Funk Brewing - The Beer Thrillers https://thebeerthrillers.com Central PA beer enthusiasts and beer bloggers. Homebrewers, brewery workers, and all around beer lovers. Thu, 03 Jul 2025 16:07:40 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 https://i0.wp.com/thebeerthrillers.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/cropped-The-Beer-Thrillers-December-2022-Logo.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Funk Brewing - The Beer Thrillers https://thebeerthrillers.com 32 32 187558884 Pine Creek Spirits Closing https://thebeerthrillers.com/2025/06/29/pine-creek-spirits-closing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pine-creek-spirits-closing Sun, 29 Jun 2025 14:08:20 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=16467 Pine Creek Spirits Announce Closing

Pine Creek Spirits, located in Elizabethtown PA, in what was at one time the Funk Brewing taproom (see Funk Brewing Fire). (See also: Funk Brewing Taproom closing and Pine Creek Spirits Taking Over.) Located at 28 S Market St, Elizabethtown, PA 17022, the spirits taproom is now permanently closed.

Pine Creek Spirits Logo

Pine Creek Spirits announced on their Instagram post that they will be officially closed, going forward from today.

Their post today reads:

After taking a step back, we have to face the reality that we do not have the ability or resources to reopen. We’re incredibly proud of the team that we had over the years. They fought through a pandemic, a fire, and a failed business partnership. Many people would have thrown in the towel after one of those obstacles, but they perservered over many years to keep fighting for our business to stay alive.

Thank you also to all of our customers. We got to know many of you over the years and you were awesome to us. It makes it that much harder to close the doors. We hope you had as much fun as we did and hopefully we’ll see all of you down the road.

–Pine Creek Spirits (Instagram Post – June 29th, 2025)

They previously recently posted this on social media as well:

Sorry everyone, we are taking a week to reorganize and won’t be open. We hope to see everyone at the beginning of next week!

-Pine Creek Spirits (Facebook Post – June 23rd, 2025)

So it looks like they are officially closed. Which is a shame, as its a wonderful location, and a great spot in Elizabethtown. Perhaps a new taproom will go in there, possibly a craft brewery taking over the spot, like how it used to be Funk Brewery’s taproom. Who knows. But we’ll keep you updated if anything does happen with the spot, so keep your eyes peeled on the blog. Cheers.

Brewery News

Interested in finding out about many other brewery openings, new locations, closings, movings, auctions, and in general brewery news? You can check out our links below:

 

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

Thanks again for reading everyone. Take some time to check out the site, we greatly appreciate it. We have affiliates and sponsors with Pretzels.com and Beer Drop.com, which can save you money on their products if you are interested. Check out our articles on them. Make sure to check out our beer reviews, brewery reviews, Amy’s weekly column, book reviews, hike reviews, and so much more.

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you! You can also reach out to us at our direct e-mail address: thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

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

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

You can check out our different directories here: Beer 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 also now have a SLACK channel – which acts as a hybrid chat room, message board, Reddit style; workspace and posting area for us. You can hang out with us there and chat about all kinds of things – not just beer, but “off topic” things like movies, TV, books, podcasts, hiking, sports, and more! Join us at: The Beer Thrillers on SLACK.

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 May 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!

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.)

]]> 16467 Funk’s Brewery Taproom Closes and is Now Pine Creek Spirits https://thebeerthrillers.com/2024/02/28/funks-brewery-taproom-closes-and-is-now-pine-creek-spirits/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=funks-brewery-taproom-closes-and-is-now-pine-creek-spirits Wed, 28 Feb 2024 15:23:30 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=16468 The Funk Brewery Taproom in Elizabethtown is Now Pine Creek Spirits

The Funk Brewery taproom in Elizabethtown, located at 28 S Market St, Elizabethtown, PA 17022, has officially switched over to Pine Creek Spirits.

Funk Brewing and Pine Creek Spirits Logos

The Funk Brewery has had a taproom in Elizabethtown for quite some time, but unfortunately now that time is coming to an end, and it will switch over to being Pine Creek Spirits taproom. They have had a corporate agreement for a while, and now its official that Pine Creek Spirits will be taking over completely and Funk Brewing is phased out. The Funk Brewery E-Town Facebook page has officially changed names to Pine Creek Spirits taproom. (Pine Creek Spirits on Facebook.)

Funk Brewing still operates their brewery and production center as well as a taproom out of Emmaus, PA. They are under the Illumination Brewing LLC.

 

For more articles:

Brewery News

Interested in finding out about many other brewery openings, new locations, closings, movings, auctions, and in general brewery news? You can check out our links below:

 

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

Thanks again for reading everyone. Take some time to check out the site, we greatly appreciate it. We have affiliates and sponsors with Pretzels.com and Beer Drop.com, which can save you money on their products if you are interested. Check out our articles on them. Make sure to check out our beer reviews, brewery reviews, Amy’s weekly column, book reviews, hike reviews, and so much more.

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you! You can also reach out to us at our direct e-mail address: thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

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

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

You can check out our different directories here: Beer 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 also now have a SLACK channel – which acts as a hybrid chat room, message board, Reddit style; workspace and posting area for us. You can hang out with us there and chat about all kinds of things – not just beer, but “off topic” things like movies, TV, books, podcasts, hiking, sports, and more! Join us at: The Beer Thrillers on SLACK.

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 May 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!

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.)

 

]]> 16468 Hoppy Easter – Five Great Central PA IPAs (2023) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2023/04/09/hoppy-easter-five-great-central-pa-ipas-2023/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hoppy-easter-five-great-central-pa-ipas-2023 Sun, 09 Apr 2023 13:06:52 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=11000
Hoppy Easter Everyone!

Hoppy Easter

Hoppy Easter everyone! I hope the best for everyone of all religions and dominations have a wonderful and Hoppy Easter today. I am just about to make breakfast using the hop shoots that are popping up and growing, but first wanted to get this fun little IPA article posted.

(Hoppy Easter – IPAs [2020])

Cascade Hops Popping Up (2023)

As you can see above, my cascade hops are already springing up pretty quickly. (You can find images on our Instagram here: The Beer Thrillers – Instagram.) I will be cutting these early shoots to make breakfast this morning, possibly doing a Hop Shoots Omelet, I’ve done this in years past.

Hop Shoots Omelet

(That’ll probably be an article for tomorrow then. I’m not a big foodie or great cooker, so fingers crossed it’ll go well.)

In the meantime, lets take a look at five great Central PA IPAs, of this season. Enjoy!

Five Great Hoppy Central PA IPAs

Green Machine – Boneshire Brew Works

Green Machine by Boneshire Brew Works

Beer: Green Machine
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 7.2%
IBU: 75
Untappd Description: Green Machine! Green Machine! Green Machine! This hop fueled juggernaut smashes your senses with its not-so-delicate bouquet of floral notes, tropical fruits, and pine. Drink up IPA lovers, drink up.

Global Average Untappd Rating: 3.80 (as of 4.9.23)
My Untappd Rating: 4.25

This is one of my favorite IPAs and why I lead off with this one. Its a year round flagship at Boneshire Brew Works, and it is absolutely delicious. If you get the chance to stop in at either of their locations, you have to try it.

Lollihop by Troegs Independent Craft Brewing

Lollihop by Troegs Independent Craft Brewing

Beer: Lollihop
Brewery: Troegs Independent Craft Brewing
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double
ABV: 8.2%
IBU: N/A
Untappd Description:

We Taste: pear, citrus, hint of Melon.

When we make our annual pilgrimage to the hop-growing hotbed of Yakima Valley, we’re like kids in a candy store. We eyeball the hops on the lines, crush them in our hands and rub them til their oil fill the air. LolliHop brings together three of our favorites. Dry-hopping with Citra and Mosaic layers in notes of orange, grapefruit, and melon, while Azacca in the kettle adds hints of papaya and pineapple. Locally harvested rustic pale malt provides the backbone, and wheat and oats make this beer silky smooth with a touch of haze.

Global Average Untappd Rating: 4.03 (as of 4.9.23)
My Untappd Rating: 3.75

A fan favorite this time of year here in Central PA. Living five minutes from the brewery certainly has its perks. This is one of Drew (of Knights of Nostalgia)’s favorites from Troegs, and his favorites in general. Personally I can’t wait for Nimble Giant season which will be right around the corner.

Silent Disco by Funk Brewing

Silent Disco by Funk Brewing

Beer: Silent Disco
Brewery: Funk Brewing
Style: IPA – New England / Hazy
ABV: 6.1%
IBU: 62
Untappd Description: A bowlful of tropical juicy flavors.

Global Average Untappd Rating: 3.89 (as of 4.9.23)
My Untappd Rating: 4.25

This is a fun New England IPA. It might not be their most notable, but its certainly one of their stellar flagship IPAs. They have many other IPAs that are very good as well like Citrus IPA, Double Citrus IPA, Pipe Dream, and Prop, and even a Double Disco. We have previously reviewed their seasonal IPA – Royal Rumble. (As well as another beer from them – Griddle.)

Broken Heels by New Trail Brewing Company

(Broken Heels by New Trail Brewing Company)

Beer: Broken Heels
Brewery: New Trail Brewing Company
Style: IPA – New England / Hazy
ABV: 7%
IBU: N/A
Untappd Description:

A Hazy IPA hopped intrepidly with hand-selected Citra and Mosaic, leading to High Aromatics of luminous Citrus, rich Conifer, and refreshing Tropicals. This beer packs a full mouthfeel with low bitterness that is soft on the palette. Broken Heels is available all day everyday, and reminds us that no adventure is without its risks.
Pack The Essentials.

Global Average Untappd Rating: 3.94 (as of 4.9.23)
My Untappd Rating: 4.25

Albeit this is a little bit north of Central PA (Harrisburg wise), but its everywhere here. Sheetz, WaWa’s, Rutters, you name it, you can find it in their beer coolers. While I do love hammering some of the tall boys of these, I do typically prefer the Double Broken Heels, a good four pack of the Double Broken Heels will have you feeling all kinds of good.

We did review this previously here: Beer Review: Broken Heels. Here’s a brief quick excerpt:

This is like drinking hoppy juicy dank orange juice. It is so full of citrus fruit juicy hop taste and is just so easy to drink. You get a flourish of hop notes as soon as you start sipping, you get citrus, you get the tropical fruits, you get practically no bitterness, you just get a smooth drink. The pilsner malts and the flaked oats gives this a really smooth and tasty brew and just makes it like a wonderful NEIPA that drinks easy. After one sip of this you can quickly see why New Trails Brewing Co. is known for their outstanding IPAs.

Beer Review: Broken Heels (New Trail Brewing Co.)

We have reviewed a few other New Trail Beers in the past, and I know I can sometimes get a bit cynical of their IPAs tasting the same, but at the end of the day, their IPAs are absolutely wonderful even if they are all very similar. (You can find our review of Icicle here – Beer Review: Icicle.)

Annville iPA by Rotunda Brewing Company

Annville iPA by Rotunda Brewing Company

Beer: Annville iPA
Brewery: Rotunda Brewing Company
Style: IPA – New England / Hazy
ABV: 7.8%
IBU: 110
Untappd Description: (Blank)

Global Average Untappd Rating: 3.90 (as of 4.9.23)
My Untappd Rating: 4.00

This is the highest IBU on the list. But thats nothing to hold against this (or to prop it up either I suppose). No Central PA IPA list would be complete without this wonderful IPA on it (so, it might be five on my list, but its not the least, or the last, this list is in no order). This is a delicious, juicy IPA, very tasty, and you can find it at Rotunda Brewing Company’s main brewery in Annville, or their brewpub in Hershey, or at a lot of different bars in the Hershey, Harrisburg, Hummelstown, Palmyra, Annville, Lebanon area.

We’ve reviewed a couple from them, such as: Juicy Fruit sWheat Tart, Irish Car Bomb Nitro Stout, Chewbacca, and Mango Guyabano sWheat Tart. Please check them out.

Hoppiest of Easters

Just want to wish everyone one last time, the Hoppiest of Easters. If you are looking for more great IPA and beer review and related articles from us, please be sure to check these out:

Thank You For Reading

I hope everyone has a wonderful day. I’m off to make breakfast for Amy and Scarlet (well, she’s not gonna be eating, but all the same), and myself. Later we are getting my older three girls, and will have a wonderful Easter day. I hope the same for all of you.

We are currently starting to work on creating maps of all the breweries in each state, starting geographically with Maine. So be on the lookout for these great resources to soon be popping up on the blog. Hoping to get a state done every 2 – 4 days. (Some will be quicker and easier than others, but 50 states, plus Washington D.C., will certainly take some time!)

We just got the Maine map done, you can see that here: Map of Maine Breweries.

Currently right now we are in the Finals of our Battle of the Breweries (2023). You can check out the final four breweries left in the Finals Fatal Four Way here and vote:

In the upcoming two weeks I am going to do a more thorough look at the full tournament, breaking down the votes and how well each conference winner did. I will also do a full write up on each of the breweries in the Finals Fatal Four Way too, where I will list what articles we’ve done about them, and my visits to each of those places.

Thank you everyone for reading and please like, share, follow, subscribe, all that good stuff you see at the end of every YouTube video.

Cheers All!

-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.

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.

]]> 11000 Funk Brewing in Elizabethtown on Fire https://thebeerthrillers.com/2022/10/27/funk-brewing-in-elizabethtown-on-fire/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=funk-brewing-in-elizabethtown-on-fire Thu, 27 Oct 2022 11:41:56 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=9846
Funk Brewing Company in Elizabethtown currently on fire

Not So Good Morning

Pretty much upon waking up Amy showed me the news. Two hours ago (5:20AM) it was first reported by Kate Merriman of WGAL News 8 that the Funk Brewing Company on South Market Street of Elizabethtown was on fire.

Since then, updates have been coming in and pictures and videos and news articles as well.

First reported was at 5:20AM by Kate Merriman of WGAL News 8 with her personal Facebook account. Her post reads:

#UPDATE Police lined the back of the building with tape. Details are still limited. Still with us for the latest developments.

BREAKING Crews are on the scene of a fire at Funk Brewing on South Market Street in Elizabethtown Borough. This is the backside of the business. No injuries. Still under investigation.

Kate Merriman Facebook

She updated the post at 6:30AM with the following pictures:

WGAL 8 7:00AM News

The WGAL 8 News at 7:00AM then ran a news clip, which they posted to their YouTube Channel after its airing. It was posted on YouTube just 8 minutes ago at 7:10AM.

Funk Brewing Company

Funk Brewing Company is located on South Market Street in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. You can find them here on Google Maps: Funk Brewing Company Brewery and Taproom – South Market Street. They are located next to the Elizabethtown (E-Town) Public Library. They host several events often and regularly at their brewery and one of the top spots of the E-Town community. They do a lot of fundraising events, charity events, and other things to help out the community.

Funk Brewing Company according to Untappd:

They are listed as a microbrewery out of Elizabethtown and Emaus Pennsylvania. They have 515 unique beers with 249,432 ratings (as of 10.27.22) and a global average rating of 3.85 (as of 10.27.22). They have no Untappd description.

For more on Funk Brewing Company, you can check out their social media pages:

The News

Things are still new at this point, so not lots of news, but whats coming in we’ll try and keep updated (will try and make phone edits while at work, so bear with me on that). But currently we have the following:

WGAL8 News:

Crews battled a fire early Thursday morning at a brewery in Lancaster County.

The fire happened at Funk Brewing along the first block of South Market Street in Elizabethtown. The call went out around 3 a.m.

Advertisement

Crews from Lancaster and Dauphin counties responded to the fire.

WGAL 8 News – Kate Merriman Reporting

Around 6 a.m., police officers surrounded much of the scene in crime tape. WGAL’s Kate Merriman was at the scene as it happened. You can watch that video in the player above.

There were no injuries in the initial call.

The investigation is continuing.

WGAL 8 News – Kate Merriman Reporting

Updates

Stay tuned and come back here to the article for updates as we get them. We will try and best and keep everyone updated.

Sources

See Also

Brewery News

Interested in finding out about many other brewery openings, new locations, closings, movings, and in general brewery news? You can check out our links below:

Funk Brewing Company Articles

Thanks For Reading

Well…. this is very unexpected and unfortunate news to wake up to this morning. Hopefully the updates will be better and things will come out better. Hoping that there continues to be no injuries and very little building damage. Funk Brewing is a great brewery and a great spot to visit. I love stopping in there when in the E-Town area. (Even done a few beer reviews from there.)

Please stop back for updates.

Reminder – tomorrow is the Boneshire Brew Works 6th celebration that we’ll be stopping out at, come out and visit. As well as game one of the Phillies – Astros World Series. Fingers crossed for our Phightin Phillies.

Cheers!

-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. If you would like to donate to the blog you can here: Donate to The Beer Thrillers. Thank you!

]]> 9846 Beer Review: Royal Rumble (Funk Brewing) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2022/01/29/beer-review-royal-rumble-funk-brewing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-review-royal-rumble-funk-brewing Sun, 30 Jan 2022 00:05:03 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=8651
LEEEEEEEEEEETSSSSSSS GEEEEEEEEEEEET READY TO RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMBLE!!!!

LEEEEEEEEEEETSSSSSSS GEEEEEEEEEEEEET READY TOOOOO RUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMBLE!!!!!!!

Ok, its that time of the year, when its one of the few WWE PPVs I check in for anymore (its basically this and WrestleMania). WrestleMania is a definite watch for me, but the Royal Rumble match(es) itself is always one of the funnest hours / hours and a half of wrestling a year.

In years past co-workers (and I) have done ‘Rumble Pools’, where you draw a random number and whichever wrestler comes out at that number, if he wins, you win. Since they started doing the women’s Rumble match itself, we’ve also included it, so you get two chances (20$). I picked Thursday for my Rumble spots…. and I got: #7 for the Women’s Rumble….. and then…. #7 for the Men’s Rumble. Crazy, that out of 30 possibilities, I managed to get both number 7s in each Rumble (30 possible x 30 possible).

So let’s go #7! Coincidentally, thats also the line they are giving in the Chiefs / Bengals AFC Championship game on Sunday (Chiefs are a 7 point favorite). So maybe 7 will be my number this weekend when Bengals subvert expectations on Sunday and win by 7… and both the men’s and the women’s 7th entry win their Rumbles tonight… …maybe. (No wrestler has ever won the Rumble at the 7th spot.)

We are nearing the pre-show (started writing this review at 5:15PM, whilst doing chores, and after I finished my dog walk with Leela – and holy crap was that cold – and workout, and by the time I get this done, it will most likely be going on 7PM), so, I’ll give my predictions while we’re at it. The Royal Rumble (2022) card (as per Wikipedia):

1Men’s Royal Rumble Match30-man Royal Rumble Match for a world championship match at WrestleMania 38[16]–
2Women’s Royal Rumble Match30-woman Royal Rumble Match for a women’s championship match at WrestleMania 38[17]–
3Brock Lesnar (c) (with Paul Heyman) vs. Bobby Lashley (with MVP)Singles match for the WWE Championship[18]–
4Becky Lynch (c) vs. DoudropSingles match for the WWE Raw Women’s Championship[19]–
5Edge and Beth Phoenix vs. The Miz and MaryseMixed tag team match[20]–
6Roman Reigns (c) vs. Seth “Freakin” RollinsSingles match for the WWE Universal Championship[21]
The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) are barred from ringside.
Royal Rumble 2022 Card

My Predictions

My predictions for this card:

  • Reigns over Rollins
  • Miz and Maryse over Edge and Beth Phoenix
  • Lynch over Doudrop
  • Bobby Lashley over Brock Lesnar
  • Ronda Rousey returning and winning the Women’s Royal Rumble
  • Brock Lesnar being a surprise entrant (or taking the place of someone else) and winning the Men’s Royal Rumble

We’ll see in just a few hours how close I am to these predictions!

Funk Brewing yesterday posted a great video on their TikTok and Facebook acounts. (Tried to embed it, but it didn’t seem to want to work for me due to being a Facebook video rather than a YouTube video, but if you click the link it will take you to the video, its all of 23 seconds, and then you can pop right back over here.) Watch the video here: Funk Brewing Company – Royal Rumble – And That’s the Bottom Line.

Wrasslin

I’ve covered good ol’ fashioned ‘wrasslin’ a few times here on the blog. First with the Stone Cold IPA and then with Couch Brewery‘s Macho Man beer. Also did the March Madness from 2021 in a wrestling format.

I loved watching the old WWF growing up, and ECW, and WCW, and then got into all of the various independent promotions over the years (especially ROH Wrestling), (original) NWA:TNA, CZW, IWA:MS, XPW, PWG, Chikara, ECCW, as well as the Japanese Puroresu (プロレス) (NJPW, AJPW, NOAH, etc.) and the Mexican Lucha Libre (AAA) as well as everything else in between (shoot videos, tape trading, etc.). So its definitely always been a joy, even as I’ve gotten older and it became much more of a backburner type thing (behind all of my thousands of other hobbies – nerdy ones like Star Wars, 40K, books, board games, card games – and less nerdy ones like fantasy sports, hiking, etc.), as well as just the responsibilities of getting older and having kids and jobs and life itself.

But its fun to get to dive back into it now and again, like today and get to review a beer about it. Which, at this point I’m sure you are all sick of my rambling and just want to get to the rumbling… of the beer review that is!

Beer Review

Can logo, last year’s Royal Rumble, and this year

Beer: Royal Rumble
Brewery: Funk Brewing
Style: Porter – Baltic
ABV: 8.2%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: (Blank)

Funk Brewing Company is a microbrewery from Emmaus Pennsylvania. They also have a taproom in Elizabethtown, PA. According to Untappd they have 500 unique beers with over 236,000 ratings, and a global average rating of 3.85 (as of 1.29.22).

Lets start with the look of this bad boy. Big frothy foamy head with individual bubbles of varying sizes. Jet black…. like Razor Ramone’s hair. A full looking bodied drink, stout and deep and heavy like a big burly man in his underwear about to throw you around a ring.

Aroma is slightly smokey / smoked, with what I would characterize as a ‘bitter’ aroma. Thats not probably on any BJCP judge form or anything, but almost like a sense of it before actually drinking it, kind of like looking at a really black coffee and sniffing it, you have a strong sense that its just got some bitterness to it. Some caramel notes in a deep whiff.

Slammed to the mat, thrown across the ring, and tossed right over the top rope! All in the first sip? Nah, not really, I luckily grabbed onto the rope and pulled myself back in, skinning the cat to get back in. Superkicked by Shawn Michaels afterwards…. Five Star Frog Splashed by RVD…. and still in this boys! Ok… back to reality…. This is a good porter. Not a blow you out of the ring or blow you out of the WWE Universe porter, but its a good porter. Its smooth, its dark, its got some roasty, some caramel, some bitterness, some flavors, but its just not quite as complex as I was hoping, just not quite as full bodied as The Big Show. Its certainly no Spike Dudley or Rey Mysterio (in size) either, but its …lacking a little bit of more OOMPH to put it over the top. I would gladly drink it again. Its a great beer, its just not a blow you away beer. And there’s nothing really outright wrong with that. Its not watery or paper thin, but its not got a real deep mouthfeel or flavor to it. The flavors of roasted malt, caramel malt, with a tinge of smokey bitterness, is all there, but just not quite as strong as I’d like. Maybe its going from can to glass, maybe its just my expectations (with a name like Royal Rumble eliciting thoughts of huge muscular bonecrushing men pummeling each other), or what, it just doesn’t quite reach the full flavor spectrum. There is nothing wrong with the beer – no off flavors, no bad aftertaste, no cloyingness, nothing that makes you not outright enjoy it, just not as deep and complex and rich as I was hoping for.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Average Untappd Rating: 3.87 (as of 1.29.22)

Finished Just in the Nick of Time

And like that, I skinned the cat, and pulled myself back into the ring… to get this article done at 6:57PM, just before the show kicks off at 7:00PM on Peacock. What perfect timing! Ok, while I quickly upload this to the social medias and the universe, you can scroll down to check out all of the other nerd culture beers we have reviewed, and I’ll catch you guys later!

Star Wars:

Rick and Morty:

Space Balls:

Game of Thrones:

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

Scrooged:

A Christmas Story:

Pro Wrestling:

Matrix:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Seinfeld:

Other:

Thanks For Reading

As always everyone, thanks for reading. Try and stay warm (my phone currently says its 18 degrees with a real feel of 4). And make sure to root on the Bengals tomorrow to beat the Chiefs! Have a great weekend everyone! (And lets go #7 and #7 in the Royal Rumbles tonight!)

Cheers!

-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!

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]]> 8651 The Battle of the Breweries (2021) – Round Two – FACEs Conference https://thebeerthrillers.com/2021/03/08/the-battle-of-the-breweries-2021-round-two-faces-conference/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-battle-of-the-breweries-2021-round-two-faces-conference Mon, 08 Mar 2021 13:55:44 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=7373
The Battle of the Breweries (2021)

To view the results of Round One, and for background information on the tournament – The Battle of the Breweries (2021) (March Madness) click here: Round One Results and Round Two and Moving Forward – The Battle of the Breweries (2021) (The Beer Thriller’s March Madness).

This is the poll for the HEELs Conference – Round Two. You can vote once per day, and you can vote once per poll (there is a poll for each division in round one). Be sure to share and send to your friends and breweries to let everyone vote!

Voting runs until March 14th, 11:59PM (EST).

For past links, go here:

Round One Voting Polls:

Vote

[perfect_survey id=”7374″]

Any questions, concerns, or comments about the brackets, or tournament, or breweries in question, you can leave in the comment section or message us directly through our Contact Page.

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!

]]> 7373 The Battle of the Breweries (2021) – March Madness Continues – The Conference Round https://thebeerthrillers.com/2021/03/08/the-battle-of-the-breweries-2021-march-madness-continues-the-conference-round/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-battle-of-the-breweries-2021-march-madness-continues-the-conference-round Mon, 08 Mar 2021 13:15:02 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=7360
The Battle of the Breweries (2021)

Voting Polls for Round Two

(Edited: March 8th, 9:02AM). Since this is the landing page when exiting the polls, I am posting the links here for both poll locations, so you can easily jump to the next poll to vote.

Round One Has Finished

Thank you everyone who has voted in round one. We got 3422 votes in one week and thus has ended round one of the tournament! We have gone from 48 breweries and competitors down to 24 breweries left.

First a word on going forward: due to how I have set-up the brackets and how its not a typical “32” or “64” or “128” tournament, that means we will now go from divisions to two conferences. (We’ll keep the wrestling theme going and still call them the HEELs and FACEs conferences.) At this point we will also re-seed the conferences. Just like before, total global average rating on Untappd will be used to seed the breweries.

But first up, some statistics from the first round:

Round One Statistics

Voting statistics:

  • Total votes for round one: 3422
  • Total votes for Triple H Division: 388
  • Total votes for Ric Flair Division: 305
  • Total votes for HEELs conference: 693
  • Total “upsets” (any higher seed defeating a lower seed) in HEELs conference: 2
  • Total votes for Stone Cold Steve Austin Division: 870
  • Total votes for The Rock Division: 823
  • Total votes for FACEs conference: 1693
  • Total “upsets” (any higher seed defeating a lower seed) in FACEs conference: 7

Upsets:

HEELs Conference:

  • Gearhouse Brewing Company (9) defeating Levity Brewing (4)
  • Desperate Times Brewing Company (10) defeating Yellow Bridge Brewing (3)
  • Chatty Monks Brewing (7) defeating Cox Brewing Company (6)

FACEs Conference:

  • Three Heads Brewing (11) defeating Idiom Brewing (2)
  • Rubber Soul Brewing Company (10) defeating Breaker Brewing (3)
  • Tattered Flag (9) defeating ShuBrew Brewing Company (4)
  • Rough Edges Brewing (8) defeating Wolfs Ridge Brewing Company (5)
  • The Church Brew Works (12) defeating Cushwa Brewing (1)
  • The Isle of Que Brewing (11) defeating Jackie O’s Brewery (2)
  • Molly Pitcher Brewing Company (8) defeating Mellow Mink Brewing (5)

Results of Round One

HEELs Conference: Triple H Division:

  • Fourscore Brewing Company (1 seed) (52 votes) defeated Black Forest Brewing (12 seed) (15 votes)
  • Urban Artifact (2 seed) (41 votes) defeated The Ministry of Brewing (11 seed) (23 votes)
  • Mad Chef Brewing (3 seed) (39 votes) defeated ZeroDay Brewing Company (10 seed) (25 votes)
  • GearHouse Brewing Company (9 seed) (39 votes) defeated Levity Brewing (4 seed) (33 votes)
  • Swiftwater Brewing Company (5 seed) (43 votes) defeated Highway Manor (8 seed) (18 votes)
  • Sun King Brewery (6 seed) (33 votes) defeated Braxton Brewing Company (7 seed) (27 votes)

HEELs Conference: Ric Flair Division:

  • Dewey Beer Company (1 seed) (35 votes) defeated Couch Brewery (12 seed) (16 votes)
  • Rotunda Brewing Company (2 seed) (37 votes) defeated Snitz Creek Brewing Company (11 seed) (14 votes)
  • Desperate Times Brewing (10 seed) (30 votes) defeated Yellow Bridge Brewing (3 seed) (19 votes)
  • Troegs Craft Independent Brewing Company (4 seed) (48 votes) defeated Saucony Creek Brewing Company (9 seed) (9 votes)
  • Twisted Bine Brewing Company (5 seed) (30 votes) defeated Land-Grant Brewing Company (8 seed) (17 votes)
  • Chatty Monks Brewing (7 seed) (30 votes) defeated Cox Brewing Company (6 seed) (20 votes)

FACEs Conference: Stone Cold Steve Austin Division:

  • Ever Grain Brewing Company (1 seed) (85 votes) defeated Mt. Gretna Craft Brewery (12 seed) (49 votes)
  • Three Heads Brewing (11 seed) (65 votes) defeated Idiom Brewing (2 seed) (59 votes)
  • Rubber Soul Brewing Company (10 seed) (65 votes) defeated Breaker Brewing (3 seed) (57 votes)
  • Tattered Flag (9 seed) (102 votes) defeated ShuBrew Brewing (4 seed) (34 votes)
  • Rough Edges Brewing (8 seed) (177 votes) defeated Wolf’s Ridge Brewing (5 seed) (40 votes)
  • Boneshire Brew Works (6 seed) (70 votes) defeated Liquid Noise Brewing Company (7 seed) (67 votes)

FACEs Conference: The Rock Division:

  • The Church Brew Works (12 seed) (82 votes) defeated Cushwa Brewing (1 seed) (43 votes)
  • The Isle of Que Brewing Company (11 seed) (146 votes) defeated Jackie O’s Brewery (2 seed) (31 votes)
  • Pizza Boy Brewing Company (Al’s of Hampden) (3 seed) (106 votes) defeated Taft’s Brewing Company (Taft’s Ale House) (10 seed) (29 votes)
  • Funk Brewing Company (4 seed) (95 votes) defeated Olde Bedford Brewing Company (9 seed) (34 votes)
  • Molly Pitcher Brewing Company (8 seed) (79 votes) defeated Mellow Mink Brewing (5 seed) (51 votes)
  • Moo-Duck Brewing Company (6 seed) (81 votes) defeated Logyard Brewing Company (7 seed) (46 votes)

Round Two

Round two now begins and will run until next Sunday night at Midnight – eastern time. (March 14th – March 15th Midnight). We now do away with the divisions and just go into conferences. So there is now two conferences of 12 breweries / competitors each. The conferences are reseeded (again using Untappd rankings) to create the new brackets for each conference.

Round Two Match-Ups

The new brackets for the conferences, and The Battle of the Breweries (2021) March Madness going forward now looks like this:

HEELs Conference:

  • Fourscore Beer Company (1) (4.09) vs. GearHouse Brewing Company (12) (3.68)
  • Dewey Beer Company (2) (4.08) vs. Desperate Times Brewing (11) (3.69)
  • Rotunda Brewing Company (3) (3.96) vs. Chatty Monks Brewing (10) (3.71)
  • Urban Artifact (4) (3.90) vs. Sun King Brewery (9) (3.71)
  • Troegs Craft Independent Brewing Company (5) (3.79) vs. Swiftwater Brewing Company (8) (3.77)
  • Mad Chef Brewing Company (6) (3.79) vs. Twisted Bine Brewing Company (7) (3.79)

FACEs Conference:

  • Ever Grain Brewing Company (1) (3.93) vs. The Church Brew Works (12) (3.56)
  • Pizza Boy Brewing Company (Al’s of Hampden) (2) (3.88) vs. The Isle of Que Brewing Company (11) (3.69)
  • Funk Brewing Company (3) (3.86) vs. Three Heads Brewing Company (10) (3.71)
  • Moo-Duck Brewing Company (4) (3.83) vs. Rubber Soul Brewing Company (9) (3.74)
  • Boneshire Brew Works (5) (3.83) vs. Molly Pitcher Brewing Company (8) (3.75)
  • Rough Edges Brewing (6) (3.82) vs. Tattered Flag (7) (3.79)

Voting Begins Now

The polls will be going up shortly after this post goes live (about 8:30AM EST). Make sure to share the polls to help your favorite breweries in! And hopefully we can beat round one’s total of votes! (We need 3423 votes to break the first week’s numbers.)

Thank you all for participating in the polls!

For past results and information on the brackets, you can check out the following links:

Round One Voting Polls:

As always, please like us and follow us here and on our social media pages to stay up to date on The Beer Thrillers. We have plenty of content to check out, so be sure to stop by often to see what we have coming out. Beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, events, news, and more!

Thanks for reading everyone!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

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

]]> 7360 The Battle of the Breweries (2021) – FACEs Conference – The Rock Division – Round One https://thebeerthrillers.com/2021/03/01/the-battle-of-the-breweries-2021-faces-conference-the-rock-division-round-one/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-battle-of-the-breweries-2021-faces-conference-the-rock-division-round-one Mon, 01 Mar 2021 13:57:17 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=7337
The Battle of the Breweries (2021)

This is the poll for the FACEs Conference – The Rock Division – Round One. You can vote once per day, and you can vote once per poll (there is a poll for each division in round one). Be sure to share and send to your friends and breweries to let everyone vote!

Voting runs until March 7th, 11:59PM (EST).

To read more about The Battle of the Breweries (2021) you can read the initial post here: The Battle of the Breweries (2021) – March Madness – The Beer Thrillers way.

[perfect_survey id=”7330″]

Any questions, concerns, or comments about the brackets, or tournament, or breweries in question, you can leave in the comment section or message us directly through our Contact Page.

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!

]]> 7337 Beer Review: Up The Creek Extreme Ale (Thomas Creek Brewery) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2020/10/10/beer-review-up-the-creek-extreme-ale-thomas-creek-brewery/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-review-up-the-creek-extreme-ale-thomas-creek-brewery Sun, 11 Oct 2020 02:32:26 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=4690
Thomas Creek’s Up The Creek Extreme Ale

I always enjoy getting to review (and obviously drink) beers from out of state, ones that I most likely wouldn’t come in contact with. Don’t get me wrong, I love drinking and reviewing local beers and getting them some publicity, and I also love traveling and visiting breweries (just yesterday I was in Wellsboro Pennsylvania, visited the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon, and visited the restaurant and brewery – The Wellsboro House), but its also nice getting beers to review, from family, co-workers, and friends. (Hint…. hint…. for any friends, family, etc reading this…. )

A co-worker, Jam, was coming back from South Carolina, and he stopped at a bottle / can shop and grabbed a few beers for me and other co-workers. From Jam, I received a bottle of ‘Up The Creek Extreme Ale’, a can of Sidestepper (Charles Town Fermentary), a can of Pixels (Seminar Brewing), and a can of of a Red Ale / IPA by a collaboration with a radio station (the name eludes me and I left it in my friend’s fridge; but it had a tiger on it, thus why Jam got it for me due to me liking the Bengals). So this is the first of the South Carolina series of brews I’ll be reviewing. (I’ll be doing Sidestepper soon, because I just recently drank that; haven’t gotten to drink the others yet, will probably do the Pixels beer while streaming with D. Scott over at Knights of Nostalgia).

Quickly, before I go too much further, I want to throw a quick shout out to Josh; who is jumping back into the reviewing game (don’t call it a comeback son, he never left). He will have his first review since his Beer Review of Adroit Theory’s COLONIZATION back on November 11th, 2019. Stay tuned, I’m sure you won’t want to miss his newest beer review!

Also, in industry news, Howling Henry’s in Hummelstown just opened this week, as well as Rubber Soul, and Spigot Brewing in Ford City has announced they will be closing.

Now…. onto the review!

Up The Creek Extreme Ale (IPA) by Thomas Creek Brewery

Beer: Up The Creek Extreme Ale
Brewery: Thomas Creek Brewery
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double
ABV: 12.5%
IBU: 143
Untappd Description: Up The Creek is a hoppy behemoth of a beer with its 12.5% ABV well hidden under heavy layers of malt. The hops come through powerfully in the mouth, with rich roasted malt, sweet caramel, and a burst of vinous fruit. The finish is malty sweet and fruity, while the hops dissipate. Use caution or you’ll be Up The Creek!

Ok…. so firstly, let me just say, this is the highest IBU we’ve reviewed here on the blog. Probably by a pretty far margin. The highest IBU I’ve ever had, according to the Untappd records of beers I drank is – Gyroscopes and Infrared by Broken Goblet. It was 174 IBU. After that it was the Mean Manalishi Double IPA by Hoppin’ Frog Brewery, clocking in 168 IBU, and in third place is Mango Bomb by Pizza Boy – clocking in at 162 IBU. Up The Creek Extreme Ale is number 7 on my list (according to Untappd), and if you count home brews (at a home brew event I had one that would be number 5 on my list; called Idiot Parade by McCarthy Brewing.)

IBU is a term for IPAs that means: “International Bitterness Units are a chemical/instrumental measurement of the number of bittering compounds, specifically isomerized and oxidized alpha acids, polyphenols, and a few other select bittering chemicals, that make your beer taste bitter. (Last Call for IBUs: Fact, Fiction and What They Mean in Your Beer – May 3, 2017). Overall, its a term that’s not being used as much in the industry anymore, and many brewers aren’t even bothering with testing it or listing it when listing their beers on platforms like Untappd or Beer Advocate. But its still a valuable tool and measurement when it is listed, and I still like to keep track of it, and include it when doing the beer reviews here. Its just not the be – all – end – all it used to be in terms of understanding IPAs (especially since New England IPAs seem to be more mainstream now, actually, being made more than regular old school West Coast style IPAs).

This is an old fashioned high octane ‘pushing the envelope’ West Coast style IPA. Appearance and look for this is on the malty end of IPAs (West Coast IPAs). It has a brown / amber hue, slightly transparent, but mostly opaque. Malt colored and malt looking like a malt bomb through and through. Caramel colored. It has a very rich, frothy, foamy head to it, thick, creamy looking with lots of bubbles.

Aroma is caramel, sweet roasted malt, and then pungent face-punching, nose walloping, hop explosion (can’t even call it aroma, its about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the gonads). You get the idea that this is going to be bitter just by the hop nose to it, and the malt sweetness does nothing to cover it past that initial whiff of the malt.

This doesn’t quite live up to the description provided by Untappd. The Untappd description gives you the impression there’s a bit of hype to this, that there’s more complexity to this than there really is. It starts off with the barest of traces of sweet, or caramel, malt. And then takes a very heavy swan dive off the cliff into a sea of hops. A sea of bitterness, of super hop flavor, super hop bitterness, super hop everything. Overpoweringly so. Too much so. A blend and cornucopia of hops, that doesn’t let you really even distinguish and unique hop flavors or notes. Its just straight hop bitterness in such an overwhelming display of raw power and hop (bitterness) that it doesn’t leave you tasting much of anything else. The malt taste is so minuscule and minimal you don’t taste any of it as soon as you get your first taste of the hops. Unlike the description, the hops don’t really ‘dissipate’, they stay there, punching you like a… like a… like a hop drinking punching bag…. yea… like that! There is definitely no dissipation here. I also don’t really get any ‘fruity’ ending to this. Maybe subtle stone fruit notes… but I think its so awash from the hop bitterness that its too hard to tell, and its too hard to differentiate between hop notes and fruit (stone or otherwise) notes. I think its all just a blend, and whatever notes are supposed to be in there, are so overpowered by the hop bitterness, that its too impossible to tell or to be able to pull them out and take note of them or actually savor them. Now… all of this is to say its not a bad beer; its just not… a great beer. And particularly not my style as much anymore. I do like West Coast style IPAs, and the New England IPA craze hasn’t diminished that; its just… this is too much. Too bitter, too hoppy, not enough actual flavor to it, and too hard to differentiate and tell the various hop notes apart from each other. I’m sure theres lots of ‘ultra’ or ‘uber’ hop heads or hop nerds or beer nerds out there who will love this, and all the better for it and for them, this just isn’t particularly my favorite or something I would outright pursue again.

My Untappd Rating: ***.50
Global Untappd Rating: 3.60 (as of 10.10.20)

Be sure to check out some of our recent beer reviews:

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!

Peace, cheers, and prost!

-B. Kline

]]> 4690 Beer Review: Griddle (Funk Brewing) https://thebeerthrillers.com/2020/09/21/beer-review-griddle-funk-brewing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beer-review-griddle-funk-brewing Tue, 22 Sep 2020 02:38:12 +0000 https://thebeerthrillers.com/?p=4377
Griddle by Funk Brewing Company at Funk Brewing in E-Town, PA

Sorry for a slow amount of articles lately. I know things have kinda gotten down to a trickle with only weekly articles, but I do have a lot of backburner ones, and hoping for my weekend (Wednesday – Friday) I will be able to get up a lot of them. Quite a bit of them are backdated ones, so be sure to be on the lookout for them (best way to automatically be notified is to become a subscriber and follower, so make sure to follow us). I am also hoping to finish up the YouTube video (FINALLY!?!!!!!??!?!?!?) and get that posted this weekend as well.

But I do have a TON, and I mean, ___A___TON___, of beer reviews to go over and get published up on here. From a lot of different breweries. Hopefully also J. Doncevic will jump back in with a review soon (every time I see him he hints to me that he’s getting back in the review game…. and…. then…. nothing….) (….maybe if we bug him enough…. he will….). Also looking forward (still) to A. Parys’s soon to be released interview article that he did / is doing / has done / is working on.

So as always, lots of stuff going on here at The Beer Thrillers, so always be sure to like, follow, and subscribe, and follow us on our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and our Facebook group (all of the links are above) and soon on our YouTube channel as well (link above also).

I ended up at Funk Brewing in E-Town a while back (September 4th) when Cox Brewing’s newest location – The Rally Point – was at max capacity. So, unable to get in, I got a draft to go, drank it in the parking lot, then went to Funk Brewing. Where I first had their Oktoberfest, and then this – Griddle – a barleywine that was delicious and worthy of a beer review. So here goes!

Griddle by Funk Brewing

Beer: Griddle
Brewery: Funk Brewing (Funk Brewing Company)
Style: Barleywine – English
ABV: 10.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Brewed with over 50 gallons of Vermont maple syrup this barleywine a huge maple nose but the heirloom english malt shines through cutting the sweetness. In 4 words or less: Flapjacks and Jack Daniels.

I am a huge Barleywine fan, of all shapes, sizes, flavors and breweries. Funk’s is no different. Funk Brewing is well known in the Central PA, primarily for their Double Disco and Mic Drop and Citrus and a few others. Their location in E-Town is typically pretty hopping (even during COVID) (….get the pun?). To read more about Funk Brewing click here for their Untappd page: Funk Brewing’s Untappd Page.

Appearance for Griddle follows what most Barleywines look like; a malty looking dark, heavy beer. Akin to tobacco spit, which might not be the most appetizing way to describe it, but I think a pretty apt one (just don’t think about it from now on). Despite having to drink it in a plastic cup (which I hear is a bit of a no-no for some people in PA and that sometimes post in a Facebook group and run their own brewery……….) it still had a nice small ring of a head.

Smell is very syrupy, very maple, very malty. The description does a good job describing the nose to this; very heavy maple. Very. Heavy. Maple. A. Very. Maple. Forward. Nose. The. Nose. Is. Very. Heavy. In. Maple. Ummm… did you pick up on that its got a very heavy maple aroma? There are a few more underlying hints and whiffs, but its primarily the maple, a bit of a brown sugar smell, and English malts. Possibly a hint of some of the English hops, but it would be so extremely diluted that it’d be hard to say.

This is definitely flapjacks and Jack Daniels. Its strong boozy right out of the gate, but with an extremely heavy maple flavor. The English malts (and perhaps English hops too) bitter out the sweetness of the maple syrup and tame it a bit, giving it – alongside with the booziness – a bit of a bite. Not fully a bitter bite, but a definite eye – opener. Mostly bitter to cut out the sweet, the bite also has that boozy undertone kicking you a fair bit. Thats not to say this isn’t sweet though. Its certainly still very sweet, but with the heavy boozy undertones, and with the English malts providing a nice malty bitterness, that the maple sweetness doesn’t become too cloying or clinging to your tongue (like Lizard of Koz was from Founders……. shudders….. I still have nightmares of drinking that beer). This seems like a very strong Pennsylvania beer, the idea of a boozy flapjack strikes deep to the core of a good hard working lumberjack breakfast. A can of Griddle, some flapjacks, scrapple, bacon, eggs, and maybe coffee to wash it down, would be a great breakfast and start to the day for any hard working man ready to go out and cut down a hundred trees and deforest the rural lands. The beer might even give said lumberjack the edge he would need if he had to race a giant flannel wearing man with a big blue Ox…… (Do people even remember the old folk tales and folk legends of yore?) At 10.5% and with the boozy taste, a 16oz can of this is all you need at a time, but its a wonderful time, and a great drinking beer. Enjoy! (I know I did!)

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.65 (as of 9.21.20)

For those interested, the book I’m reading in the picture was a great book by Daniel Klein. You can find it (and even find my book review of it there) on GoodReads here: Everytime I Find the Meaning to Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live Life. I highly recommend the book as much as I do the beer. (In fact I highly recommend Daniel Klein as an author, his philosophy books are fantastic, and the joke series he did with Thomas Cathcart are great – Plato and A Platypus Walk Into a Bar and Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates).

This was a shorter beer review, and a bit of a quick launch one, but I wanted to get an article out tonight, because primarily, because I feel like I haven’t been writing that much lately, and I need to get a lot more writing done. I have all of these “drafts” set-up on my WordPress and just need to finish them. Plus I have had a ton of great beers lately that all deserve reviews. So I need to get through them and get them done! So I’m trying.

As always, please, please, please, please – like, follow, subscribe, follow us on social media, and comment your questions, comments, suggestions, etc. Always love to hear from you.

Enjoy and cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

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