Groundhog Day 2022 - The Beer Thrillers

Beer Review: Wookies and Cream (Tall Tales Brewing Company)

BKline — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 13:00:00 +0000

Wookies and Cream by Tall Tales Brewing Company

Double Whammy

You guys are getting a double whammy today, starting off the day with the beer review of Prognosticator Pils by Logyard Brewing since its Groundhog Day (2.2.22) and now you are (finally) getting your Star Wars Wednesday beer review: Wookies and Cream by Tall Tale Brewing Company. Thank you for your patience waiting for this one. Ended up becoming a busy day. I was busy from 1-4PM, and then had a little time to start this up, and then had Boneshire Brew Works Trivia to attend – (went with my sister, my brother in law, and my dad) and now wrapping this up, working late into the evening. (By the way – the barleywine that Boneshire Brew Works just put out is absolutely phenomenal and you have to go and check it out.)

We were team named Swillburg (my sister’s go to team name for trivias, because she lived in the borough of Swillburg in Rochester when she went to RIT – Rochester Institute of Technology), and surprisingly we didn’t come in last place. (I have a track record for such things.) We didn’t do amazing, but for a while we were holding our own, tied for 2nd after the first round, and then in 3rd place after the second round…. to slip to somewhere in the 4th-6th positions at the end. (31.5 out of a possible 40 [41 if you count the bonus point] points).

Star Wars

So since this is Star Wars Wednesday, and since its the end of Wednesday (til this goes up live, it’ll probably be at least 11PM even though I started it around 5PM for about half an hour, and worked on it from 945 til its done), we can discuss ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ some. (Nice thing about posting the review late in the day, get to discuss the show a bit.)

Not going to go too deep here into it, since spoilers are still a thing, and some might not have seen it, and I fully intend to do a bigger, more encapsulating piece on it after the finale airs next week, but I will touch on a few non-spoiler things here.

Firstly, this was a good, fun episode, albeit complete fanservice. There is absolutely a lot here for people to love, and to make the fanboy in me squeal with happiness. I do think though, at this point naming conventions for the shows are out the window. Call them anthology shows or just call it “Star Wars” and let the episodes rip, some might be Mando, some might be Fett, some might be Ashoka, some might be Grogu, etc. I’ll leave it at that, because if I go a bit more into it I’m gonna hit spoiler territory and I don’t want to do that.

To see all of the Star Wars Wednesday Beer Reviews to coincide with The Book of Boba Fett episodes, you can see them here:

Tall Tales Brewing Company

Actually first had this beer when out on our recent Maryland trip. Starting off going down Delaware on our way to Burley Oak and from there to get near Cushwa for the brewfest we stopped at the Tall Tales Brewery. Had a taster of this and loved it. I was actually going to do this beer for last week’s Star Wars Wednesday or even double down on it and do two last week, but decided instead to save it for here. If you want to read more about our trips, you can catch the recaps from that trip here (the full articles are on their way):

Coincidentally, soon after coming back from our trip (just a few days ago), Breski’s Beverage and Ted’s Bar and Grill both got cans of Wookies and Cream to have on hand at the distributor (Breski) and restaurant (Ted’s), so if you want to try this, you can get to both locations here in the Central PA area and try it. (Definitely recommend that you do so.)

Beer Review

Wookies and Cream by Tall Tales Brewing Company

Tall Tales Brewing Company is a micro brewery from Parsonsburg, Maryland. It has 110 unique beers and just over 70 thousand ratings. It has a global average rating of exactly 3.5 as of 2.2.22. (All according to Untappd.) It has no description listed on Untappd. When we were there, it was a somewhat busy restaurant, with a nice layout and good looking food menu and a wonderful brick oven pizza menu.

Beer: Wookies and Cream
Brewery: Tall Tales Brewing Company
Style: Stout – Oatmeal
ABV: 6.11%
IBU: 38
Untappd Description: I did it all for the Wookie…Come on The Wookie…Come on…So you can take that cookie. And…Well you are gonna wanna drink it. Using the Force, we traveled through the Galaxy, combining one of your favorite desserts into a stout. Laugh it up Fuzzball.

Well this certainly has all the smells and aromas of cookies and cream (not Wookies and cream) as soon as you sniff the taster or crack open a can. (And thank god for that, could you imagine a Wookie smelling beer?) This has all the smell of cookies, cream, with a roasted stout background with a soft subtle background of light malt.

Appearance is just what you are and wanting – a Darth Vader cape and helmet black. A dark impenetrable darkness black. Like the soul of a man who tells you his favorite Star Wars character is Jar Jar Binks. There is a great head to this, nice and off cream, slightly tan to brown head with varied bubbles, and it left wonderful lacing on the glass.

This is an incredibly tasty stout, more pastry stout in taste than oatmeal stout, its so rich and creamy. From first sip you get hit with a Bowcaster Bolt force of chocolate oreo and cream. You get cookies, cream, oreo, chocolate, all right up front. Then you get that nice smoothness of a stout, the rich dark cascading flavors of malt. This is a fun beer to drink, because all the flavors mash and mesh so well together it gives you such a strong complex beer. There is so much to enjoy with this beer. It is pretty rich and creamy, not sure you could fully down a four pack in one sitting, but at least its not a sugar flavored sour bomb like some four packs I’ve recently picked up. The creaminess and richness of this just act as flavors, rather than fully encompassing the beer like those do. I like the way the beer works together, the textures and the tastes, all working together into one nice lovely beer. This was a great swirling of stout and pastry flavors that just work very well together. There’s no off flavors, there’s no aftertaste, nothing cloying, nothing acidic, everything is sweet but grounded, with a wonderful full and heavy mouthfeel that doesn’t come across as watery or thin. Full and complex, this is just simply a very enjoyable beer that might persuade you to join the Dark Side.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Average Untappd rating: 3.79 (as of 2.2.22)

The Book of Boba Fett …. or Star Wars Cinematic Universe

So…. now that I’m doing this so late in the day, I can go into a bit of the details on this episode I think. I’m really not going to go too spoiler heavy, but just in case, be forewarned right here – if you have not seen the episode, you might want to skip over this bit of the article.

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

Ok, good, you left, watched the show, and came back? We can proceed now? Ok, lets do it.

But, in the second back to back episode of The Book of Boba Fett, we are treated to nearly an entire diversion from the main show. This week did have some pertinent stuff happening to the greater overall storyline, but there was a lot more happening off planet and about periphery characters than to Boba Fett himself. Which, speaking of him – he is in this episode at least (an improvement over the previous week), but it amounts to about thirty seconds of screen time, and with no speaking lines… …so there is that.

Interestingly, I did enjoy the episode as an episode of STAR WARS…. but not so much when you think about it in the scope of the show ‘The Book of Boba Fett’. (At least the majority of this episode anyway, and the entirety of the previous week’s episode.) I think tonally the show is a bit of a mess and confusing, and I think they took the idea of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) and its interconnectedness and ramped it up to 1000%.

The Book of Boba Fett takes the idea of making a SWCU (Star Wars Cinematic Universe) which has always been pretty much in place; this idea of a large collectively canon that keeps everything in line, and a cohesive and coherent chronology; but here it starts interconnecting and interweaving portions of other stories and plots directly into this one. Where with the MCU (Marvel movies) you get characters popping up, and you get after credit / post credit scenes, but nothing so much as a full 50 minutes intercut into the story of another character.

I’ve heard the analogies of “some books give a chapter or two of different perspectives to random characters” and they say that doesn’t detract from the main character of the book. But I don’t feel like thats a true good comparison here. Firstly, if thats the case, its not in a seven chapter book, and its not going to be two chapters back to back right nearing the climax of the novel. And thats why I find the tonal structure of this show so weird. First few episodes leaned so heavily on post-Sarlacc pre-present day Boba Fett activities, and then switched to just having a full on interlude by other characters.

But… it was still a really good episode. And thus kinda my conflict on the episode. I did enjoy it, though I did think it was nearly 100 percent fanservice, I did enjoy it…. but, it just shows how tonally off this season is. And also shows how uninteresting of a character Boba Fett is. The best episodes of the season and they didn’t even include Fett in them (or just had him standing there). Fennec Shand does most of the talking and heavy lifting in the present day segments of the show, and Fett regularly comes off as incompetent, ignorant, or just not smart. So it really makes you wonder why they went this route with a seemingly autobiographical show of a character. But hey… at least next week we’ll most likely get to see Boba Fett riding a Rancor…. so there is that….

Pop Culture Themed Beers

As always with these articles, I like to link to all the various pop culture and nerd culture beer reviews we’ve done, and you can find them here below:

Star Wars:

Rick and Morty:

Beer Review: Peace Among Worlds (Cushwa Brewing Company)

Space Balls:

Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

Game of Thrones:

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

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

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

Scrooged:

Beer Review: Scrooge IPA (Iron Hill Brewing)

Groundhog Day:

Beer Review: Prognosticator Pils (Logyard Brewing Company)

A Christmas Story:

Pro Wrestling:

Matrix:

Matrix Monday

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Beer Review: Terpenes in Time (BAREBottle Brewing Co)

Seinfeld:

Other:

Thanks For Reading

Well this was a busy day, doing two reviews in one, and hitting Boneshire Brew Works for trivia. Hope everyone had a good and fun Groundhog Day.

Cheers all!

-B. Kline

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Beer Review: Prognosticator Pils (Logyard Brewing)

BKline — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 16:54:18 +0000

Prognosticator Pils (and Porter) by Logyard Brewing Company

2022 Official Groundhog Day Beer

The official beer of Groundhog Day 2022 is Prognosticator Pils by Logyard Brewing Company from Kane, Pennsylvania. Phil will even be at Logyard Brewing on February 5th from 5PM to 7PM to commemorate his prognostication.

Logyard Brewery’s beer the Prognosticator Pilsner has been named the official beer of Groundhog Day 2022. In recognition of that achievement, Punxsutawney Phil will be visiting the Logyard Brewery Taproom at 103 N. Fraley Street on Sat. Feb. 5 from 5 to 7 p.m.
“Punxsutawney Phil, also known as the ‘Prognosticator of Prognosticators’ is coming to KANE!” exclaimed Royce Novosel-Johnson, co-founder of Logyard Brewing. “All of our friends and local citizens know of Phil, but not many have ever ventured down to Punxsy to see him at 7 a.m. on Groundhog Day.”
Phil and his certified handlers — the fellows in the top hats — will be in the Logyard Brewery Taproom to mingle with visitors and celebrate the fact that the Prognosticator Pilsner has been selected as the official beer of Groundhog Day, which falls on Wed. Feb. 2 this year. Past designees of this award include Straub Brewery and Sam Adams, Boston Beer Company.
The Bradford Era – Logyard’s Prognosticator Pilsner Official Beer of Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day Again

Well… it’s Groundhog Day Again…. and this year, I’m making sure to cover it with Prognosticator Pilsner by Logyard Brewing Company. Who doesn’t love Groundhog Day? Movie or actual day/event. Maybe next year I’ll actually get to go out to the event and check it out, its certainly on my bucket list of things to do. I hear its a raucous party of fun, drinking, and possibly some prognosticating.

But, so here we find ourselves again, at another Groundhog Day, this time the 2022 edition of it. Phil certainly didn’t see COVID-19 / coronavirus on his radar and prediction in 2020, and didn’t see that 2021 would be much like 2020 (especially for me), but here’s to hoping he sees a good upcoming year.

…..And the results are in….

Six more weeks of stout season everyone. So bust down the doors of your cellars and get them bourbon barrel aged stouts ready, we got some more winter in store for us!

Beer Review

Of course I couldn’t just do a Groundhog Day beer review without throwing in Groundhog Day gif memes. Just like when I did the Scrooged IPA beer review, I had to throw in some Scrooged gif memes then as well. Same with my various Star Wars beer reviews as well. (And have no fear, just because I’m doing this beer review, doesn’t mean I’m forgetting that its Star Wars Wednesday, there will still be a Star Wars beer review today.)

Ok, lets get on to the beer review.

Prognosticator Pils by Logyard Brewing Company

Beer: Prognosticator Pils
Brewery: Logyard Brewing Company
Style: Pilsner – German
ABV: 6%
IBU: 20
Untappd Description: Our version of this world classic has a smooth and crisp character from an extended lagering period. Brewed with imported German Pilsner, Vienna, and a touch of Wheat Malt. Perfectly balanced with noble German Tettnang hops and just a hint of Cascade for a modern American twist.

Logyard Brewing Company is a fun little micro brewery in Kane, Pennsylvania. I got to visit it back in the summer of 2019 when me and my daughters took our trip out west in PA, visiting Kenzua Bridge, and other great local areas. You can read about that here: The Trip (2019) – Day 1. Logyard Brewing (according to Untappd) has 101 unique named beers and has a total ratings of 32,239 with a global average rating of 3.78 as of 2.2.22, they have no Untappd description.

This is a smooth smelling, beer smelling, crisp, pilsner; and you get a good nose of it on just cracking the tab. This is a beer for men who like beer. This isn’t a super fruited, smoothy, juice bombed, with five thousand different adjuncts and purees thrown into it.

Which leads right into how this looks – this looks like a beer’s beer. A beer for men who likes beer. Like a good version of Miller Lite or Coors Lite. Its mostly clear, its mostly transparent, it has a nice decent ring of head to it as it pours out, and it leaves some lacing on the glass. The extra bit of hop gives it a bit more haze to it than say a normal pilsner would have, but it also brightens up the light straw coloring as well.

This is a smooth sailing beer that you can see the future in… even if it looks wintry. This is a sipper and a drinker, and could easily be a spring, summer, fall, winter beer. Good mowing the yard beer, and a good beer for watching a groundhog get yanked out of his stump and forced to either see a shadow or not. There is just a hint and twist of the hop in it that gives you some small level of bitterness, and some different add on flavors that you’re not going to get from your normal pilsner or lager which makes this interesting and refreshing at the same time. There is a light bread to toast taste, some mild honey, with a light crisp finish with a bit of the hop bitterness to go with it. A nice solid mouthfeel, nothing cloying, no aftertaste, and no off flavors. This is a perfect pilsner to get stuck reliving the same day over and over and over and over and over with…..

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Average Untappd Rating: 3.77 (as of 2.2.22)

Numerologists Are Excited… The Deuces Are Wild

If you are a numerologist, today must be an exciting day, especially if two’s are your favorite number. Today is 2.2.22 (and later this month we’ll have 2.22.22, thats a bunch of two-twos or tutus). Always interesting to see these dates pop up (like 1.2.34 in twelve years, or 11.11.11 or 10.10.10 or 12.12.12, etc.). Some people say dates like these hold extra powers, like good luck or stuff, so who knows, maybe try out the powerball and see? But then again, I’m not a superstitious type of person (just a little stitious) (and working at a casino I see far too many of the super superstitious types), so I don’t really put any faith into any of this mumbo jumbo.

Working on Articles

I got a lot of articles working today. Wanted to have this one mostly done last night to go right first thing in the morning, alongside my Star Wars beer review for the day since it is Star Wars Wednesday and we got a new ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ episode today.

There is no way winter will end… for six weeks now, due to the pesky little groundhog Phil, but at least its not been a bad winter so far, like some previous years where hearing the call for “six more weeks of winter” felt like a deathknell. (Maybe I’ll do a stout review once a week for the next six weeks.) And at least there is always The Way of the Mandalorians…. (see how I segued that right back to Star Wars? ahhh… pretty good huh?) So be sure to check back in tonight or maybe this afternoon for the Star Wars beer review (no spoilers!). I will say, I was up at 4:45AM after falling asleep at only 1:30-2AM, so I’m kinda running on E right now, and I think thats why this article took so long to get out. (Also getting lots of calls and e-mails today), despite having the day off work. I will be busy from 1-4/5PM, but might get the review out before 7PM when I’ll be at Boneshire Brew Works tonight for Trivia. If I’m unable to get it out before we leave for trivia, I’ll have it after trivia (so 9-10PM). Be sure to be checking in to see when it hits.

In that spirit, make sure you check out our other popular culture and nerd culture beer reviews:

Nerd and Popular Culture Beer Reviews

Star Wars:

Rick and Morty:

Beer Review: Peace Among Worlds (Cushwa Brewing Company)

Space Balls:

Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

Game of Thrones:

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

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

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

Scrooged:

Beer Review: Scrooge IPA (Iron Hill Brewing)

Groundhog Day:

Beer Review: Prognosticator Pils (Logyard Brewing Company)

A Christmas Story:

Pro Wrestling:

Matrix:

Matrix Monday

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Beer Review: Terpenes in Time (BAREBottle Brewing Co)

Seinfeld:

Other:

Thanks For Reading

As always everyone, thanks for reading! Any thoughts, reviews, questions, concerns, ideas, insights, etc, please be sure to let us know! We got lots of fun things in the pipeline, so be on the lookout and make sure to check back regularly here at the blog, and through our social media platforms!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

For more info: Logyard Brewing Company’s Prognosticator Pilsner the Official Beer of Groundhog Day 2022

Logyard Brewing’s Prognosticator Pils is the Official Beer of Groundhog Day 2022

B. Kline — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 16:08:00 +0000

Logyard Brewing Company’s Prognosticator Pils has officially been declared the beer of Groundhog Day 2022

The Official Beer of Groundhog Day 2022

Logyard Brewery’s beer the Prognosticator Pilsner has been named the official beer of Groundhog Day 2022. In recognition of that achievement, Punxsutawney Phil will be visiting the Logyard Brewery Taproom at 103 N. Fraley Street on Sat. Feb. 5 from 5 to 7 p.m.
“Punxsutawney Phil, also known as the ‘Prognosticator of Prognosticators’ is coming to KANE!” exclaimed Royce Novosel-Johnson, co-founder of Logyard Brewing. “All of our friends and local citizens know of Phil, but not many have ever ventured down to Punxsy to see him at 7 a.m. on Groundhog Day.”
Logyard’s Prognosticator Pilsner Official Beer of Groundhog Day (Bradford Era)

This Wednesday is Groundhog’s Day; the annual event where Punxsutawney Phil is awakened and we find out if he either sees his shadow or not. Find out if we get an early Spring or six more weeks of Winter. The annual event on February 2nd in Punxsutawney is usually a fun beer fueled event every year for locals, as well as tourists from all over traveling to Gobbler’s Knob.

Logyard Brewing Company’s classic pilsner – Prognosticator Pils – will be the official beer of the Groundhog Day (2022) festivities. Past breweries have included Straub Brewing and Sam Adam’s Brewery (Boston Beer Company).

Royce Novosel-Johnson was happy to announce that Phil and his handlers would be coming to the Logyard Brewery and tap room as well. “This is a great opportunity for anyone around our general area to see and meet Punxsutawney Phil. Stop-by to have a drink and meal, get a picture with Phil and enjoy our Taproom expansion’s many new indoor games.” (Johnson as per Logyard’s Prognosticator Pilsner Official Beer of Groundhog Day [Bradford Era]).

Logyard Brewing is located in Kane, Pennsylvania. You can find the brewery and tap room at 103 N. Fraley Street, Kane, Pennsylvania 16735. The brewery is a lovely place. Visited it three years ago during our August trip (me and my daughters), after hiking Kinzua Bridge and park. The girls loved it as well. (You can read more here: The Trip Day 1.)

For More Information:

Logyard Brewing Company’s Prognosticator Pilsner Official beer of Groundhog Day 2022 (Bradford Era)

Thanks For Reading

As always everyone, thanks for reading. Be sure to stay tuned here at The Beer Thrillers for more news and articles about your favorite nearby breweries!

Cheers!

-B. Kline