Join the Hemauer Brewing family at their brewery in Mechanicsburg for a FREE Holiday Ham Meal on Christmas Eve! Join the Hemauer team and family and friends at their brewery – 1010 Wesley Dr, Mechanicsburg, PA, United States, Pennsylvania 17055 on December 24th and enjoy some fantastic beers and a wonderful and free holiday ham meal!

Enjoy a free Holiday Ham Meal at Hemauer Brewery!

Free Holiday Ham Meal at Hemauer Brewery

This looks to be a fantastic time for the community, an event for one and all; those who are looking for a delicious meal, or for those who need one. All ages and no purchases required. For more information, check out their event page here: Hemauer Brewing Hosting FREE Holiday Ham Meal. The event page lists the following information:

The Hemauer family invites you to their taproom at 1010 Wesley Drive in Mechanicsburg to enjoy a FREE holiday ham meal!

On Christmas Eve, Tuesday, December 24th, from 12:00 PM to 3:30 PM*, the Hemauer family (Brooks, Shannon, and their sons Collin and Ian) will serve free holiday ham meals at their taproom. All ages are welcome to enjoy the meal. No purchase is required.

This meal is free to anyone who wants or needs a delicious meal. A regular at their taproom? Come on in! Never been to the taproom? Welcome! Want a break from cooking? We hear ya on that one!

On the menu:
-Spiral-cut ham slices
-Mashed potatoes
-Peas
-Cookie
-Bottled soda or bottled water

Brooks and Shannon believe in community, bringing people together, and making a positive difference in this world. They are teaching their sons the importance of giving to others.

Alcoholic beverages are available for purchase; however, no purchase is required to enjoy the holiday meal! Enjoy the meal at the taproom or take it to go. One meal per person. *While supplies last.*

The taproom has limited space. Tables are first come, first served. If there are no tables available, you can take your meal to go. To keep things flowing, please limit your time to no more than 45 minutes to enjoy your meal. The last dine-in meal served at 3:15 PM. The kitchen closes at 3:30 PM.

Hemauer Brewing Hosting FREE Holiday Ham Meal – Facebook Event Page

More Information on Hemauer Brewing Company

The following comes via Untappd.

Hemauer Brewing Company is a micro brewery from Mechanicsburg, PA. They have 192 unique beers, and over 17,000 ratings, with a global average rating of 3.84 (as of 12.15.24). Their Untappd description reads: “Pouring liquid art, one pint at a time. ”

You can follow them on these social media platforms:

• Hemauer Brewing – Official Website
• Hemauer Brewing – Facebook
• Hemauer Brewing – Instagram
• Hemauer Brewing – Twitter
• Hemauer Brewing – Untappd

For Other Hemauer Brewing Articles

• Hemauer Brewing and The Adventure’s Guild Team Up For Board Game Night
• Helping the Hemauer Family Out
• Grand Opening of Hemauer Brewing Company
• A Message From Brooks Hemauer

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:

• 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.

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 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.)

Breweries and Farms… Farms and Breweries… They need each other.

Craft Beer’s Boom

Craft Beer Sourcing Local Ingredients

See Our Recently Posted Article

See our recently posted article about how the craft beer community is doing, and why breweries are closing, and what this whole conundrum thing is all about.

• The Craft Beer Conundrum: Navigating the Troubled Waters of the Craft Beer Industry

We will be writing a series of articles exploring the craft beer industry, and how fragile it really is right now. What might be happening to it, and where the industry is heading. We hope you stay tuned for these great articles. Thank you!

This Fast Paced World

Life just never seems to slow down.  I have these grandiose plans of things to do when I’m bored.  Do I really expect that might happen in my lifetime?

One thing I do have to be thankful for is when meeting the wonderful editor/creator of this blog as he retaught me how to take time for myself and relax.  So now that we have a 5 – month – old daughter together, we still make time to do just that.  I’m sure you know what I’m about to claim is our favorite relaxation activity?  Yup, you got it, go have a beer! 

The past couple of outings we have visited some breweries they were definitely at times when both sat down with a beer and let out a big sigh.  This is what breweries do for us.  They become our 3^rd home.  That one we have those relaxation dreams and plan big.

Local Favorites

The past few weeks have consisted of some visits at some fav breweries around our area; many more favs on the list of course!  We just had our first outside beer drinking over at Troegs Independent Craft Brewing in Hershey.  There we split a flight and shared a smoked brisket sandwich with a side of hop fries.  I remember being so excited to be able to sit on the patio outside.  It’s about making sure to take that bit of relaxation, squeeze it in your day! 

We swung by Cox Brewing Company when we were in the area running errands and trying desperately not to forget a stop.  We shared the Gene Wenger’s meats and fine foods snack pack.  We were sitting in the open-door garage with the breeze blowing after the morning rain in their new/old Rheems location.  Admit it, you took a deep breath in as you read that last line.  I did too.  We took the time to share some brews, some laughs and some deep sighs before heading out of CBC.  Then we tackled the rest of that To-Do list!

(Read Amy’s column last week about Cox Brewing Company – Cox Brewing Company: Back to Their Roots.)

Another awesome moment to sit outside was at Boneshire Brew Works in Rutherford, we enjoyed the picnic table layout in the parking lot.  We munched on our fav of their amazing pizza creations, the bacon thyme pizza. 

We each sipped on a beer and enjoyed the evening outside.  (Ben got ‘The Heights’ IPA and I got the ‘Pletzfest’ festbier.) It was a beautiful evening, and was fun to see the ‘Death Rattler’ truck pull up.

We did Pizza Boy in Enola in the half outside room they have and it was great introducing my mom to Pizza Boy too.  Yup, my mom loves the craft beer too.  We actually just took her to Pizza Boy again tonight.  We swung by there both times after a couple mile walk. (First trip we walked the Vincent DiFilippo Nature Preserve, and the second trip we walked Grandon Farm Trail starting from Creekview Park South.)

(You can read Ben’s book review about the art of stillness and relaxing here: Book Review: The Art of Stillness – Adventures in Going Nowhere (Pico Iyer).)

Ok that’s it, I need to go relax and so should you. 

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Ferris Bueller

Drink More Beer!

-Amy

Thank You For Reading

If you really want to take the day off, you can check out some of our articles, like this one about Hemp and Beer:

• Hemp and Beer – Happy 4:20 Day

Or this list of Amy’s weekly column articles:

• Cox Brewing Company: Back to Their Roots
• Peanut Butter Eggs, Easter, Beer, and Yah Brew’s Shimmy Shake (Beer Review)
• Beer and Pretzel Review: Legends and Lore (St. Boniface Brewing Company) and Garlic Parm Pretzels (Pretzels.com)
• I’ve Missed Drinking (A Look at Non Alcoholic Beers)

Thanks for reading everyone. Be sure to like, subscribe, and follow, to keep getting our great content. Comment and let us know what you think, give us your suggestions, ideas, or thoughts. Any questions? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us through the CONTACT US page.

Cheers!

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.

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. 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.

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.

The Finals

Ok here it is! We’ve finally reached the finals…. and are you ready for it? It’s a true David vs. Goliath match up here! (Ahahaha…. you’ll get the pun in just a bit.) The competition has been dwindled down from 32 beers (and their respective breweries) down to just 2 remaining competitors.

The gladiator pit is filled with the broken glass, crumpled cans, kicked kegs, dented half kegs, and smashed crowlers. Thirty “losers” lay littered about the grounds, of this beer soaked gladiatorial pit, with just two standing high – currently. For there can only be one in this beer – twisted Highlander.

The Competitors

Who all was involved in this tournament (if you are just tuning in – or want a recap):

Below is a straight list of the 32 breweries with their flagship beers, with their Untappd rating, and the order they are ranked in the tournament:

1. The Alchemist – Headdy Topper (4.54)
2. Tree House – Green (4.43)
3. Lawson’s Finest Liquids – Sip of Sunshine (4.33)
4. Toppling Goliath – Pseudo Sue (4.13)
5. New Holland – Dragon’s Milk (4.06)
6. Dewey Beer – Swishy Pants (4.05)
7. Omnegang – Three Philosophers (3.95)
8. Bell’s Brewery – Two Hearted Ale (3.95)
9. Von C Brewing – Walking on Clouds (3.94)
10. Cigar City – Jai Alai (3.93)
11. Rubber Soul – Dropout (3.92)
12. Pizza Boy – Murren River (3.91)
13. Deschutes – Fresh Squeezed (3.91)
14. Rotunda Brewing – Annville IPA (3.9)
15. Hemauer Brewing – Lucky Lobster (3.89)
16. Dogfish Head – 60 Minute (3.85)
17. Boneshire Brew Works – Green Machine (3.8)
18. Troegs Independent Craft Brewing – Perpetual IPA (3.8)
19. RAR Brewing – Nanticoke Nectar (3.8)
20. Bunnyman Brewing – Pink Nightmare (3.78)
21. Victory – Golden Monkey (3.75)
22. Laguinitas – IPA (3.72)
23. Tattered Flag – TMI PA (3.71)
24. Rogue – Dead Guy Ale (3.71)
25. Founder’s – All Day IPA (3.7)
26. Zero-Day Brewing – Mango Habanero (3.69)
27. Snitz Creek Brewery – Blueberry Cream Ale (3.68)
28. Sierra Nevada – Pale Ale (3.63)
29. Moo – Duck Brewery – Hoppy Toad IPA (3.58)
30. New Belgium – Fat Tire (3.58)
31. Yuengling – Lager (3.49)
32. Newcastle – Brown Ale (3.39)

The Selection Process

The selection process was mostly arbitrary (welcome to the world of The Beer Thrillers). Generally, there were a few simple rules I followed:

• It had to be a beer I’ve had before
• It had to have at least a 3 star rating on Untappd
• I tried to pick some well known – nation wide distributed beers, some local breweries (local to us here at The Beer Thrillers), and a few “high end” / “high quality” / “top of the line” brewery flagships.

This is clearly not a list of beers based on any kind of science. This is purely meant for fun and just to have a good time. Please leave all feelings and egos at the door.

Last Week of Voting

This is the finals, and thus the final week of voting. Voting will end on August 4th at 11:59PM (EST). (Thursday into Friday at Midnight.)

Let’s Vote!

Voting is simple! You can vote once per day for your favorite beer. Bookmark the page and come back daily to make your vote. Share the page on your social media platforms to let all of your friends, family, frenemies, hidden Russian bots, and others vote as well.

The Final Two

Who are the final two beasts in this battle? Who is the David and the Goliath I referenced earlier? Well… one is literally a Goliath…. its Toppling Goliath’s Pseudo Sue. The other is newcomer, and still baby (the brewery just had their one year anniversary after all) beer – Von C Brewing’s Walking on Clouds.

Let’s take a closer look at both:

Toppling Goliath – Pseudo Sue

Toppling Goliath’s Pseudo Sue entered the tournament ranked #4 out of 32 with an overall (at the day of the tournament’s start) Untappd rating of 4.13.

Pseudo Sue:
Style: Pale Ale – American
ABV: 5.8%
IBU: 45
Untappd Description: This Citra hop pale ale is delicate in body with a mild bitterness in the finish. Ferocious hop aromas of citrus and mango give a refreshing taste that is bright with just enough bite!
Current Untappd Ranking (7.29.22): 4.13
Total Ratings: 206,890

Toppling Goliath:

Toppling Goliath Brewing Company is a regional brewery from Decorah Iowa. They have 109 unique beers (according to Untappd) with a global average rating of 4.15 (as of 7.29.22). They have over 1 million ratings. Their Untappd description reads: Named 2021 US Beer Open Grand National Champions. Founded in 2009 in beautiful Decorah, Iowa. World-renown for IPAs and barrel-aged stouts, distributing to over 30 states and brewing more than 35 beers. TG prides it’s-self in crafting truly top-shelf beer and is honored to be growing with the support of its many customers worldwide.

Von C Brewing – Walking on Clouds

Von C Brewing’s Walking on Clouds entered the tournament ranked #9 out of 32 with an overall (at the day of the tournament’s start) Untappd rating of 3.94.

Walking on Clouds:

Style: IPA – New England / Hazy
ABV: 7%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: A juicy Hazy NEIPA bursting with a mosaic of flavors including peach, passionfruit and citrus, with a wonderful mango finish.
Current Untappd Rating (as of 7.29.22): 3.94
Total Ratings: 1,708

Von C Brewing

Von C Brewing is a micro brewery from Norristown, Pennsylvania. They have 44 unique beers (according to Untappd) and have a global average rating of 3.79 (as of 7.29.22). Their Untappd description reads: Von C Brewing Co. is a 20 barrel 16,000 sq’ microbrewery with a 2,500 sq’ tasting room including a spacious outside beer garden in beautiful Norristown, PA, the heart of Montgomery County.

Good Luck to Both Competitors

Just want to say good luck to both competitors and hope them the very best in the Finals! Congrats for making it this far!

Past Battle of the Beers Articles

How did we get to the Finals:

• The Battle of the Beers (2022)
• The Battle of the Beers – Round of 32 (Voting) (2022)
• The Battle of the Beers – Round of 32 (Results – Recap) (2022)
• The Battle of the Beers – Round of 16 (Voting) (2022)
• The Battle of the Beers – Round of 16 (Results – Recap) (2022)
• The Battle of the Beers – Round of 8 (Voting) (2022)
• The Battle of the Beers – Round of 8 (Results) (2022)
• The Battle of the Beers – Round of 4 (Voting) (2022)
• The Battle of the Beers – Round of 4 (Results) (2022)
• The Battle of the Beers – The Finals (Voting) (2022)

Wrap Up

Thank you all for checking out the results and participating in the tournament. This is our first Battle of the Beers tournament, but our third tournament overall (after having done a Battle of the Breweries (2021) and a Battle of the Breweries (2022)). These are a lot of fun to run and manage, and its great to see the participation of the fans and community. So I just want to thank everyone for coming to The Beer Thrillers blog and participating in the tournament. You guys make all this happen and without you there would be no tournaments or The Beer Thrillers in general. So we greatly appreciate all your support and everything.

Some Recent Articles of Note

• Weyerbacher Tap Room Indefinitely Closing
• Shy Bear Brewing Expanding into Altoona and Hershey Pennsylvania

Thanks For Reading

Today kicks off the three day weekend of Black Flag Brewing Company’s 6th Anniversary. We are hoping / looking to get to go to it. Tomorrow we might go if we don’t get to go today. Tomorrow is going to be a hectic day, where if we don’t go to Black Flag might see us coming up Schuylkill County direction and maybe hit the brewfest there, as well as other events and breweries. Who knows what the day has in store for us yet.

Just be on the lookout here on the blog, and our social media pages – Facebook and Instagram in particular. Lots of fun things popping up, as well as lots of events, and lots of new articles. So be sure to subscribe and follow and check them all out.

Cheers as always!

-B. Kline

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.

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. 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 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 #9 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. Thank you for reading our site today, please subscribe, follow, and bookmark. Please reach out to us if you are interested in working together. Thank you!

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

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

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

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

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

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

-B. Kline

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

In more sad news, another brewery will be shuttering their doors and turning off their taps soon for good. This time its Spigot Brewing located in Ford City, Pennsylvania (near Pittsburgh).

Yesterday (10.5.20 at 7:17PM) they posted this on their Facebook page:

What we’re about to say brings us no pleasure and, quite frankly, sucks.For the past several months, the strict regulations surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic have proven to be quite a fiscal challenge to deal with. To be completely honest, we have been operating at a deficit for six months now…and yet we have done our best to try to adapt, push on, and hope for a break. However, the breaks simply haven’t come. Our biggest challenge is the size and layout of the taproom. Even as the various phases of occupancy restrictions lift, we cannot accommodate an increase of patrons due to the tangled web of rules that govern us. To bluntly summarize, at this point we have been financially damaged beyond repair and simply cannot continue to operate at a loss any longer.So, what’s next? For starters, we will continue to be open for growler fills for a few weeks. While we will not be brewing any additional product at this point, we just tapped a batch of Fest ‘20 & Ford Street Fog IPA, and have a new IPA kegged up that will get us through for a bit until the Spigots run dry. If we had to guess, that will probably happen near the end of October. Between now and then, all outstanding gift certificates should be cashed in as quickly as possible to prevent any forfeitures. Additionally, you can bring in any beer tokens that you have and use them toward purchases of growler fills or merchandise.Words cannot describe the gratitude that we have for those who graciously supported us over the past few years…especially those super-loyal patrons who stopped in for their weekly growler fills since the inception of the shutdown back in March. You are the sole reason that we were able to survive for as long as we have…a HUGE thanks goes out to you!Please know that we are deeply saddened by this decision, and are sure that you feel the same way. However, you must admit that we had a good run and had a lot of fun together along the way. And as we have said many times over the years, we hope to have a beer with you soon. Except for this one, we may simply be on the other side of the bar with you when it happens…and that’s ok too. Cheers! Doug & Cindy

Spigot Brewing Facebook Page

They follow in the footsteps of some other Pennsylvania breweries that closed their doors for the last time this year – Stoudt’s Brewing, Crystal Ball Brewing, and Voodoo Lancaster.

2020 has certainly been a challenging year for breweries, as well as people in general. From wildfires in Australia and California, from COVID-19 and the coronavirus pandemic and various laws and restrictions and issues therein, from murder hornets, aluminum shortages, coin shortages, Tiger King, spotted lanternflies, and a host of other things; it has been a trying time for all of us. Least of all small businesses. It is in times like this that we need to best support our small businesses and smaller breweries. Visit your local microbrewery, buy a growler, share it with a friend, rave about them, write Untappd and Beer Advocate reviews – or even submit a review to me, and get them some attention and publicity. Tip their servers well. Help out where and however you can.

Spigot Brewing was established in April 2018, in one of the many historic buildings in Ford City. They are technically being listed as the first PA Brewery to close due to COVID-19 / coronavirus.

They are selling the remainder of the beer they still have on tap and in their tanks through growler sales. So if you are in the Ford City area (a bit over three hours from Harrisburg, about forty five minutes from Pittsburgh), I would recommend stopping in and picking up a growler to at least try them before they close. Also, if you have any gift certificates, now is the time to use them.

You can follow Spigot Brewing and get the latest information on their Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, and Untappd.

In other industry and brewery news, there has been a few openings lately. I have just gotten home from day two of Rubber Soul’s opening. I will have a review of the place, food, and beers up soon. You can check out my two articles on their opening here:

• A Sneak Peak of Rubber Soul Brewery (February)
• Rubber Soul Grand Opening (September / October)

I also was recently at Highway Manor’s opening. You can check out my articles on them here:

• Brewery Opening: Highway Manor
• Brewery Review: Highway Manor

And for more openings:

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

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

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

Cheers!

-B. Kline

It was one year ago, while sitting on my porch, looking over at this arbor, that I started up the blog. Not when I decided to start it – but when I actually did it. When I picked the blog name, when I setup the WordPress site, and when I did all the site work, creating it, building it, etc. I didn’t start it preloaded with articles like some (like some smarter writers / bloggers), and it was a long time probably overdue, but I started it, and made a main page. Started a Archive page, and with it sunny, and with a can of a brand new beer I hadn’t had before (from my shift manager at work – J. M. ) I wrote my first beer review for the site / blog.

The picture above was taken a month or two later during a rainstorm while sitting on the same side-porch swing overlooking the same arbor; which is growing Centennial, Cascade, and Chinook hops by the way; but those hops, not exactly those hops, but hops in general, is part of what led to this all. Its a much longer story than just one year, and probably a lot more convoluted than necessary. Meandering one might even say (just like my writing style tends to be, from what I’ve been told). But basically what I’m getting to (or alluding to), is that hops, and craft beer in particular, is what has led to this blog.

I’ve always been a writer, as far back as I can remember; always a reader and always a writer. (You pretty much can’t be the one without the other to some degree.) In fifth grade I wrote a short story that won a few prizes and was recognized by our governor at the time (Tom Ridge). I won’t say when I started drinking, but I will say my first ‘craft beer’ was Sam Adams. Original Boston Lager Sam Adams. When my friends were getting Budweiser or Bud Lite or Miller Lite or Coors Lite, I was ‘that guy’ who was drinking Sams.

This segued into me finding Troegs and getting into them, especially due to them being so local (first on Paxton Street in Harrisburg and then on Hersheypark Drive in Hershey; basically them starting just to the West of me and then moving just to the East of me). Fast forward a few years and me getting very heavily into craft beer, finding new breweries, trying new styles, and types, and discovering all that there is to know about beer. Fast forward to me helping out at breweries, learning to home brew, going to brewfests, taking some BJCP classes, reading blogs and watching YouTube videos, webinars, and in person seminars. Needless to say – its been a long time in coming in me writing and starting this blog.

As is typical with me, I start a bit behind the curve, where many others had been doing blogs, podcasts, and YouTube videos for years, I get in after the wave pretty much crests. So, something I should have done a few years ago (say 2012 or 2013) here I am, in 2020, having started in 2019. Not a bad thing, and not a problem.

But enough about me, lets talk about the blog itself. Its the blog’s One-Year Anniversary today; not mine. (If you are reading this, you care much more about the blog than myself anyway.) So, one year ago today, the blog itself started. Started with the main page, and a four-pack of beers my co-worker gave me that I decided to use to start beer reviewing. Just like doing an Untappd review, but upped in scale and scope and size. My first few reviews were crude, rather short, and probably not as entertaining as they are now (if they are considered entertaining now). I started off with: Scratch 375 – CocoNator by Troegs Independent Craft Brewing. After that was Painting with Light by South County Brewing; followed by the first beer I did a review of that I had worked on (canning) – a collaboration with Tattered Flag and the soon to be opened Wolf Brewing: Boulangerie Stout. (You also get to see my faithful companion for at home drinking; and occasional breweries – Leela, my border collie who will turn 11 this December.)

Over the year there’s been a lot of ups and downs, in life, as well as on the blog. Stressful at times writing, and finding an audience, and getting people to see or read, I wouldn’t change it, and honestly can say its been 99.999999% fun. Very few times has there been ‘issues’ or problems, and its more on my end of frustrations with writing and basically struggling to write at times. Even something so simple as this blog can be daunting to write at times, getting the energy to do it after work (or before work), and with kids, etc. Over the past year has seen me branch out from just doing beer reviews to also doing brewery reviews, to discussing my trips to the Kinzua Bridge area and to Pittsburgh with my daughters, as well as all manner of things like brewfests, canning for Tattered Flag, growing my hops, etc.

Volunteering for Tattered Flag and helping them can has been great fun, and very informative, and has helped me learn a lot about the brewery industry and beer, and brewing. Seeing brewers come and go through Tattered Flag and learning bits and pieces from all of them.

As well as visiting and traveling to many different breweries, not just in Pennsylvania, but also in Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey. Reminds me of my sister’s wedding where the reception went to four different breweries and a cidery as a ‘brew-tour’ in the Rochester area. Getting to do the brewery tour and listen to the head brewers at Three Heads Brewing was great fun and informative as well.

Getting to see a great brewery pop up basically right in my backyard (Boneshire Brew Works) and watching them grow as also been great. Getting to meet Alan, Carson, and Alex, and talk to them a lot, and then meet a ton of great people at the brewery; like Karl Larson, Josh Doncevic, Owen, Jason Millar, Kirby, and so many more people I can’t even begin to list or this blog post will just look like a list of names.

Becoming a regular (well, technically I was long before the blog, but just saying) at Boneshire Brew Works, Troegs Brewery, and Tattered Flag, I’ve gotten to meet so many great people, and get to pick the brains of so many top brewers in the area. All of which has definitely helped the blog here (hopefully, something you can tell, and hopefully something that does help and add to the blog).

I always envisioned this blog as being a big giant web of things; but all beer and brewery related. Articles on beer reviews, brewery reviews, articles on home brewing, on hop growing, on BJCP judging, articles about various brewfests or beer events, book reviews of beer or brewing books and textbooks, articles from ‘insiders’ working in the beer industry, those brewing, or serving you the beer, those from home brewers who know how to brew some amazing beers on small 1 to 5 gallon systems. From hop growers (like myself) who can tell you what you need to do to grow hops. Just a whole slew of things. And I think I have succeeded in that to some degree. Not quite the massive diversification and a ton of articles about the various aspects as I had planned; but some.

Interestingly enough, this is (ironically perhaps?) the 200th blog post of the blog, as well as the Anniversary blog posting. I have done a few other recap blog posts for people over the year, like my November Recap, or my End of 2019 Recap, or the Best of 2019 Article. I have to say, I can’t believe how this has grown, how big this blog has gotten, how well it has done, and how many talented people have graced the digital web of this humble blog.

Over the year, I have had several people writing for me. Josh Doncevic (J. Doncevic) has written several beer reviews and articles for us, and he is an amazing guy with a wealth of insight on beer reviews, breweries, and he regularly helps out at Rotunda Brewing as well as Boneshire Brew Works, and is just a fantastic guy to hang out with. AJ Brechbiel has also written a few articles about home brewing and stuff and his brew-club Default Brewing. With everything going on, and getting to work for Rough Edges Brewing, his time has sadly become limited, but hopefully (fingers, toes, nostrils crossed) we will get to see some more writings from him. Recently, I have also been graced with two friends who have also taken up writing for the blog – Andy Parys (A. Parys) and Karl Larson (ihackbeer). Both great guys who can write well, know their stuff. Karl Larson brings a massive wealth of knowledge to the blog, having won more awards for home brewing than I can count, as well as brewing commercially for Boneshire Brew Works and now for Newfangled Brew Works. The man is a walking encyclopedia; just try him sometime.

At the bottom of all of the posts and pages here on The Beer Thrillers you can see a list of the most recent articles from each writer under their name. From AJ to Josh, to Karl, to myself, to Andy, you can see all of our most recent articles, as well as the recent tweets from our Twitter page.

Which brings me to another thing about the blog – all the side stuff. Over the year, to help with the blog, I’ve begun to learn ‘social media’. Which is nowhere near as easy as you would think or sounds. The Beer Thrillers now has a Facebook, a Twitter, and an Instagram page that I regularly keep up with. (In descending order of how often I post to them.) As of 5.17.20, we currently have 562 likes and 593 followers on Facebook, 162 followers on Twitter, and 113 followers on Instagram.

Likewise with the side stuff, I have begun podcasting with my good friends that I’ve known since 5th grade – D. Scott, Dan Arndt, Esteban, and a host of other random people who pass through the garage and basement we broadcast from (including A. Parys). I am featured on several podcasts as well as commentary tracks. You can check out the Podcast at: So A Mexican and a Scott Walk Into a Bar….. I have also been featured on a call-in podcast all about beer: Beer with Strangers. My particular podcast episode is – A Beer Thriller in Hershey.

Back in February and March of this year (before the ‘dark times’, before the Empire, before COVID-19), things really were looking up for the blog here. I was featured on the above mentioned podcast. I was invited out to Extol to do an in-person beer podcast. Me and Josh visited Mellow Mink for a behind the scenes tour of the brewery. I was invited to visit the new (future home) Rubber Soul Brewery which will be opening in Hummelstown. There, I toured the facility with Jaime (head of marketing for the new Rubber Soul) and got to take visits and get A Sneak Peak of Rubber Soul. I met a representative from Visit Hershey & Harrisburg PA at the Hershey Tattered Flag location, where we discussed numerous upcoming projects and got press credentials for myself and my ‘team’ of writers. Also, in recent months, Let Us Drink Beer blog has been guest writing an article as well for us, about once a month about the Georgia beer scene, and I’ve been writing a blog entry for them about the Hershey-Harrisburg beer scene.

I have also written a rather lengthy piece back in September for Breweries in PA – which you can find both on their blog site and my blog as well. Breweries in PA – Touring the Harrisburg Area Breweries. My entry: Touring the Breweries that Surround the Harrisburg Area.

Unfortunately then, middle of March saw the coronavirus / COVID-19 really enter the American landscape, and by end of March, I’m on furlough from my job, and the brewery industry upended. Not just the brewery industry, but the restaurant industry, as well as the entertainment industry (that I work in) – which includes event planning, event type things like fests, casinos, resorts, tourist attractions, etc; all got hit hard by the disease and the restrictions placed to help maintain and safeguard the disease. The last few months have certainly been a very tough time for all; not just in the industry. With the pandemic affecting so many, and costing many lives, as well as affecting so many people’s jobs, incomes, and families in various ways, this has certainly been a troubling and trying time. No different for my blog. I like to think I have been lucky; my blog isn’t the biggest deal, its not even my job or sole source of income; this is more for fun than anything else. I still have my health, my home, and my family’s health. Times could be a lot harder for myself. So I am truly fortunate there. But, the blog has been hindered by this world-wide pandemic all the same. Things I would have been doing by now (AC Brewfest, Harrisburg Beer Week, Little Big Beerfest, RenFaire Brewfest at Mount Hope, amongst numerous other events, and happenings) have all been sidelined or postponed. Some outright cancelled. Some breweries have closed and expansions cancelled (Stoudt’s, Full Pint, Crystal Ball, Night Shift), while there has also been some good news – like Hemauer’s Opening. This has certainly been troubling times indeed. But we will get through, I know of that. Humans are resilient, we’re tough to kill, we’re hardy, we’re tenacious, and we love our beer. We will survive, prosper, and come back. This I am sure of.

On the more – amusing side of things, my friend D. Scott has started a gaming live-stream page on Facebook that I have guest-starred on a few occasions. You can check it out at Knights of Nostalgia. We play mostly old school NES, SNES, and similar video games. Please check it out, give a like, follow, and check out some of our live-streams.

I am hoping that everyone has been enjoying the blog. That you’ve all have found something of interest, read something you have liked, or have enjoyed your time reading and viewing the blog. Perhaps you have found a beer review interesting, or a brewery review interesting. Or found one of my other entries entertaining, possibly even chuckling at something. I hope I have brightened at least every reader’s day a bit, or informed, or educated, or made your day better in some way by checking out this blog.

I am looking forward to a wonderful second year. With the blog expanding even moreso. With new series and features, new types of articles, more podcasts, perhaps even solo beer related podcasts, or even just beer only related podcasts. Possibly YouTube videos. I will soon be wrapping up the Beer Education Series, which I’ve hoped everyone who has been following along with me has found informative as well as entertaining (and perhaps even educational?). I am looking forward to doing more things like this. More book reviews. More beerfest events (once the current climate changes).

Please, as always, if you have enjoyed the blog, give me a like, click the follow, sign up for the emails, and even more importantly, talk to me, let me know in the comments section, or if you rather stay private – contact me through the CONTACT US page. I love hearing from you, all of you, all of our readers. Tell me what I screwed up. Let me know where I was wrong. Tell me how I’m an idiot. That the beer I liked was actually bad, etc. Or, hey, maybe even a bit of praise? Sure, why not, never hurt the ego to hear something good right? Just leave a comment. Love hearing from all of you. It is really, honestly, so great to hear from everyone. I really truly do enjoy it, and it helps at least brighten my day even a smidge, to see a new like, or comment or a new subscriber, so don’t be shy.

I just want to close this article by saying how thankful I am for everyone. For every person that has clicked on any of my articles, who has read even a single word of any of my pages, who have clicked the like, followed us, commented on one of the articles, or in any small way supported this page and blog by forwarding or sharing posts or entries or articles or whatever you have done. I cannot say this enough, I cannot express it enough, THANK YOU. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you x1000000000 infinitum. Thank you. It really means the world to me and my fellow writers, for everything that you have all done. I appreciate it more than I can describe. Thank you so much once again.

Thank you for visiting, I just want to give you our homepage link one last time for you to click and bookmark: The Beer Thrillers Homepage.

Cheers everyone. Thanks for making this a fun, fantastic, great year writing for all of you. Please, click the like, follow us, subscribe to us, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And most importantly, cheers, enjoy a good craft beer or home brew for us. Support your local small breweries struggling during these unprecedented and difficult times. Stay healthy, stay happy, and please come back again. Cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

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

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

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

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

Other Half Brewing Co.

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

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

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

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

(in no particular order)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-B. Kline

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-B. Kline

This was meant to be enjoyed at one of the marquee Harrisburg Beer Week events – Tattered Flag’s collaboration event. This was meant to be drank on draft at Tattered Flag’s brewery, as well as the by-now opened Rubber Soul brewery in Hummelstown. Sadly, none of this happened, instead its May 1st, and Rubber Soul finally got the green-light to start back up on construction of their brewery as per Governor Wolfe’s newest rules / orders / laws / allowances / mandates / ordinances / whatever you wanna call it.

Coronavirus – the novel COVID-19 virus – has certainly thrown everything for a loop here in Central PA (as well as in the world). This was supposed to be the end of Harrisburg Beer Week, an annual event that celebrates all the great breweries and bars in the greater Harrisburg area (Harrisburg, Hummelstown, Hershey, Middletown, Elizabethtown, and surrounding areas). Every year there’s great events like Little Big Beer Fest, Little Little Beer Fest, Collaboration Week at Tattered Flag, Stouts Night, Stouts and Stilleto’s Lady Night, etc, etc, etc, (the list is extremely long lets just say), and a premier event for the Hummelstown area this year was going to be the opening of Rubber Soul’s new brewery in Hummelstown at the old borough building. (For more information on that, see my article: A Sneak Peak of Rubber Soul Brewery).

But at least one really good thing has come out of it all; and that’s this great beer. The first with the new Rubber Soul, and the first of the collaboration between Tattered Flag and Rubber Soul (I’m sure we’ll see plenty more down the road). Justin, the brewer lives in Hummelstown (and depending on the way he drives to get to Tattered Flag is going to have to drive right by the Rubber Soul Brewery), and the new head brewer for Rubber Soul comes directly from Levante Brewing – which has done a few collaborations with Justin at Tattered Flag. So I definitely don’t foresee this being the last time these two all-star breweries hook up.

Speaking of the coronavirus / COVID-19, you’ll notice a little nod to the troublesome meddler of 2020 on the can-art. (Which is beautiful can art by the way.) With the sneaker stepping down on the virus. Lovely can art that encapsulates both Tattered Flag and Rubber Soul.

Alright, enough yapping, lets get to discussing the beer!

Beer: Tattered Soul
Brewery: Tattered Flag
Collaboration: Rubber Soul Brewing Company
Style: IPA – Session / India Session Ale
ABV: 5%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: We teamed up with our buds from Rubber SOul brewing Co to bring you a full flavor, crushable Mid-west style IPA. Using a base of american 2-row, pilsner, and a bit of caramel pils we hopped this beer in the kettle with Cascade, citra, and amarillo in style with a traditional or west coast IPA, then hit it in the whirlpool with a matching hop addition much like a typical NEIPA hop schedule. Later, we dry hopped with a generous Citra dosing and followed up with a very cold amarillo and Cascade drop. We feel this is a fantastic representation of Rubber Souls roots with a Tattered Flag twist!

This was a wonderful beer to crush by the fireplace while social distancing. Only 5% so a four-pack was easily handled with just the slightest buzz. I’ll take that any night by the firepit!

It pours a beautiful golden yellow / orange. A sweet looking IPA coloring, it has a full body appearance, not super hazy or completely clear, but with a wonderful golden glow. Slight appearance of orange juice but still a complete IPA look. Somewhere in the middle of a West Coast IPA and a New England IPA look to it. You can tell its hoppy but no crazy amount of ‘floaters’ or ‘weird stuff’ floating about in this beautiful beer.

They called this a “Mid-West” IPA, because it takes characteristics of the typical West Coast style IPA and characteristics of the New England IPA. The aroma gets a big kick from the dry hopping. The citra and amarillo really pop and burst at you in this, as soon as you crack the can and the foam comes up over the lip you are hit hard by the citrusy nature of the citra hops, then mellows into a bit of piney, earthy, grassy, but still citrus, tropical notes of the cascade and amarillo. I’m really digging this combination of hops and I think it goes really well together, especially in this beer.

This is pretty much the definition of a session beer. Light, hop bursts with a citrusy taste and feel, slightly creamy so it goes down easily with no real discernible hop bite, only 5% so it won’t get you hammered, this is everything you are asking for in a crushable session IPA. Perfect for firepits, backyard BBQs and parties, and baseball games. Once (not *IF* – *WHEN*) baseball comes back, this would be the perfect stadium beer. (Hint, hint, for say… a Harrisburg Senators game…. hint…. hint). The pilsner malt and the caramel pils gives this a great body. The more golden hue is due to the combination of the two, and provide the backbone for this super tasty beer. The hops give it the burst and kick to provide the true entertainment to the beer. Citrus notes from the cascade and amarillo hops really provides a strong burst, you get orange peel, zest, hint of lime, and then you get some more mellow notes, slight pine, slight earthy grass, from the cascade. These three hops really work well in tandem here, playing off each other, and it tastes phenomenal (and smells amazing too) because of it. This was just a great, easy, sipping, tasty, beautiful brew.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 4 (right on the nose) (as of 5.1.20)

If this is what we have to look forward to from Rubber Soul Brewing, I cannot wait! And bonus points for only being a half mile walk from my house (and a mile back…. the difference is staggering) (….yes…. another dad joke….)

Thankfully as the restrictions begin lifting, Rubber Soul can get to finishing their brewery and soon be opened. I will keep you all updated on when that happens (hopefully soon, fingers crossed!)

To read more about Rubber Soul – check out my article on them here: A Sneak Peak at the New Rubber Soul Brewery in Hummelstown, PA.

Also, today is the grand opening of Hemauer Brewing in Mechanicsburg, check out my article on their grand opening here: Grand Opening of Hemauer Brewing.

Peace everyone, cheers everyone, stay safe, and take care of your loved ones everyone!

-B. Kline