight home, I decided to break it up and hit another Pennsylvania brewery I hadn’t been to yet….

Gearhouse Brewing in Chambersburg. I’ve heard nothing but good things, and know the brewers and many people who frequent it, unfortunately, getting down to Chambersburg hasn’t been in the cards until now. So I stopped there, had a flight, a delicious hamburger, and then it was ontowards home.

Sort of.

Earlier in the day my friend Drew texted me saying if I was home by 5 he’d be at Rubber Soul; well that didn’t work out, but my mom had wanted to go to Rubber Soul to try their Italian Wedding Soup (as did I; being a huge huge huge fan of Italian Wedding Soups), so I drove to my parents place, and we walked over to Rubber Soul for dinner.

And while I was gone, they had released four new beers I hadn’t had yet, so I got a flight of the beers I’ve missed (enjoyed all of them by the way, especially the blueberry pomegranate IPA and the sticky stout). Showed mom the pictures of my trip, the museums, the waterfalls, etc. Discussed how her grandmum (pure 100% Italian) made wedding soup, and my mom even went so far as to say this was her favorite Italian Wedding Soup she’s had not made by her family. Which for her would be extremely high praise.

Finally got home, and got to be reunited with my dog who I hadn’t seen since Sunday morning when I left. My ex-wife took good care of her, but she was still so super eager to greet me and take another walk that she basically pulled me the entire way.

The above picture doesn’t do justice to how excited she was to see me, and I have to say the feeling was very mutual. I sure missed my pup.

After taking her for a long walk, came home to see that I had a beer mail package from a buddy out in Bristol PA.

We did a trade 2 cans for 2, and he threw in the extra – 12 oz can of Dulachan by Lavery – for me to review for the blog, free of charge. Thanks Steve! So be on the lookout for all three of these being reviewed soon.

Well, it is 11:30, and I am exhausted and its been a long seven day trip and I can finally rest and sleep in my own bed, so that is exactly what I am going to do.

Goodnight everyone and cheers, and thanks for following along on the trip!

-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!

The Trip to Indianapolis:

• The Trip to Indy
• The Trip to Indy – Day One Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Two Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Three Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Four Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Five Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Six Recap
• The Trip to Indy – Day Seven Recap
• Recap and Stats

Coming off the heels of the Lancaster Craft Beerfest I’m back and I think my liver has regenerated enough to begin some more beer reviews. (And slowly push and make a dent into the beer events, brewery activities, and hop harvests posts I need to do as well). This might be a bit of a long blog post, with some ‘non-beer’ related things, but stay with me, and it’ll all wrap up nicely, and tie in with the day as well (I think/hope). Also, lots of pictures in this one, so if you like pretty pictures, then here you go.

Firstly, let me just say that this is an absolutely fantastic beer. Makes me wish I had a lot more of these to power through the day. But, I think most of the activities I did today would have frowned on me drinking (even if it was a coffee beer, …and especially given that the largest activity today was work).

So, starting off the day, it was back to school day / first day of school. My oldest going into Middle School (dear god I’m getting old), and my youngest two entering 4th and 1st grade. So now that I’m officially old, I guess I need to start drinking coffee right?

Following getting all of the girls to their two different schools this morning, and following an extremely long day at work (some days, like roulette days, just makes you want to bash your head against very large solid objects – repeatedly) I stopped at the Hershey Public Library where the Central PA Blood bank was doing one of their blood drives. I cannot urge people enough to donate blood. It is beyond critical and in definite need for all kinds of patients. There is tons of different ways you can check into donating, the simplest is to find a blood drive at various places near you (libraries, churches, restaurants like Papa John’s often sponsor them, even some bars/breweries do). For the Central PA Blood Bank you can check out their website here: Central PA Blood Bank.

It is relatively easy, not too time consuming (~45 minutes), relatively painless (small prick, some soreness at the spot), but its more than worth it. One bag donated can help up to three patients. And certain blood types are in higher demand than others (though all are in high demand). So please look into donating if you are able to (there is some restrictions due to life style choices, tattoos, locations you’ve visited, medication, etc.).

Once home, I decided to treat Leela (my dog, who you may remember photo bombed my beer review: Beer Review: Boulangerie Imperial Churro (Tattered Flag) ) by taking her on a 2-mile walk around town. It is National Dog Day afterall, and she’s a very good trusty and faithful companion and dog, so why not.

Decided while walking through Hummelstown I would pass by what will soon(ish) become the new home for Rubber Soul Brewing Company, and took a picture, as it looks like their making even more headway on the endeavor.

They are still aiming for a November opening date. So fingers crossed everything goes smoothly and they get set up and running soon. But…. enough of all of this gibbering and jabbering and jibbering and gabbering, and get onto the actual brew review that you clicked on.

This was just fantastic, and a perfect beer for writing the blog (and probably explains why it got so wordy).

Beer: Rêve Coffee Stout
Brewery: Parish Brewing Co.
Style: Stout – Coffee
ABV: 7.2%
IBU: No IBU
Untappd Write-Up: Collaboration coffee stout between Parish Brewing Company & Rêve Coffee Roasters. Created with Columbia Java blend coffee & Madagascar vanilla beans. Beer: Rêve Coffee Stout
Brewery: Parish Brewing Co.
Style: Stout – Coffee
ABV: 7.2%
IBU: No IBU
Untappd Write-Up: Collaboration coffee stout between Parish Brewing Company & Rêve Coffee Roasters. Created with Columbia Java blend coffee & Madagascar vanilla beans.

From the moment you pop bottle and begin to pour it, you can smell the rich delicious notes of the coffee. Once its done pouring and you smell the beer and swirl it, you get the instant notes of coffee, vanilla, nutty earth notes. It just smells incredible.

Pouring it comes out very dark black, and has a lovely dark brown – golden halo of a head to it, with nice, large bubbles forming out of the top that pop and slowly fade away. There is the right amount of carbonation, and the head lasts just long enough before you dig into this bad boy.

And sipping this is even better. Very strong coffee notes, but with a very rich, smooth, heavy backbone, that actually makes you feel like the 7.2% is lighter than it should be. Not saying its boozy, but it just as a ‘heavyness’ to this that makes you feel and think it should be a higher ABV than it is. This is a strong, rich, decadent beer, but not too sweet, not too decadent, and not too strong. Its in the goldilocks range of being. There is a bitterness with the coffee, but the vanilla covers and masks most of that. There is a nuttyness to it, but it becomes more subdued and subtle as you drink. The coffee gives you a bit of a nice pep and creative boost to really push you to do some writing or doing whatever it is that your doing.

I must say, I am definitely glad I was given two of these in my beer mail trade, because I can’t wait to dive into the second one. Strangely enough, I am honestly considering to say that this might be better than the beer everyone “knows” Parish for – Ghost in the Machine; though this might be just due to my preferred style of beer being stouts and the like moreso than IPAs, but take this for whatever you think its worth, this is a damn good beer and rivals Ghost in the Machine as Parish’s best beer.

I could waver back and forth on the rating I gave it, from a 4.5 to a 4.25, but I ultimately went with a 4.25 primarily due to wanting it to linger a bit more in my mouth after drinking it, and not wanting to come off too much as ‘style bias’.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.27 (as of 8.26.19)

And since this is National Dog Day, I tried to get Leela (a “red” border collie) in the pics, but kind of failed, here’s one of her by my one hop arbor, don’t mind the uglyness of the picture, it was 10:30PM, had to use the flash which I hate, and I had just finished this beer, and she was panting from the 2 mile walk.

For those of you wondering, she is named after Turonga Leela from Futurama. I have several cats in the house, that have been named after other Futurama characters as well (Zoidberg, Hermes, Fry, Hattie, and Kiff) —- (and yes… thats 5 cats….).

Also, for those wondering, the books in the background are:
* Foxtrot: The Best of Foxtrot vol. 1
* The Joker: Endgame
* Best. Movie. Year. Ever. : How 1999 Blew Up The Big Screen
* Brief Answers to the Big Questions
(Yes, that means I finally finished Master & Apprentice).

If you want, you can always check out my GoodReads and what I have been reading here: GoodReads – Profile – B. Kline.

Alright everyone, I think I’m gonna have another beer, and get to sleep. Oldest will have to be up soon for school anyway and besides, in 18 minutes it’ll be my birthday. I work tomorrow, but who knows, maybe afterwards I’ll have a ‘birthday beer review’. I also have the tons and tons of other event blog posts to do yet, don’t worry, I haven’t forgot! I’m making a mad dash push to get them all done by the end of August, so fingers crossed I do it!

Take care all, peace, love, and donate some blood! You’re not using it all anyway damnit!

-B. Kline