Postponed… Again

Sadly, for the third year in a row, the Lancaster Craft Beerfest has been postponed. It started in 2020 due to COVID-19 and …well, basically EVERYTHING that year being shut down and closed. Even though things were starting to get back into swing by August, a brewfest was still pretty much out of the question.

They announced that they would be back in 2021…. but then… come 2021, they announced that they were yet again postponing the beerfest. Not much information was given, just that they were postponing and with a Facebook post saying “We’ll be back in 2022”. (That post was just a cover photo and it was uploaded on June 2nd, 2021.)

Fast forward now to 10 hours ago (roughly 7PM last night – May 30th, 2022), and they posted another cover update and profile picture with an actual summary this time:

“Unfortunately due to numerous obstacles this year, we have to postpone the Lancaster Craft Beerfest again. We are thankful for all of your support in the past years and everyone reaching out about this year but we are looking forward to 2023! Hopefully by then, all of the construction will be finished and we’ll have a newly developed venue for you to enjoy the celebration of beer!”

Lancaster Craft Beerfest (Facebook)

Lancaster Craft Beerfest

The Lancaster Craft Beerfest would have been celebrating its 8th annual brewfest back in 2020. It originally stopped due to the COVID-19 / coronavirus pandemic that swept the world. It has always been a lovely brewfest for the local Central PA beer scene, on par with the Mount Hope / Renaissance Faire craft beer fest, as well as the Harrisburg one, and others.

I got to go to the beerfest in 2019, (which as it stands currently, sadly, has been the most recent, and possibly its last), with my friend Ming – he was the DD (designated driver) who hung out with me at the beerfest. It was a great location, a fun brewfest, and well organized. Lots of food vendors, lots of breweries, local homebrew clubs, etc. Plus we had a gorgeous day – so the added bonus of great weather. We even visited Mad Chef afterwards (first time at the brewery back then).

The Future

What does the future hold for the Lancaster Craft Beerfest? We don’t rightfully know. They state they will be back in 2023, and we certainly and personally hope so. Its a fun brewfest that caters to Central PA breweries and vendors, and helps the local Lancaster Craft Beer scene, which since 2019, has only gotten more breweries. So it would be a shame to lose the beerfest. Fingers crossed that it will make its come back in 2023, even stronger than ever!

Thanks For Reading

As always everyone, thanks for reading. And speaking of brewfests, The Beer Thrillers have quite a busy schedule coming up. On June 4th and June 5th, we will be at the AC Music and Beerfest in Atlantic City (Bader Field). Then I will be taking a road trip / hiking trip / brewery tour trip down through Virginia, upper North Carolina, and eastern Tennessee. Just to return home in time for the Mount Hope / Renaissance Faire brewfest on June 11th.

So lots of fun events coming up, and brewery trips and visits. So be on the lookout and keep your eyes peeled here for some great articles coming up!

And as always, thanks for the likes, comments, subscribes, shares, finger pokes, nose pickings, brain leakings, etc, etc, etc. Keep it up! Love hearing from you guys!

Cheers!

-B. Kline

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Coming off the heels of the Lancaster Craft Beerfest I’m back and I think my liver has regenerated enough to begin some more beer reviews. (And slowly push and make a dent into the beer events, brewery activities, and hop harvests posts I need to do as well). This might be a bit of a long blog post, with some ‘non-beer’ related things, but stay with me, and it’ll all wrap up nicely, and tie in with the day as well (I think/hope). Also, lots of pictures in this one, so if you like pretty pictures, then here you go.

Firstly, let me just say that this is an absolutely fantastic beer. Makes me wish I had a lot more of these to power through the day. But, I think most of the activities I did today would have frowned on me drinking (even if it was a coffee beer, …and especially given that the largest activity today was work).

So, starting off the day, it was back to school day / first day of school. My oldest going into Middle School (dear god I’m getting old), and my youngest two entering 4th and 1st grade. So now that I’m officially old, I guess I need to start drinking coffee right?

Following getting all of the girls to their two different schools this morning, and following an extremely long day at work (some days, like roulette days, just makes you want to bash your head against very large solid objects – repeatedly) I stopped at the Hershey Public Library where the Central PA Blood bank was doing one of their blood drives. I cannot urge people enough to donate blood. It is beyond critical and in definite need for all kinds of patients. There is tons of different ways you can check into donating, the simplest is to find a blood drive at various places near you (libraries, churches, restaurants like Papa John’s often sponsor them, even some bars/breweries do). For the Central PA Blood Bank you can check out their website here: Central PA Blood Bank.

It is relatively easy, not too time consuming (~45 minutes), relatively painless (small prick, some soreness at the spot), but its more than worth it. One bag donated can help up to three patients. And certain blood types are in higher demand than others (though all are in high demand). So please look into donating if you are able to (there is some restrictions due to life style choices, tattoos, locations you’ve visited, medication, etc.).

Once home, I decided to treat Leela (my dog, who you may remember photo bombed my beer review: Beer Review: Boulangerie Imperial Churro (Tattered Flag) ) by taking her on a 2-mile walk around town. It is National Dog Day afterall, and she’s a very good trusty and faithful companion and dog, so why not.

Decided while walking through Hummelstown I would pass by what will soon(ish) become the new home for Rubber Soul Brewing Company, and took a picture, as it looks like their making even more headway on the endeavor.

They are still aiming for a November opening date. So fingers crossed everything goes smoothly and they get set up and running soon. But…. enough of all of this gibbering and jabbering and jibbering and gabbering, and get onto the actual brew review that you clicked on.

This was just fantastic, and a perfect beer for writing the blog (and probably explains why it got so wordy).

Beer: Rêve Coffee Stout
Brewery: Parish Brewing Co.
Style: Stout – Coffee
ABV: 7.2%
IBU: No IBU
Untappd Write-Up: Collaboration coffee stout between Parish Brewing Company & Rêve Coffee Roasters. Created with Columbia Java blend coffee & Madagascar vanilla beans. Beer: Rêve Coffee Stout
Brewery: Parish Brewing Co.
Style: Stout – Coffee
ABV: 7.2%
IBU: No IBU
Untappd Write-Up: Collaboration coffee stout between Parish Brewing Company & Rêve Coffee Roasters. Created with Columbia Java blend coffee & Madagascar vanilla beans.

From the moment you pop bottle and begin to pour it, you can smell the rich delicious notes of the coffee. Once its done pouring and you smell the beer and swirl it, you get the instant notes of coffee, vanilla, nutty earth notes. It just smells incredible.

Pouring it comes out very dark black, and has a lovely dark brown – golden halo of a head to it, with nice, large bubbles forming out of the top that pop and slowly fade away. There is the right amount of carbonation, and the head lasts just long enough before you dig into this bad boy.

And sipping this is even better. Very strong coffee notes, but with a very rich, smooth, heavy backbone, that actually makes you feel like the 7.2% is lighter than it should be. Not saying its boozy, but it just as a ‘heavyness’ to this that makes you feel and think it should be a higher ABV than it is. This is a strong, rich, decadent beer, but not too sweet, not too decadent, and not too strong. Its in the goldilocks range of being. There is a bitterness with the coffee, but the vanilla covers and masks most of that. There is a nuttyness to it, but it becomes more subdued and subtle as you drink. The coffee gives you a bit of a nice pep and creative boost to really push you to do some writing or doing whatever it is that your doing.

I must say, I am definitely glad I was given two of these in my beer mail trade, because I can’t wait to dive into the second one. Strangely enough, I am honestly considering to say that this might be better than the beer everyone “knows” Parish for – Ghost in the Machine; though this might be just due to my preferred style of beer being stouts and the like moreso than IPAs, but take this for whatever you think its worth, this is a damn good beer and rivals Ghost in the Machine as Parish’s best beer.

I could waver back and forth on the rating I gave it, from a 4.5 to a 4.25, but I ultimately went with a 4.25 primarily due to wanting it to linger a bit more in my mouth after drinking it, and not wanting to come off too much as ‘style bias’.

My Untappd Rating: ****.25
Global Untappd Rating: 4.27 (as of 8.26.19)

And since this is National Dog Day, I tried to get Leela (a “red” border collie) in the pics, but kind of failed, here’s one of her by my one hop arbor, don’t mind the uglyness of the picture, it was 10:30PM, had to use the flash which I hate, and I had just finished this beer, and she was panting from the 2 mile walk.

For those of you wondering, she is named after Turonga Leela from Futurama. I have several cats in the house, that have been named after other Futurama characters as well (Zoidberg, Hermes, Fry, Hattie, and Kiff) —- (and yes… thats 5 cats….).

Also, for those wondering, the books in the background are:
* Foxtrot: The Best of Foxtrot vol. 1
* The Joker: Endgame
* Best. Movie. Year. Ever. : How 1999 Blew Up The Big Screen
* Brief Answers to the Big Questions
(Yes, that means I finally finished Master & Apprentice).

If you want, you can always check out my GoodReads and what I have been reading here: GoodReads – Profile – B. Kline.

Alright everyone, I think I’m gonna have another beer, and get to sleep. Oldest will have to be up soon for school anyway and besides, in 18 minutes it’ll be my birthday. I work tomorrow, but who knows, maybe afterwards I’ll have a ‘birthday beer review’. I also have the tons and tons of other event blog posts to do yet, don’t worry, I haven’t forgot! I’m making a mad dash push to get them all done by the end of August, so fingers crossed I do it!

Take care all, peace, love, and donate some blood! You’re not using it all anyway damnit!

-B. Kline

I don’t care what anyone says, the one and only true thing that goes with a baseball game is — beer. And family (or friends). But, mostly, beer.

Peanuts, cracker jacks, coke, etc, are all distant thirds and fourths compared to the above two. And luckily the Harrisburg Senators’ field – FNB Field – has numerous good options as far as craft beer goes; and from many local places.

Behind first base line and the hometeam dugout in the back is a “cans” stand, which has your typical tallboys of Yuenling, Miller Lite, Coors, Angry Orchard, Cidre Stella, and Blue Moon, as well as the aluminum Budlights and Budweisers. BUT… it also has a fairly good selection of cans from Desperate Times (Hazy Galaxy), ZeroDay (Mango Habanero, Good Vibes, and a few others), and Tattered Flag (TMI IPA, Because I Was Inverted, and a few others). The prices are a bit on the high end (9.50$ for a can of Tattered Flag, Desperate Times, or ZeroDay).

Also in this section is a few food places (a BBQ pit, an Arooga’s stand, a fries place, etc,) that have domestic and craft on tap as well. Here the only “craft” was Goose Island, Blue Moon, Troegs, and Desperate Times. The Troegs was Perpetual IPA only. Goose Island I’m not sure of, but I believe it was Goose IPA. Desperate Times was the Pineapple Kolsch, which sounded perfect for a hot sunny August baseball game in the heat. 7.75$ for the draft, 4.25$ for a small thing of fries, and 4.75$ for a large coke for my dad and we’re good to go and ready to start to enjoy the game.

Luckily the beer started off much better than the game. (First inning, second batter gets a double, gets moved to third, scores, and the final out takes the pitcher to a ridiculous pitch count due to numerous fall balls before making the final out.)

Beer: Pineapple Kolsch
Brewery: Desperate Times Brewery
Style: Kolsch
ABV: 5.5%
IBU: 21
Untappd Write-Up: A clean, crisp beer with soft malt and hop character flavored with pineapple.

So firstly, being at the game, I’m not getting a chance to go into a full “sniff sniff, drink, sniff, taste, sniff, drink, sip, keep it on my tongue, cleanse my palate, sip, then finish” drinking performance like I *COULD* do (not saying I always do something like this…. errmm…. cough….) but I’m just saying being there at the game with my oldest daughter, my dad, and in a full section, I’m not being that pretentious jerkwad who does it. (My apologies to any pretentious jerkwads reading this who do do that whilst out in public settings surrounded by 3,000 people and drinking from a small plastic container in a tiny cramped plastic seat with potential flying foul-balls whizzing 80MPH by your head.)

So, needless to say, these two reviews might be up to the snuff of previous reviews on here, or who knows, maybe they’ll be better because I won’t come off like I know more than I do? Who knows. What I do know, is that I enjoyed the beer, I enjoyed the company I was with, and I enjoyed the game, and I’m going to try and give this a half-way decent craft beer review that it does deserve.

The coloring of the beer is a light straw, see through, with a little bit of foam and fizz to it. It has the look and appearance of a typical kolsch, nice coloring, slight carbonation to it, transparent, and a good ‘beers look’ to it.

Aroma is straight pineapple. This is simply put, a pineapple bomb. If you’re into that this will definitely work for you. If you are only half-way into it, its still a great beer with a good decent flavor, if you absolutely hate pineapple, this beer won’t work for you. So I think the average drinker will still enjoy it, the pineapple lovers will love it, and the pineapple haters will hate it. But that middle margin is big enough and the beer itself is good enough, that it should target a large swath of people.

That goes with the taste, its absolutely pineapple. I would compare it to a pineapple lifesaver, though the bartender at the BBQ pit shack compared it to a pineapple gummy, its all one in the same, its juicy, candy like, and very pineapple. A slight tartness but not much at all, nothing near the puckering of some sours and kolch(es? s?) or saisons I’ve had in the past. This is perfectly refreshing for a hot summer baseball game at the park.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.64 (as of 8.24.19)

Approaching the start of the fifth inning and the Erie Sea Wolves are just about to step up to the plate. The score is miraculously still only 1-0 Sea Wolves over the Senators despite the pitching being a bit lackluster, but for the most part McGowan has settled down and gotten into some kind of a rhythm.

I decide to venture past where we were located (Section 201 Box Seats) and checkout what all else FNB Field has to offer. Noticing a tent/pavilion under the scoreboard that loudly reads “CRAFT BEER” I decide to make my way there. (Bit of a hike from the visitor’s dugout area all the way over, but not too bad. When I was a kid, there wasn’t even seats over there, and the stadium didn’t wrap around the outfield like it does now. The field has definitely seen some nice makeovers and improvements in recent years after the various floods and damages.)

The craft beer bar underneath the scoreboard (cleverly titled “The Scoreboard Bar”) is all decked out in Troegs sponsorships. You can get cans of Perpetual IPA, Sunshine Pils, and Hop Knife. Other craft breweries were represented in can form – Tattered Flag with TMI IPA and Goose Island with Goose IPA (I know… I know…). In draft they had ZeroDay with a few options, Desperate Times with a few options, Iron Hill with an option, and Riverbend Hop Farm with two options. They also had “claws” and other hard seltzers as well as the crap tallboys from Yuengling, Blue Moon, Angry Orchard, Coors, Miller Lite, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Twisted Tea, etc. (as well as some wine and mixed drinks as well).

The Dry Irish Stout was calling my name so I had to grab a draft of that. And forgetting that I recently shaved, I got to show my ID for a second time (the perks? joys? of shaving a beard down to the jawline from when it used to look like you were wandering the Egyptian desert for 40 years). Took my sip, loved it, grabbed my photo, and got to watch the Senators outfielder make a tremendous grab before heading back to the third base line seats with my daughter and dad.

(One thing should be noted here, that I have been amiss to mention, was that it was Harry Potter night, and due to this, I’ve gotten to sit next to my daughter who espoused on every detail from the smallest to the largest of the Harry Potter universe, I now know I am a Slytherin, she is a Ravenclaw, and my father is a Hufflepuff. And so now… you need to know these things too.)

Beer: Dry Irish Stout
Brewery: River Bend Hop Farm and Brewery
Style: Stout – Irish Dry
ABV: 4.5%
IBU: No IBU
Untappd Write-Up: (Blank)

I don’t care what people say (or think), but this is a perfectly acceptable beer at a baseball game. Especially down by the riverside like the Senators in the later innings when it was dropping into the low-70s. It tasted wonderful, it was refreshing, and it went great with the game and with the company. So thats all I can ask for. And I turn my nose up to those who say stouts are for cold months and IPAs/pale ales/kolsches/etc are for summer months.

The appearance is spot on. It looks good and it has a nice ring of head to it despite the plastic cup and having to trek from nearly center field to third base.

The aroma is bitter like an Irish Stout would be. Hard to get much more out of this in the aroma category due to all of the various other smells of the game, and I’m not cramming my nose down into the plastic cup to get a good whiff. (Because like I’ve already said, I’m not a pretentious jerkwad. Sort of. Maybe. Depends who you listen to.)

Taste is wonderful. Deliciously bitter, deliciously tasty, and deliciously good. It has a good malty backbone, no off flavors – even when the mayfly landed in it and I had to pick him out – and it left no bad aftertastes.

My Untappd Rating: ***.75
Global Untappd Rating: 3.74 (as of 8.24.19)

By this point in the game, the Senators worked themselves out of a jam with the bases loaded, scored a run in their own innings to tie it up, and now have just scored another to go ahead.

The Senators scored again in the 7th (or 8th) and went on to hold the Erie Sea Wolves scoreless after that initial first run in the first and win the game. My daughter is a bit bummed that the Hufflepuffs won the house cup at the game, and both me and my dad are bummed by how the Phils blow a 7-0 lead to the Marlins (and eventually get thrashed by them 19-11). After the game there was a tremendous and wonderful firework display and then the typical forty minute wait on the parking lot and then home. All in all a great time by the three generations.

In todays news, I will be attending the Lancaster Craft Beer Fest (my first time at it), so I will at least snap a pic going in for the Twitter feed, and probably no more pictures after that. I will try to keep up somewhat consistently on my personal Untappd feed with the beers I have. Ming is accompanying me today as the DD. There will possibly-maybe-hopefully be a blog post about it in the future. (Just like I still have the Moo-Funk and the Ffej of July and various other ‘event’ blog posts to write up…. hopefully this week! Fingers, toes, and …oh noes…. crossed.)

Alright everyone, enjoy your beers and keep on putting that liver to work!

-B. Kline