Getting a Look at Sworn Brewing

This is going to be a long post about the soon to be brewery – Sworn Brewing Company coming to Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Josh, Amy, and I (Ben) got to come out and visit Jesse and Amanda at Sworn Brewing and get to hang out for a bit and check out the place in a behind the scenes look.

Firstly, I want to say sorry for it taking so long to get this article out. It has been super hectic here at The Beer Thrillers HQ, and with all of us writing this article. We had a crazy busy weekend – and busy week – when we got out to visit. (Saturday – Amy and I were in Vandergrift celebrating Allusion Brewing Company’s Battle of the Breweries Win; Sunday – a friend of mine invited me to go with to Philly to watch the Premier League games, and then Monday – Amy, Josh, and I got to visit Sworn Brewing Company.) (And this was all on top of the other stuff we had going on, most of which is articles you can find on here.) (Speaking of that – you can read the Allusion Articles here: Allusion Brewing Company Celebration Party and An Alluring Trip Out To Vandergrift For Allusion Brewing Company’s Appreciation Party.)

I have also been very busy with our “Futurama Monday” – which has been a new blog article as well as new YouTube video essay each Monday.

This is also Josh’s first time jumping back in and writing with us since 2021. So welcome back Josh! Good to have you back buddy!

So before I hand things over to Josh, I’ll give a quick set up to this, and then we will go from there.

The Set – Up

Amanda and Jesse are married and co – owners of Sworn Brewing Company. Jesse is also head brewer. We heard about them opening up their new brewery in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and I reached out to Amanda when I saw a post of hers’ on one of the beer groups. We locked down a meeting date – July 24th, 2023 – and all set to go. So Josh, Amy, and myself met with Amanda and Jesse and got a walk through and a sneak peek look at the upcoming brewery.

For this article, I’m going to let Josh start us off, then switch over to Amy, and then I’ll wrap things up and conclude the article. Please let us know in the comments section what you think of this, and if you like how this article looks and reads. (Josh and I did a similar article when we got a behind the scenes look at Mellow Mink – and Amy and I did similar with a sneak peek of The Beerded Goat).

Getting Sworn In – A Behind the Scenes Look at Sworn Brewing Company

Oh … hey there. It’s that other beer nerd that used to do beer reviews. Long time no see, right? An even longer time since I’ve written a review, let alone been here to co-author a brewer interview. Perfect time to come back, right? Thought so. I could waste your valuable time reading more drivel or I could just cut to the chase. Probably best if I just got stuck in about the visit Amy, Ben, and I had at a small brewery called Sworn Brewing Company located off East Trindle Road.

Sometimes one just needs to let opportunity in when it knocks, lest one be left out in the cold, so when the chance to visit a brand new, not yet open, brewery came across my notifications, I may have had to invite myself (okay, who am I kidding, I totally invited myself) to check the place out and get to know the new face. Truth be told though, Jesse Mills is no new face in the brewing scene. He knows his way around a Fermenter and Brite tank as he’s got some serious chops, having been in the business for over a decade. An excellent starting point and will make for great conversation. Upon arrival, I’m greeted with a quaint location tucked behind the Atlantic Pools and slot in near a black Subaru WRX STi (don’t worry about the car bro, we’re here for beer). Ben and Amy haven’t yet arrived, but no harm I figure, I’m early so I’ll just walk in and introduce myself. Step through the glass door with a small sign denoting what was once a catering business is now a brewery and step into a remarkable little place. I’d never have guessed that Jesse and his wife Amanda had been working tirelessly for a month prior to put the place right. A month? Wait … *checks notes* … yep, a literal month since the spot was purchased, did the new owners turn the key and renovate the inside. And what a transformation they’ve done. The floors still bear the character of tire prints from being a garage and then the spots and spills of a catering hub, but they are as clean as ever, given the elbow grease put into them. A corrugated metal and Australian wood bartop adorn the rear quarter of the space, adding function, form, and beauty. The walls were painted dark to add an air of comfort and warmth, and the overhead Edison lights help to drive that feeling home. Even with the place 80% complete, I feel immediately welcome, as if this brewery has been here forever. Jesse is gleefully explaining how things will look when Ben and Amy finally walk through the door. FINALLY! We can get down to business and talk shop with the rightfully excited owners.

There’s something beautiful in watching someone who is passionate about their field of expertise talk about what makes them happy. In the few hours we spent with Jesse, I don’t recall ever seeing the mile wide smile leave his countenance. His joy was infectious and I know I’m not the only one that feels this way. The brewery is small on purpose, not because droves of people aren’t invited, but because a personal, individual approach is more easily achieved. Customers aren’t going to be seen as a number, but as friends or family. While that will come off as a negative to some, personally I see it as their greatest strength. In keeping things small, the beer will only benefit from this approach because scaling production up means many of the nuances and subtleties are glossed over or don’t have the chance to be experienced. I could go on and on about what was discussed, but there are two other authors waiting for me to finish gushing over the splendid time and laughs shared, so I’ll button up and discuss one of the liquid libations afforded to our visit.

One such drink was called “Dreams Debunked”. This pineapple and strawberry kettle sour sits low on octane and high on enjoyment. With the outside reaching deep into the 80’s (and 90’s the week after), this sweetheart of a sipper could function quite nicely as a break from midday chores or a sweet treat at the end of the summer’s day. Tropical waves wash over your sense of smell and suddenly the absence of sand beneath your feet becomes apparent. You’re still in Central PA, but your nose is on a beach (lucky devil). Honestly, I could have lived in the nose of Dreams Debunked, but not tasting it would have been a disservice to our hosts, so … bottoms up! As in the description, so too on the tongue does pineapple show up first. And it does so in a very dominate fashion, almost to the point where I questioned if strawberry was included. Almost. You see, there was a bit of a time element to this tart concoction and not enough of it had elapsed. There was plenty of time left in our visit, which meant there was plenty of time to get acquainted with our hosts and this beverage. Good thing too, as the more my taste buds became used to the liquid, so too did more flavor notes appear. The once king pineapple had abdicated its throne to allow its equally tart and sweet partner time in the limelight. The bottom third of this sample is glorious, almost jammy (or marmalade for our Commonwealth constituents) strawberry. The flavors and fruit mentioned in the description are, in fact, present and accounted for. All it needs is a little time and patience. Speaking of time and patience, Sworn Brewing Company is not yet open, though the target is set for September. I’ll be honest, I can’t wait to get Sworn in. How about you, Amy?

• Josh

Sworn To a Good Time at Sworn Brewing

It was just a few weeks ago The Beer Thrillers gang was invited for a sneak peek of the new Sworn Brewing company and taproom.  Owners Jesse and Amanda Mills were there to show us their second home.  The minute you walk in you can tell these 2 have poured their heart and soul into opening this nano – brewery. 

I mean that type of passion should be evident by this quote from their Facebook page “We will strive to make sure the highest quality items we can get our hands on will be used in every single process.  Everything that comes out of our taps, every single small batch of beer that we make will go through a rigorous quality control process.  If it does not meet our standards, it will never be consumed by the customer.  We are not here to cut corners, we are here to make sure we can provide you with the best possible experience that you deserve, what the craft brewing industry deserves!”

We also got the sense of feeling pretty comfortable like they were trying to create a second home for us and the rest of our beer drinking friends.  Well actually, there are plans to accommodate our liquor and wine drinking friends as well, stay tuned.  Jesse Mills adds using local distilleries and wineries is very important to him and the rest of the Sworn family. 

When they served us our first taster of beer Amanda has put down some chips with queso and some salsa as well.  The queso and salsa were house made and intentions of putting it on the menu were also discussed.  Both Amanda and Jesse started talking about the same passion about these ingredients as they did about the beer they just served us. 

But let’s back up a second.  We were given a taste of the Dreams Debunked fruited sour with Pineapple and Strawberry.  This lightly fruited sour has an ABV of 4.2% and lightly dances on the tongue.  The fruit is not overpowering in anyway.  What excited me the most was the pairing of the smoked queso along with the Dreams Debunked.

The smokiness of the queso with the salt from the chip paired with the sweet from the Dreams Debunked also helped accent the two different flavors.  When I first started drinking DD I tasted strawberry by the end and including the queso I tasted the pineapple.

Jesse also commented, when they are setup and ready, they will be making fresh bread to go along with the house made queso as well as other items for dipping. 

Happy Hump Day!!!!

So… We hung up some lights and made some bread for a test run we are more than excited to share additional details as we continue to progress. Opening date info is coming soon just a few more items to complete

Sworn Brewing Company – Facebook Post About Bread

(Photos courtesy of Sworn Brewing Company’s Facebook Page)

Sworn will be welcoming food trucks to go along with their beverage pairings. 

Don’t let the unyielding passion for high quality products steer you away thinking it is a serious crowd.  When you walk into the bathroom you are greeted with a picture of Mr. Jones above the toilet and as you would turn to use the toilet or hopefully walk towards the sink to wash your hands you are greeted with a picture of Craig Jones the Movie Friday.

Jesse and Amanda are giggling right along with us as they tell us they can’t wait to hear the first customer walk in there and bust out laughing from seeing the pictures. 

This is your place to hang out and for everyone wanting an excellent product, welcoming atmosphere and something relaxing and not so serious.  We can’t wait to add this spot to our frequent stops. 

• Amy

A Look Behind The Sword at Sworn Brewing Company

As I said at the top of the article, discussed getting to meet with them, and we did get to on Monday – July 24th. Amy and I dropped Scarlet off at my parents after Amy came home from work and then we were off to Mechanicsburg. Hit a little traffic on the bridge, but got there in no time.

Josh beat us there, but we were immediately greeted by Amanda and Jesse. Both super awesome and wonderful people. They showed us around the place, talking about the brewery’s past – as a catering business (twice over) and a car shop.

It was great listening to their plans for the building itself. They discussed the bar top, the wood of it, the corrugated steel for the outside of it, the epoxy used on the wood, etc. The attention to detail is incredible with Jesse.

The story of them trying to pain the tiles of the ceiling for the bathroom was hilarious, and thus why only the bathroom has the black tiles and not the whole brewery.

Jesse is very focused on his beer and discussed his past brewing experience – both professionally and as a home brewer. The brewing system at Sworn Brewing Company is going to be a 1 BBL system. Not much bigger than home brewing for Jesse. He said he prefers it this way – it lets him be more precise, dialed in, and make the exact beer he wants.

With Jesse and Amanda we got to discuss a great number of topics big and small. From the brewery itself, to past brewing experiences, to consumer experiences, to new breweries in the area – and old breweries in the area – to competitions in brewing, to traveling for beer (Vermont, New Hampshire, The Answer, etc.), we discussed beer groups and beer blogs – both good and bad – online, Untappd, and the other factors that will play into how successful a brewery is.

Amanda and Jesse are very community focused. They love their location, love Mechanicsburg, and want to see both thrive. They live in Dillsburg which didn’t have any good locations suitable for them, so they opened up shop on Trindle Road.

Dreams Debunked was absolutely amazing. A wonderful, delicious sour. From this alone – I know I can’t wait for the brewery to open up and get to try the rest of that tap list he’s preparing.

The brewery itself is very inviting. With the roll up bay door and the entrance leading you right to the bar, with all of the available seating (including a table reserved for their parents at all times – complete with LEGO Flowers), the entire place is just very homey.

Listening to Jesse and Amanda discuss their plans for the future – with food trucks, home made bread, the world renowned hot dog vendor that they know personally, and so much more – it will be fantastic. This will certainly be a great boon to the town and the brewing community in the area.

Jesse Mills comes with a great brewing background, having home brewed, and brewed professionally. He’s beaten some great local breweries in home brewing competitions, as home brewed with a group and worked with Derek Markel, and professionally brewed with Sign of the Horse Brewing.

(Plus rumor is that they are Bengals fans… so I mean… right there they gotta be good folk right?! Can I get a Who Dey?!)

This is what we love about the small breweries. Seeing how much they support, impact, and help out communities. And knowing that your money is going to a family that loves what they do, and wants to give back to their community, want to grow in their craft, and support their family and friends.

Congratulations to Jesse and Amanda Mills, we cannot way to come back for Sworn Brewing Company’s opening – and many more times in the future after that.

• B. Kline

Sworn Brewing Company

For more information on Sworn Brewing Company, you can find them on the following social media pages:

• Sworn Brewing Company – Facebook
• Sworn Brewing Company – Instagram
• Sworn Brewing Company – Official Website

Josh, Amy, and I

Again – I want to reiterate that Josh, Amy, and I (B. Kline) greatly appreciated the opportunity to come out and get to check out Sworn Brewing Company. It was a wonderful time getting to hang out with wonderful people and we can only help this gets them more attention before their opening. If you are reading it – I cannot recommend that you stop out and visit them enough.

Look for them to be having announcements about grand openings, soft openings, and more around the beginning of September.

Josh

We welcome Josh back after a hiatus of writing. At the end of this article I will post a link to Josh, Amy, and Ben’s most viewed articles. But for now, check out his Beer Review of Ghost in a Machine by Parish Brewing Company.

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:

• Other Half Brewing Company Opening Friday 2.18.22 in Philadelphia
• Midwest Coast Brewery Opening
• Boulevard Presidents Steps Down Amidst Allegations
• Brewery Opening: Howling Henry’s (Hummelstown)
• Brewery Opening: Highway Manor (Camp Hill)
• Brewery Opening: Rotunda Brew Pub (Hershey)
• Is JB LoveDraft’s Opening a Brewery?
• Tattered Flag at Hollywood Casino – Grantville – Opening Their 5th Location
• JB LoveDraft’s Grand Opening (Mechanicsburg)
• ZeroDay Opens Their New Tap Room (Harrisburg)
• Victory Brewery Fire and Explosion (Kennett Square)
• Sign of the Horse Brewery is Expanding in Hanover (Taking Over the Old Miscreation Brewery)
• Brewery Tour: Couch Brewery (Pittsburgh)
• Brewery Visit: Mellow Mink (Mechanicsburg)
• A Sneak Peak at the new Rubber Soul Brewery (Hummelstown)
• Rubber Soul Grand Opening (Hummelstown)
• VooDoo Lancaster Closing
• River Bend Hop Farm and Brewery Closes
• Homaide Brewing Says Goodbye To Their First Home
• Grand Opening of Hemauer Brewing (Mechanicsburg)
• Rally Point Tap Room Opening – Cox Brewing Company – Elizabethtown
• Spigot Brewing Closes
• Full Pint Brewing Closes
• Night Shift Brewing Cancels Expansion
• Mikkeller Brewing NYC Closes Permanently
• Pilger Ruh Brewing Needs Your Help (Pottsville)
• Official BBQ (Pizza Boy Secondary Location) (Rutherford)
• Aslin Beer Co. Now Ships to Pennsylvania
• Boneshire Brew Works to Open Second Taproom in Harrisburg (Harrisburg)
• Aslin Beer Company Confirms Expanding to Pittsburgh
• Rural City Beer Company Coming to Beamstown PA
• Grand Opening of Forest and Main’s New Brewpub
• New Bells-gium – New Belgium Owned Company Buys Bell’s Brewery
• Human Robot Expanding to Jenkintown
• High Road Brewing Company Coming to Camp Hill, Pennsylvania in Summer 2022
• YAH Brewing’s First Can Drop
• RAR Brewing’s Star Wars Can Drop
• Arboretum Trail Brewing Company Opens Their Doors Tomorrow
• Macklin Brewing Company in Development
• Michaux Brewing Company Grand Opening
• Shy Bear Brewing Announces Two New Locations
• Newfangled Brew Works Announces Closure
• Fourscore Beer Company Celebrates Their 3rd Anniversary
• Penn Brewery Announces Sale and Owner’s Retirement
• Voodoo Brewing Company To Open Brewpub on North Shore of Pittsburgh – August 27th
• Truth Beer Company’s Grand Opening
• Sobel’s Obscure Brewery’s Grand New Location and Opening
• AleCraft Brewing Company Expands Into Pennsylvania
• Boneshire Brew Works Celebrates 6th Anniversary
• Funk Brewing Company – Elizabethtown Brewery – Fire
• Funk Brewing Company – Elizabethtown Brewery – Fire Update
• Victory Taproom in Kennett Square Re – Opens
• Pour Man’s Brewery Is Moving Their Tap Room
• Qatar Bans Alcohol Sales at World Cup 2022
• Second Sin Brewery Company Celebrates Third Anniversary
• Round Guys Brewing Company’s Brewpub in Lansdale is Getting a Revamp
• VK Brewing Officially Opens at Historic Ship Inn
• Rocket Frog Brewing Company Announces Closure on December 11th
• Co – Hops Brewery and Cannery Appears to be Closed
• Where to Watch the USA vs Netherlands World Cup Game – in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia
• Liquid Noise Brewing Company Announces the Show is Ending (Brewery Closure)
• Looks Like Homaide Brewing Company Might Be Done (January 2023)
• Old Soul Brewing Starting up in Waynesboro Pennsylvania
• Cox Brewing Company Returning to Their Roots
• Helping the Hemauer Family
• Cellar Works Brewing Closing Cooper Station
• Imprint Beer Company Unveils The GNARCADIUM
• Blueprint Brewing Company Announces Their Closing on March 31st
• Pilger Ruh Brewing is Expanding into Gettysburg
• Back Porch Brewing Grand Opening
• Jigsy’s Old Forge Pizza and Brewpub is Expanding into Hershey
• LoveDraft’s Brewery Sabotaged
• Homaide Brewing Company Resurfaces
• Sign of the Horse Brewery Announces Closure of Zeichen des Pferdes and Re – Branding
• Mount Gretna Craft Brewery in Palmyra Announces Closing Immediately
• The Englewood Announces Re – Opening
• AB InBev Closes Cleveland’s Platform Brewing Company
• Full Tit Brewing Closing
• Camp Hill Brewery – High Road Brewing – Plans Scrapped
• YAH Brew is Coming to Hershey in Spring 2023
• Bespoke Brewing Moving and Expanding
• BrewDog Pittsburgh Has Closed
• Isle of Que Brewing – The Que Brew Crew – Has Announced Their Closing
• Fermentery Form Announces Temporary Closure
• Separatist Beer Project Announces Temporary Closing of Both Locations
• Fermentery Form Cited for Failing Health Inspections
• Guinness Brewing is Closing Their Maryland Production Facility
• Cox Brewing Company Celebrates 8th Anniversary
• Human Robot Expands into the Schuylkill
• Despite Being Closed – Fermentery Form Selling Bottles Tomorrow
• Cape May Brewing Company Acquires Flying Fish Brewing Company
• Our Town Brewery Expanding into Philly
• Smoketown Creekside – Brewery Operations For Sale
• Founders Announce Closure of their Detroit Taproom
• The Bruery Store D.C. Is Closed
• Founders Brewing Company Sued for Racial Discrimination (Again) Just Before Detroit Taproom Shut Down
• Liquid Noise Brewing Company – New Ownership, New Beer, New Friends
• YAH Brew Grand Opening
• FX Matt Brewing Company Acquires Flying Dog Brewery
• The Beerded Goat Brewing Company Taking over the old NewFangled Brewery
• River Horse Brewing Company Acquires DuClaw Brewing Company
• Carbon Copy Brewing will be taking over Separatist Beer Project’s East Passyunk Location for the Summer
• Anchor Brewing Will No Longer Be Sold Nationally
• The First Hershey Beer and Music Festival Announced
• Cushwa Brewing Company Opening Second Location in Columbia Maryland
• Guinness Baltimore Blonde Beer Production Moving to New York
• Black Rock Brewing Company – Downtown Pottsville – Will Not Be Re – Opening
• Jim Thorpe Brewing Needs Your Support
• Cinderlands Foederhouse Temporary Closure
• Appalachian Brewing Company Coming Soon to Carlisle
• Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery Is Up For Sale
• New Belgium Teams Up with Magic the Gathering for Vastwood Seer IPA
• Anchor Brewing Could Be Sold Tomorrow
• Anchor Brewing Company Ceasing Operations and Liquidating Business
• A Sneak Peek of The Beerded Goat Brewery
• Allusion Brewing Company Appreciation Party
• With Heavy Hearts Tattered Flag Announces Last Day
• Appalachian Brewing Company Pairs with The Vegetable Hunter to Release Plant Based Beyond Beer Collaboration
• Getting Sworn In: A Sneak Peek at Sworn Brewing Company
• Brewery Closings – Archives
• Brewery Openings – Archives

Author Articles

Amy’s Weekly 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:

• Brewfests with Anxiety (Amy’s original weekly column start)
• I’ve Missed Drinking (A Look at Non Alcoholic Beers)
• Beer and Pretzel Review: Legends and Lore (St. Boniface Brewing Company) and Garlic Parm Pretzels (Pretzels.com)
• Peanut Butter Eggs, Easter, Beer, and YAH Brew’s Shimmy Shake (Beer Review)
• Cox Brewing Company: Back to Their Roots
• Amy’s Day Off
• It Was All A Dream (A Visit to YAH Brewing)
• Just Another Weekend (A Hike at Saint Pete’s Trail and Hares Hill Brewing)
• I’m Pretty Darn Lucky (Happy Mother’s Day)
• Ready to Kick of the Summer
• Beer Review: Beer Devil IPA (Niagara Brewing Company)
• World MS Day
• Have you ever picked a beer based on the can art?
• Happy Father’s Day
• What is Your Summer Time Go To Beer?
• Holiday Weekend and Bomber Bottles
• Baby’s First Ffej
• We Can’t Always Be a Glutton Right? – Perfect Portions and Allusion Brewing Company
• Beer Review: Pocono Punch (Barley Creek Brewing Company)
• You can find all of Amy’s articles here: Amy’s Archive of Articles.

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

Josh

Some of Josh’s beer reviews:

• Beer Review: Terpenes In Time (BAREbottle Brewing Co.)
• Beer Review: B-52 Belgian Dubbel (Bottle-Conditioned, 2017) – Cox Brewing Company (CBC)
• Beer Review: The Octagonal Stairway (Ghost 859) – Adroit Theory x Pig Destroyer
• Beer Review: Colonization (Ghost 779) – Adroit Theory
• Beer Review: EBK – Gashadokuro (Ghost 782) – Adroit Theory
• Multiple Beer Review: Envie & Envie 4XDH (Parish Brewing Co.)
• Beer Review: Ekuanot Astronaut (BAREbottle Brewing Co.)
• Beer Review: Enigma (Anchorage Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: Mango Guyabano sWheat Tart (Rotunda Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: Miami Vice J.R.E.A.M. (Burley Oak Brewing Co.)

B. Kline

Some of Ben’s articles:

• Top 50 Craft Brewing Companies in the United States (2023)
• Guinness Brewing is Closing Their Maryland Production Facility
• New Belgium Teams Up with Magic the Gathering for Vastwood Seer IPA
• The Beerded Goat Brewing Company Taking over the old NewFangled Brewery
• Good News Everyone, Futurama is Back: Exploring Futurama – Inspired Craft Beers
• Beer Review: I Apologize For Nothing (Fourscore Beer Co.)
• Book Review: Family Reins (Billy Busch)
• Futurama Episode Review – Children of a Lesser Bog and Beer Review: Stay on Target (Allusion Brewing Company)

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.

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!)

(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.)

(Just a quick note, late addition on this, this is going to be a two-part article. First part a look-back at The Beer Thrillers articles of 2019, and the second part about our top beers, top breweries, and other happenings of 2019 for myself personally and the blog, and some of our friends in general. So make sure to check out both parts.)

So its the end of the year… end of decade even…. and thus its time to reflect back on where we came from, how we got to where we are, and where we are going. Humanity, since the inception of time, and creating of calendars and years and New Years Eves and New Years Days have always taken the last few days of each year to look back on their year, their life, and reflected, and thought about how they could better themselves, come up with “resolutions” for the upcoming year, and join in with friends and families as they ring in the new year. “New Year New You.”

We here at The Beer Thrillers are going to do something …. similar. Not fully introspective though, because we don’t take ourselves that seriously. But just a fun look back at the year that was 2019. I can’t speak for my co-writers, but I can say for me, personally, 2019 had its fair share of ups, downs, in-betweens, lefts, rights, diagonals, crosses, bounces, turns, jukes, and jives. But I’m still here and better for it all. But I’m not going to go on and on too much about myself personally.

Rather, I’m going to write about how the blog has done, where we started from, where we’re headed, etc. And yea, I’ll probably get a little personal. But nothing deep or philosophical or introspective. More along the lines of what were some of the best beers, breweries, or events I’ve done of the year. So don’t worry, the blog will uphold the Seinfeld idea of “Nobody learns, nobody grows, nobody hugs”.

I started this blog back on May 17th, 2019. (This year!) It was a Thursday, my girls (my daughters) were at school, I was bored, and trying to figure out what I’m doing / was doing. I needed something for my days off while the kids were at school, something that was fun, something I was passionate about, something that let me feel like I was being creative, using my talents, and something I knew about. I’ve been reading blogs, and news sites, and all kinds of things about beer for so long, and I have a lot of experience drinking… …and writing… that I figured why not combine the two? I was feeling like I was in a rut, my job is the same its been for the past seven years, I wasn’t doing anything outright ‘creative’ and needed an outlet for it, and we are in a review culture. I do all kinds of reviews all the time, in small nondescript and unimportant ways. Like reading books when I’m finished, I write up a review of them when I check them off on GoodReads. Same with Untappd, when I drink a beer, I write up a small (Tweet size) review of it. I also felt, I was in a unique spot to start this up. I was getting to a spot where I knew enough people “on the inside” or “in the business”, and I was also doing stuff beyond just being a consumer; like home brewing, growing hops, helping can at Tattered Flag, being engaged in conversations with home brewers and professional brewers a lot, that I felt like I could provide some interesting conversations and articles to the world.

Mainly…. I was looking to not be bored, and to do something I love doing – writing and drinking beer.

So I started the blog up on May 17th, 2019. Basically having no clue what I was doing. I started up using WordPress and here we are. Its still WordPress, albeit the ‘weaker’ version (fingers crossed come sometime the new year, I switch over to the more advanced version, where I have more control over the site and the appearance). I did a little bit of research, chose a name – which to be frankly speaking – the name “The Beer Thrillers” just popped up to me. Nothing too deep or crazy or interesting behind it. I was honestly conjuring up the idea that it would be me, and a few of my friends writing, thus the “Thrillers” and not “Thriller”. I thought me, Drew, Dan maybe, and a few others would all writing all kinds of blog posts and contributing. Maybe some of the insiders in the business I know too… …while this hasn’t happened exactly; I have enlisted friends and other writers over the year to help out. (More on that as I get to their participation.)

Outside of creating the home page and starting up the site, my very first article on the blog was a beer review of Troegs’ Scratch 375 – The CocoNator. As far as first time articles go, I have no problems with it. Counting the writing of my colleagues and fellow contributors and cowriters to the blog, we’re now up to 130 blog posts (this being #131). I definitely think I’ve come a long way from that first blog. But I also like to think I laid the foundation there. I set up a system for how the beer reviews (I do) are written, presented, and I hope they are written in a fun, interesting, educational, and most importantly entertaining way.

When I started this in May, I had just gotten a couple of cans from my shift manager at work – Jordan and used them a the base for my first few beer reviews. The CocoNator was quickly followed by two South County beer reviews – Painting with Light (May 19th) and Sundrifter (May 30th). Also during this time, from my recent volunteer work helping can at Tattered Flag I worked with and gotten quite a few of their cans (hard work and sweat at their brewery resulted in many cans of whatever beer was being canned that day, as well as lots of other cans they still had from past canning runs). Two of these resulted in the beer reviews of Boulangerie Stout – Imperial Churro (May 22nd) which was a collaboration between Derek Wolf of Wolf Brewing Co. and Tattered Flag and You Hoppin’ On Me? (May 24th).

I was trying to write fast, furiously, and get some articles out there as a starting blog, I knew content was going to be the main driving force (and still is). Quality content even better. Hopefully I provided the quality content. I guess thats all up to you guys to decide, but I like to think I did (or at least, like I said, hope I did). As you can see from my picture of the Imperial Churro; often times in the background or foreground or beside the beers you’ll see some of the recent books I’m reading, as well as my dog Leela – especially if I’m drinking at home where she typically has to get her nose into the business of all involved. On May 27th, I conducted a bit of a science experiment when I found an old (over a year old) Black and Blue Tastee from The Veil. I had gotten a four pack from one of my favorite bartenders – Chris – who had traveled down and muled some back up. I wrapped up May, my first month of writing for the blog, with my first beer review from a bar – Warwick Hotel – on May 31st with a beer review of Cinnamon Toast Crunch by Collusion Tap Works.

May finished, and my first month done; even if I had only started late in the month on the 17th, I felt accomplished with the blog. I published 9 total blog pages; which included the home-page, the author-bio page, the contact page, and other necessary background pages. Word was slowly trickling out about the blog, I was up to 59 visitors and 121 views. Not a bad first month – especially considering it was basically just two weeks (the 17th through the 31st). Lets say I was “pleased as punch” with the start of the blog. June was looking bright!

June started with a beer review from the Bissell Brothers Brewing Company – Baby Genius on June 3rd. Followed up by a bottle of LazerSnake by Three Floyds on June 9th.

On June 13th, I did my first multiple beer review, and my first beer flight review – from Troegs Independent Craft Brewing – of course. What other place would I do my first beer flight review? Troegs was basically my initiation into the craft beer scene when I was ….cough turning 21…. and was the start of my craft beer love. Troegs is still a wonderful brewery, a fantastic venue there in Hershey, and overall holds a definite soft spot in my craft beer loving heart.

June 14th ended up being my first “double blog post” day. Earlier in the day I had stopped in at Tattered Flag to pick up a four-pack, had a beer, and when home, wrote a review, and later that night, with my daughters, I stopped in at Boneshire Brew Works, had a beer, and did a review before bed. At Tattered Flag I had the Abra Collabra beer, and at Boneshire I had the Sunburst beer. A week later I did my first brewery review, when I took my oldest daughter to Gettysburg for the day to visit the battlefields and monuments. Before visiting the sites, we stopped for lunch at the Battlefield Brew Works. A day later I was back at Warwick for another beer and review – Manayunk’s King Crunch.

Around this time, looking to expand, I enlisted the help of a buddy and fellow craft beer aficionado and enthusiast, and Boneshire lover – Josh Doncevic. We had a few talks at Boneshire Brew Works, and we chatted on the Central PA Whalerz group, and discussed this and that and everything beer related, and I thought he’d be a perfect fit for the blog – and he is and still has been. And on June 27th, he took his plunge into the world of blogging with his first beer review Northmont by Yellow Bridge.

A flurry of beer reviews followed – Should Have Put Him in Custardy, a beer flight from Hershey Biergarten, helped close out June and start July with Josh’s review of Ectogasm. June saw the blog grow by massive leaps and bounds, we went from 59 visitors in May to 848 visitors in June with 1100 some views. July was looking to be a great month for The Beer Thrillers, and it certainly delivered some amazing beer reviews! Pink Guava, Inexplicably Juicy, Miami Vice, Old 51, Dillston, Saison and Hurry up and Wait, a beer flight from Tony’s travels up north at the Black Gryphon, Wolf Prints, and Mango Guyabano sWheat Tart.

On July 19th we launched our Twitter page. Which just a few days ago, we hit our 100th follower! (Time for me to plug in here and suggest everyone head over there briefly to follow us, then come back here.) On July 23rd we also started our Instagram page. I will be the first to admit that we don’t do as much with Instagram, primarily because I don’t know enough about it yet. Looking to learn more about it in 2020 and get that page going a lot more.

July continued with some more beer reviews like Enigma, Green Zebra and Next Coast, Good Walk Spoiled, another beer flight from Troegs, and Road Less Traveled. I ended the month by discussing my upcoming road trip with my daughters.

July also saw some fun and interesting events I got to do for the first time. I lost my Ffej of July cherry, getting to make it out to possibly the biggest, baddest, most sickest birthday bash / lawn party ever. Me and Drew also attended the Moo-Funk Home Brew event as well. July was certainly a fun month, but August was looking to be even better.

August started off with a bang, I took my daughters up north PA to visit Elk Country, then we visited Straub Brewery, then we went to Kinzua Bridge and after that stopped at Logyard Brewery and next door to it was Twisted Vine Brewery. That was Day One. Day two saw us hitting the Pittsburgh area. First at dawn we hiked McConnell’s Creek, then went to ShuBrew before going into Pittsburgh proper and visit the city where we did a whole slew of things like see Fort Pitt, take the Duquesne Lift, check out medieval Catholic relics, stop by a Jewish synagogue, see the outfield wall still standing, and we also checked out a few breweries like Cinderlands Warehouse, The Church Brew Works, and we finished the day staying at a motel right next door to Yellow Bridge Brewing. Day Two was a lot busier than day one, but just a much fun.

We didn’t slow down for Day Three. We had a whole host of driving to do on day three. We started at Bushy Run to watch the reenactment and check out the events, then went to the Alleghany Portage and Railroad Museum, and then went into Johnstown to see the Johnstown Flood Memorial and there we checked out the brewery Stone Bridge Brewing. From there we Staple Bend Tunnel Trail and then we stopped and paid our respects at the Flight 93 Memorial. On the way back home to the Hershey area we stopped at Olde Bedford Brewing.

Was a fun three days where we got to see lots of cool places, museums, memorials, monuments, and nine breweries to boot. Can’t beat that!

The beer reviews weren’t going to slow down in August either. Ghost in the Machine by Josh, a beer flight at Twisted Bine, Juicy Fruit sWheat Tart, and Caucus Race 6.0. Then shortly before my oldest daughter’s birthday I took her and my second oldest down to Antietam to see the battlefield there and on the way back home we stopped at Cushwa Brewing. Which I did a brewery review of.

They have since moved out of that building but they are still close by to the location. August still had plenty more beer reviews for you guys starting with Harrishire, Kettle Sour Series – Raspberry, Ghost in the Machine by B. Kline, Good Vibrations, and then I did a dual beer review from two beers I had at a Harrisburg Senators game – a Pineapple Kolsch and a Dry Irish Stout, Reve Coffee Stout, Rye for an Eye (my birthday blog post and beer), and that closed out the month of August. As for events in August, me and my friend Ming went to the Lancaster Brewfest and afterwards went to Mad Chef Brewing (my first time there) which was an overall fun event.

Moving onto September started with my cashing in my birthday taco coupon at Newfangled Brew Works and had a really tasty Kettle Sour from them. In September I wrote a piece for Breweries in PA and also posted it on my blog – the version on the blog is found here: Breweries Around the Outskirts of Harrisburg (9.6.19). It has become one of the most popular pieces on our blog, and I believe it has done very well for the Breweries in PA crew as well. Beer reviews certainly didn’t slow down: a flight of Levante and Tattered Flag beers, a flight of Troegs beers, Fresh Fest and Trail Day Pale Ale, a flight of beers from Mount Gretna Brewery, and Spundae.

September also saw me do our first listicle articles. With two – one celebrating our oldest posts – and one celebrating our most viewed posts. Followed by, as always, more beer reviews – Key Lime Pie, They Burn Them All Away, AuZealand, a flight of Ever Grain beer, Vanilla Ice Cream Stout, and a Sour Blueberry wrapped up September.

October started off with a couple of Boneshire Brew Works beers – Tried and True (Mango) and Iscariot. I then got to attend Dr. Alison Feeney’s seminar and event at Mid-Town Scholar “For the Love of Beer“. Afterwards I went to The Millworks and had a flight. I did a book review of Dr. Alison Feeney’s book – For the Love of Beer. We finally joined Facebook on October 17th, you can find our Facebook page here. We are now up to 154 followers on Facebook, hoping to grow more! Did a beer review of Salted Caramel Moo-Hoo next.

I was contacted back in September by Midwest Coast Brewing Company to do an advertisement article and announcement article about their brewery opening. And I think it turned out very well. This was the first time a brewery reached out to us and asked us to do a piece for them and I think it turned out very well. I did a bit of an interview with the owners / brewers, and talked about their brewery’s opening. This has led to Mellow Mink reaching out to us and inviting us to their place to check them out and do an article (January 2nd we’ll be doing that).

J. Doncevic did a review of Ekaunot by Barebottle. We then covered Rotunda Brewing Company’s rebranding of Irv’s Pub into Rotunda Brew Pub. Also did a news article on Pennsylvania breweries that won at the 2019 GABF. That was my first straight up news article for the blog.

More beer reviews: Athena, Sour Me Peach, Irish Table, Envie and Envie 4X, Yuengling’s Hershey’s Chocolate Porter, and to wrap up the beer reviews of October I did Fatum Series: Member Berries. We also covered Boneshire Brew Works’ 3rd Anniversary Celebration.

November was a crazy month for me. I challenged myself to doing 30 blog posts, one per day – MINIMUM, and I am proud to say I achieved that and met my goal. It was certainly daunting a task, but I did achieve it.

Here’s the list of my articles in November: Pumpkin Stout, St. Thomas, Walker Station Stout, a flight by ZeroDay, King Sue, Intergalactic Warrior, s’Mores LazaRIS, There’s Nuttin Butter Than a Nice Pair of Camo Pants, Secret Machine, Broken Heels, Animal Adjective, 556 Stout, Boat Drinks, a flight of Tattered Flag – Newfangled Brew Works – and Cox Brewing beers, Alpha Abstraction, Double IPA, Lager, Birra Di Levante, Tickle Parts – Passionfruit, a flight of beers from Appalachian Brewing Company, Default Brewing, Darwin’s Salted Forehead, Newfangled Pils, Gotta Get up to Get Down, Paradise Lost, Moon of Vega, Citraquench’l, Azathoth, a flight of Troegs including Mad Elf, and finally a review of Official BBQ and Burgers – Pizza Boy’s second location. WHEW! That was a lot to get out, you can read about it in the November Recap.

November also saw Default Brewing join us here at The Beer Thrillers. Headed by AJ Brechbiel, they are a group of home brewers who will be providing home brewing articles for the blog from time to time. They gave us a welcoming post in November: Cheers from Default Brewing.

I also started up a collaboration with Let Us Drink Beer blog. Where we would be guest writing and contributing to each other’s blogs occasionally. They are down south, and with us being here in PA, it seemed like it’d be a nice fit. Provide some information and beers and breweries that readers might not normally get to see. They posted their first article “Five Must See Breweries in Atlanta” in November.

Josh also wrote two beer reviews in November: Ghost 782 and Ghost 779.

December started off a little slower here for us, probably because I was a bit tired from November, or perhaps just because its the holiday season, I don’t know. But my first beer review was Ice Dreamz. I did a few more beer reviews in December – My Watch Has Ended, The Hog, Scrooge IPA, Sap, and Autumn.

Default Brewing gave us an introduction to their crew: “Meet The Crew at Default Brewing“.

I covered the guest blogging that was going on and Let Us Drink Beer gave us a review of Koki Bunni.

Finally, the last article posted in all of 2019 (outside of this one now) was a travelogue of me and Drew brewery hopping around Harrisburg. Starting at Boneshire Brew Works, and going to The Vegetable Hunter, The Millworks, The Sturges Speakeasy, and ZeroDay Brewing. Was a fun day jumping around from place to place.

Hopefully you enjoyed this look back on 2019 with The Beer Thrillers. The second part of this article will most likely be posted January 1st, possibly before work, possibly after work. I have to leave for work now, and work until (at least) 8PM, and will most likely be going right out to enjoying New Years Eve festivities with my daughters. Tomorrow I work 10-6, and afterwards will be doing a podcast with Esteban about LOST.

The second part of this series will cover top beers, top breweries, and other things about the year for The Beer Thrillers and myself. For example – podcasting.

So make sure you check out part two then as well!

As always, I hope you have a Happy New Year, enjoyed the blog, and continue to do so! Without you, we don’t need to write, so we hope you are having as much fun and entertainment with this as we are!

-B. Kline on behalf of The Beer Thrillers staff.