Drew - The Beer Thrillers

Beer Review: Chewbacca (Rotunda Brewing Company)

B. Kline — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 02:45:07 +0000

Beer Review: Chewbacca by Rotunda Brewing Company

I first had this beer back in October of 2019. (Which feels like ancient history.) And I remember wanting to write a review of it even back then for the site…. and for some reason I never did. Not sure why exactly. Maybe I just didn’t get around to it or something, but I even kept my photo of the beer on my desktop screen this whole time. Ironically, I recently had it again, so what better opportunity to revisit the beer for my second beer review release for Andor: Season 2. Last week I reviewed – Admiral (J Henry Barrel Aged Grand Stout) by Delta Beer Lab – and so this week, we’ll taking a look at a much closer brewery – Rotunda Brewing Company with their Imperial Black IPA (or Imperial Cascadian IPA). This is one of my favorite styles of beer, I love Black IPAs, and Double Black IPAs are event better.

But before we dive in, I want everyone to please take a look at our stream / podcast / video we made on YouTube. It stars myself, Drew of Knights of Nostalgia, and Tim (Aglets). You can view it here:

In the video we cover the first three episodes of Andor. So please be sure to check it out!

And now, onto the review!

Chewbacca by Rotunda Brewing Company (at the Rising Sun in 2019)

The Beer Review: Chewbacca by Rotunda Brewing Company

Beer: Chewbacca
Brewery: Rotunda Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Black IPA / Double Black IPA
ABV: 8%
IBU: N / A
Untappd Description: (Blank)

Let’s check out this Wookie beast (not to be confused with the Wookie Monster by Fourscore). Will someone get this Walking Carpet out of my way so I can type!

Appearance

Chewbacca pours a deep, opaque brown-almost bordering on black-with a creamy, tan head that lingers like a loyal Wookiee companion. The lacing is impressive, clinging to the glass with each sip, leaving behind a trail reminiscent of hyperspace streaks.

Aroma

Right out of the gate, there’s a punch of roasted malt-think dark chocolate and fresh-brewed coffee-balanced by a piney, resinous hop profile. There’s a subtle undercurrent of caramel and a hint of citrus, like orange peel, that peeks through as it warms. The aroma is bold and inviting, promising complexity.

Chewbacca by Rotunda Brewing Company

Taste

The first sip delivers a satisfying interplay between roasted malt bitterness and assertive hop character. Notes of espresso and bittersweet cocoa dominate up front, quickly joined by pine, grapefruit, and a touch of earthy spice. The Black IPA style shines here: the hops never overwhelm the malt backbone, instead weaving together in a harmonious, chewy mouthfeel. The 9.2% ABV is well-hidden, but there’s a gentle warmth in the finish that lets you know this is a beer worthy of a Wookiee.

Mouthfeel

Medium to full-bodied, with a creamy carbonation that lifts the flavors without feeling heavy. The finish is dry, with lingering roast and a pleasant, resinous bitterness that invites another sip.

Overall Impressions

Chewbacca is a robust, well-executed Black IPA that balances dark roast and hop bite with finesse. It’s a bold tribute to its namesake-complex, powerful, and just a little wild. Whether you’re a Star Wars fan or simply a lover of big, hoppy dark ales, this is a beer that deserves a spot in your cantina. Untappd’s 3.8/5 rating feels right, but I’d nudge it a bit higher for the sheer fun and craftsmanship.

Wrap Up

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.8 (out of nearly 1000 ratings) (as of 4.25.25)

May the hops be with you-always.

Chewbacca by Rotunda Brewing Company (RBC) (photo courtesy of Rotunda Brewing Company)

I’m gonna have to check the archives of the site here, or on my computer, to see if I have any notes or anything from the initial first time I drank the beer, if maybe I started a review and then sadly – for whatever reason – never got around to finishing it. Maybe I was waiting for the right chance to post it, and never found it. Who knows, there’s over 70+ articles in my “draft” folder here on the site, some day I’ll get around to posting them…. unfortunately that day is not today though. But be sure to come back to the site, who knows, maybe it’ll be tomorrow…..

And check back next Tuesday for another (hopefully) Star Wars themed beer release. Over the weekened is May the Fourth Be With You, so once again, hopefully I’ll be able to grab some of the RAR Star Wars themed beers and will be able to review them weekly!

Cheers all and thank you for reading!

Chewbacca at Rotunda Brewery

All of Our Nerd Content

Here’s all of our nerd content, served up best in one single place. Enjoy!

I know ya’ll here for the nerd reviews. So check out our other nerd reviews below:

Star Wars:

Futurama

Lord of the Rings:

Magic the Gathering:

New Belgium Teams Up with Magic the Gathering for Vastwood Seer IPA

Heroes of Barcadia:

Rollacrit Partners with Voodoo Ranger IPA for New Kickstarter, Heroes of Barcadia: Heroes for Hire Tabletop Game

Zelda:

Rick and Morty:

Beer Review: Peace Among Worlds (Cushwa Brewing Company)

Space Balls:

Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

Game of Thrones:

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

Beer Review: Back to Reality (Three 3s Brewing Co)

Scrooged:

Beer Review: Scrooge IPA (Iron Hill Brewing)

Groundhog Day:

A Christmas Story:

The Peanuts:

Pro Wrestling:

Soccer:

World Cup:

Phillies:

Philadelphia Eagles:

The Philadelphia Eagles Running Back – D’Andre Swift – Visits Bald Bird Brewing Company

Matrix:

Matrix Monday

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Beer Review: Terpenes in Time (BAREBottle Brewing Co)

Mario:

Beer Review: Level Up (Idiom Brewing)

HP Lovecraft / Cthulhu:

Beer Review: Azathoth (Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company)

Seinfeld:

The Muppets:

Other:

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.

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

MAPS OF BREWERIES

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

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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 April 2025.) 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!

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(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.)

Upcoming Trip to Las Vegas

B. Kline — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 07:15:51 +0000

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.

MAPS OF BREWERIES

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

The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

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!

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.

Nimble Giant Returns Monday

B. Kline — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 16:13:31 +0000

Nimble Giant Returns Monday June 10th (photo courtesy of Troegs Brewing)

Nimble Giant Returns Monday June 10th, 2024

As you might have seen from our Instagram account Nimble Giant will be making its awaited return on Monday, June 10th, 2024. This yearly beer by Troegs Independent Brewing is one of their most sought after and beloved beers of the year (alongside Nugget Nectar and Mad Elf). This is a bold, beautiful, strong, delicious DIPA (Double IPA), clocking in at 9.0% and knocking your socks off with how smooth, easy drinking, and wonderful it is. You can easily plow through an entire case without noticing (as Drew of Knights of Nostalgia and I can attest from Wednesday night). (You can see us drinking our Nimble Giant case during our Acolyte episode reviews – found here: Consuming Brews and Media – The Acolyte Episode 1 Review). (And definitely check out this YouTube short and reel of YORD nonsense.)

Nimble Giant

The Nimble Giant by Troegs Independent Brewing (photo courtesy of Troegs Brewing Social Media)

Tröegs Independent Brewing is set to release its fan-favorite double IPA, Nimble Giant on Monday (June 10th, 2024). One of the independent brewery’s most beloved beers, Nimble Giant is a limited annual release that rivals the excitement generated by its iconic holiday ale, Mad Elf.

Nimble Giant began as part of Tröegs’ small-batch Scratch Series, originally experimenting with Mosaic hops. After half a dozen test batches, the Tröegs brewing team discovered a perfect hop combination: Mosaic, Simcoe, and Azacca.

“We loved our earliest trials with Mosaic,” says John Trogner, Tröegs co-founder and brewmaster. “When we started dry-hopping with Mosaic and Simcoe together, we knew we had something special. Fans would stop me on the street and rave about the Scratch batches.”

With an ABV of 9%, Nimble Giant features notes of tropical fruit, pine sap, and honeysuckle. Backed by pilsner and Vienna malts, this deep orange-hued double IPA achieves a perfect balance between malt and hops.

Nimble Giant scores an ‘Outstanding’ on BeerAdvocate and consistently ranks in the top ten trending beers on Untappd upon its release.

Nimble Giant is available on draft and in 16-oz. cans across the brewery’s entire distribution footprint. Also look for it on draft at the Troegs Brewery, as well as in select restaurants, pubs, and other locations. You can also order sixtels from the General Store at Troegs Brewery.

Beer drinkers can find Nimble Giant and other Tröegs beers near them using the Tröegs Brew Finder.

Nimble Giant cracked open and ready to be enjoyed while we record our Acolyte Episode reviews.

For More Information on Troegs Independent Craft Brewing

According to Untappd, Troegs Independent Craft Brewing is a regional brewery with 162 unique beers listed (despite their being over 500 Scratches). (A lot of vintage and variants get consolidated into single unique listings as well.) They have 2.3 Million ratings and as of 6.7.24 have a global average rating of 3.79. Their Untappd bio reads:

“Founded in Pennsylvania in 1997 by brothers John and Chris Trogner, Tröegs Independent Brewing is driven by a sense of adventure and curiosity. Our brewery has been built by family, friends and kindred spirits who share a love of great beer. Together, we all make Tröegs. You might know our Perpetual IPA, the best-selling IPA in Pennsylvania. Or the dark, malty and crisp Troegenator. You may have come across such iconic beers as Nugget Nectar or Mad Elf in your beer travels. Perhaps you’ve been lucky enough to try one or two of the hundreds of experimental Scratch Series beers we’ve brewed over the years. Whether you’re already a member of our extended family or you’re just getting to know our brewery, there’s always something new to discover with Tröegs.“

You can find them at the following social media pages:

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.

MAPS OF BREWERIES

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

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Facebook Group, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Influence. As well as our brand new Tumblr page. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

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!

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.

Prototype Brewery Invitational

B. Kline — Sat, 23 Apr 2022 23:17:00 +0000

Prototype Brewery Invitational – 4.30.22

A Brewfest Two Years in the Making

In a lot of ways, this is a brewfest two years in the making. Its also kind of a brewfest filling a void that got left open two years ago.

See, there was this little thing called… “covid” or as we knew it better then – “coronavirus” two years ago, and that pretty much put a lockdown on everything in the brewery industry. As a result, the Prototype Brewery Invitational in 2020 got put on hold, hiatus, seemingly cancelled, until now. Also as a result of that (as part of many factors), the Harrisburg Beer Week also came to a close.

So now we fast forward to 2022, and in one week we are finally getting the long awaited Prototype Brewery Invitational.

Prototype Brewery and Meadery

The Prototype Brewery and Meadery has been in ‘start up’ mode for two (two plus) years now. Partly the love and brain child of Kevin Keller (also the event organizer for this), of Evil Genius credit and fame. The brewfest is partly celebration of all their friends that they are hoping to do collaborations in the future with (and ones Kevin has done work with in the past) and sort of a kick off to whenever they finally open. (No date yet.)

Prototype Brewery and Meadery has been pouring at events for a bit of time now, most notably was recently at the Cushwa 5th Anniversary. Kevin Keller is good people, and I love the idea of both a brewery and meadery in one, so I am eagerly awaiting their opening.

The Brewfest

List of Breweries for the Brewfest

This is absolutely looking like a killer brewfest lineup! Check out this lineup from their ticket page:

Abomination Brewing Company

Against the Grain Brewery

Aslin Beer Company

Beat Street Beer Project

Boneshire Brew Works

Bottle Logic Brewing

Burnish Beer Co.

Cellar Works Brewing

Chatty Monks Brewing

Cinderlands Beer Co

Civil Society Brewing

Collusion Tap Works

Cushwa Brewing Company

Dancing Gnome Beer

Dewey Beer Company

Dream State Brewing

Ever Grain Brewing Co.

Fourscore Beer Co.

Funguys Brewing

Great Notion Brewing

Grist House

Hidden River Brewing Company

Hidden Springs Ale Works

Hitchhiker Brewing

Imprint Beer Company

Ingenious Brewing Company

Lovedraft’s Brewing Co.

Narrow Gauge Brewing Company

New Trail Brewing Company

North Country Brewing Company

Ology Brewing Company

Other Half Brewing Company

Pilger Ruh Brewing

Rotunda Brewing Company

Short Throw Brewing Co.

Species X Beer Project

Tripping Animals Brewing Co.

Vitamin Sea Brewing

Wolf Brewing Co.

Yah Brew

That is a killer lineup! Other Half, Tripping Animals, Vitamin Sea, Ology, Great Notion, Civil Society, Grist House, Hitchhiker, Bottle Logic, Aslin, Cushwa, Fourscore, Dewey, Against the Grain…. …..some absolute amazing breweries.

Me and my buddy Drew have our tickets, and we got the VIP tickets to be in an extra hour. (I fully suggest going this route if any are available.)

Tickets

Tickets for the brewfest come in three types:

DD (15$)
General Admission (1PM – 4PM) (55$)
VIP (12PM – 4PM) (75$)

Additional information on each:

General Admission: GA will grant you access to samples from over 40 breweries from around the nation from 1-4pm. I’m addition, there will be live music, food vendors and plenty of brewery swag (While supplies last). A special edition tasting glass will be included in this package.
VIP: Early Entry tickets will grant you access to the sampling, music, food vendors and brewery swag an hour early from 12-4p. Select breweries will have limited beers that will be available exclusively during this hour. Have a certain brewery you absolutely need to sample beer from? Here is your opportunity!

Location

The brewfest will be at the Zembo Shrine in Harrisburg. This is a great venue for brewfests. Harrisburg Beer Week has done their Little Big Beer Fest there in the past, and other events have been there before. Its a lovely venue. Parking isn’t horrible, but its not the best. I obviously highly highly highly highly recommend Uber or Lyft or getting dropped off, but if you do have a DD, there should be enough parking.

Some general rules and FAQ:

– Each ticket is permitted one entry.

– Must be 21+ to consume alcohol. Must have valid proof of ID.

– Must 21+ to attend

– No ticket or event wristband sharing is allowed.

– We ask that you please do not arrive before 11am

– No backpack or large bags allowed in venue

– No Pets allowed

– No refunds on any ticket sales

– Event is rain or shine

– Tickets are not transferable

– Parking Information TBA

To get your tickets you can go to their Eventbrite page here: Prototype Brewery Invitational – Tickets.

They have hinted that in the upcoming days before the brewfest that they will be posting a beer tap list for each brewery. Can’t wait to see what these amazing breweries will be pouring!

(Post notice: I just saw that their ticket page list of breweries isn’t inclusive of some of the later additions, or they just missed putting some on it. But the logo pictures I have at the top of the heading show all of the 46 breweries that will be there. Some more notable breweries are Heist Brewing, Human Robot, and Hop Butcher!)

For More Information

For more information on the brewfest and to stay connected, check out the following pages:

Thanks For Reading

Are you going to the brewfest? If so what breweries are you looking forward to? Let us know in the comments! I think I’m gonna be wearing my Mandalorian RAR shirt, so see if you can find me and we can clink some glasses together.

Cheers all!

-B. Kline

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Facebook Group, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Influence. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

Mead Review: The Meadalorian (Space Time Mead and Cider Works)

B. Kline — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 13:12:23 +0000

The Meadalorian by Space Time Mead and Cider Works

Mead

Hang in there with me on this one, for this is my first mead review here on the blog. I was originally just gonna keep it the same “Beer Review: The Meadalorian” but thought about it some, and decided with it being mead, that it needed its own category and section, so thus – Mead Review rather than Beer Review for the title of the article. So this is my first mead review here on the blog (as a direct full review).

I picked up the mead when we visited Scranton and stopped at the meadery completely by happenstance. You can read about our trip to Scranton. “Travelogue: Scrambling around Scranton.” The Space Time meadery was a cool little hang out, we tasted and sampled several of the meads, and the store inside was decked out very cool (especially if your a space nerd). Fully recommend stopping in if you are in the Scranton area.

As I’ve said, this is my first time reviewing mead fully on here, I will do it similar to that of beer reviews, but just let it be forewarned that while I enjoy mead, I am not nearly as much of a connoisseur of mead or as knowledgeable about mead as I am about beer. (If I can really be said to be knowledgeable about beer either.) So just take this for what it is then.

Star Wars

This is week three of my doing Star Wars themed beer reviews (every Wednesday until the completion of ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ I will be doing a Star Wars themed beer – or in this case mead – review). Previously I’ve covered:

I have done plenty of other Star Wars themed beers as well, and they’ll be linked at the end of this article.

Just like last week, you can join in on the discussion forums about The Book of Boba Fett, by going to these forums:

Despite what the timer says on my stove in the beer picture (…yes…. I haven’t set the timer on it yet…. my microwave hasn’t been set either, that just blinks 00:00 at me; the stove is just completely way off), I uncorked this mead at 9PM and started drinking it then. I had gotten off work at 6PM, had dinner with my parents, and came home to have this so I could write up the review and be all ready to go with it before having to go to work on Wednesday – the next day.

Firstly, let me say I don’t have a wine pen or wine opener, or de-corker, or whatever fancy term they use. I am about as far from a wine enthusiast or expert as they come. So I used a screwdriver, and in the process, ended up making a mess of wood, and dropping the cork down in. ….as Vonnegut would say – So It Goes.

While enjoying my adult beverage, my friend over at The Knights of Nostalgia – Drew – streamed the second part of his Majora’s Mask randomizer, and I watched / listened as I played a game of SW:CCG on GEMP.

I’ve recently gotten back into SW:CCG and started looking up the cards on GEMP and playing games on there (three games so far, 1-2 so far). GEMP is an online format to play the old SW:CCG game (Star Wars Customizable Card Game). You can find the site and program here: GEMP-SWCCG. The PC (Players Committee) oversees it, and runs the program and website, and also offers several tournaments through it (especially now with COVID-19 and the pandemic, which has caused a lot less gaming in person, and has driven many more players to the online tournaments). I built an AOBS deck for DS (Agents of the Black Sun) and a Communing deck based around Qui-Gon for LS.

So I got a game in last night while sipping this delicious mead (I lost, by 15 Force Differential. I played against a Shadow Collective deck, which was based primarily on the Crimson Dawn from the Solo movie). I haven’t played the game in roughly 7 – to – 8 years, so there was a lot of reading cards in this game, and despite not knowing what 98% of them did, I think I somewhat held my own.

But enough about my blabbering about nerd crap, let’s get to the review.

Mead Review

The Meadalorian by Space Time Mead and Cider Works

Mead: The Meadalorian
Brewery: Space Time Mead and Cider Works
Style: Mead – Traditional
ABV: 12.1%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: This is the way! A medium dry/semi sweet traditional mead using Locust blossom honey. A nice replacement for a semi dry white grape wine!

Space Time Mead and Cider Works is located in Dunmore; basically the suburbs of Scranton. They have 62 unique beers (or meads) and have a total of 707 ratings. They are considered a Meadery. They have a global average rating of 3.93 as of 1.11.22. Their Untappd description reads: “Space Time Mead & Cider Works’ mission is to produce the highest quality and innovative craft mead (honey wine), cider, and wine in a manner that respects the past and works for a better future, while living in the present.”

Aroma for this is a wonderful grape like, dry wine smell. Its got a dry wine smell that really hits, but at closer whiff, it gives off a lovely sweet smelling of honey. I picture it like a good Thanksgiving wine, one that is dueling with its dryness and sweetness at the same time.

Appearance is crystal clear with a light off clear / yellow hue to it. Like a dry grape wine coloring. Or similar to champagne. Which it also has some of the sparkling and bubbles of champagne, especially after pouring or moving the glass around. It looks honeyed. Its clear and translucent (with the hue that it has), a slight haze cloudiness to it (almost oil like way of looking through it like clear dry wine has when looking through glasses of white wine). It swishes around in the glass nicely.

Oooooh boy, for someone who isn’t a traditional mead drinker, or wine drinker, this has got some kick to it. I mean, I enjoy a high ABV beer (in fact, I actually LOVE the higher ABV beers, particularly stouts), but this kicks and hits in a different way. Not bad! Just not the way this ol’ country bumpkin beer drinker is used to (thats all)! I am totally digging it though (like a Tusken Raider prisoner digging for some black fruits for their milk in a hot Tatooine desert). This is dry…. dry like…. Tatooine? (Oh… what a theme I’m building here! I’m a regular Billy Shakespeare.) It has a white grape, dry, wine line taste, but mixed with a honeyed sweetness. Like the two are married together… stuck in a perpetual orbit…. like two Twin Suns over a hot planet….. BOOOM! NAILED IT AGAIN! (Am I killing it with these analogies or what?!). This is certainly refreshing to my palate of beers, and I am really enjoying it. It does certainly taste boozy (and it should at 12.1%) but I also feel like most / if not all meads typically taste boozy (even the lower ABV ones). This is a warming drink, as in it just makes you warm up drinking it, and flushes them cheeks right up. And as the mead itself warms up and settles in the glass, I think it tastes even better. There is a slight crispness to it, but the sweetness really overrides the dryness and crispness and finishes it out. There’s no bad aftertaste, and no cotton mouth like I’ve had with some dry wines in the past. The mouth feel felt just right, nothing cloying, nothing too heavy or watery. Everything about this was just good, from the first sip to the last and just felt good. Was a wonderful drink from the top of the glass to the bottom and I certainly enjoyed every single second of it (even while losing my game, and listening to Drew getting stuck and frustrated on his Majora’s Mask randomizer). This was great. If you have the chance are in the Scranton / Dunmore area, make sure you stop in at Space Time Mead and Cider works. The owner is a wonderful dude and knows his stuff, and is a huge space nerd (so right there is a win in my books). I have a Futurama mead from them yet to review as well, which I will probably be doing in the days to come.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Average Untappd Rating: 4.23 (as of 1.12.22)

Some YouTube Videos

Looking for some background info on The Book of Boba Fett, or just more fun YouTube videos? Check these out:

How Are the Hutts so Powerful despite being huge fat space slugs

Who is Black Krrsantan and Why He is Important to The Book of Boba Fett

Star Wars and Legos

As you may have noticed, I am getting more and more into Star Wars Legos and using them more and more in the pictures for these Star Wars beers. Legos are the newer, more hipster, more fun version of the old school models our dads built and made. Or their better puzzles. Or… their just plain freaking cool and fun. Take your pick. But needless to say, I am addicted to buying more and more Lego sets and building more and more of them. To see some of the sets, and to see some of my Star Wars pics, and just our travels and beer pics in general, make sure to follow us on Instagram:

The Beer Thrillers on Instagram

The Book of Boba Fett

I am going to refrain from discussing this week’s episode too much here. But I will say, there is a few interesting things, and I won’t really spoil them. Overall, I wasn’t a huge fan of this week’s episode. But I do like that they progressed the present timeline storyline much more than they have in the past. Some interesting cameos and surprise actors, some homages, and the typical Star Wars cliches abound. Let me know what your thoughts are in the comments. Will be interested in what you all think of this week’s episode.

Wanna check out more nerdy beers we’ve reviewed?

If you are interested in our other nerdy, pop culture, and branded beer reviews, you can check out the following:

Star Wars:

Rick and Morty:

Beer Review: Peace Among Worlds (Cushwa Brewing Company)

Space Balls:

Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

Game of Thrones:

Beer Review: Game of Thrones: My Watch Has Ended (Omnegang Brewery)

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

Beer Review: Back to Reality (Three 3s Brewing Co)

Scrooged:

Beer Review: Scrooge IPA (Iron Hill Brewing)

A Christmas Story:

Pro Wrestling:

Matrix:

Matrix Monday

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Beer Review: Terpenes in Time (BAREBottle Brewing Co)

Seinfeld:

Other:

Thanks for Reading

If you like Star Wars and like our Star Wars themed beers, be sure to check out every Wednesday while The Book of Boba Fett is airing, as I will do a new Star Wars themed beer each week!

Thanks for reading, and cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

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

BKline — Sat, 10 Jul 2021 03:45:00 +0000

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.

Ffej of July 18 (2021) – Night One

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

Beer Review: Space Broccoli (Other Half Brewing Co)

BKline — Sun, 13 Dec 2020 16:37:33 +0000

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

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For some other beer reviews check out:

Beer Review: The Pandalorian (Tattered Flag)

BKline — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 14:36:43 +0000

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:

Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

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 REVIEWS, BEER EDUCATION, TRAVELOGUES, etc. Be sure to check out all the latest beer reviews, as we’re pumping a lot out in recent time.

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)

BKline — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 22:17:20 +0000

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:

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!

Beer Review: Super Villain (Urban Village Brewing Company)

BKline — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 21:47:13 +0000

Super Villain by Urban Village Brewing Company

Day four of November means its time for the fourth blog post. Did you think I’d quit and stop now or slow down and not keep up my 30 for 30? Not damn well likely! We’re also doing another beer drank during a streaming session. This time, came from a night of Drew, Rory, and myself, hanging out on the couch drinking (well, Drew and I drank; Rory was participating in Sober October), while Rory played ‘The Last of Us’. A zombie game for the PS4 (PlayStation 4).

I chose to lead off with this for this particular streaming session primarily because it is pure ‘nerd culture’ can label. And I always love good can art, and always really hope it correlates with a good beer. Luckily and thankfully this one does.

Super Villain can label

Nerd culture definitely speaks to me. Look at my numerous beer reviews on here that are Star Wars themed, or video game themed, or some TV show themed. Jon Voight’s Car, Out of Order – Blue Milk, Moon of Vega, This is the Way, This is Nut The Fluff You’re Looking For, etc. You can see Josh also is very fond of nerd culture / pop culture and beers clashing with his latest review – Terpenes in Time.

Don’t worry this won’t be the last in that vein – if you’re interested in that. Especially this month where I’m doing 30 blog posts, so you will be definitely getting a lot of beer reviews, and so there will be a fair amount of nerdy, pop culture, or mainstream movies / shows / references in the beers I review.

Super Villain by Urban Village Brewing Company

Beer: Super Villain
Brewery: Urban Village Brewing Company
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Loads of oats and milk sugar give this IPA great mouth feel. Hop blend of Vic Secret, Mosaic and Motueka pair up with this for a super juicy IPA

My camera angle isn’t the best because I was taking it looking down from the couch, but, this is similar to that of nearly all other New England IPAs. Its golden yellow / orange and very cloudy, murky, dank. The head wasn’t much and was gone pretty quickly, but it did leave nice lacing on the glass. Everything seems to be on style and on point.

Aroma is that lovely hop juicy-ness of New England IPAs. You get some nice hop aroma from this, a blend of fruity mango, passionfruit, peach, with a hint of melon. No earthy, and no pine to this. You get some note of vanilla or sweetness to.

This is extremely juicy and very super smooth despite how it looks like you could kind of chew it. Its certainly opaque and not one bit transparent and murky and dank looking, cloudy, like most typical New England IPAs are, but it drinks incredibly smooth and silky like. Most likely from the milk sugar and lactose. This is probably borderline a Milkshake IPA or possibly could even be described as that all but in the style used to name it on Untappd. This is a very fruity juicy New England IPA from the hops selected. Vic Secret, Mosaic, and Mouteka. Notes of mango, peach, and melon are most abundant, with some more subtle notes of passionfruit and a wee bit of grapefruit. (Thankfully not much more than subtle grapefruit, as I’m not a huge fan.) You get the smoothness and softness of the drink from the combined milk sugar and oats used. There is a creaminess to it in that smoothness and softness. The milk sugar gives off a lactose vanilla like flavor that also is subtle, but due to the smoothness you take notice of it. The oats make it have that softness to the drink that helps round it out too. Its also not a crazy high ABV at 6.5% so it’s a nice pint that won’t leave you fully buzzed after just one can. This is a fun drink; from the can label down to the last sip, which did leave a bit of sediment in the glass (I don’t recommend drinking that). All in all a great beer and one to look forward to again.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.92 (as of 11.4.20)

As always, you can check out the video game streaming we do on Drew’s page: Knights of Nostalgia.

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Drew - The Beer Thrillers

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