Sheetz and Goose Island Beer Co. Collaborate

Sheetz has done several beer collaborations now. Like the original one they did with Neshaminy Creek Brewing back in May 2020 – a hot dog flavored beer. (Sheetz collaborates with Pa. brewery on beer made with hot dogs – PennLive.com) They’ve also done a collab with Rusty Rail Brewing Company, Evil Genius Brewing Company, and Wicked Weed Brewing Company; and now this collaboration with Goose Island Beer Company. (This marks the second collaboration with a subsidiary of AB InBev – Wicked Weed Brewing Company and Goose Island Brewing Company.)

This time their collaboration is a Milkshake IPA. 6.8% ABV, so in that medium to moderate range (for comparison sake – Perpetual IPA by Troegs Independent Craft Brewing; their flagship – is 7.5%). According to the Untappd page, the description reads: “Brewed in partnership between Goose Island Beer Company of Chicago and Sheetz, Project I Scream, Brew Scream is brewed with Sheetz Bros. strawberry and banana puree. A light and fruity beer with a kiss of hop to balance the strawberry sweetness.”

From American Craft Beer:

Sheetz, a legendary mid-Atlantic gas/convenience store chain, announced a bigtime collaboration with Goose Island Beer that should pair perfectly with the long Memorial Day Weekend.

Here’s the deal…

Established in 1952 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Sheetz is one of America’s fastest-growing family-owned and operated convenience store chains with more than 20,000 employees.

The company which operates more than 600 store locations throughout Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Ohio and North Carolina has evolved into much more than gas stations that sell snacks into outlets with award-winning foods and their own limited release beers.

Sheetz And Goose Island Beer Release Special Milkshake IPA – American Craft Beer

Beer Review

Beer: Project I Scream, Brew Scream
Brewery: Goose Island Beer Company
Collaboration: Sheetz
Style: IPA – Milkshake
ABV: 6.8%
IBU: n/a
Untappd Description: Brewed in partnership between Goose Island Beer Company of Chicago and Sheetz, Project I Scream, Brew Scream is brewed with Sheetz Bros. strawberry and banana puree. A light and fruity beer with a kiss of hop to balance the strawberry sweetness.

This is certainly an interesting IPA Milkshake. First off, I think IPA Milkshakes are interesting to begin with. They can certainly walk that fine line of interesting, good, and horribly nasty. We’ve covered a few Milkshake IPAs here on The Beer Thrillers before, like – Abbra Collabra 6 Way Banana Split Milkshake IPA – by Tattered Flag, Abomination Brewing, Pilger Ruh Brewing, Rotunda Brewing Company, Collusion Tap Works, and Snitz Creek Brewery.

So let’s get to the review.

Starting with appearance, this looks like a fine Milkshake IPA. It has the golden hue of a typical hazier style IPA (like New England IPAs, Milkshake IPAs, and the similar ilk). Distinctive look, appearance, and smoothness from the lactose. This looks exactly like a model Milkshake IPA. Good head, good retention, and good lacing.

This has a very strawberry and banana nose. Not a hop profile in the aroma and nose, but certainly banana, strawberry, and a bit of sweetness from the lactose in the milkshake department. It certainly nails that.

There is a sweetness right out the gate in the first sip. You can tell this is a Milkshake IPA right off the bat. I always enjoy a beer that I know immediately what I am getting as soon as I start sipping it, nothing hidden, nothing coy or cutesy, just a well descriptive beer that delivers on its description. There is a creamy, smooth, milky profile to this, you get the lactose, and it makes it smooth. This kind of tastes like a strawberry – banana bubblegum flavor from when we were kids, like Bubbalicious or something similar. Its fruity, its pretty strong, but the taste does mellow off pretty quick. There is a bit of a hop kick at the end of this, but its not super hoppy, and not as strong as some in the group I was drinking with this thought (personal opinion I suppose). Speaking of personal opinion, I’m not a very huge fan of strawberry, so the beer loses a bit of enjoyment for me on that – but I recognize that as a personal opinion – the beer does do a good job of presenting the strawberry flavors with the banana flavors. I wish there was a bit more of a hop punch, but all things considered thats not a huge problem. The beer is a little watery thin for me, its got a slight cloying nature to the tongue, possibly due to the lactose and cream like flavor to this, not a hundred percent sure on that. All in all its not bad for a relatively large scale production aimed for cheap at gas stations, and especially given that its produced by an AB InBev subsidary to boot.

This is nothing thats going to be blowing anyone away, but its certainly getting the job done. Cheap four packs at Sheetz gas stations and easy to find is always a beautiful thing. Would be nice to see Sheetz do more collaborations like this but with local true independent craft breweries, ones like Troegs Independent Craft Brewing, or Tattered Flag Brewery, or Iron Hill Brewing, or New Trail Brewing Company. Or even smaller ones (less likely) like Boneshire Brew Works, Moo – Duck Brewing, Wolf Brewing Company, or Hemauer Brewing Company.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.66 (as of 4.17.23)

Conclusion

Its been a while since I’ve done a beer review, but I’ve had several in the works, and need to get them posted and uploaded. Josh (of Mastermind X Studios) told me about an upcoming video and asked me to make sure I get this review up for him. There is lots of more content coming, from beer reviews, to articles, to news, to Amy’s weekly columns, to the Maps of the US States, and much more.

So be sure to stick around, like, subscribe, and follow. Bookmark the homepage so you don’t lose us.

Some other beer reviews you can check out are:

• Beer Review: Terpenes in Time (BAREBottle Brewing Co)
• Beer Review: B-52 (Cox Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: Dunkel Shaun (Great Barn Brewing)
• Beer Review: The Death of Civilization in Slow Motion I (Adroit Theory)
• Beer Review: Chocolate Covered Pretzel (Braxton Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: Dúlachán IPA (Lavery Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: Abbra Collabra 6 Way Banana Split Milkshake IPA (Tattered Flag)
• Beer Review: Broken Skull (Stone Cold IPA) (El Segundo Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: Furious IPA (Surly Brewing Company)
• Peanut Butter Eggs, Easter, Beer, and Yah Brew’s Shimmy Shake (Beer Review)
• Beer Review: Pulisic Pilsner (Jackass Brewing)
• Beer Review: Snow Tracks (New Trail Brewing Co.)
• Beer Review: Super Villain (Urban Village Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: Isolation Anniversary Beer (Aslin Beer Company)
• Human Robot: The First Milk Tube Race in the World: USA vs. The World – Oktoberfest Invitational Beer Fest

Thank You For Reading

Thanks to Josh for getting me off my butt and getting these beer reviews finished up, edited, and written. I have about twelve or so articles in nearly done states, that just need editing and uploaded. So I appreciate the kick in the pants. Thanks man!

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed the article, quite a few new articles from this weekend, from Friday, and from Amy’s weekly column, as well as tonight, are going up, so make sure you follow along with us.

Cheers All!

-B. Kline

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Welcome back to round number two of the four rounds of four beers I had during the last streaming I did with Drew on Knights of Nostalgia. The first was Pixels by Seminar Brewing, this is the second, the third will be Great Notion Brewing’s Fruit Monster, and the fourth will be Elder Pine Brewing and Blending’s Villeinage. (Spoiler alert: all four beers were really good.)

Aslin Beer Company is one of the many great breweries along the East Coast. In the middle of the East Coast; Virginia, Maryland, D.C, West Virginia, Delaware area; Aslin Beer Company, Burley Oak Brewing Company, The Veil, The Answer, Adroit Theory, Dewey Beer Company, are often mentioned on “must visit” and “top breweries” and “great” lists; they are usually the sought after, the traded for (the Facebook group ISO / FT), and the breweries that people mule back from. So needless to say, it’s fantastic to see some of these breweries (notably Aslin Beer Company and Burley Oak Brewing Company) popping up in distribution (distro) in the area. Breski’s Beverage on Eisenhower Boulevard (outside of Harrisburg between Harrisburg and Middletown) has been getting some wonderful cans from both breweries, as well as many other notable breweries, and is always worth checking in to see what they currently have in stock.

The mix-a-six selection at Breski’s and similar places are phenomenal right now (…phenomenally tasting; horrible on your wallet however). Last Tuesday before stopping at Tattered Flag for their Taco Tuesday, I stopped at Breski’s and got two mix-a-six six-packs (and paid about 60$), but picked up some tremendous beers; like the Isolation Anniversary Beer, two Great Notion beers, a pilsner (Billsner) from Burley Oak, a Black is Beautiful from Non Sequitur, Stickman’s The Growfather (can’t resist a good Godfather pun), two from Stranger Root’s Experimental Ales, Alarmist, Atlantic, etc. All in all, a wonderful selection of beers that you will be seeing reviews of (at least nine out of the 12 anyway, and hopefully in a timely fashion).

So, since I have a ton of reviews to do, and limited time (don’t we all limited time afterall?) I better get right down to this and do this beer review shouldn’t I?

Ok…. lets do it!

Beer: Isolation Anniversary Beer
Brewery: Aslin Beer Company
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double Milkshake
ABV: 9.4%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: (Blank)

Always a little disappointing to see the description left blank (its nice to see notes from the brewers / brewery, or maybe a joke or pun, or some context behind the beer or the beer name, or why or how it was brewed, if it was a collaboration, if its someone’s favorite recipe, or something at least), but I think this beer doesn’t really need a description, as it stands on its own.

Appearance is similar to that of a New England IPA; its opaque, its hazy, its bright, and orange, and glowing, but its even thicker than a normal New England IPA looks. It has ‘floaters’ especially if you don’t roll it before opening it up and pouring it. Its very well carbonated and has a great foamy white head, with a good pour it has just the right amount of head, with a bad pour I could picture this filling a whole glass with just head. The bubbles on it are nice and it leaves a nice lacing in the glass. It’s turbid, busy, and active.

The nose on this is hoppy, juicy hoppy, citrusy hoppy, but also creamy and vanilla and lactose, like silky smooth creamy milk with lots of fruity, citrus, juice, hops in it. I get mango, peach, citrus, a bit of zest, and a small whiff of grapefruit hop notes in this blended with the vanilla sweetness and cream of the lactose.

First sip… wow. Second sip… double wow. This has a LOT going on. Which is not a fault or problem at all; granted sometimes it can be, but not in this case. This has a lot going on, but all in proportion to the beer itself and within its style and how the beer is supposed to be. It’s not going off into all kinds of different places with varied and confusing mixtures of flavors, or with off flavors, or with competing notes. This just has a lot going on within it, but all with a purpose, all within the style, and all just how you should want it. Its a milkshake, its a hop bomb, its juicy, its turbid, its hazy, its strong, its delicious. Most importantly…. its delicious. And… did I mention yet…. that its delicious? This was hands down my favorite of the night, and it was the boldest, most flavorful, and had the biggest wallop of flavors, notes, aromas, hop, juiciness, and outright drinkability. I could easily kill a four pack of these, and probably in short time too; its just that drinkable. Which is scary at its 9.4% ABV, but it doesn’t feel heavy, or boozy, or knocking you on your face and teeth skittering across the cement floor of the basement kind of alcoholic; its just crushable but at a higher ABV. This is like drinking a smooth, juicy, silky, creamy, orange juice with the fruity citrus juicy hops in for extra flavor. Just like with aroma, I got mostly mango and peach with the flavor, but also got citrus, some zest, and a teeny weensy bit of grapefruit. I do have to say, as much as I could crank down a four pack of this, as someone with lactose intolerance, thats probably not a great idea. These milkshake IPAs and milkshake sours and such with some having an insane amount of lactose in them (this one probably has a rather large amount in it) typically give me some ‘gastro’ issues next morning when I wake up. One or so don’t usually hurt too much, but after that it starts pushing it, especially with the very heavy lacto ones.

My Untappd Rating: ****.5
Global Untappd Rating: 3.98 (as of 10.25.20)

After wrapping up the beer review here, I wanted to do a bit more research on the beer for the blog, so I did a quick Google search (ASLIN ISOLATION ANNIVERSARY BEER) and the first site was their online ordering form for the beer, which you can find here: Order Isolation Anniversary Beer. It also came with a description for the beer which reads:

“🎉 ISOLATION ANNIVERSARY BEER 🎉 Today‘s the day we opened our (garage) door 5 years ago! 🍻In honor of the 1825 days that have passed since then, we bring you our Aslin ISOLATION ANNIVERSARY BEER. Soft ripe yellow peach, mango, and passionfruit unite with explosively juicy results, and a full-bodied, perfectly zippy taste that finishes off with woody resin notes from Cypress & Sugar Maple wood. This is juicy fruit flesh squeezed into a hazy DIPA!! We’re raising a glass of this to all of you for your incredible support that has helped bring us to YEAR 6. Hang tight, this is not the only drop in our 5th Anniversary series! 🎉 🍻”

Also came with a picture:

Hopefully that provides a bit of closure on the beer and fills in for the lack of a description on Untappd for everyone.

As always everyone, thanks for reading, and be sure to check back soon as I do the other two beers, as well as some recent travelogues (just did a recent hike with my faithful canine companion Leela to the Pinnacle Overlook in Hamburg and stopped at 1787 Brewing Company and Schaylor Brewing Company). As always, there is a ton to check out here on the blog, so be sure to be on the lookout, hit the subscribe and follow button, and always feel free to comment, we love to hear from you!

You can see my latest beer reviews here:

• Beer Review: Dreams of Orgonon (Human Robot)
• Beer Review: Unicorns Stomping on Lanternflies (Saucony Creek Brewing Co)
• Beer Review: Griddle (Funk Brewing Company)
• Beer Review: Out of Order: Blue Milk (RAR Brewing)
• Beer Review: Up the Creek Extreme Ale (Thomas Creek Brewery)
• Beer Review: Hershey’s Chocolate Porter (Yuengling Brewery)
• Beer Review: Dropout (Rubber Soul Brewing)

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!

Also, in recent news, the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) 2020 ended (their 34th edition; this year virtually rather than in person in Boulder, Colorado), and they’ve announced their winners. You can see what Pennsylvania Breweries won here. As well as the 2020 NAGBW Awards.

Cheers everyone, and stay safe and healthy out there with all the rises in COVID cases. Remember to mask up, remember to wash hands, and most importantly: remember to drink some great craft beers!

-B. Kline

Firstly, the other listicles I’ve done:
* Our Most Viewed Articles (September, 2019)
* Some Old Posts (September, 2019)

From our friends at Let Us Drink Beer Blog:

Beer Review: ETA IPA (Wild Leap Brew Co.)

Beer Reviews by J. Doncevic:

Beer Review: Colonization (Adroit Theory)

Beer Review: EBK – Gashadokuro (Ghost 782) – Adroit Theory

Beer Reviews: Envie and Envie 4XDH (Parish Brewing)

Beer Review: Ekuanot Astronaut (BAREbottle Brewing Co.)

Beer Review: Ghost In The Machine (Parish Brewing Co.)

Beer Review: Enigma (Anchorage Brewing Company)

Beer Review: Ectogasm (Drekker Brewing Co.)

After a few months of us doing the beer reviews, I added the category – styles; where you can click through to find your favorite style or if you want to check out reviews for a particular style. I haven’t gotten to go back through and add the old reviews to the new categories, but I will. In the mean-time, we currently have 26 (and growing) in the IPA Category. You can find it by clicking it here: Categories: Style: IPA.

IPA Beer Reviews by B. Kline:

Beer Review: 40th Hoppy Anniversary Ale (Sierra Nevada Brewing Company)

Beer Review: Icicle (New Trail Brewing Co)

Beer Review: Trial by Wombat (Thin Man Brewery)

Beer Review: Furious IPA (Surly Brewing)

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

Beer Review: Petes Secret Stache (Revision Brewing Company)

Beer Review: Loki – Wild IPA (Newfangled Brew Works)

Beer Review: Doppelgänger (Tree House Brewing)

Beer Review: This is The Way (Broken Goblet)

Beer Review: Julius (Tree House Brewing)

Beer Review: The Hog (Boneshire Brew Works)

Beer Review: Citraquench’l (Heist Brewery)

Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewing)

Beer Review: Paradise Lost (Southern Prohibition Brewing)

Beer Review: Fuzzy Nudge (Troegs Independent Brewing)

Beer Review: King Sue (Toppling Goliath Brewing Co.)

And there are plenty more too! From breweries like Boneshire Brew Works, The Millworks, Tattered Flag, South County, New Trail, Troegs Brewing, Anchorage Brewing, Rotunda Brewing, ZeroDay Brewing, Newfangled Brew Works, and so many more! With more getting added constantly.

We’ve been running this blog since late May last year. I (B. Kline) have done a few podcasts (for both beer and pop culture). I am also doing a Beer Education series right now, with a running table of contents. You can see the table of contents (so far) below:

The Beer Education Series:
* Beer Education: Series
* Beer Education: Syllabus
* Beer Education: Introduction
* Beer Education: Module One: The History of Beer Brewing
* Beer Education: Module Two: Barley and Malting
* Beer Education: Module Three: Water

Hopefully (fingers crossed) there will most likely be Module Four released and posted tomorrow.

I hope everyone had a wonderful, hoppy, and happy Easter. It wasn’t my usual, but it was an Easter spent with family. So that in and of itself made it a good day. Got to do some grilling for Easter dinner:

Nothing beats grilling and drinking a wonderful (D)IPA like Time Keeper by Fourscore Beer Co.

So from us here at The Beer Thrillers to your family, we hope you had a wonderful hoppy Easter. Please stay safe, and cheers everyone!

So this wasn’t meant to become a beer review, but I figured I’d do it anyway. I might do a few of the others from Saturday night as well. There is some backstory to a couple of pieces to this blog post, so I’ll work through them all.

So starting off with some background on Spring House Brewing Company. Once I got kind of fully “into” craft beer, roughly 7-8 years or so ago…. or maybe its been 8-9 years ago…. or even possibly 10 years ago? Who knows, I’m getting old, and it was a while ago, I know that much. Outside of the Hershey/Harrisburg area, Spring House Brewing Company was one of the first breweries I visited/tried. Myself, my three daughters, and Sara, went and did the Turkey Hill Experience thing, and the parking garage was right near the brewery. I convinced her that if we did something for the kids, I needed something for me, and since it was dinner time and they offered food, we ‘might as well’ hit the brewery. She amazingly agreed, and this kind of set precedent for most of our trips with the girls (dinner/lunch would be at breweries, for the good food, and to help keep dad from going insane).

We went to their tap room on Hazel Street. The food was really good, all four of them were happy, and I got a flight, which came with something like 10-12 beers. And I enjoyed all of them. We had a good time, and I would say I would list Spring House pretty prominently and pretty high up.

A year or two later we went to their brewery off of King Street (I might be getting to the two locations backwards, and sadly Google Maps is deciding not to load anything for me at the moment, in fact, even the blog is being slow, so maybe my internet, or my laptop, or whatever is hating me). We went on St. Patty’s day as kind of a dinner date, and had a fantastic Shepherd’s Pie and got some of their bombers on a discount blowout. Again, had a great time.

Sadly though, since then, I’ve only been back to the taproom on Hazel St once, and it was quick, nearly an in-and-out with a friend while visiting the Lancaster area. And so over the years, the only chance I’ve really had at trying Spring House has been in bars, at a tap takeover or two, or rarely/occasionally a few cans I’ve picked up at places like Breski’s Beverage or Brass Rail Deli. Every fall I always have looked forward to Braaaaiiins and Big Gruesome. Both are two of my favorite fall time beers. Braaaaiiins is my possibly my favorite pumpkin beer, and Big Gruesome is a really good stout.

But overall throughout the years, I think I’ve fallen ‘out of love’ with Spring House. I still look forward to Braaaiiins and Big Gruesome, but not as much, and many of their one-offs, and other rotationals that I’ve had throughout the years have left me feeling rather ‘meh’.

So, this brings me to the backstory of Saturday then. Worked 11-7 Saturday, and went right down the road to my friend’s house. J.Scott or JDS or J.D.Scott or D.Scott, whatever he chooses to go with, might be helping out with writing some blog posts here as well. Likewise, we (him and I) will be hosting a podcast where we play some old school NES and SNES games and other related things (maybe old school Game Boy games on emulator or Sega, or what have you), while doing the podcast we will be drinking and talking and chatting about nerd culture (like we mostly do when just hanging out at The Warwick, or Boneshire Brewery, or Chick’s Tavern, or his house, or wherever). So be sure to be on the lookout for all of that (I’ll be posting links here in the blog to whenever we upload a new podcast).

So getting back to Saturday, we started off drinking several craft beers from a local distributor that Dan and D. Scott picked up. A Key Lime Pie from D9 (Confectioner: Key Lime Pie), a few from DuClaw, the Spundae from Spring House, and a Red Velvet Cake one from Spring House. I might get around to doing some beer reviews of these if I find the time/energy (I still have a ton of other blog posts/articles to do). But I really did like the D9: Confectioner: Key Lime Pie, so I might do a beer review on that one. We sat around outside for a while killing the craft beers, talking, trying to get a fire going, before going inside, and working on Naturdays and Natty Daddys (well, we had a few of them outside as well), and then we started watching Terror in Beverly Hill…. which, anytime you can watch a movie starring FRANK Stallone… you jump on that opportunity. Believe me. You won’t be disappointed.

So needless to say the night wasn’t mean to be spent as part of a way to do a blog post, but since I had a beer, and I have some time to write it up, and took some thoughts of it on my phone, and remember my discussions with Dan and D.Scott about it, I’ll give it a review. (Yay to more content right?)

Ok, onto the actual beer review (which is presumably why your here):

Beer: Spundae
Brewery: Spring House Brewing Company
Style: IPA – Milkshake
ABV: 6.8%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: Introducing Spundae, our newest milkshake IPA to hit our lineup. Its brewed with real cherry puree, set on vanilla beans, and double dry hopped with potent citra leaves. Get this limited release draft while it lasts, dessert doesnt hang around forever.

….Well….. this is an interesting beer. Obviously my pic isn’t the best, and was mostly just a quick Untappd pic rather than a full on meant to happen for beer reviewing purposes “beer photography” picture. You can see the coloring in the glass that D.Scott was drinking out of. (Gave a taster’s worth for Dan and D.Scott, while I drank out of the can.)

Let’s break this one down….

Aroma is a mixture of all kinds of things. Firstly, its very cherry smelling. Like cough syrup cherry. Maraschino cherry. Overly tart, overly sweet, overly everything cherry. The “not good cherry”. There is a bit of a hop smell but its so diluted by the cherry. There is some kind of other flavors that could be vanilla beans, could be the hops, could be the “cherry puree”, which I’m not really sure what that is. I’m thinking its just straight maraschino cherry syrup they use for ice cream. I don’t know what exactly puree would entail in this instance, and I’d rather it be the actual cherry than puree I think, given how this tastes.

Appearance is very pink hue. As you can see in the picture, it kind of resembles the Crimson Pistil IPA that Troegs did, the hibiscus IPA. The coloring is a little off-putting, especially given the aroma before hand. So already I am kind of anticipating a cherry bomb on this. There’s even a bit of floaters in it and some sediment , at that was with a pour. Firstly, when I even poured just a small sample for both Dan and D.Scott, doing a correct pour, both of their pint glasses foamed way up with a massive amount of head, especially in contrast to how much I poured.

The taste was pretty much what I anticipated, given aroma and appearance, and both Dan and D.Scott agreed immediately on this. Its sour, tart, and not at all like a milkshake IPA. No smoothness. No vanilla. No sugary taste to it. Just a very heavy, tart/sour cheap cherry taste. Like cough syrup gone sour.

Its not a complete waste or drain pour, and its not completely horrible. It is cloying, it is heavy on the mouthfeel, and it doesn’t exactly fit the description. Its not the best or the worst though either. Maybe unpleasant is the best way to describe it? “Not preferable ?” I’ve certainly had far worse in my life, and the Natty Daddy’s later on weren’t much better, but then again, I knew that going in with those. This had at least some expectation to it, and a single was 4.99$ D.Scott told me, so only 2$ cheaper than the entire six-pack of Natty Daddy’s. So it should be obviously a lot better, especially given what it was, who made it, etc. This was more of a disappointment than it was anything, and I think a bit of an indictment about where Spring House has gone in recent year(s)/month(s). As I’ve heard numerous complaints and issues and arguments surrounding their beers in recent times. Which is very sad and disheartening.

My Untappd Rating: ***.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.19 (as of 9.16.19)

(And sadly, I feel like I might be a bit generous with the 3.25 and it might really deserve a 3-***).

In blog news, we’ve been selected and added to the Top 100 Beer Blogs on the internet. Though we’re not exactly in the Top 100, (we are listed at #120), it is an honor, especially since I only started this blog in late May (so just a bit under 4 months). For comparison’s sake Breweries in PA is ranked #37. So given the “youth” of this blog, I think we’re doing pretty good.

You can check out the listing here: Top 100 Best Beer Blogs.

Certainly check it out, and spread the word about our blog, would love to crack the Top 100 soon!

Be sure to like, subscribe, follow, and comment on our posts. Share and tell your friends as well. We greatly appreciate it here at The Beer Thrillers!

Until next time, bottoms up!

-B. Kline

Happy #NationalBeerLovers day. What are all of you celebrating with? After a long day at work where I got shuffled all over the place (three card poker, poker room, blackjack, pit 2, pit 6, pit 4) and getting my girls from my parents and home, I got to squeeze out some time to stop by Tattered Flag at the end of the day. Catch the tail end of their Levante and Tattered Flag day and their can release.

Tattered Flag recently did a big collaboration project with Levante Brewing Co. Traveling to their facility with their crew and the Levante Brewing crew traveling to their facility. They produced a beer at each one. Cans and excellent beers were the result. September 7th was the release of these cans out into the wild for consumption and they definitely didn’t disappoint. In conjunction with the brewery, Tattered Flag also hooked up with the Hershey Biergarten, The Midtown Tavern (at Midtown Cinema), and sip @ soma to release the cans.

The collaboration beer created together at Levante’s facility was the decadent blood orange chocolate stout – Five-Sided Puzzle Palace. A 12% dessert stout. Very rich, very smooth, very boozy, very chocolate and blood orange flavored.

The beer created at Tattered Flag Brewery was Wasted Away Again, a key lime pie sour. This collaboration between Tattered Flag Brewery and Levante Brewing Company tapped right into how Tattered Flag has been killing the sour game and is another fantastic sour created by them (added to some recent fantastic sours like Prepare to Be Flabbergasted, Should’ve Put Him in Custardy, Making Love at Midnight [sour version], Should’ve Got a Warrant, and many others).

Tattered Flag always has an impressive can selection to choose from for in-house and to go. Some recent releases are : the original Makin’ Love at Midnight, a sour version of Makin’ Love at Midnight, Prepare to be Flabbergasted (look for reviews of this and the sour Makin’ Love soon on here), Groundhops Day, a re-release of Because I Was Inverted (Mango), as well as still some cans available of O’Dusseldorf Rules, Tattered Abomination, and all of their staples like TMI IPA, Blue Raider Kolsch, and Teutonic Knight Hefeweizen.

Enough about their can releases and event of the day and lets tackle this flight I ordered up:

First up for me was Intergalactic Deals. Went heavy on this flight on Levante Brewing namely due to their scarcity in the area. Levante Brewing Company is a microbrewery from West Chester, PA. They have been pumping out some incredible beers, particularly NE IPAs, Milkshake IPAs, and some fantastic stouts and sours of their own. They are typically a staple at most beer fests in the area (most recently saw them at Lancaster Craft Beerfest).

Beer: Intergalactic Deals
Brewery: Levante Brewing Company
Style: IPA – Milkshake
ABV: 8%
IBU: 39
Untappd Write-Up: Intergalactic Deals is a Vanilla Shake DIPA with a universal taste appeal. A fleet of hoppiness derives from El Dorado, Mosaic, Amarillo, and Centennial hops, while vanilla sweetness shines over the horizon. Local wildflower honey melds with heaps of Madagascar vanilla and lactose for a sweet steal of an Intergalactic Deal.

This definitely has a ‘universal taste appeal’. Its a sweet smooth IPA Milkshake. The aroma has a vanilla tint to it and there is a good hop aroma that lofts up into the air from it.

Appearance is your normal NEIPA/Milkshake IPA. Thick juicy IPA. Orange and opaque and a bit unfiltered. Light ring of foam at the top (just a taster glass).

Taste is fantastic. First sip to the last on this one. Smooth, and easy to drink. No hop bitterness, no hop burn, just the smoothness from the vanilla and lactose. There is a bit of a mango-fruitness to it that couples with the lactose and vanilla to give it a great taste. Most likely the mosaic hops and amarillo hops. The honey with the lactose and vanilla is what gives it that super smoothness and super smooth taste.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.13 (as of 9.7.19)

Tickle Parts has become one of Levante Brewing’s best known beers, and for good reasons, it is a fantastic brew. So lets get down to it and enjoy this tasty offering.

Beer: Tickle Parts
Brewery: Levante Brewing Company
Style: IPA – New England
ABV: 7.1%
IBU: 47
Untappd Write-Up: Tickle Parts is an exceptionally dry-hopped New England IPA, with low bitterness, rising hop aroma and a feathery-soft mouthfeel. Anticipate chunks of pineapple and tender clementine juices on the palette, while your nostrils are gently tickled with the aroma of thawing sorbet and other fruit juices.

This is definitely an exceptional beer. Exceptionally dry hopped one might even say….. But yes, it is a great beer. It has a very hoppy fruity citrusy aroma. It looks beautiful, it smells beautiful, and it tastes… beautifully.

It has a soft orange glowing look to it. Not quite the dark unfiltered look that Intergalactic Deals had, this has a softer, almost orange juice look to it with none of the floaters dancing about. Light ring of head in the taster class.

Very soft and smooth beer. Lays on your tongue nicely and easily and is just fantastically smooth. There is more of a citrus and fruit to this, whereas Intergalactic had more of a vanilla taste with mango background, this has all of the fruity hops bouncing around right away. Tastes of all of the citrus fruits, orange, clementine, tangerine, apricot, and more fight for equal rights in your mouth (not for the right to party though sadly). This is just an easy smooth wonderful beer all around.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.11 (as of 9.7.19)

I’m not a foody, I’ve stated this several times here on the blog, and I’m not a pie person either (…jokes aside), but this is exactly as a key lime pie tastes. Well, the one slice I once had, against my will, once when I was 18 on a date. But anyway, yea, this is a liquid version of a key lime pie, and therefore it is superior to key lime pies. Plus – alcohol.

Beer: Wasted Away Again
Brewery: Tattered Flag
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 7%
IBU: None
Untappd Write-Up: Hang on to summer one last time and get wasted away again with our key lime pie sour ale! A collaborative effort with Levante. A kettle sour ale with tons of key lime with a touch of coconut and graham crackers. This beer will transport you down to key west for one last gasp of summer!

Aroma is key lime pie. Pretty much every part of this review will be like a dictionary : “See Key Lime Pie.” Because it is spot on to the smells, ingredients, and taste of a key lime pie. They nailed the flavors, the aromas, and its spot on for how each of the ingredients should be tasting.

Appearance is light sour, the off-orange/off-yellow/off-“normal” beer coloring, unfiltered, with a slight tint and hue of amberish/goldenish/pinkish to it. Not quite sure how to describe the coloring, but for those who are familiar with sours you can spot it immediately and go “yep, thats a sour”. I’m sure someone far more educated can point out its exact hue on the spectrum, and perhaps some day when I’m better with the BJCP and all that, I’ll be able to provide better in-depth analysis on the color, but for right now, I’ll just say it looks like a normal kettle sour, and thats good.

Taste is great. Tart, lime, coconut, graham. Not full on sour to the point of puckering up, but the right amount of tartness that makes it refreshing, enjoyable, and tasty. This is a great end to summer beer with a nice sitting out on the beach or by the pool, relaxing, enjoying a beer while watching kids play (or scoping out ….the sand castles along the waterfront).

My Untappd Rating: ****.50
Global Untappd Rating: (No Global Average Rating as of 9.7.19, will update later when one becomes available.)

Moving onto the darker beers now…

I love stouts and I love dark beers, but oatmeal stouts, have always been a bit hit or miss with me. Like its teetering on an edge that can go either way. This one, kind of hangs in the middle without teetering to either side and stays poised on the tip.

Beer: Onyx
Brewery: Levante Brewing Company
Style: Stout – Oatmeal
ABV: 6.7%
IBU: 47
Untappd Write-Up: Darkness awakens in this traditional Oatmeal Stout. The maltbase is a certain chewy type of thick, courtesy of hefty oat additions in the mash. Layers of roasty and toasty specialty malts taste like window shopping with your nose: melting dark chocolate, twice-baked biscotti, and cold brewed dark-roast. *Contains Lactose*

Appearance is a dark chocolate black, slight light brown foamy head. Dark in appearance and dark complexion.

Aroma is a whiff of oatmeal, heady, roasty, malty, going a bit towards the smoked smell in its malt, perhaps just the roasty and toasty – ness – of the malts used. There is a bready smell with the oatmeal but its hard to distinguish it from the oatmeal.

It has a nice genuine roasty and toasty taste, a bit smoked in some way. It is heavy bready. Surprised to read in the description that there is lactose in this as its not really smooth, a bit bitter due to the roasted malts, so the lactose doesn’t really dampen or smooth that out at all.

There is a slight lingering aftertaste to this that while not completely unpleasant, is a bit ‘off’. I don’t think its a huge detraction from the beer, but I’m never really a fan of an aftertaste that disagrees with me because of how it lingers and stays.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.88

Now going into the full deep dark end, we have Five-Sided Puzzle Palace, the collaboration between Levante Brewing Company and Tattered Flag Brewing.

Beer: Five-Sided Puzzle Palace
Brewery: Levante Brewing Company
Style: Stout – Imperial / Double
ABV: 12%
IBU: 59
Untappd Write-Up: A chocolate-covered-orange stout brewed in collaboration with Tattered Flag. This luscious dessert stout is thicker than brownie batter, and for a truly unique spin, we squeezed bushels of oranges into the batch. For chocolate, we stayed local to Harrisburg and Tattered Flag by using Hershey’s Cocoa Powder. Dessert is served. *Contains Lactose*.

This is completely a dessert stout, double-style, rich, heavy, decadent, delicious. Reminiscent of the orange chocolate candies typically given out at Easter, this is practically a liquid version of that, but with blood oranges rather than regular oranges.

Appearance is jet fuel black. Deep dark ocean black. Light ring of foam to the head at the top that is darker hued as well.

Aroma is chocolate straight through with some of the blood orange sneaking out. But very very very chocolate heavy smell. You can smell the heavyness of the beer and it gives off just a deep dark wonderful aroma.

From first sip you get the chocolate, you get the blood orange, and you get a smacking of the boozyness of this. You feel that 12% right up front and center. The chocolate is rich, smooth, decadent, and makes this feel like a true dessert style stout. The blood orange compliments it perfectly and gives the beer some balance to it, so its not just a complete boozy chocolate bomb in your mouth. The two flavors work in great tandem.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.94 (as of 9.7.19)

Fantastic beers all around, from both Levante Brewing Company and Tattered Flag Brewing. Both collaborations were great, and would love to see more work from the two of them together. Make sure to pick up some cans of Five-Sided Puzzle Palace and Wasted Away Again, both are terrific, and will hold up for a while, but most likely will sell out soon and quickly.

Cheers everyone, and since its the start of football season, I’ll give a shout of ‘WHO DEY’ and say Go Bengals ….. go 0-16, and lets get that first round draft pick!

-B. Kline

(Editorial Note: This article was originally written and submitted to Breweries in PA. They will be publishing it in roughly one weeks time on their page and FaceBook page. It was written by lead writer here at The Beer Thrillers – B. Kline, and is being posted here as well. This was a guest-article written by B. Kline for Breweries in PA. Since there is some pertinent and timely information included in the article [namely Tattered Flag & Levante’s Tap Takeovers and Can Releases for 9.7.19] this article is being posted here and now. When it is posted on the Breweries in PA website and FaceBook page, links will be provided to the article’s locations there. Likewise, since this was created for their site and blog, as well as written in Microsoft Online Word DOC the formatting may be off in some places. When the mistakes are noticed, we will try and correct them. -The Beer Thrillers staff.)

Breweries Around the Outskirts of Harrisburg 
By: B. Kline 

In the area surrounding Hummelstown (17036), there is several breweries. In all directions, roughly within 5 miles, there is some fantastic breweries in Hershey, Middletown, and the outskirts of Harrisburg like Rutherford and Union Station. I’m going to take a look at a few of these and suggest a nice weekend trip to these locations that won’t take a lot of your time up, and what all events and plans they currently have going on. In this article, we will be taking a look at Troegs Brewery, Boneshire Brew Works, Newfangled Brew Works, and Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery.  

There is a lot of great choices of breweries in Pennsylvania, and even in just Harrisburg itself, there is several fantastic choices. Coming from the small town of Hummelstown itself (where I’m located – B. Kline – writer for the blog The Beer Thrillers). In Harrisburg central there is ZeroDay Brewing, The Millworks, and The Vegetable Hunter. Along the outskirts of Harrisburg in Rutherford you will find Boneshire Brew Works and in a small development off of Union Deposit in Union Station you’ll find Newfangled Brew Works. In Hershey you’ll find Troegs Independent Craft Brewing and Iron Hill Brewery. In Middletown you will find Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery. And soon, in the future in Hummelstown you’ll be able to enjoy some beverages at the old police station by Rubber Soul Brewing.  

I’ve decided to write this in the best route method for driving and convenience. I debated exactly how I wanted to write-up the breweries of Boneshire Brew Works, Newfangled Brew Works, Tattered Flag, and Troegs, and decided this might be the best and most logical way. The times I’ve done this ‘brewery trail’ this is always the way I’ve done it, and it also stops the ‘why was X first and Y last’ arguments. So lets take a look at these four breweries, what they got to offer on tap, what they got going on, and why their worth a stop in and check out. 

Newfangled Brew Works 

Located At: 8001 Union Station Blvd, Harrisburg, PA 17111 
Untappd Link: https://untappd.com/NewfangledBrewWorks 
 

Newfangled Brew Works is located inside Union Station, a recent development built off of Union Deposit Road (a long road that connects Harrisburg to several of the smaller towns in the area like South Hanover Township, Union Deposit, Hoernerstown, and even to Hershey). It is right as you enter into the development in a large building conjoined with its restaurant pairing – Koda. Koda is a high scale restaurant located to the right of the main entrance into Newfangled. Newfangled also has its own built-in Taco Truck tucked away in the back lefthand corner. 

Lets discuss the food first, the taco truck has fabulous tacos, quesadillas, and other taco and Mexican related foods. Artisanal tacos is the best way to describe these, as this is definitely no Taco Bell menu (and a whole heck of a lot better tasting too). Their food menu can be found here: Food, their hours of operation are: Sunday  11AM-9PM, Monday-Friday 4PM-9PM, and Saturday 12PM-10PM.  

Pictured here is the quesadilla taco from the taco truck, with the added beef meat it came to be 7.42$ (pre-tip). Beer picture is the Guava Lemonade Kettle Sour. The taco was extremely delicious and the kettle sour washed it down perfectly. This is the side-porch and patio area to the left of the building (when facing the entrance).  

The brewery itself currently has 16 beers on tap for consumption. Some of their own, and a few others. Of their own currently on tap they have: 

• Passionfruit Blonde Ale – Blonde Ale – 5% 

• Ariana Flockhart – Blonde Ale – 4.9% 
• Blood Orange Blonde Ale – Blonde Ale – 5% 
• Guava Lemonade Kettle Sour – Sour – 5.6% 
• Kettle Sour – Sour – 5.6% 
• Brut IPA – IPA – Brut – 7.7% 

• Double IPA – IPA – Imperial – 8.2% 
• Irish Red Ale – Red Ale – Irish – 6% 
• Saison – Farmhouse Ale – Saison – 6.8% 
• Newfangled American Wheat – Wheat Beer – 5.2% 
• Lager – Lager – 5.2% 

• IPA – IPA – American – 5.8% 
• Stout – Stout – American – 6.5% 

The non-Newfangled Beers on tap are: 

• Yuengling Lager – Lager – 4.5% (Yuengling Brewery) 
• Standard – Cider – 5.5% (Big Hill Ciderworks) 

I have currently had all but their lager, double IPA, Brut IPA, and the blood orange blonde ale. I have enjoyed everything I’ve had so far. Found nothing to be horrible or terrible and no off flavors or infected beers.  

They offer their beers right now in pints or traditional pours, dependent on the style, as well as half pours and flights. Pricing is your normal fair for a craft brewery (5$-7/8$ depending on style and costs to make the beer).  

Currently, Newfangled Brew Works has produced 22 unique beers, and has a global average rating of 3.73. 

Upcoming events for Newfangled are:  

• Live Music – Fridays and Saturdays 7PM – 10PM 
• Trivia – Wednesdays 630PM – 830PM   

Boneshire Brew Works 
Located At: 7462 Derry St, Harrisburg, PA 17111 
Untappd Link: https://untappd.com/BoneshireBrewWorks 

Coming down the road from Newfangled and getting onto Nyes Road it will lead you to Derry Street. From there you take a right hand turn and find yourself after a few blocks at Boneshire Brew Works. Boneshire was started by Alan Miller, Carson Brooks, and Alex Govelovich.  

Boneshire’s brewery is a small little ‘pub’ style brewery. As soon as you enter you feel already a member of a club where everybody knows your name. If you’ve been there once, your second time there, you are a ‘regular’ and quickly become on a first name basis with all of the staff.  

Currently food is limited to a few behind the bar items like pickle flights and bologna, but it is a BYOB environment with a pizzeria just two doors down (to the left of the building is a Crossfit and after that is the pizza shop, how lucky are those crossfit hard-workers being “stuck” between a pizza shop and a brewery?).  

Boneshire currently offers a taplist of their own, as well as a taplist of several breweries from Pennsylvania. Their current taplist is: 

Their own: 

• Dillston – Red Ale – Irish – 5.5% (made with Greystone Public House) 
• Caucus-Race (6.0 Zappa Hops) – IPA – American – 7.5% 

• Harrishire – Smoked – 7.3% (made in collaboration with Harris Family Brewery) 
• AuZealand 2.0 – IPA – American – 6.3% 
• Dark of the Forest (barrel aged) – Stout – Coffee – 10% 
• Derry St. Wheat – Hefeweizen – 5% 
• Good Walk Spoiled – Sour – 4.5%       

Guest tap lists: 

• Jelsa – Mead – Melomel – 12% (Larsen Meadworks) 
• Magic… Under Where? – Pale Ale – 5.5% (Pizza Boy Brewing) 
• Kriek Nouveau – Sour – 6.9% (Free Will Brewing Co.) 
• Brawler – English Mild – 4.2% (Yards Brewing Co.) 

• Pils – Pilsner – German – 4.7% (Stoudts Brewing) 
• Summer Scrumpy – Cider – 5.5% (Big Hill Ciderworks) 
• Fruit Wagon – Sour – 6.3% (Saucony Brewing Company) 
• Java Cask – Stout – Imperial Double – 14.3% (Victory Brewing) 
• Pikeland Pils – Pilsner – German – 4.9% (Slyfox Brewing) 

Boneshire Brewery has a steady string of events going on.  Mondays are D&D nights, Tuesdays alternate between Open Mic Nights and Bar Bingo nights, Wednesdays are trivia nights, Thursdays are live music nights. Their Facebook page has a full list of events with the band names already signed on for each Thursday through October. They also occasionally have live music on Saturday nights. 

Boneshire also does cans to go, in 4-packs of most of their in-house made beers. A few exceptions based on styles and things, but nearly all of their brewery beers are set to go. And typically at much better prices than a pint at the bar. They also do growler fills. 

They currently have 126 uniquely produced beers with a global average rating of 3.82 on Untappd. 

Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery 

Located At: 1 S Union St Middletown, PA 
Untappd Link: https://untappd.com/TatteredFlagBrewery 

Leaving Boneshire we can get right up onto 322 from Derry Street. There we can then turn right and get off at the Hummelstown / Middletown exit and go along Middletown Road (which becomes Vine Street), not much further we’ll turn right onto Main Street and then turn left to get onto Union and we are at our next destination. Middletown’s first (and so far only) brewery and distillery – Tattered Flag. 

Veteran owned and having just hit their third anniversary they have really been pumping out some outstanding beers in recent history. With new brewing crew of Dave Marrow, Justin Hoak, and Cliff Plank, they have been putting out exceptional IPAs (NE IPAS specifically) and sours. They were just voted Harrisburg best Brewery and Distillery.  

They have been doing some excellent collaborations with numerous breweries in the last few months as well. Beers with Wolf Brewing Co. , Levante Brewing, Abomination Brewing, and up and comer Pilger Ruh Brewing.  

They have a downstairs bar that is also their coffee shop as well as the distillery area. It was called the Nuclear Bean but on Untappd they refer to the bar as the Distillery Bar now. They also have their main restaurant and bar upstairs, though you can order food at either location.  

At the downstairs Nuclear Bean / coffee shop / distillery bar, you can order drinks. Their taplist there currently is:  

• NP Project – Kombucha (Renewal Kombucha) 
• Nuclear Bean Nitro Cold Brew – Coffee 

• Blue Raider Kolsch – Kolsch – 5.2% 
• Teutonic Knight Hefeweizen – Hefeweizen – 5.4% 
• Fatum Series Ale – Strawberry – Sour – 6% 
• Because I Was Inverted (Mango) – IPA – Milkshake – 6.6% 
• Makin’ Love at Midnight (2019) – IPA – Milkshake – 7.8%  

• Silent Professional Foxtrot – Farmhouse Ale – Saison – 7.8% 
• New Zealand Hop Test – IPA – Imperial Double – 8% 
• Don’t Cryo’ver Spilled Milk – IPA – Milkshake – 8% 
• TMI IPA – IPA – American – 6.5% 

They also have cans to go, which you can pick up upstairs or downstairs, there list of cans to go currently are: 

• Tattered Abomination – IPA – New England – 7.8% (made with Abomination Brewing) 
• Prepare to be Flabbergasted – Sour – 7% 
• Teutonic Knight Hefeweizen 
• Blue Raider Kolsch 
• O’Dusseldorf Rules – Altbier – 5% 

• Honey I Added More Hops – IPA – New England – 7% 
• Double Knife Fight in Space – IPA – New England – 8% 
• Makin’ Love at Midnight 2.0 – IPA – American – 7.5% 
• Step 1 Brew Beer Step 2 ? Step 3 Profit – IPA – New England – 8% 
• Makin’ Love at Midnight (Sour) – Sour – 7.8% 

• TMI IPA 

Their taplist upstairs currently is: 

• Silent Professional Foxtrot 
• Blue Raider Kolsch 

• Teutonic Knight Hefeweizen 
• DDH Double IPA – IPA – Imperial / Double – New England – 8.4% 
• Swattier Divide (2018) – IPA – New England – 8.2% 
• Step 1 Brew Beer Step 2 ? Step 3 Profit 
• TMI IPA 

• Don’t Cryo’ver Spilled Milk 
• Should’ve Got a Warrant – Sour – 7.6% 
• Stars and Stripes 20.19 – IPA – New England – 7.8% 
• Sparklerz (Meyer Lemon) – Hard Seltzer – 5% 
• Five Sided Puzzle Palace – Stout – Imperial / Double – 12% (Levante Brewing colab) 

• Because I Was Inverted (Mango) 
• Double Knife Fight in Space 
• Groundhops Day – IPA – New England – 6% 
• Honey I Added More Hops 
• Makin’ Love at Midnight (sour) 

• Prepare to be Flabbergasted 
• Tattered Abomination 

Make sure to check out my blog (The Beer Thrillers) for reviews on Prepare to be Flabbergasted, Tattered Abomination, and Makin’ Love at Midnight (Sour) all due to being posted within the next several days.  

I’m not much of a foody, but I do love going to Tattered Flag or helping with their canning run, just to get to eat there. It is top notch gourmet style food. All bases covered, from hot dogs and hamburgers, to salads, to tacos and quesadillas, to steaks, and seafood. Everything is covered and everything is absolutely phenomenal.  

This weekend, Tattered Flag and Levante Brewing are doing their big release. Saturday, September 7^th, starting at 11AM, they will be selling cans of their collaboration with Levante Brewing – Wasted Away Again, a key-lime pie sour. They will also be selling cans of their collaboration with Levante Brewing – Five Sided Puzzle Palace. As well as having several of Levante’s beers on tap in the brewery. Ontop of this, from 1PM to 4PM the Hershey Biergarten in downtown Hershey will be selling their cans and having the beers on tap as well. Tattered Flag and Levante will also be featured at sip of Soma.

Of course I have to mention that you should check out the distillery if you have any inclination in liquors. Dan, the distiller for Tattered Flag is amazing and provides exceptional spirits. (He also does ghost tours in Gettysburg.) 

Tattered Flag Brewery has 351 uniquely produced beers with a global average rating on Untappd of 3.77. 

Troegs Independent Craft Brewing 
Located At: 200 Hersheypark Dr, Hershey, PA 17033 
Untappd Link: https://untappd.com/troegsbrewingcompany 

And last but not least of our little tour is Troegs Brewery. Which at this point, really needs no introduction. They are always some of the top rated beers in the state, and is generally considered “the top” of the craft industry in the state (behind Yuengling). The brewery itself is always jam packed, weekday, weeknight, afternoon, or evening. Some of which is due to its fantastic location next door to HersheyPark, and some of that due to the excellent beers in production, as well as a top of the line brewery tour.  

 They have certainly been expanding too. Adding the foeders and making a larger cellar room. They’ve added a beer garden outfront. And lots and lots more parking. Which somehow still doesn’t feel like its enough! 

They have also branched out and done a lot more of their Splinter Series beers, done more and more regular scratches, and even begun to can some of the scratch beers, and upped the number of rotational/seasonal beers. Releasing some big hits like Lollihop, Golden Thing, and various Scratches in beer can that have all gotten great reviews. 

They have also added an upstairs loft with its own food menu and its own bar (though the taplist is the same as it is in the side-room by the foeders and at the main bar, just slightly more limited). The pizza upstairs is the best new feature total though, hop on that immediately! 

Their current taplist at the main bar is: 

• Perpetual IPA – IPA – American – 7.5% 
• Troegennator Double Bock – Bock – Imperial – 8.2% 
• Sunshine Pils – Pilsner – 4.5% 
• HopBack Amber Ale – Red Ale – Amber Ale – 6% 

• DreamWeaver – Wheat Beer – 4.8% 
• JavaHead – Stout – Coffee – 7.5% 
• Hop Knife – IPA – American – 6.2% 
• Nimble Giant – IPA – Imperial / Double – 9% 
• Naked Elf – English Ale – 6.9% 

• Golden Thing – DDH – IPA – Double – 8.2% 
• Boysenberry Tart Ale – Sour – 4.5% 
• Raspberry Tart Ale – Sour – 4.5% 
• Fest Lager – Lager – Marzen – 6.1% 
• Dear Peter – Farmhouse Saison – 7.6% 

• Hazy IPA (Scratch 387) – IPA – New England – 5.2%  (same as Trail Day Pale Ale)
• Tangerine Passionfruit Guava Tart (Scratch 386) – Sour – 4.6% 
• Krausened Dunkel Lager (Scratch 385) – Dunkel – 5.4% 
• Tangerine Blackberry Guava Tart Ale (Scratch 384) – Sour – 5% 

In Bottles Only: 

• LaGrave Triple Golden Ale – Belgian – 8% 
• Jovial Dubbel Ale – Belgian – 7% 
• Mad Elf Grand Cru (2018) – Belgian Strong Dark – 11% 
• Wild Elf – Farmhouse Wild Ale – 11% 
• Bourbon Barrel-Aged Impending Descent – Russian Stout – 12% 

• Bourbon Barrel-Aged Troegenator – Double Bock – 9.8% 
• Bourbon Barrel-Aged Flying Mouflan – Belgian – 11.5% 
• Dear Peter  
• Farmette – Farmhouse Saison – 6.5% 
• Blackberry Tizzy – Sour – 7.8% 

• Mortal Cherry – Farmhouse Wild Ale – 6.6% 
• Apricot Farmette – Farmhouse Saison – 7.4% 

Troeg also has cider from Big Hill Ciderworks as well as numerous non-alcoholic sodas in bottle (for children and non-drinking drivers).  

Troegs currently has no events listed for this weekend in their brewery. It has seemed they do less and less events in house at the brewery, and more and more out at various places. Most likely due to how full the brewery already is getting plus it expands the brand more to do these events at a wider range of places. 

They do however have a big event coming up on October 4^th weekend – their annual Hop Harvest Fest. Which since putting in the beer garden they’ve been putting to good use with this. Look for more information to come out soon on bands performing and beers they will be releasing. 

If you’ve never been to Troegs Brewery before, make sure you take the walking tour. It’s a quick 5-10 minute self guided tour but you get to see some neat things along the way (like the krausen for DreamWeaver as well as their bottling and canning lines). 

Troegs currently has 385 uniquely produced beers (according to Untappd, which is a bit dated on this, since a lot of their scratches were released before Untappd was created, and they are currently up to Scratch 387) with a global average rating on Untappd of 3.79. 

Thank you for checking out this brief brewery hopping tour around the outskirts of Harrisburg and centralized around Hummelstown. I hope you all found it informative and helpful and will give these four great breweries a look over. They all definitely deserve your time and attention as they are all pumping out some wonderful beers and have great stuff going on at their breweries all the time.  

And lastly, make sure you hop on over to my beer blog – The Beer Thrillers, where me and beer buddy J. Doncevic have been writing some wonderful beer reviews, brewery reviews, trip recaps, beer event reviews, and all kinds of other beer related things in the Central PA area since May. Make sure to stop and check us out and let us know in the comments that you came from here, we’d greatly appreciate seeing you there!  

• B. Kline
• The Beer Thrillers
• https://thebeerthrillers.com/
• http://twitter.com/thebeerthriller/

After a long day of HersheyPark happy-ing, and much ado of nothing then around the house, I found myself walking downtown to meet my friend Drew at the Warwick… when lo and behold we came to the realization that the Wick is closed on Mondays. (You would think after living in Hummelstown our entire lives, and that we’ve been regulars at the Wick since we turned 21, that we would remember these kinds of things, but we don’t.) Sadly, this won’t be the last time we make this mistake, I know it.

So, that left us to have our great philosophical and Batman oriented discussions at Boneshire instead. (Not a bad place to have deep insightful talks about the nature of all things about a man who runs around in the dark wearing his underwear on the outside of his clothing.)

It happened to still be Monday when we got there, so that meant the place was filled with the ambience of nerdism and the sounds of grunts, growls, and dice rolling around. …In other words – it was the weekly Monday D&D night at Boneshire. And when discussing things superhero related, there is no better backdrop then that.

Alright, so let’s dive into the world of dungeons and dragons and beers and hops and stuff like that…. or… let’s just dive into the beer.

(And if I was more inclined, I’d have peppered this entire blog post with Zappa quotes and puns and all kinds of things, but I’m not so inclined, and I’m not doing it out of the sheer fact you were all anticipating it, so there, I’ve subverted your expectations.)

Beer: Caucus-Race (6.0 Zappa Hops)
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 7.5%
IBU: No IBU (Untappd listing)
Hops: Zappa
Untappd Write-Up: 6th iteration of our caucus-race series. This time single hopped with Zappa hops!

This is certainly an interesting version of the Caucus-Race, definitely different than the previous versions (which I’ve luckily gotten to have all [six] of now.) Everything has been kept the same in all of the variants with just the hops and a few things changed (like 5.0 added lactose and oats and made it a NEIPA rather than just a typical West Coast style IPA).

I’m not too familiar with Zappa hops, but given that the ingredients and grain bills are the same in all of the variants, then the change in taste and smell in this must be the Zappa hops. I’m not sure what all beers I’ve had that’s used the Zappa hops and I can’t name any off the top of my head. But doing a quick search, these are some beers that have used it: ….Sierra Nevadda Wild Hop Harvest Neomaxicanus. ….and thats it. That I could find with a quick Google search.

Origin:  USA.Zappa™ is a native, North American, Humulus lupulus variety, neomexicanus, recovered from the wild in New Mexico. Named after Frank Zappa, in collaboration with the Zappa family, this hop is as counterculture as the musician himself.

Usage: Aroma, whirlpool, and dry hopping for any hop- or complementary fruit-forward style: hazy or milkshake IPA, fruited sour, pale ale, American strong ale, and wild or mixed-fermentation beers.

Aroma & Flavor Characteristics: Spicy with strong notes of tropical fruit (mango, passion fruit), citrus, and pine. Additional descriptors include savory, mint, and Fruity Pebbles™.

Source: https://bsgcraftbrewing.com/zappa

So that provides a little bit of background on the Zappa hops and will provide some context for the beer.

First off, the coloring is a bit of a darker IPA look to it. Not crystal clear, but not hazy, it has a pleasant ‘beer’ look to it that goes underappreciated more often than not.

Aroma is very hoppy, but a grassy, bit pepperish hop aroma. Forest floor earthy might be a good term for it, possibly with bell peppers laying around chopped up.

Head retention on the pour is good and looks delicious and just waiting for that first sip.

Which is remarkable. Its definitely different, and not a normal tasting IPA, and it has a very herb like taste to it, and it is completely a West Coast IPA, so NEIPA “haze boys” will probably not be interested.

There is some mango and bell pepper notes, there’s not what I would call Fruity Pebbles like the description for the Zappa hops says, but something similar, that I can’t quite put my finger on it. Like a zest or citrus to it. It certainly adds a nice complexion to the beer, and makes it one I want to get some more of to taste-test some more.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: (Well… like the Juicy Fruit sWheat Tart review, there’s not enough ratings for this yet, in fact, there is only 4 ratings, including my own. The four ratings are: ****, ****.25, ***.75, and ******.)

So I’ll let this sit for a bit, and then add a post-script here with a global rating (probably in a day or two).(This is all, as of 3PM on 8.13.19).

And for those of you wondering about the previous 5 incarnations of the Caucus-Race, here’s a quick summary of each of the batches:

Batch 1:

Beer: Caucus-Race (Azacca, Green Bullet, Idaho 7)Batch 1:
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 7.7%
IBU: 100
Hops: Azacca, Green Bullet, Idaho 7
Untappd Write-Up:
First Batch in our Caucus-Race Series. Azacca, Green Bullet, Idaho 7 hops.
Debut: June/July 2017
My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Untappd Rating: 3.72

Batch 2:

Beer: Caucus-Race (Amarillo and Simcoe)
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 7.7%
IBU: No IBU (on Untappd)
Hops: Amarillo, Simcoe
Untappd Write-up: This is the second batch in our Caucus-Race Series. Amarillo and Simcoe.
Debut: October 2017
My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.9

Batch 3:

Beer: Caucus-Race (Huel Melon, Citra, Columbus)
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: IPA – American
ABV: 7.5%
IBU: 90
Hops: Huel Melon, Citra, Columbus
Debut: January 2018
Untappd Write-up: Our 3rd version of the Caucus-Race. This one is brewed with Huel Melon, Citra, and Columbus. It has aromas of Strawberry, Melon, Mango, and Pine. It is Cloudy, Juicy, and Bitter…3 of our favorite things!
My Untappd Rating: ****.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.85

Batch 4:


Beer: Caucus-Race (Mandarina Bavaria And Green Bullet)
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: IPA – Imperial / Double
ABV: 9%
IBU: 85
Hops: Mandarina Bavaria, Green Bullet
Debut: March 2018
Untappd Write-Up: Amped up Caucus-Race with Mandarina Bavaria and Green Bullet Hops.
My Untappd Rating: ****.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.94

Batch 5:

Beer: Caucus-Race (5.0 Lactose And Oats)
Brewery: Boneshire Brew Works
Style: IPA – Milkshake
ABV: 7%
IBU: 55
Hops: Cashmere, Centennial, Ekuanot, Mosaic, Simcoe, El Darado Hops
Debut: February 2019
Untappd Write-Up: Version 5 of the series. This beautiful, juicy, hazy, sticky IPA is brewed with Cashmere, Centennial, Ekuanot, Mosaic, Simcoe, and El Darado Hops. We also added copious amounts of Oats and Lactose.
My Untappd Rating: ****.5
Global Untappd Rating: 3.97

So for those keeping track at home, the Caucus-Race Untappd Ratings are:

1: 3.72
2: 3.90
3: 3.85
4: 3.94
5: 3.97
6: N/A

I’ll make sure to update this and put in a new rating soon.

POST SCRIPT: As of 8.18.19, the Global Untappd rating for Caucus-Race 6.0 is: 3.95.

Until next time everyone, keep drinking, because if you don’t, the Communists win.

-B. Kline

Planned a quick stop at the Tattered Flag brewery to pick up my four pack of the “Custardy” (beer review soon coming), and lo and behold I found this on draft. Having wanted to try this, and unfortunately not getting to try it in cans I had to settle for it on draft (due note: “settle” is being used facetiously).

Tattered Flag has teamed up with several local (Central PA local) breweries to produce quite a few Abbra Collabra’s. Some of these breweries include: Wolf Brewing Co, Collusion Tap Works, Snitz Creek, Pilger Ruh Brewing, Abomination Brewing Company, Rotunda Brewing Company, as well as a brewery out in Denver Colorado.

This time they teamed up again with Wolf Brewing, as well as Pilger Ruh Brewing, Snitz Creek, Rotunda, and Abomination to release a six-way Abbra Collabra that was sold in cans and on draft at all of their locations (Wolf Brewing Company will soon have their own taproom/brewery, Abomination Brewing is a contact brewer, and Pilger Ruh Brewing is currently in the “soon to be” phase).

All six of these breweries are top notch, and many of which have won awards. Derek Wolf with Wolf Brewing Company has won a homebrewing award in all 50 states, Tattered Flag along with Pilger Ruh Brewing won for their “Should Have Put Him in Custardy” at the Schuylkill Brewfest. Likewise Rotunda, Snitz Creek, and Abomination has gotten numerous recommendations and consistently does well with ratings on Untappd and other services.

And this beer definitely deserves the praise as well. So lets break it down:

Beer Name: Abbra Collabra 6 Way Banana Split Milkshake IPA
Beer Style: IPA – Milkshake
ABV: 7.6%
IBU: No IBU
Untappd Write-Up: 6 way collaboration between Tattered Flag, Pilger Ruh, Abomination, Rotunda, Snitz Creek and Wolf Brewing Co with chocolate, strawberry, banana, vanilla and lactose!

This is certainly a full bodied Milkshake IPA. Distinctive look, appearance, and smoothness from the lactose. The head retains perfectly and the look and styling is spot on for a Milkshake IPA.

The aroma is banana right up front and instantly noticeable. You get the hints of vanilla and strawberry, not much of a chocolate aroma to go with it however, but you do get the faint hints of the strawberry and vanilla that balance out the banana smell and makes it smell like an ice cream parlor’s banana split.

At the very first sip you are blasted with a mouthful of the banana, vanilla, and lactose. Its smooth, its rich, and its full of banana and cream. As you sip and drain this delicious brew you start getting the notes of strawberry that pick up a bit. There is a slight, subtle, muted chocolate that is extremely faint, faint enough to be barely there. The problem with chocolate tends to be if its too strong in a beer, it overpowers most other flavors (coffee is the same way in beer), so I can understand the slight usage of the chocolate and the slight taste for it, if its too much, it’d probably overpower the banana and strawberry. Just the nature of the beast on that one.

I enjoyed this delicious tasty drink at the lower bar at Tattered Flag’s brewery, getting to spend my time chatting with Dave (head brewer) and picking up my four pack of “Should Have Put Him in Custardy” before starting my day at Hershey Park with the family. A nice way to spend fifteen minutes at lunchtime and the Tattered Flag brewery is always such a great venue and place to relax and enjoy a brew.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 3.94 (as of 6.14.19)

-B. Kline