Halloween - The Beer Thrillers

Halloween Candy and Beer Pairings

AmyMWolfe — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 01:45:08 +0000

Leftover Halloween Candy

We all know we have leftover Halloween candy. Either from buying too much to give away, or from your kids going out and getting it (and you ‘trick or treating’ yourself using their bags while their asleep). Or just using your 11-month old dressed up as an Ewok to get candy that she can’t even eat yet….

….not naming names…

But so, we all have leftover Halloween candy. So lets have some fun and pair it up with some beer!

Amy is here with a mid week hump day column, to give you some beer and candy pairing advice.

Halloween Candy

Admittedly I drink lots of beer and admittedly I have a sweet tooth. Absolutely a beer pairing with the Halloween candy is in order. I mean, how many pieces of Halloween candy have you gotten into? Pair it with a beer and let’s enjoy the mixed flavors

So what candy do you have left?

Candy and Beer Pairings

Let’s break it down by styles and what can pair up with each style.

Stout or Porter

King Crunch by Manayunk Brewing Company

Stout or Porter – Pair it with the peanut butter cups! I’m going to start here because my favorite are the Reese’s peanut butter cups. Pairing the creamy peanut butter cup with a dark and rich stout or Porter takes you on a flavor rich joyride.

(See Beer Review: King Crunch by Manayunk Brewing Company.)

Hefeweizen

Hawley Hefeweizen by Wallenpaupack Brewing Company

Hefeweizen – Pair it with the Twix or anything caramel. Something about the breadiness of a hefe and the taste of the shortbread and the caramel. I thought it was still there with most other caramel candies too.

(See Beer Review: Hawley Hefeweizen by Wallenpaupack Brewing Company.)

Sour

RAR Brewing – Out of Order: Blue Milk

Sour – Pair it with the Hot Tamales! They still make those, right? Or an Atomic Fireball. The sweet and sour from the beer. Anything spicy pairs perfectly with a good sour beer.

(See Beer Review: Out of Order – Blue Milk by RAR Brewing.)

Pilsner

Pulisic Pilsner by Jackass Brewing Company

Pilsner – Pair it with the red licorice or anything similar to twizzlers. Ok don’t laugh but use the twizzler like a straw. I know, I know, don’t roll your eyes at me. Try it! That sweet biscuit-like taste of a pilsner meshes perfectly with the sweetness of red or cherry licorice.

(See Beer Review: Pulisic Pilsner by Jackass Brewing Company.)

Brown Ale

Fing-Longer by Turning Point Beer

Brown Ale – Pair it with the snickers or anything that has both a sweet and a salty. The depth of flavor in a brown ale pairs perfectly with the sweet and salty fight going on in your mouth!

(See Beer Review: Fing-longer by Turning Point Beer.)

Cream Ale

The White Russian (forefront) by Jailbreak Brewing Company

Cream Ale – Ok, hear me out; pair it with Candy Corn. You need a refreshing cream ale to wash down all the sugar from the candy corn. I mean, who really eats candy corn?

Whats Your Favorite Candy?

Whats everyone’s favorite candy? Mine is Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (…just in case you need to dispose of any, you know where to send it). Ben loves Kit-Kats and Twix. What is your favorite? Let me know in the comments!

What have you found to be the best beer and candy pairings? Let me know in the comments as well! Can’t wait to hear from ya’ll!

Drink More Beer!
Amy

Amy’s Column Series

Since getting back to writing for the blog after a short hiatus, Amy has started up a weekly column style writing for the blog. You can find these articles here:

(And please take a moment to fill out Amy’s survey on her ‘Holiday Weekend and Bomber Bottles‘ column.)

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 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 #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.

(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.)

Spring House To Open the Coffin Bar on October Friday the 13th

B. Kline — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 21:36:17 +0000

The Coffin Bar Will Creak Open on Friday the 13th

On Friday the 13th, the freaks and ghouls will come out. Especially on October 13th in Lancaster, PA. The Coffin Bar by Spring House Brewing Company creaks open at 11:30 AM on Friday, welcoming all the creepies and crawlies into the eclectic bar.

They took to Instagram and Facebook to make their official announcement:

Grand opening: Friday, Oct. 13th!

Hours:
Mon – Sat 11:30 am – midnight
Sun 11:30 am – 9 pm

#springhousebeer #thecoffinbar #lancasterpa
The Coffin Bar – Instagram Post

The Coffin Bar is located at 30 W. Lemon St, Lancaster PA.

The Spring House Tap Room Has Closed

As we previously noted – Spring House Tap Room Has Closed – the Spring House Tap Room has closed. The tap room was located at 25 W. King Street in Lancaster; they stated that they closed their tap room to be able to open The Coffin bar and to concentrate their efforts on the brewery at the bar.

For More Information on Spring House Brewing Company

For more information on Spring House Brewing Company, you can read our articles here:

The following information comes from Untappd: Spring House Brewing Company is a micro brewery located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. They currently have 574 unique beers and over 285,000 ratings. They currently have a global average rating of 3.71 (as of 10.10.23). Their Untappd description reads: Perhaps few people understand this concept as well as those in Lancaster, PA, a small city that’s bursting with a strong sense of community and a burgeoning beer scene, where breweries like Spring House Brewing Company can flourish among its peers.

You can find them at the following social media pages:

The Coffin Bar Location and Hours

The Coffin Bar is located at 30 W. Lemon St, Lancaster PA.

Their hours of operation will be:

Monday: 11:30 AM – 12:00 (Midnight)
Tuesday: 11:30 AM – 12:00 (Midnight)
Wednesday: 11:30 AM – 12:00 (Midnight)
Thursday: 11:30 AM – 12:00 (Midnight)
Friday: 11:30 AM – 12:00 (Midnight)
Saturday: 11:30 AM – 12:00 (Midnight)
Sunday: 11:30 AM – 9:00 PM

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:

Thank You For Reading

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

Cheers.

MAPS OF BREWERIES

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

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

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.

If you would like to help keep the blog running soundly and smoothly, you may donate to us to help us keep the costs of the blog to a minimum. We greatly appreciate it. Thank you. (Clicking this link will take you to the page to make a donation. Thank you very much for helping us stay afloat!)

Beer Review: Life Sentence (Tattered Flag)

BKline — Mon, 01 Nov 2021 22:58:00 +0000

Life Sentence by Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery

Getting Hitched… Tying the Knot… A Life Sentence…

So many different terms and words and ways to describe getting married. Justin, the head brewer for Tattered Flag wanted to celebrate his nuptials just like anybody else, so he brewed up this New England IPA to commemorate the grand occasion.

This fine beer was released on October 21st, a day ahead of Justin’s wedding (October 22nd). I got to try it a week ago at their Halloween Party the night of (what was supposed to be) the Hummelstown Halloween Parade.

Tattered Flag Facebook post

Tattered Flag’s Can Releases

Most Fridays (not all, but a lot) Tattered Flag does releases, and they have several locations you can pick their beers up from, or even get them sent to you in the mail through their Supply Drop. They currently have five easily accessible locations in the Central PA area in various places (Middletown, Dauphin County; Penn National Hollywood Casino, Grantville, Dauphin County; Gettysburg Pennslvania, and Lancaster City in Lancaster County in Pennsylvania).

The Review

Beer: Life Sentence
Brewery: Tattered Flag
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double New England / Hazy
ABV: 8.7%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Hazy Double IPA hopped with Citra Incognito and intensely dry hopped with Citra, Galaxy, and Sabro cryo for aromas of cantaloupe, citrus, over ripe peach, and papaya combined with vibrant flavors of grapefruit, oaky citrus, peach sorbet, and strawberry candies

Ok, bear with me here, but its been a bit of a while since I’ve done a beer review (glad to be getting back into the swing of doing them). So, just like my old reviews did – I’ll continue the trend – aroma, followed by appearance, and then finish my review with the taste descriptions and any conclusion and final thoughts I want to express. So lets get to it.

This is a super bright green, hoppy, fresh New England. It is hoppy, it is strong, it gives you peach and candy aroma. Its like opening the brite tank of an IPA in progress, or just ripping open a bag of hops about to be added to the boil. Its that bold, bright, and fresh. The aroma definitely leaps at you.

The appearance is a murky, hazy, turbid, frothing sea of hop juice. The sea was angry that day my friends. Filled with hops, it looks every bit as green and hop juicy as you expect. It doesn’t have the full haze – orange glow that most New England IPAs have, this has a bit of a greener hoppier look to it, but its still certainly hazy, opaque, juicy, and still looks very delicious.

As soon as you take your first sip, you are immediately drop kicked in the teeth, the gums, the lips, the mouth, the whole oral area by hops. This is every bit as green, as bold, and powerful, as fresh, as straight from the tanks as a beer can get. You are getting hammered and walloped by a massive dose of hops right out of the gate on this one, and it doesn’t let up at all, until the last sip. Which, warning ahead, leave some in the can, as there is some sediment, and there is a bit of trub with these cans. I think this could be the only point of contention with this beer, it maybe could have used a little bit of extra time in the tanks before being canned; but I still think it is every bit the powerful hoppy New England IPA that people will want. Its not the full on juicy easy sipping hazy New England IPA, insomuch as its a hoppy, bite, powerful, hazy New England IPA. This is certainly a strong hoppy NE – IPA; which might put off some, and there is certainly a hop bite and even hop burn, but overall its an extremely good NE – IPA. You have an incredible aroma; a very hop forward and hoppy tasting IPA with notes of peach, papaya, and gummy candies, that blend together nice, with the added boost of the hop bite.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.17 (as of 11.1.21)

November

As in tradition here on the blog, in honor of NaNoWriMo, I will be posting a blog post every day. It will consist of who knows what all – beer reviews, book reviews, hike reviews, board game reviews, news articles, travelogues, brewery news, brewery openings, brewery closings (hopefully not), and anything else under the sun. So be sure to be checking in with us daily to see what all we got in store for this month!

Cheers everyone and see you tomorrow!

-B. Kline

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

Is JB Lovedrafts Opening Their Own Brewery?

BKline — Sat, 31 Oct 2020 14:52:35 +0000

JB Lovedraft’s Micropub

Quick, short answer is – yes. Yes they are. On October 16th, they posted on BrewBound a job posting looking for an experienced brewmaster. You can find their job posting here: BrewBound – JB Lovedraft’s.

Their posting reads:

“Seeking experienced Brew Master/ Head Brewer for upcoming Brewery location in Central PA area. Competitive Salary. Full input on brewery installation, direction, and styles. Location near major shopping areas along heavy traffic routes. Installing 10-15 bbl system, with canning line.

Brewery is to be an extension of an existing area franchise with a focus on live music, the addition of a distillery, and a smoke house restaurant concept.

Projected launch date May 2021.”

Other information included on the posting lists:

Posted date – October 16th, 2020
Job Title – Head Brewer/Brewmaster
Employment – Full Time
Company – JB Lovedrafts Brewing Co
Compensation / Salary – Not Specified
Location – Harrisburg, 17050

JB Lovedraft

On October 27th, they posted to their Facebook page “We’re growing” with a link to the above BrewBound job posting.

On the 28th, they posted the following (picture and text):

“Our tentacles are spreading #jb“

Lovedraft’s Brewing Co.

They haven’t outright specified where the location of the brewery will be, but it could be either their upcoming West Shore location, or it could be at their current location in Harrisburg. If I was a betting man, I would bet on it being the Mechanicsburg / West Shore location.

Their current location is at 225 N 2nd Street Harrisburg. Its a burger bar / music venue, and in recent history (pre-COVID but within the past year) they’ve ran into a few issues with the Harrisburg area on the loudness of their music. Their venue has been a wonderful music scene for the ‘misfits and outcasts’ for the ‘freaks and the geeks’ and for the ‘fringe aspects’. Their page lists their place as: “Beer, Burgers, Fries, Music, Nerds, Geeks, Freaks”.

They also have a portable food truck called the JB Lovedrafts Canteen.

Their Harrisburg location is all inclusive, celebrating people of all diverse backgrounds and cultures and ideas. It is one of the greater stops in Harrisburg and an area where everyone is welcomed. So it’s absolutely great to see them getting to expand and to even have their own brewery and brewing line. Will be something to keep your eye on and to look forward to. The job opening page says planned launch date May 2021. (Planned launch date and planned opening are two different things, and with most things, schedules can change, especially now with COVID and the pandemic and everything going on.)

So definitely put this on your calendars and keep an eye on their sites for more information.

JB Lovedrafts Micropub logo

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

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!

Thanks for reading everyone. Have a Happy (and safe) and Spooky Halloween!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Beer Review: S’Mores LazaRIS (Boneshire Brew Works)

BKline — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 03:00:46 +0000

S’Mores LazaRIS by Boneshire Brew Works (Photo taken at the 3rd Anniversary Party)

Undoubtedly the biggest, baddest, best beer and possibly the most popular one that Boneshire Brew Works is known for is LazaRIS. It’s their flagship stout, and their biggest, boldest, darkest beer (Dark of the Forest coming in a close second.) (Also, be on the lookout soon for a review of LazaRIS – the original – by J. Doncevic soon.) So, over the past three years there’s been a few varieties and variants done by the brewmaster Alan Miller of Boneshire Brew Works; some of which include Coconut, Pumpkin, Pumpkin Spice, Tiramisu, and a few others – and now finally a s’mores version. And I think Alan might have outdone himself on this one.

For the 3rd Anniversary Party, Alan – and Boneshire Brew Works – released a few variants of the mainstay staple LazaRIS. Including a firkin of the Tiramisu, a coconut one, the Pumpkin spice, and s’mores. The Tiramisu, coconut, and Pumpkin Spice ones were done before, but the s’mores was a brand new one. So thus I decided to start there with my reviews on it. And I’ll let J. Doncevic do a full write-up on the original LazaRIS to give this some more meaning. Once he gets his review up, I’ll link to it, so you can read up on it and get a better understanding of this beer.

Out of all of the variants released (and re-released) at the 3rd Anniversary party, this by far blew me away, and was my uncontested favorite of the bunch – unsettling and toppling the previous – Tiramisu one. Though, the original LazaRIS is equal to all of these for its own unique reasons, I feel like this s’mores variant is leap years above all of the other variants, and is just my absolute favorite.

S’Mores LazaRIS by Boneshire Brew Works (photo taken at the Halloween Bash Party about a week after the 3rd Anniversary Party) (Daughter’s game of Chutes and Ladders going on in the background)

Beer: S’Mores LazaRIS
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: Stout – Imperial / Double
ABV: 9.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: Our Russian Imperial Stout, LazaRIS, with the addition of s’mores flavorings.
Original LazaRIS Write-Up: LazaRIS rises from the dead with with its rich and complex flavors of a Russian Imperial Stout.

The original LazaRIS stout is certainly rich and complex; and this version is no different.

Aroma is very heavy malt, caramel chocolate like notes, sweet vanilla notes, with a bready biscotti or graham cracker like smell lingering on the underneath of it all. The malt and grain notes are strong, roast, caramel chocolate, and give it a good backbone to the adjunct additions of marshmallow, graham, and vanilla.

Appearance is your typical stout look; like I’m constantly saying in this blog. Its Razor Ramon hair dark black. Its heavy looking, its thick looking, its full bodied, like a good woman (or man). There is a thin head to this, not a big foamy head, but a small circling ring with white going to brown foam, there is a lot of bubbles to the head that are varying shape and size.

Now lets move onto the real gem of this beauty; its taste. Hmmm mmmm hmmm mmmm. The taste is so fantastic. There is booze, there is depth, there is heavyness, thickness, there is wonderful malt, wonderful grain, wonderful notes of all of the adjuncts, there is just so much flavor and complexity, so much richness and decadence to this brew that its much to list and describe. Starting with first notes; you get a caramel and roast malt taste on initial impression with some booze heavyness to it but not overpowering or disturbing, this then seeps into the malts going more chocolate and roasty and toasty; but then the adjuncts quickly take over – you get marshmallow and vanilla notes. Quickly you get the full dark cooking chocolate for the s’more, and then a nice underlying bready, biscuit, graham cracker flavor that gives it a nice soft ending, a nice backbone to it all that ties in perfectly with the roast malt, the caramel chocolate malt, and the heavy grain bill. Making this just one fantastic, wonderful, rich, tasty, complex beer.

That makes this one fantastic and perfect beer on a super ugly Pennsylvania fall-into-winter day like today. ESPECIALLY when that day happens to also be National Stout Day.

Still on tap at Boneshire Brewery on Derry Street in Rutherford, so be sure to stop in! It certainly won’t last much longer!

My Untappd Rating: ****.50
Global Untappd Rating: 4.02 (as of 11.7.19, National Stout Day)

So, funny thing about this article, this was meant to be done SOOOOO MUCH EARLIER in the day…. but so much in the day came up and happened. (Joys of your days off being consumed by kiddos and doctor appointments, and drama rehearsals, and bingo, and all kinds of things.)

But I originally grabbed a can of Edmund Oast’s and Westerbrook’s “There’s Nuttin’ Butter Than Cam Pants” – thinking it’d make for a perfect stout on National Stout Day, and a great beer to review for it…. well, lo and behold my surprise when I realize after pouring it and taking my first sip (appearance was the first give-away) that it was actually in fact a barleywine. *Face-Palm*. Well, what else was I to do but make sure I had a fantastic stout later in the day to make sure I do a stout review on Stout day?

Needless to say, this was a great stout for the day. Such a super ugly, dreary, miserable mess of a day, but a super wonderful, fantastic, rich, beer from one of my favorites breweries, definitely made it all better! I can’t recommend this beer, and this brewery enough or more. So make sure you stop out and check them out on Derry Street in Rutherford PA (located in between Harrisburg and Hummelstown Pennsylvania; right by the 717 Armory).

And yes, I know, yesterday I hinted at getting two blogs today done; and I wanted to. But it just didn’t happen. Normally, this review would have been done early in the day, and then a second review done up later today (like NOW time) if I had the chance. But unfortunately, life does intervene. But no worries, still got it done, and still on target for 30 for 30; now sitting comfortably at 7 for 7.

Cheers All!

-B. Kline

Beer Review: Walkers Station Stout (Pretoria Fields Collective)

BKline — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 15:43:11 +0000

Walkers Station Stout by Pretoria Fields Collective

So after a long day at work yesterday (my monday) followed by a Halloween / remembrance party at a friend’s house I’m back at it this morning. Got to keep the streak alive and continue going 30 for 30. Can’t let you all down now. So I’m hitting the ground running with a wonderful stout I had the other day from Pretoria Fields Collective. I had received this can in a beer mail trade a few weeks ago.

Pretoria Fields Collective is a micro-brewery from Albany Georgia. You can check their Untappd page here: Pretoria Fields Collective. They have 79 unique beers with a global rating of 3.68 out of 9,257 ratings.

From the beer mail I received a nice collection of South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina beers. And I’m working my way through them, and I thought since the day was cold, it’d be nice to warm up with a delicious stout.

The back of the Walkers Station Stout can

Beer: Walkers Station Stout
Brewery: Pretoria Fields Collective
Style: Stout – American
ABV: 6.5%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: (blank)

This was a perfect beer to enjoy on a cold, misty, ugly, Halloween Thursday afternoon waiting for the kiddos to get done from school and to inform them that no trick or treat was happening that day. (Don’t worry, we went to Pizza Boy where they absolutely had a blast – you can read about that in my St. Thomas review.)

After cracking it open and pouring her, which had a fantastic and wonderful amount of carbonation by the way, you are hit with the roasted malts. You get all kinds of notes of roasty and toasty malt action; caramel and chocolate a bit, some coffee, but you can tell you’re in for a nice bitter blended stout here just from first whiff.

Appearance is as per usual with stouts – dark black, with a very heavy dense foamy head to it. Its a creamy rich head, light brown, with lots of carbonation letting it retain for quite a while.

And taste is exactly what you expect from the appearance and aroma of this. You immediately get a deep, resonating heavy bitter, heavy roast, every toasted, malty stout. You get bitter, you get roasty, you get toasty, you get all that you expect from the dark malts and dark grains. Its got a heavy mouthfeel but not cloying or too thick, just enough to make it a good thick stout, not too thick that you are chewing it down.

My Rating: ***.75
Global Rating: 3.8 (as of 11.3.19)

Going strong so far, 3 days into November, and 3 posts done. Somewhat keeping up with my goals and challenges I’ve set for myself this month (though I missed my step-goal of 10K every day in November last night/yesterday by 1200~ {ended somewhere at 8.8K} but I did get a walk in in the morning for 2 miles, and with the party, I’m not too bummed by missing my total).

Please keep hanging in there with me and see if I can make it 30 for 30. Fingers crossed. So far I’m 3 for 3. That just means 27 more to go. I got this!

-B. Kline

(EDIT: [12.17.19]: For our good friends at Let Us Drink Beer blog, as a guest writer, I have uploaded this review for their blog as well, to go alongside their review. The review on their blog is mostly the same as this, with just a few changes. You can read my beer review here: Beer Review: Walker Station Stout (Pretoria Field Collective). Let Us Drink Beer also did a review on this [hence why I uploaded this review to their site], you can read theirs here: Pretoria Fields Collective – Walker Station Stout. Make sure to check them both out and show their blog some love. Thanks everyone!)

Beer Review: St. Thomas (Pizza Boy Brewing Co.)

BKline — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 13:18:55 +0000

St. Thomas by Pizza Boy Brewing Co. of Enola, Pennsylvania

Thursday night was supposed to be Trick or Treat night. It was October 31st to boot, so the townships that celebrate Trick or Treat on the 31st should have been trick or treating, and the townships that celebrate on the Thursday closest to the 31st – should also have been celebrating Trick or Treating….. but, unfortunately, a huge massive thunderstorm decided to disrupt all of those plans.

But in a terrific show, Al of Al’s of Hampden and Pizza Boy Brewing Co. decided to offer a treat rather than a trick to all the local kids. When most of the local areas either moved trick or treat to Friday night (Nov. 1st) or outright cancelled it, Al stepped up and offered free pizza, free chicken tenders, free fries, and free candy for kids, having basically a large buffet set up for kids in costumes in the open seating patio area of Pizza Boy.

It was a wonderful, full night at Pizza Boy. Tons of kids in costumes roamed about while parents sat and drank and watched either the Thursday Night Football game on a few televisions or one of the kid Halloween movies on the big screen or smaller screens from Disney or Nickelodeon.

Kids came dressed up as clowns, Frankenstein’s monster, the fork from the newest Toy Story movie, Stitch, a Fox, nearly every member of the Avengers (except of course nobody was dressed up as Hawkeye), a lumberjack, or Wednesday Adams. (Just to name some of the various costumes I saw.)

It was a terrific gesture shown by Al and the brewery and restaurant. And the kids (and parents) had a fantastic time. Hard to beat free pizza (for kids), free chicken tenders, free fries, free soda, and free candy… but I think I have a beer that did just that.

Happy Halloween from Stitch

Beer: St. Thomas
Brewery: Pizza Boy Brewing Co.
Style: Stout – Pastry
ABV: 11%
IBU: No IBU
Untappd Write-Up: ST. THOMAS, PATRON SAINT OF COFFEE STOUTS, an 11% pastry stout infused with @stthomasroasters coffee at a rate of 3 pounds per barrel and over 5 pounds of fresh vanilla beans. Decadent and velvety with an intense aroma of freshly brewed coffee. With such a serious coffee profile we had to balance it with an astronomical amount of specialty malts for a rich, luscious body of liquid burnt marshmallows, fresh vanilla, roasted caramel, coffee and MORE COFFEE.

St. Thomas, proclaimed saint of Pastry and Coffee Stouts

This was an extremely delicious beers. Other than Sunny Side Up, Pizza Boy isn’t really known for their stouts, but when they do them, they absolutely nail them and they are completely and wonderfully fantastic. And this is just example 1 in that category. Its full, its heavy, its boozy, its complex, its very coffee, its very bold, beautiful, robust, tasty, and delicious. Let’s break it down and get into it.

Appearance is as dark black as they come. Black hole sucking out color black; outside of the nice foamy head, it has a very rich, creamy, light brown to white head with spaced and varied sized bubbles. Great carbonation. Great dark stout color, great colored head.

Aroma is like walking into a Starbucks (or what I imagine it does, because I make sure to stay out of those hipster dens). Extreme notes of coffee immediately, even from a distance. There is some milder notes of caramel, vanilla, and some sweet malts. I didn’t pick up any marshmallow despite what the Untappd description for this gives. Perhaps its just covered up by the insane amounts of coffee? Who knows, but I do know this smelled delicious before I even got into it.

Taste is very complex. A lot going on with this stout once you get to tasting it. There is the obvious extreme coffee, but there is so much underneath and underlying that. There is the vanilla that smooths it, there is the sweet malts, caramel flavoring, and it is nice and boozy and heavy. You feel the 11% right away with this one. The coffee gives it a very strong bitter that the vanilla then comes in and smooths and softens before finishing it out. There is a bit of light marshmallow taste, but not too much, and it gets hidden and folded in and swallowed up by the other complexities of this beer. That is certainly not a bad thing, as the complexity of the stout works for it perfectly. The bitterness giving away to sweetness, the booze lighting a fire in your stomach, the heavy mouthfeel, the bold flavors, all works perfectly to provide a very deep, rich, and complex and powerfully flavorful beer that is tremendous and wonderful to sip on. Especially as five thousand screaming and carrying on kids go running around and it starts pouring like crazy and thundering and rumbling and lightening lighting up the sky.

This should certainly be a must try for anyone who loves stouts, high-ABV beers, pastry stouts especially, coffee, or just trying deep, rich, tasty new brews.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.1 (as of 11.2.19)

Roak – Ice Cream Man (Nitro)

I would just like to thank Al, Al’s of Hampden, and Pizza Boy, for doing this for the kids, and for the community. It was a wonderful gesture that meant a lot to the kids – especially the younger ones who missed out on getting to do their normal night of trick or treating. I know the kids enjoyed it, I know my kids did, and it was greatly appreciated by both kids and parents alike. It is great when breweries and people step up like this to help out their local communities, absolutely love it.

Ok, and so far so good, keeping up with my November challenge. Two days, two blogs. So far so good right? Only 28 more days to go! (And no… thats not a pun intended or a threat/worry about Zombies coming….. ….lets see if anyone gets that reference, if you do, leave a comment about it.)

Until tomorrow everyone, keep drinking, enjoy your weekend, and hope you all had a wonderful Boo-zy Halloween!

-B. Kline

St. Thomas

Beer Review: Fatum: Member Berry (Tattered Flag)

BKline — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 15:34:14 +0000

Fatum: Member Berry and Shepherd’s Pie at Tattered Flag

Last Thursday I got to have lunch at Tattered Flag, and what a delicious lunch it was. I ordered the Shepherd’s Pie and the Fatum: Member Berry. Both were delicious, both were tasty, both made for an excellent lunch time treat.

This is the final day of October, some may know it as October 31st, or Halloween, or All Hallow’s Eve, or the day before November, or in the case of 2019, the day after the Nationals won the World Series (….ugh….); but it is the final day of October, so I am shooting out a review here in the morning, and then planning (fingers crossed, hopefully… you never know…. life is crazy… yadda yadda yadda, the clam bisk [Seinfeld joke for the win]) another beer review posting after taking the kiddos around for Trick or Treat tonight (…once again, hopefully the storms hold out and we get to do that).

For November though, and in celebration of it being NaNoWriMo, I am tentatively – hopefully – possibly – fingers crossed again – wanting – going to do a post a day. Write a new post, every day, and post it each day; as kind of my nod to NaNoWriMo, so stay tuned for that. Be sure to follow us to stay up to date on that, and to see if I can actually hold myself accountable with that given the hectic life I have.

So moving on from there, lets get down to this.

Beer: Fatum: Member Berry
Brewery: Tattered Flag
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 6%
IBU: No IBU
Untappd Write-Up: This Tart ale was conditioned on Blueberries, Strawberries, and Aronia Berries.

Lets start off with this, its a beautiful beer, and the food to pair with it (Shepard’s Pie) was fantastic and beautiful too. The name is great and perfectly goes with the style and the fact that it uses blueberries, strawberries, and aronia berries. For those of you unfamiliar with the name, its from South Park and one of the better creations they’ve had in recent years. While the show has tailed off a bit in recent years, PC Principal and Member Berries is probably their best newest additions and aspects of the show.

Also, for those of you unfamiliar with them – myself included – aronia berries: “Aronia is a genus of deciduous shrubs, the chokeberries, in the family Rosaceae native to eastern North America and most commonly found in wet woods and swamps. The genus is usually considered to contain two or three species, one of which is naturalized in Europe ” (Source: Wikipedia)

Aronia or Choke Berries

Now that we did our knowledge and information passing on (and knowing is half the battle!) … (thanks GI Joe), we can get get down to the review.

Appearance is a dark purplish hue. It does have a glowy look to it under certain light, but mostly its dark hued, purple, and with an unfiltered look to it. Not thick or smoothie thick or styled, but unfiltered, and with the dark purplish look to it, it is mostly opaque unless a bright light shined on it.

Aroma is very heavy berry, you can pick up all three of the main berries mentioned and used in the beer. You get very powerful notes of blueberry and aronia, you get this slight faint whiff of strawberry at the end that kind of softens the other two berries. I want to guess maybe a possibility of some lactose or vanilla as there is a hint of it, but when drinking, there is no taste of it, so not sure if its included or not.

Taste is very tart, puckable, but not too bad as to be untasty or detrimental. All three berries get equal playing time on this field, with maybe strawberries having the least flavorful impact (probably for the best for me, as I’m not a huge strawberry person). The blueberries are a very nice sweet and tart, not a heavy funky, the strawberries provide a bit of light flavor mostly at the end of the beer, and the aronia berries provide equal measures of sweet and sour, almost making a kind of lemonade-ish taste to add as a backbone to the beer. The three berries combined really makes for an interesting and tasty combination and concoction.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.81 (as of 10.31.19)

And for those foodies out there wondering, the Shepherd’s Pie was to die for. Wonderful and very tasty (though I was called a lamb murderer quite a bit by my partner at the table).

The Member Berry probably won’t be on tap long at Tattered Flag, so if you want it, make sure you jump on that and stop in and try it out soon!

And as I said, we are kicking off November big here at The Beer Thrillers. To celebrate NaNoWriMo month I am planning on writing an article, blog post, beer review, brewery review, whatever, every day of the month – that means a minimum of 30 new blog posts – and thats just from me. No counting or saying what J. Doncevic will do. I have also reached out to several fellow beer bloggers through WordPress’s Reader and contacted them to see if they would like to do some guest writing (as well as us doing guest writing for them). If there’s one thing craft beer and craft breweries have taught me, is that there’s nothing wrong with collaboration and it just makes the community stronger. So be on the look out for all of that. Also be on the look out soon for me and J. Doncevic’s first joint-post about the 3rd Anniversary party at Boneshire Brew Works.

Also as a note, I walked by the future home of the Rubber Soul building today in Hummelstown. The progress is getting more and more noticeable. Their doing a new roof, their doing the flooring now, after having gutted the building, put up new doors and windows, etc. They also now finally have a banner announcing that it is indeed in fact Rubber Soul Brewing on the fence surrounding the property. According to the Hummelstown’s The Sun newspaper they are looking at a January target date for opening (that seems a bit ambitious with today being Oct. 31st and that giving them only November, December, and January itself to finish the building and brewing, but we’ll see).

Make sure to be like, follow, and subscribe, and do all that fancy stuff here and on all of our social media pages – FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc, so you can keep up to date on our goings ons!

Cheers all!

-B. Kline